Index of household consumption of goods, March 2004

Although both food, beverages and tobacco and other goods show an increase seasonally adjusted with 2.1 and 3,0 per cent respectively, it is purchase of vehicles and petrol that pulls up the most with 7,1 per cent from February to March 2004. Consumption of electricity and heating fuels decreased by 3,7 per cent seasonally adjusted in the same period.

The seasonal adjustment of figures with a strong presence of calendar effects, such as Easter holidays, is a rather complex matter, and a larger uncertainty than normal, is thus entailed in the seasonally adjusted volume index of commodity consumption this month.

The unadjusted volume index of commodity consumption was 11,0 per cent higher in March 2004 than in March 2003. The consumption of food, beverages and tobacco increased by 3,2 per cent from March 2003 to March 2004. In the same period purchases of vehicles and petrol rose by 20,2 per cent. The strong growth in other goods continues, and the unadjusted figures show an increase by 15,3 per cent from March 2003 to March 2004.

Method differs from the index of retail sale

The index of commodity consumption describes the development in household consumption of goods, while the index of retail sales measures the development in retail sales. As opposed to the index of retail sales, the index of commodity consumption includes goods that are not sold in retail. It is based on sales of goods from additional industries and calculated with a weighting for the portion of sales to households. This may result in deviations in the development of the two indices. The calculation of the index of commodity consumption is based on information from the index of retail sales in addition to information on purchases of cars, sales of petrol and oil to petrol stations and the consumption of electricity unadjusted for changes in temperature.

The index of commodity consumption uses the same definitions and methods of compilation as the quarterly national accounts, and thus serves as an indicator of household consumption of goods in the quarterly national accounts. The individual components of the index are seasonally adjusted.

Timeliness is important in the release of statistics, and the index of commodity consumption may therefore have to rely on preliminary estimates in some cases. Such estimates are replaced in the subsequent release. This applies, inter alia, to figures on electricity consumption, where short-term statistics from the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) are used. Later on these short-term statistics are replaced by electricity statistics from Statistics Norway. This implies that the index of commodity consumption normally will be revised in the subsequent publishing.