Index of household consumption of goods, May 2004

The unadjusted volume index of commodity consumption was 1.1 per cent lower in May 2004 than in May 2003.

While all sub indices show a decrease seasonally adjusted, it is consumption of food, beverages and tobacco that pulls down the most with 2.6 per cent from April to May. Purchase of vehicles and petrol decreased by 1.7 per cent in the same period, while consumption of electricity and heating fuels and other goods both decreased by 1.4 per cent.

The unadjusted figures for consumption of food, beverages and tobacco also show a strong decrease from May 2003 to May 2004 by 6.7 per cent. The strike during most of May is one of the reasons for this. Consumption of electricity and heating fuels decreased by 4.3 per cent from May 2003 to May 2004, while purchase of vehicles and petrol and other goods rose by 0.1 and 3.1 per cent, respectively.

Method differs from the index of retail sale

The index of commodity consumption aims at describing the development in the households' consumption of goods, while the index of retail sales is an index measuring the development in retail sales. As opposed to the index of retail sales, the index of commodity consumption also includes goods not sold in retail trade, it is based on sales of additional industries and calculated with a weighting consistent with the share of the sales actually allocated to the households. This can 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, the index of commodity consumption uses information about purchases of cars, sales of petrol and oil to petrol stations and consumption of electricity unadjusted for changes in temperature.

The index of commodity consumption uses the same definitions and nearly the same methods of compilation as the Quarterly National Accounts. The index of commodity consumption is thus an indicator of household consumption of goods in the Quarterly National Accounts. The components of the index of commodity consumption are individually seasonally adjusted.