Index of household consumption of goods, June 2006

The consumption bundle “other goods” decreased by 1.3 percent from the previous month, according to the seasonally adjusted figures. This was mainly due to the consumption of clothing, but also the consumption of furniture and white goods where low.

There was an increase in consumption of groceries by 0.6 percent, and the consumption of vehicles and petrol was about unchanged from May to June.

The consumption of electricity and heating fuels went down by 5 percent from May to June.

The unadjusted volume index of commodity consumption was 3 percent higher in June 2006 than in June 2005. It is mainly consumption of “other goods” and groceries that contributed to this increase. The total consumption of commodities, measured in constant prices, was 3.5 percent higher the first six months of 2006 than the first six months of 2005.

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 trade. Thus, 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. This may result in deviations in the development of the two indices.

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.

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.