Greece
Official title
Consumer Price Index.
Scope
The index is computed monthly and relates to urban households living
in cities with 10,000 inhabitants or more.
Official base
1988 = 100.
Source of weights
The weights and selected items were derived from a household expenditure
survey conducted between November 1987 and October 1988 from a random
sample of 6,489 households in the whole country, irrespective of their
social and economic characteristics. The sample for the index covered
4,195 urban households living in cities with 10,000 inhabitants and
more.
Items and services were selected with the following criteria: the
participation of each item or service in the consumption expenditure;
the representativeness of similar items or services, and the
possibility of collecting comparable prices over time. The weights
of not selected items are distributed into the items selected for
the compilation of the index.
Weights and composition
| Major groups
| Number of items
| Weights
| Approximate number of price quotations
|
| Food
| 165 | 290.0 | ...
|
| Alcoholic beverages,tobacco
| 12 | 39.4 | ...
|
| Clothing and footwear
| 86 | 142.53 | ...
|
| Housing (incl. fuel and light)
| 11 | 113.9 | ...
|
| Household equipment
| 98 | 80.2 | ...
|
| Personal and medical care
| 37 | 77.8 | ...
|
| Education and recreation
| 45 | 94.2 | ...
|
| Transport and communication
| 28 | 136.6 | ...
|
| Other goods and services
| 13 | 25.4 | ...
|
| Total
| 495 | 1000.0 | ...
|
Household consumption expenditure
For the computation of the weights, the concept of consumption
expenditure includes the value of goods and services purchased
by the household (in cash, or credit or in instalments) to cover
their own needs or to be offered to other households in the form of a
gift. The category of goods comprises the durable consumable goods
(furniture - household appliances etc.) as well as expenditure on
maintenance and small improvements of the household.
Included are: expenditure for licences and permits (driving,
hunting etc.), payment of insurance premiums for consumable goods (car,
furniture), payment for life, hospitalisation or accident insurance,
expenditure actually paid by the household for health, (hospitals,
doctors, medicines) and credit purchase of durable goods.
The consumption expenditure concept excludes: the value of goods
consumed by the household which comes from own agricultural, livestock
and fishing production; the value of goods obtained by the household
from own enterprise without payment. Rental value is considered as
such; the value of goods and services obtained by the household without
payment, either received from the employer in the form of receipts in
kind, or as a gift from other households, or even rendered free by
state, municipal or ecclesiastic authorities, insurance organisation or
private enterprises.
More specifically, excluded are: rental value (imputed rent);
contribution of the household to social insurance, health care or
pension; payment of income and other direct taxes; remittances and
income transfer to other households, in general.
For second hand items, as purchase value was considered the actual
reduced price paid by the household.
For new items obtained in exchange of old ones, as purchase value
was considered the amount paid by the household after deducting the
old item's value.
Method of data collection
Prices are collected by agents from 1,200 retail outlets and service
establishments in 17 towns which were considered to be representative of
price changes in all urban areas of the country.
For items whose prices are defined
by the State, prices are taken from the official invoices. The
frequency of price collection depends on the nature of the item, e.g.
fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, etc. are priced once a week.
Prices for other items are collected each month. Prices collected once
a week refer to Tuesday; prices collected once a month are obtained in
such a way as to refer the whole month (e.g. they refer to the first
five-day period for the first establishment, the second five-day period
for the second establishment, etc.).
Generally, the prices used in the index are real cash
prices
. Discounts are taken into consideration but
special offer
prices are not. If the price of a
certain item differs from the official one, the latter is taken
into account.
Housing
Rent quotations are obtained twice a year from a random sample of
rented dwellings. The monthly rents actually paid are taken into
consideration. The rent index is obtained from the total rent
expenditure for the current month as compared to the corresponding
average monthly expenditure for the base year. The imputed rent of
owner-occupied dwellings is not taken into consideration.
Specification of varieties
Item specifications were established through market research.
Detailed specifications are given for each index item (e.g. technical
characteristics, make, brand, weight, quality, variety, etc.).
Substitution, quality change, etc.
If an item disappears from the market, it is substituted by a
similar item. When the quality of an item changes its price is
collected for the current and preceding month and the method of
linking is applied.
New items are included when the consumption becomes important
and a base price is computed on the basis of price movements of
similar items.
Seasonal items
Seasonal fluctuations in the prices of fresh fruit and vegetables are
taken into account by varying the item weights within the monthly
baskets of constant group weights. Other seasonal items, such as
summer and winter clothing and footwear, are taken into account by
maintaining, during the off season, the closing prices of the previous
year.
Computation
The index is computed according to the Laspeyres formula as a
weighted arithmetic average with fixed base, the weights corresponding
to the base period.
Price relatives for each variety in each outlet are first
calculated by dividing the current period price by the base period
price. Simple arithmetic averages of these price relatives are then
calculated for each city. These are weighted using city weights
to obtain price relatives of varieties for the whole country. The
simple arithmetic averages of these price relatives are then computed
to arrive at item indices for the whole country.
Other information
The general index and nine group indices are published each month.
Organisation and publication
National Statistical Service of Greece: Monthly
Statistical Bulletin
(Athens).
Idem: Statistical Yearbook of Greece
.