Norway
Official title
Consumer Price Index.
Scope
The index is compiled monthly and covers all private households
in the country.
Official base
1979 = 100.
Source of weights
The weights are calculated as the average expenditure shares
obtained from the expenditure surveys conducted during the last
three years. As from August 1991 the weights are obtained from
1988, 1989 and 1990 surveys. The selected items and weights are
continuously revised. The following weights relate to August
1991-July 1992.
Weights and composition
| Major groups
| Number of items
| Weights
| Approximate number of price quotations
|
| Food
| 241 | 152.1 | 27910
|
| Beverages and tobacco
| 45 | 36.0 | 1360
|
| Clothing and footwear
| 89 | 67.4 | 3910
|
| Housing (incl. repairs and maintenance)
| 29 | 215.4 | 1930
|
| Fuel and light
| 5 | 47.5 | 130
|
| Furniture, furnishings and household equipment
| 113 | 81.5 | 5180
|
| Medical care and health expenses
| 25 | 23.3 | 120
|
| Transport and communication
| 105 | 199.0 | 1460
|
| Education, recreation and entertainment
| 62 | 98.3 | 760
|
| Miscellaneous goods and services
| 66 | 81.1 | 2020
|
| Total
| 780 | 1001.6 | 44780
|
Household consumption expenditure
Consumption expenditure for the purpose of the index comprises
all goods and services purchased for consumption by the index
population. The consumption expenditure for durable goods
corresponds to the difference between expenses in connection with
purchase of new
goods and the sale of old
goods.
Payments on hire purchase are included, as are
consumption of own-produced commodities and gifts received. It
excludes direct taxes, savings and investment, personal loans,
life insurance premiums, contributions to pension funds and gifts
given away.
Method of data collection
Prices are collected by agents from about 1,400 selected retail
stores and service establishments. Most of the items are priced
on the 15th of each month. The prices used in the index are the
regular prices paid by any member of the public.
Housing
Rent data are collected each quarter from about 1,800 dwellings.
Specification of varieties
The specifications of items to be priced are given in detail in
terms of brand, make and size, etc.
Substitution, quality change, etc.
If a product is not available in the outlet, a similar product to
the original is substituted.
Seasonal items
Seasonal fluctuations in the prices of certain fresh fruits, vegetables
and fish are taken into account by using the average prices of the
preceding season during the off season.
Computation
From August 1982, the index is a Laspeyres chain index with
yearly links. The weights are changed in August each year. The
monthly index is first computed by item for each area as the
price change of the unweighted arithmetic mean of all the prices
for an item. The average level of prices in the previous July is
taken as 100. The monthly index for an item for the whole
country is computed by weighting the price changes for the
various areas according to their relative share in the country's
turnover.
Organisation and publication
Statistisk sentralbyrä (Central Bureau of Statistics):
Statistisk Mänedshefte (Monthly Bulletin of Statistics)
(Oslo).