Prices, Competitiveness

Table    Publication schedule

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The calculation of the price indices is based on the Laspeyres formula. Prices and price indices at the consumer level, such as the consumer price index (CPI), include direct and indirect taxes. The CPI provides a detailed picture of price developments and in many areas also the basis for value adjustments and for wage negotiations. Most importantly, the CPI is the indicator measuring inflation in Austria.

According to Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95, consumer price index weightings must be revised and updated once every five years to ensure that the basket of goods is representative of households’ current consumption behavior. Statistics Austria revised and updated the basket of goods of the HICP (Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices) and the CPI and their weightings in 2010. The modified weighting structures are based on private consumption data from the national accounts 2009 and the results of the consumer survey carried out from April 2009 to the beginning of May 2010. Starting with the index for January 2011, Statistics Austria publishes the new CPI, using 2010 as the base year. Furthermore, Statistics Austria switched to calculating the CPI as a chained index series, a method that has been applied for the HICP for several years. As opposed to the fixed-base Laspeyres index, the chained index series allows minor adjustments to the basket of goods and the weightings on an annual basis.

The basket of goods contains about 800 items (goods and services), whose prices (some 40,000) are collected at monthly intervals in 4,200 shops across 20 Austrian cities.

The goods of the CPI basket are classified by purpose into 12 consumption groups (COICOP – Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose – main groups). The CPI 2005 (weighting based on the 2004/2005 consumer survey) included 770 goods and services (CPI 2000 – weighting based on the 1999/2000 consumer survey: 812; CPI 1996 – weighting based on the 1993/94 consumer survey: 710; CPI 1986 – weighting based on the 1984 consumer survey: 615).

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