Summary from Randi Johannessen, Statistics Norway

Concerning the CPI and the choice of weight source, it was mentioned that Statistics Norway will move from Household Budget Survey (HBS) to NA as the primary weight source from 2011. There are several reasons behind this decision. First of all NA covers more of private consumption and a wider reference population and will provide more updated information if a preliminary version of NA is used. Under reporting of certain consumption groups e.g. alcohol and tobacco, is a problem in a HBS and thus will be avoided by using NA. Another main reason is a future legal regulation for the Harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) that suggest NA as the primary weight source. It will be appropriate to derive the weights from the same source for the two indices.

Simulation of a CPI based on expenditure from NA, has been done for the period August 2000 to March 2009. The results are some discrepancy in the weights compared to the HBS. Especially repair and maintenance of dwellings and purchase of new vehicles have lower expenditures in NA. Services in general have higher expenditures, and as expected alcoholic beverages and tobacco have higher expenditures in NA.

According to the simulation, only minor discrepancy is found between the estimated overall index and the official CPI.