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Introduction of the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) in Switzerland. Presented by Corinne Becker Vermeulen 8-9 May 2008, UNECE Joint CPI meeting. Contents. 1. General conditions for introducing an HICP in Switzerland 2. Scope for adaptations 3. Impact on production process
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Introduction of the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) in Switzerland Presented by Corinne Becker Vermeulen8-9 May 2008, UNECE Joint CPI meeting
Contents • 1. General conditions for introducing an HICP in Switzerland • 2. Scope for adaptations • 3. Impact on production process • 4. Results • 5. Outlook
1. General conditions • Bilateral Agreement on Statistics between the EU and Switzerland: introduction of HICP legislation as of 2008 • First publication of Swiss results 10 years after the HICP introduction in Europe • Aim of the indicator: international comparison of price evolution, aggregation of different country groups
2. Scope for adaptation • Main criterion: comparability • Existing methods of the Swiss CPI are comparable in many fields, e.g.: calculation, annual weighting, classification, definition of prices • Main adaptations: • Coverage and weighting • Frequency of price collection • Specific adaptation of certain indicators (air tariffs, package holidays, financial services, social protection)
2. Scope for adaptation • Differences in concept entail different weighting • Sources for HICP weighting: • HBS, National Accounts, Health Statistics • Main differences of weights: • CPI – HICP: Housing (OOH included in CPI), Social protection (collective households included in HICP) • HICP CH – EU27: Health, Housing, Food
2. Scope for adaptation • Different treatment of services (air tariffs, package holidays): parallel indicators for HICP and CPI • Additional indices developed for financial services and social protection • Price collection period extended
3. Impact on production process • Price collection periodicity adapted to HICP regulation • Up to 2007: only prices of fresh food and fuels collected monthly • As from 2008: most positions collected monthly • Prices collected annually increase from 360’000 to 600’000 • Most prices enter both indicators
3. Impact on production process • Strategy for introduction of monthly price collection: • Early preparation of IT application, early recruiting • Strict separation of price collection from calculation • Inclusion / exclusion of items defined in calculation module • Information of the change in frequency: public, enterprises • The impact of the new frequency will be analyzed
4. Results • Base year: 2005, calculation of results 2005 to 2007 according to HICP methodology as far as possible • Introduction as of 2008, publication primarily by Eurostat • Difficulty: communication of differences CPI – HICP; differences on all aggregated levels, mainly in the headings for Housing and energy, Restaurants and hotels and Miscellaneous goods and services • Between 2006 and 2008, differences in annual and month- ly rates never exceeded 0.2% and were not systematic
4. Results Price evolution in Switzerland is still rather low in European comparison
5. Outlook • Annual re-weighting • Follow up of price collection frequency • HICP needs will influence the CPI reforms