(1)

Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICP) are harmonised inflation measures required by the Commission and the European Central Bank for the performance of their functions under Article 121 of the EC Treaty. HICPs are designed to facilitate international comparisons of consumer price inflation. They serve as important indicators for the management of monetary policy.

(2)

Under Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 2494/95, each Member State is required, as part of the implementation of that Regulation, to produce an HICP starting with the index for January 1997.

(3)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1749/96 of 9 September 1996 on initial implementing measures for Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 concerning harmonised indices of consumer prices (2) defines the coverage of the HICP as those goods and services which are included in household final monetary consumption expenditure incurred on the economic territory of the Member State, in one or both of the time periods being compared.

(4)

Article 2 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 2214/96 of 20 November 1996 concerning harmonised indices of consumer prices: transmission and dissemination of sub-indices of the HICP (3) defines a breakdown of COICOP/HICP (4) by division (two-digit level), group (three-digit level) and class (four-digit level).

(5)

Article 2 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 2454/97 of 10 December 1997 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 as regards minimum standards for the quality of HICP weightings (5) defines the ‘weighting reference period’ of an HICP as a 12-month period of consumption or expenditure. According to Article 3 thereof Member States should each month produce HICPs using weightings which reflect the consumers′ expenditure pattern in the weighting reference period.

(6)

Consequently weightings at the level of COICOP/HICP divisions, groups and classes are required not to vary between months during the year. Nevertheless weightings at a more detailed level of COICOP/HICP might be allowed to reflect a seasonally varying consumption pattern. Although indices without and with seasonal weighting variability correspond to different statistical targets, restrictions on the methodology may ensure the necessary comparability between those two approaches, as well as comparability between Member States within the approaches.

(7)

Seasonal products are typically not available or their purchased volumes are negligible for certain periods in an annual cyclical pattern and according to Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 1749/96 where target samples do not require monthly observation of actual prices throughout the year estimated prices should be used instead.

(8)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1921/2001 of 28 September 2001 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 as regards minimum standards for revisions of the harmonised index of consumer prices and amending Regulation (EC) No 2602/2000 (6) sets the framework for revisions in the HICPs.

(9)

Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 provides that HICPs which differ on account of differences in concepts, methods or practices used in their definition and compilation should not be considered comparable. However, the methodologies applied in the Member States for seasonal products differ substantially and the results may not be sufficiently comparable. Therefore a harmonised approach with respect to seasonal products in the HICPs is necessary in order to ensure that the resulting HICPs meet the requirements as to comparability, reliability, and relevance under the third paragraph of Article 4 and under Article 5(3) of Regulation (EC) No 2494/95.

(10)

The European Central Bank has been consulted in accordance with Article 5(3) of Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 (7).

(11)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Statistical Programme Committee established by Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (8),

1.

‘seasonal products’ means those goods and services that are not available for purchase, or purchased in small or negligible volumes, for certain periods in a typical annual cyclical pattern. The in-season period is meant to cover at least one month;

2.

‘subdivision of COICOP/HICP’ means COICOP/HICP class in the case of goods and services in a COICOP/HICP class, and COICOP/HICP group for groups that are not subdivided into classes according to the harmonised COICOP/HICP classification as laid down in Regulation 1749/1999 of 23 July 1999 amending Regulation (EC) No 2214/96, concerning the subindices of the harmonised indices of consumer prices (9);

3.

‘counter-seasonal estimation’ means the estimation of a price for a product-offer of a product that is out-of-season so that:

4.

‘all-seasonal estimation’ means the estimation of a price for a product-offer of a product that is out-of-season so that:

5.

‘strict annual weights index’ means a price index using weightings that do not differ between months within the same year at all levels of index calculation;

6.

‘class-confined seasonal weights index’ means a price index using weightings that within the same year:

(a)

one tenth of one percentage point on average over one year against the previous year for the all-items HICP;

(b)

three, four or five tenths of a percentage point on average over one year against the previous year for any COICOP/HICP division, group or class;

(c)

one tenth of one percentage point on average for an individual month against the previous month of the all-items HICP.