Statistics Finland (SF)

Social Statistics / Consumers and livelihood

Street address: Työpajankatu 13, 00580 Helsinki, FINLAND
Postal address: FI-00022 Statistics FINLAND

The harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) is a consumer price index (CPI) that is calculated according to a harmonised approach. It measures the change over time of the prices of consumer goods and services acquired by households (inflation).

Due to the common methodology, the HICPs of the countries and European aggregates can be directly compared.

European classification of individual consumption according to purpose (ECOICOP)

The HICP covers the final monetary consumption expenditure of the household sector.

The main statistical variables are price indices.

The basic unit of statistical observation are prices for consumer products.

3.6.1. Statistical target population

The target statistical universe is the 'household final monetary consumption expenditure' (HFMCE) on the economic territory of the country by both resident and non-resident households. The household sector to which the definition refers, includes all individuals or groups of individuals irrespective of, in particular, the type of area in which they live, their position in the income distribution and their nationality or residence status. These definitions follow the national accounts concepts in the European System of Accounts.

3.6.2. Coverage error population

None.

3.7.1. Geographical coverage

The HICP refers to the economic territory of a country as referred to in paragraph 2.05 of Annex A to ESA 2010, with the exception that the extraterritorial enclaves situated within the boundaries of a Member State or a country are included and the territorial enclaves situated in the rest of the world are excluded.

3.7.2. Coverage error regions

All regions are covered. Cross-border purchases are currently not treated in line with the HICP recommendation.

3.8.1. Start of time series

The HICP series started in January 1997.

3.8.2. Start of time series - national specifics

See the HICP database

January 1996 for HICP. January 2005 for HICP-CT.

2015=100

The following units are used:

• Index point
• Percentage change on the same period of the previous year (rates);
• Percentage change on the previous period (rates);
• Percentage share of the total (weights).

HICP is a monthly statistics.

Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICPs) are harmonised inflation figures required under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Regulation (EU) 2016/792 of the European Parliament and the Council of 11 May 2016 (OJ L 135) sets the legal basis for establishing a harmonised methodology for the compilation of the HICP and the HICP-CT.

This regulation is implemented by Commission Regulation (EU) 2020/1148 of 31 July 2020.

Further documentation, can be found in Eurostat’s website - HICP dedicated section, namely recommendations on specific topics, under the methodology page, and guidelines, under the quality page.

Not available.

Statistics Act (Finland), section 10, defines followingly: 'When data collected for statistical purposes are being combined, stored, destroyed or otherwise processed it shall be ensured that no person’s protection of private life or personal data, or business or professional secret shall be endangered.'

In practice this means that all item-level information (weights, prices, descriptions) are treated as confidential.

The data is confidential until it is published on the internet. The use of data is restricted by usage rights. All persons employed by Statistics Finland have signed a pledge of secrecy, where they have obliged to keep secret the data prescribed as confidential by virtue of the Statistics Act or the Act on the Openness of Government Activities. The access to the data is limited to the certain part of the staff of Statistics Finland.

List of person with rights to the data before the publication is updated by secretary of Price Statistics unit and confirmed by the Director of Economic and Environmental Statistics.

Confidentiality of data collected for statistical purposes is decreed in the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999) chapter 6, section 16-17.

European Statistics Code of Practice  has been implemented to the production of HICP/CPI.

In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see point 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

The HICP is released according to Eurostat’s Release calendar.

The calendar is publically available and published at the end of the year for the full following year.

Statistics Finland publishes the annual release calendar on its website (see link to webpage below).

Users are informed in advance in the release calendar of the publication dates. The release calendar of statistics contains information on the timing of the future releases. The calendar also contains direct links to the already published statistical releases and publications. The statistics are released on the web site of Statistics Finland on a pre-determined date given on release calendar.

External users have no pre-access to the HICP key figures before the publication.

Monthly

The HICP is published at the Statistics Finland internet pages. From 2023 onwards, also the HICP Flash estimate is published at 2-digit level. Statistics home page contains information on releases and link to the documentation of the statistics. It also contains direct links to the StatFin-database service where the monthly and annual indices are published. The HICP rates and index levels are disseminated with two decimals. All releases are published in Finnish, Swedish and English.

Access to the micro-data is very limited and user needs a license in order to use microdata. If the licence is granted by the research services, data is then first anonymised so that neither outlet names nor specific information of collected items are given. In addition, the delivered micro data is limited to the information concerning only the prices, the package size and information of the price type (normal, sales prices or new product offer). More information of the practices of research services is available in the web page 'Charging basis and prices'. 

A short press release for the CPI and the HICP is issued each time results are published. The press release is a summary of the changes in consumer prices. The release provides information on the most remarkable changes of the CPI and the HICP.

An annual review is issued once a year describing changes made in the beginning of statistical year: update of the weights, changes in the data collection  (new and disappearing products), methodological changes etc.

The press releases are shared just after the release is published on the Statistics Finland website.

Twitter is used for sharing detailed information for greater audience. Official tweets are done under @tilastokeskus- user id.

The Consumer Price Index and the HICP-monthly results are published on the consumer price index homepage.

The Statfin-database service provides statics in table-format. Users may extract needed information as a timeline. Accuracy of the tables differs a bit depending of the length of the time series. The most recent key figures are published in following tables:

• 11xb Consumer Price Index 2015=100  and
• 11xh Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) and Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices at Constant Taxes (HICP-CT) 2015=100
• 11xu Special Aggregates 2015=100

 The database service provides also tables for:

• Cost-of-living index dating back to 1914
• Average prices of liquid fuels
• CPI-series having different base year such as 2010=100, 2005=100,
• CPI main headings for base years 2000=100, 2005=100
• CPI overall index for various base years starting from 1972=100

Due to the Statistics Act, micro data may be used for scientific purposes but only in an anonymised form and according to the general policy regarding confidentiality.

Hence, access to the micro-data is limited and users need to apply for a license in order to explore micro data and individual observations/price Quotes. If/when the license is granted, data is anonymized so that no outlet names nor product details are given. In addition, information concerning the collected prices is limited to price, package size and information of price type (normal, sales prices or new product offer.) More information about service practices is available on web page.

The results of the HICP, as well as results for the EU-Member states at a finer level of detail, are available on the homepage of the Statistical office of the European Union (Eurostat).

The HICP Methodological Manual provides the reference methodology for the production of HICP. (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-GQ-17-015)

10.6.1. Documentation on methodology - national specifics

Methodological papers on the Consumer price index. CPI, and HICP are published in the following publications:

• Consumer Price Index 2015=100 Handbook for users
• basic concepts and definitions are available on statistics homepage
• research studies are published in web-page 'Methodological development work' 

The CPI and HICP release contains overall information on the quality management by describing in the Quality and Methodology Information, Chapter ‘Overall quality of the series’, that is not a time-bound review. Each chapter describes information on the six Eurostat criteria of quality (relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, comparability and coherence) and addresses relevant Key Quality Measures. It also provides a summary of methods used to compile outputs and describe the methods' impact on the quality of produced estimates.

Besides this, there are compliance monitoring visits in each Member State that are carried out every 7-8 years or so. Compliance Monitoring report for Finland years 2012 and 2022 are available in  the web page: Quality - Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICP) - Eurostat (europa.eu).

The link to the 2022 HICP compliance Monitoring report is also attached.

The 'Consumer Price Index-Handbook for users' (attached) gives an overall view to the compilation of the CPI and the HICP.

11.1.1. Quality management - Compliance Monitoring

Compliance Monitoring

11.1.2. Quality assurance - national specifics

The CPI-team members communicate monthly with the regional price collectors in order to ensure the quality of the collected price quotes. Data that have been entered by price collectors is either automatically checked of manually confirmed by specially trained staff of the CPI-team.

Besides these bilateral discussions (regional price collector <> CPI-team member), the CPI-team arranges monthly online-meetings with price collectors so to recapitulate price collection instructions, specify instructions when needed and to give guidance for the upcoming data collection. The CPI team arranges monthly online-meetings with the managers and supervisors of the Data Collection department. 

All the process steps of the HICP/CPI production are listed in the Process Management system that keeps track of accomplished and undone tasks. This way, it is ensured that all the essential tasks are accomplished.  Process management system controls all individual process steps starting from prefilling of the data collection for the upcoming month to validation of price quotes and the calculation of index series.

Plausibility checks such as:

• check for false or empty recording,
• check for given amount,
• check for price change compared to the previous,
• check that actual price and amount is given and not a zero value,

are carried out in each stage of the data processing to prevent data entry errors. If implausible data is identified in any step of the production, then a warnings or error notes are issued. The CPI-team checks all these immediately after the appearance of such notes.

The CPI-team has weekly production meetings where timing and fulfilling of the steps are checked. Also challenges and problems of the production are discussed and solved.

The CPI-team leader, or deputy senior statistician checks the final results. If the results are not correct, all necessary actions are done in order to correct the erroneous price quotes and the index series are re-calculated.

11.2.1. Compliance monitoring - last report and main results

The Finnish HICP compliance monitoring report (2022) is available in the Eurostats' web page: Quality - Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICP) - Eurostat (europa.eu) (direct link also attached below).

Eurostat assessed that the HICP for Finland is in line with most legal requirements.

Statistics Finland should improve the compliance by increasing the price collection frequency regarding health products and drinks in restaurants, and by including these prices in the HICP for a given month that are charged in that month.

Furthermore, the comparability of the Finnish HICP will improve further if Statistics Finland:

• derive weights for insurance services based on the household expenditure of the service charge estimated by the national accounts for a single year
• improve the representativity of e-commerce in line with the recommendations on cross-border internet purchases
• further improve the representativity of the rent index as dwellings rented by private landlords to tenants without housing allowances are currently not covered
• review and improve its procedures for price collectors concerning the timing of replacements, the identification of replacement products, and the recording of information on the old and new product
• further investigate the separation of the cost for renting and other costs (for example water and heating)
• develop its procedures so that sound replacement and quality adjustment decisions can be made
• investigate scanner-data and to ensure that the price index is representative with respect to dynamic product assortments and to adjust the calculation procedure as needed
• examine the impact of changes in GTIN codes that are linked to changes in package size and to ensure that price changes due to package size changes are properly captured
• assess the impact of the monthly chaining and replenishment method currently applied to telecommunication products
• carry out research into methods and sources with a view to expand the use of explicit quality adjustments methods
• assess the practice of updating the last in-season price with a normal price at the beginning of the out-of-season period

11.2.2. Quality assessment - national specifics

Same QA methods are used for the national CPI as for the HICP.

Special importance is attached to the transparency of data collection and computation methods. The concepts and methods of the HICP are developed according to international standards and they rely on the experiences of all EU member states in the field of consumer price statistics. Improving the quality and the comparability of the HICP is a permanent process.

In addition to being a general measure of inflation, the HICP is also used in the areas of:

• wages, social benefit and contract indexation;
• economic forecasting and analysis;
• measuring specific price trends;
• accounting purposes and deflating other series;
• inflation targeting by central banks;
• cross-country economic comparisons.

The euro area (evolving composition) index is used by the European Central Bank (ECB) as the main indicator for monetary policy management. The ECB and the European Commission's Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) use the HICP for assessing price stability and price convergence required for entry into European Monetary Union.

Other users include: National Central Banks, financial institutions, economic analysts, the media and the public at large.

12.1.1. User Needs - national specifics

The HICP is used nationally by various user groups especially for the following four purposes:

• Inflation measure;
• Convergence criteria;
• Indexation of financial instruments by using the HICP as a compensation;
• benchmark.

However, there is only limited use as compensation benchmark at the national level of the HICP.

Main users of the HICP are the Bank of Finland and Government authorities.

The meetings of national group of CPI Experts are arranged twice a year. The group of CPI/HICP expert consists of representatives from the Ministry of Finance, banking sector, research institutes and Finance Finland. The group of CPI/HICP expert provides user feedback and perspective to the utility of the information. This feedback is valuable especially when the aim is to improve CPI and HICP coverage, methods etc. The Group has no direct influence on the HICP, it may only share remarks of the interest group. During the last few years these meetings have been mainly informative.

The user satisfaction survey is carried out every year providing overall view to the topic.  It does not make any distinction between the statistics, but separates informants from the end-users. It also measures user-satisfaction by taking different perspectives: company image, usability of the web-pages, response burden in the data collection.

HICP and HICP-CT indices are produced for all 5-digit ECOICOP-levels for Eurostat. ECOICOP indices at 6- and 7-digit level are produced for national purposes.

Regarding ECOICOP sub-indices, especially at 5-digit level, certain indices are not provided because:

• they are not included in the coverage of the HICP, OR
• they were excluded for conceptual reasons (e.g. life insurance) OR
• the degree of methodological harmonisation is not yet sufficient (e.g games of chance) OR
• because their consumption expenditure of the private household sector in Finland is very low (e.g gas) We follow 1 part per thousand rule’ of the framework regulation. There are commodities where share of value is below this threshold but still these are kept in the index.

Some  commodity level accuracy figures have been calculated and the results are taken into account when deciding the number of price observations for each commodity. The bias in weights is the bias due to the small samples in HBS, especially for region Åland.  Bias is neglectable because regional weight for Aland is under one 1% of all regions. The regional weights are derived mainly using the HBS. There is only one exception to this and it is class 04.1.1 Actual rentals paid by tenants that is estimated based on Housing statistics / value of rental housing.

The Consumer Price Index is always based on some kind of a sample of the products and services available to consumers. The randomness of the samples is reduced by the fact that the statistics are based on panels. The use of a panel ensures that the produced price changes are accurate enough.

Following sources for bias may be identified:

1. substitution bias:
   • The Laspeyres fixed-weight index formula does not include any change in consumption due to a change in relative prices. For example, if the price of chicken drops in proportion to beef, the demand for chicken will rise as the demand for beef falls. An index that uses the weights of the comparison period does not take this into account.
   • The magnitude of the substitution bias depends on the households’ reaction to the change in prices and the magnitude of the price changes. The less frequent the adjustment in the index weight structure, the greater the substitution bias.
   • The substitution bias is not estimated as being very significant at the overall index level.
     
     
2. bias caused by new products:
   • A Consumer Price Index using comparison period weights may be particularly prone to bias when new products, such as consumer electronics, enter the market. If prices fall abruptly and this causes a great rise in demand, a fixed-weight index is not, perhaps, capable of taking this into account sufficiently quickly. In such cases, a single product may have a noticeable effect on the year-on-year change in the Consumer Price Index.
   • new products are included in the index once a year as weights are updated or when it is necessary to replace vanishing products with new one. Thus new products will probably not form an essential source of bias
     
     
3. bias arising from the outlet sample:
   • The sample of outlets in the Consumer Price Index is checked and updated annually. Within a year, the selected outlets will remain the same throughout the index calculation If households start to favour a certain type of outlet, such as big hypermarkets instead of smaller shops, this can be a potential source of bias if the price development of products differ in different types of outlets.
   • this bias is not likely to be considerable as more and more transaction data (scanner-data) is introduced to the production of HICP/CPI.
   • Also the outlet sample is revised and updated annually. The significance of the bias arising from the retail outlet sample is not likely to be very high in the Finnish Consumer Price Index, which draws on quite a large number of outlets (around 2,000) in proportion to the country’s size. Moreover, outlets that close down are replaced with new ones, taking into account the market situation of the collection area. A change of a collection outlet does not cause a change in the index
     
     
4. bias caused by quality change:
   • Any changes in the quality of goods and services are carefully examined when products are replaced due to the removal from the outlet’s selection OR due to the fact that product is outdated and need to be replaced by a new model that better represents the product group in question. 

  The item sample is formed utilising statistics on retail trade sales, the Household Budget Survey and other sources. The main sampling methods are:

• Selection of the most sold products in terms of sales value (e.g. daily consumer goods)
• Purposive sampling based on expert views in the absence of comprehensive sales data (e.g. optical industry products and restaurant food)
• Other methods (e.g. cluster sampling by brand and price group for new cars). 
• OR no sampling that is the case when complete scanner-datasets are obtained in price collection 

The outlets from which the data for the Consumer Price Index are collected are selected to represent the structure of retail trade as closely as possible with regard to the size of central retail corporations and outlets. The aim is to acknowledge regional differences well.

Statistics Finland’s Register of Enterprises and Establishments is used as the sampling frame. The outlets included in the collection are randomly sampled from the frame ensuring that different size categories are represented. 

It is not possible to use any of the statistical sampling methods for selecting specialised stores for the price collection, so Statistics Finland’s interviewers choose suitable outlets from their area according to specified criteria and by drawing on their knowledge of the area.

Neither item sampling, nor outlet sampling is used in cases where the scanner data is obtained. This covers following commodity groups: Food, alcoholic beverages, pharmaceutical products and wireless telephone services

Various sampling methods are used to create a commodity and an outlet specific samples, thus a sampling error cannot be formally calculated nor estimated although there are sampling-related errors. It can be assumed that the monthly development of prices is reflected very accurately in both the overall index and aggregated sub-indices using this non random procedure.

To keep the unknown sampling error as low as possible, scanner data is increasingly utilised nowadays. 

Non-sampling errors are not quantified in HICP construction. Continuously improving the methodology is however intended to reduce non-sampling errors to a minimum.

Non-response error is very low because respondents are reminded of their obligation to reply to the questionnaire or give needed information

The full set of HICPs is published each month according to Eurostat’s Release calendar, usually between 15 and 18 days after the end of the reference month.

Each year, the January release is published at the end of February to allow for the annual update of the weights, both of individual product groups and the relative country weights of Members States in the country group aggregates.

The euro area flash estimate is published on the last working day of the reference month or shortly after that.

Since the March 1997, launch of the HICP release, the HICP for the country groups aggregates has always been published on the dates announced in Eurostat’s Release calendar.

HICPs across Member States aim to be comparable. Any differences at all levels of detail should only reflect differences in price changes or expenditure patterns.

To this end, concepts and methods have been harmonised by means of legislation. HICPs that deviate from these concepts and methods are deemed comparable if they result in an index that is estimated to differ systematically by less than or equal to 0.1 percentage points on average over one year against the previous year (Article 4 of Council and Parliament Regulation (EU) 2016/792).

HICP comparability over time is ensured. There are not any statistical breaks in the HICP series due to changes in the methods.

Changes in the consumption and shopping habits are incorporated every year.

The main differences between HICP and the national CPI following;

1. Methodology: No methodological differences. Same methodology is used for CPI as for HICP.
2. Domestic principle: territorial and population coverage. Same coverage in both statistics.
3. Product coverage; Coverage is same expect in cases of following commodities:
   1. owner-occupation,
   2. games of chance,
   3. interests on consumption and other credits,
   4. fire insurance on owner-occupied dwellings,
   5. the vehicle tax and fishing and hunting fees.
4. Differences in the treatment of product groups: All product groups are treated similarly.

The HICPs are internally coherent. Higher level aggregations are derived from detailed indices according to well-defined procedures.

Not available

The HICP series, including back data, is revisable under the terms set in Articles 17-20 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1148.

17.1.1. Data revision - policy - national specifics

The national CPI is not revisable statistics.

In principle, national CPI is not revisable. In the past 10 years, HICP has not ever been revised.

18.1.1. Weights

The weight structure of the Consumer Price Index is based on the data in the preliminary private consumption expenditure of National Accounts of the earlier year. The figures on private consumption expenditure in National Accounts are based on the latest Household Budget Survey HBS and other statistics. The HBS is carried out every fifth year or so.

National Accounts data on consumption expenditure is available by 5-digit ECOICOP sub-class. Where the National Accounts’ division of consumption items is not accurate enough, the weight of the sum level is divided into sub-items, primarily with the help of sales data and other statistics provided by Statistics Finland or other public authorities, such as The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency and the Bank of Finland.  In addition, other sources are used when defining the weights for sub-items. The auxiliary sources are e.g. Household Budget Survey for the definition of sub-items.

Elementary aggregate in Finland is 7-digit COICOP sub-class by region. 

Expenditure on narcotics and prostitution are removed from the private consumption expenditure in National Accounts for the Consumer Price Index. In addition, the consumption expenditure of non-profit institutions is removed from the private  consumption  expenditure  in  National  Accounts  and  the  consumption  expenditure  of  foreigners  in  Finland is added to it.

The  overall  consumption  calculated  from  National  Accounts  is  adjusted  with  a  separate  method  for  calculating  weights  for  the  housing  group (excluding OOH).  Vehicle tax and interest on consumer credits are added to the value weight of the Consumer Price Index. These items are not included in the HICP. In addition, compensations paid are deducted from the value of  insurance  premiums and  of health care fees (reimbursement system provided by KELA), and the difference in the measurement of  financial services are taken into account. After this, the value weights are price-updated to the level of the calculation year with commodity-specific price indices. Weights are produced for all commodities belonging to the basket.

For some items, weights are available at a more detailed level, as so called internal weights. For example, 12.7.0.1.1 Redemption of documents, are considered as one item. In this case internal weights are available for each document included in price collection.

Weights are updated annually concerning the 4- and 5-digit ECOICOP-classes. In the more detailed level, 6- and 7-digit ECOICOP weights are updated once a year or every third year concerning the:

• 03.1.2 Garments, 03.1.3 Other articles of clothing and clothing accessories, 03.2.1 Shoes and other footwear,
• 05.1.1 Furniture and furnishings, 05.5.2 Small tools and miscellaneous accessories, 05.6.1 Non-durable household goods,
• 06.1.2 Other medical products, 06.1.3 Therapeutic appliances and equipment, 06.2.3 Paramedical services,
• 07.2.1 Spare parts and accessories for personal transport equipment,
• 09.1.4 Recording media, 09.3 Other recreational items and equipment, gardens and pets, 09.4 Recreational and cultural services, 09.5 Newspapers, books and stationery, 09.6 Package holidays,
• 11.1 Catering services, 11.2 Accommodation services,
• 12.1 Personal care and 12.7.Other services.

In cases where scanner data is available, 7-digit Ecoicop-sub-class weights are updated monthly (food, daily durables, some other durables, wireless telephone services, pharmaceutical products, alcoholic beverages). This distinction depends on the calculation method in use. 

When using scanner data, retailer-specific weights are also applied in the calculation of indices, if appropriate. These weights are checked and updated annually. 

Regional weights are updated after the latest results are received from HBS. Exception to this are the regional weights for the rents that are updated annually.

18.1.1.1. Compilation at elementary aggregate level

a. Principle is that commodity weights are updated annually based on the data from National Accounts. Regional weights are updated at intervals of five years. Elementary aggregate is 7-digit ECOICOP by region. Some commodities may include more specified weights such as item-specific, retailer/enterprise-specific, customer-type, service-provider specific or size of family (grouping is used for identifying different family types - 1 or 2 adult families with x number of children)weights. In Finland we do not have yet explicit weights for e-commerce due to the sparse information regarding e-commerce.

b. The lowest aggregation level where explicit weights are introduced, is 7-digit ECOICOP by region.

c. Multiple data sources are in use.

d. Following data sources are used for derivation of 6- and 7-digit COICOP sub-sub-class weights:

Monthly or annual sales data (=scanner data) for:

• 01 Food and non-alcoholic beverages, 02 Alcoholic beverages,
• 05.5.2 Small tools and miscellaneous accessories, 05.6.1 Non-durable household goods,
• 09.3.4.2 Products for pets, 12.1.3.2 Articles for personal hygiene and wellness,
• 03 Clothing and footwear, 04.3.1.0 Materials for the maintenance and repair of the dwelling,
• 05.1.1.1 Household furniture, 05.2.0 Household textiles, 05.3.1 Major household appliances, 05.4.0 Glassware, tableware and household utensils,
• 09.1.3.1 Personal computers, 09.3.1.1 Games and hobbies, 09.3.2.1 Equipment for sport, 12.3.2.1 Travel goods 

HBS for

• 06.1.3 Therapeutic appliances and equipment, 06.2.3.9 Other paramedical services,
• 07.2.4.2 Toll facilities and parking meters, 07.3.1 Passenger transport by train, 07.3.2 Passenger transport by road, 07.3.3 Passenger transport by air,
• 09.2.1.1 Camper vans, caravans and trailers, 09.4.1.1.1 Sporting event, 09.5.2 Newspapers and periodicals, 09.6.0 Package holidays,
• 12.1.1 Hairdressing salons and personal grooming establishments

Following data sources for commodities:

• Housing statistics for 04.1 Rents
• Building cost index for 04.3.2.2
• Pharmaceutical Information Centre and the Social Insurance Institution for 06.1.1.0 Pharmaceutical products
• the Social Insurance Institution for 06.2.1 Medical services
• Tyre Specialists of Finland (Autorengasliitto ry) for 07.2.1.1 Tyres
• the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority for 08.3.0.2 Wireless telephone services
• Finnish Book Publishers Association for 09.5.1 Books
• Finnish Institute for Health and welfare and National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health for 11.1.1.1.3 Alcohol in restaurant
• Local government finances-statistics for 12.4.0 Social protection
• Finance Finland (FFI) for 12.5.2 Insurance connected with the dwelling, 12.5.3 Insurance connected with health and 12.5.4 Motor vehicle insurance
• Financial accounting for 12.6.2.1 Charges by banks and post offices

Below the 7-digit ECOICOP some commodities may contain more specified weights. E.g there are weights for specific items, retailers or enterprises, customer-type. These internal weights are obtained either from sales data provided by companies or service providers. The updating of internal weights varies: some weights are updated annually while others are updated less frequently (e.g. every fifth year) due to the stable patterns of consumption.

Detailed enterprise specific weights are taken to the calculation of CPI/HICP for the following ECOICOP-groups due to the introduction of scanner-data: 01, 021, 03121, 03122, 04310, 05113, 05119, 05202, 05203, 05401, 05403, 05522, 056, 0611, 06139, 07213, 07224, 09311, 09312, 09321, 09322, 09530, 12121, 1213, 12322, 12329

f. Data source for regional weights is HBS. Regional weights are updated every fifth year as the HBS has finalised the results. Finland is divided in 6 regions: Uusimaa, southern Finland, eastern Finland, western Finland, northern Finland and Åland. There is one exception in this update; Regional weights concerning the rents are updated annually. The elementary aggregate is 7-digit ecoicop by region. This is called also as micro index. These micro indices are first weighted with the region specific commodity weights into national commodity microindices, and then commodity indices are weighted with the whole country’s commodity weights into overall indices.

g. Data source for outlets is Business Register. Data source for commodities and products belonging to specific commodity is annual or monthly sales data complemented with other possible data sources.

18.1.1.2. Compilation of sub-index weights

The expenditures for the 4- and 5-digit level weights definition are obtained from National Accounts. Due to the COVID19-crisis, there were slight changes made to this normal procedure following the Methodological note/Eurostat. For the flash weights, NA first three quarters of t-1 were obtained and estimation of Q4 was done by calculating change of value for the first three quarters from t-2 to t-1 and using this change for estimating Q4/t-1. Formula is following (Q1-Q3/t-1)/(Q1-Q3/t-2)*Q4/t-2. For the final weights, we receive an estimation made by the National Accounts from the Q4 based on some actual figures.

Using this total consumption we then estimated consumption for sub-groups 1- to 5-digit COICOPs. This was done at the National Accounts department. After this we then estimated distribution of consumption for the 6- and 7-digit COICOP-groups using scanner-datasets and other data sources such as Bank of Finland’s statistics, housing statistics, financing statistics and Household Budget Survey. Due to rotation, not all 6- and 7-digit Coicop-groups are updated instead some groups are kept as such and only price-updated.

Main data source used in definition of commodity weights (4-and 5-digit ECOICOP-subclasses) is quarterly National Accounts (QNA). There were few exceptions to this:
04.1.1 Rents >>QNA and HBS 2016
04.3.1 and 04.3.2 >> Housing statistics and HBS 2016
04.4.1, 04.5.1, 04.5.3, 04.5.5>> QNA and HBS 2016
06 >> QNA, Pharmaceutical Information Centre, Social Insurance Institution of Finland and sales data
12.5.2, 12.5.3, 12.5.4 >> Finance Finland (FFI)
12.7.0 >> HBS 2016 and Government Budget

18.1.1.3. Compilation of sub-index weights

Every year, the weighting pattern for the HICP is updated based on national accounts preliminary data up to the year before (t-1) and then adjusted to the price development up to December of the previous year (t-1).

18.1.1.4. Weights – plausibility checking

The base for elementary aggregate weights are formed using the 4- or 5-digit ECOICOP consumption expenditures of National Accounts. These sub-class expenditures are further broken down to 6- and 7-digit COICOP sub-sub-classes using scanner data and other types of sales data, other statistics and similar kind of information.

Price-updating is done by multiplying the consumption expenditure of NA quarterly data with its price relative by sub-class, i.e price change from t-1 to December t-1. Changes in weight structure compared to the previous year weights are analysed and checked by sub-class.

In Finland, seasonal products are treated with class-confined seasonal weights. For example, strawberry is a seasonal product in Finland and its season is in July. The plausibility of price-updated seasonal weights is checked by tabulating weights by month. The sub-classes, i.e. 5-digit ECOICOPs are kept fixed for the whole year. In July, strawberry has its own weight and in other months its weight is reallocated to other 6-digit sub-sub-classes groups. 

18.1.1.5. Price updating

In the context of updating the weighting pattern for the HICP, weights are price-updated to the December of the previous year. This procedure is applied to the weights at the COICOP 7-digit level which is the lowest aggregation level of commodity weights in the Finnish CPI/HICP.

Price updating is mainly applied between year t-2 and year t-1 in the groups where we do not have the information from t-1. In the case of Finland, this means the groups not from scanner data or HFMCE are mainly price-updated. Price updating is applied to the most accurate level which in Finland is the COICOP 7-digit level.

18.1.1.6. Compilation of total household final monetary consumption expenditure

The HFMCE for t-1 was calculated mainly based on QNA figures. In Finland, the quarterly calculations on household final consumption expenditure (HFCE) are basically calculated at the same level as the annual figures (229 different 5-digit classes), although in quarterly calculations some of the indicators are used for many classes. The main data sources for HFCE in QNA are turnover of trade and turnover of services, some indicators for quantities (for example for cars, fuels, transport services, etc.) combined with CPI data as well as some indicators of value (for example for health services and social protection). If there is no actual data, a steady growth is assumed (like in housing and insurances). For certain items (like FISIM and net purchases abroad) there are separate calculations based on other sources, and the figures for HFCE calculations are taken as such. Estimates on narcotics and prostitution are based on (updated) figures from previous year. The estimate for imputed rentals for housing is based on the same share (compared to the original NA imputed rentals figure) than previous year, since we do not have the calculation on that available yet. Income in kind was calculated based on the shares from previous year and the HFCE calculations for QNA. The figures in HFMCE calculation which are directly from the NA-calculations, where takes as such from QNA-calculations. There were not any special adjustments made.

 Consistency between the total and the sum of the sub-indexes is ensured by summing up sub-index values.

18.1.2. Prices

The manual price collection includes on the one hand the regional price collection by price collectors from the internet or in shops all over Finland and on the other hand the central price collection, which takes place mainly as a survey on the internet. The additional use of scanner data and web-scraping allows the statistical offices to increase the number of monthly price observations significantly. These datasets are processed centrally in CPI-team.

The prices for the Consumer Price Index are collected monthly between the 10th and 20th days of month. The reference point of time varies in the centralised collection (e.g. the monthly average price or the price halfway through the month). The prices for seasonal products are collected when they are generally available (in-season) and when their sales volumes are sufficiently large.  For example, prices for cultivated strawberries are collected only in July. Scanner data often includes price observations from all month but in some cases from the first two or three weeks of a month.

18.1.2.1. Data Source - overview  

Main data sources are:

1. regional price collection performed by price collectors -- approx. 33% of value
2. centralised data collection in the CPI-team -- approx. 33% of value
3. scanner data and web scraped data -- approx. 34% of value

18.1.2.2. Scanner data - general information

Scanner-data is main data source for the following commodity groups:

• 01 Food and non-alcoholic beverages (except region 6 Åland),
• 021 Alcoholic beverages,
• 056 Goods and services for routine household maintenance (excl. 05.6.2),
• 0611 Pharmaceutical products (excluding 06.1.1.0.1.1),
• 0561 Non-durable household goods (except region 6 Åland) and
• 1213 Other appliances, articles and products for personal care (except region 6 Åland)

Regional price collection is complemented with scanner data in  groups

• 031 Clothing,
• 0431 Materials for the maintenance and repair of the dwelling,
• 05113 Lighting equipment, 05119 Other furniture and furnishings,
• 05202 Bed linen, 05203 Table linen and bathroom linen,
• 054 Glassware, tableware and household utensils,
• 05522 Miscellaneous small tool accessories,
• 06139 Other therapeutic appliances and equipment,
• 07213 Accessories for personal transport equipment, 07224 Lubricants,
• 0931 Games, toys and hobbies (excl. electronic games), 09321 Equipment for sport, 09322 Equipment for camping and open-air recreation ,
• 0933 Gardens, plants and flowers, 0953 Miscellaneous printed matter,
• 1212 Electrical appliances for personal care, 12329 Other personal effects 

Two different types of datasets are combined together by using retailer specific weights at the elementary aggregate level. In practice this means that at first elementary aggregates are calculated of each dataset separately and then combined these EAs together with the estimated 'market shares', i. retailer specific weights.

Central data collection is complemented with scanner-data in group: 0952 Newspapers and periodicals

In following groups service provider calculates price change by specific items on the request of CPI-team 

• 08.3.0.2 wireless telephone services and 08.3.0.3 Internet subscription charge>> operators provide information regarding total sales and number of subscriptions by consumer and subscription type
• 07.3.1.1 / Short-distance train journeys and long-distance train journeys >> service provider delivers average prices for the most common train journeys and gives regional sales values for the derivation of weights 

18.1.2.3. Web scraping - general information

Groups 0733 Passenger transport by air, including domestic and international flights (Amadeus API) and 11202 Holiday centres, camping sites, youth hostels and similar accommodation services are totally covered by web-scraping.

18.1.3. Sampling

18.1.3.1. Sampling design: locations for survey

The HICP for the whole country is compiled using micro indices by major regions. Finland is divided to six regions according to the modified NUTS2 regional classification. Major regions are Uusimaa, Southern Finland, Eastern Finland, Western Finland, Northern Finland and Åland. The weights for major regions by Ecoicop sub-class are derived from the Household Budget Survey results. All regions are included in the sample

18.1.3.2. Sampling design: outlets

In general, the outlet sample reflect consumer behaviour. For price collection, the Finland is systematically divided to 6 regions. In each region, outlets (assigned to relevant outlet types) with a high relevance for private consumption are selected. No outlet category is excluded.

Following outlet types are distinguished:

• mini-markets, supermarkets and hypermarkets for daily products collection;
• department stores, specialist shops and other retail shops for consumer durables;
• internet trade and public or private service provider for other commodity groups.

Concerning the scanner datasets (food, durables, operators), no commodity, outlet or regional sampling is done. Hence, all data is utilised when possible. 

18.1.3.3. Sampling design: newly significant goods and services

New, significant goods and services, i.e. commodities, are added to the basket annually. New commodities are identified by a rolling series of commodity reviews conducted principally based on market sales information and Statistics Finland household budget survey together with personal experience of the monthly collection of prices. These reviews are supplemented by the proposals made by central office staff. All suggestions are investigated to identify availability, expenditure etc and final decisions are based on a number of factors, including:

• Amount spent on a particular item or the group of items.
• Ease of finding and pricing the product.
• Availability throughout the year.
• Variability of prices within a class.
• Analysis of balance across the basket.

Aim is to ensure that commodities are selected evenly to the most consumed sub-classes, not just one representative and most sold commodity; instead a few, at least.

Once identified, the first step of introducing the item is to define a product specification and to decide the appropriate price collection method.  If similar kinds of products are already collected, then the new items will be priced in outlets that are already part of the sample. Otherwise, the outlet is selected first from the Business register's list of outlets.

In 2023, sugar-free energy drinks, non-alcoholic beers, plumbing services and storage services were added to the basket. 

Price data is collected every month.

18.3.1. Price collection surveys

Price collection is carried out both centrally at Statistics Finland office and by Survey interviewers (price collectors). Complementary datasets, scanner data and web scraped data are also acknowledged in specific sub-classes.

Statistics Finland's interviewers collect monthly altogether around 17 000 prices on nearly 400 commodities from approximately 2 100 outlets for the HICP. To measure the price development, every month they collect the prices of the same products in the same outlets across the whole country, mostly using computers with integrated plausibility checks. Price collectors perform product replacement when a product is permanently not available in outlet. In case of closing outlets or similar, the CPI-team decides on the replacement of an outlet and instructs price collectors when this change need to be carried out.

In addition, about 1 000 items of prices are gathered by central data collection. Central price collection is carried out by the Data collection department. This data collection covers 117 commodities. Number of prices is dependent on the commodity. E.g., only one price quote is collected for 'Old-aged home charge' while several price quotes for children day care.

Centrally collected data contains prices that are collected either from internet pages, price lists or administrative web pages. This centrally collected data is supplemented with:

• several scanner datasets having 1 000 to 6 mil. price observations by month. Amount of observations depends on the data in question.
• Flight prices that are web-scraped from Amadeus (travel technology company) web page 
• Holiday cottage prices which are web-scraped from one significant holiday cottage provider in Finland
• Petrol and diesel prices which are received from a fuel portal where consumers can post the price information
• second-hand car asking prices are received from one significant selling portal for second-hand cars

Different price data sources are combined by first calculating elementary aggregates from each of the datasets and then by aggregating these datasets together using retailer specific weights.

18.3.2. Timing of price collection

Prices are collected regionally between the 10th and 20th each month.

The price collection period is longer for products whose prices fluctuate considerably during the month. These are mainly centrally collected prices such as electricity, clothing, flights.

Scanner datasets, in most of the cases, cover all sales of a month. This means that data collection period is the full set of days of the month. In some cases, only first three weeks are included in the scanner dataset.

Plausibility checks are built into each stage of processing of price quotes so to prevent data entry errors. This is done e.g. by issuing warnings if implausible data are entered. Critical data that have been entered by price collectors must be confirmed and/or be specified by specially trained staff of the Statistical Offices. The most peculiar results after the calculation are checked by appropriately trained staff of the Statistical Offices

Data are fed through a series of automatic validation checks both out in the field and centrally. These are followed up with manual scrutiny of the data which can result in changes. Mostly the decisions are about whether or not to include a price quote in the compilation of the index. Based on the staff decision, observation is excluded or included in the calculation or staff can correct a price quote.

A number of factors are used to highlight potentially incorrect prices such as price change, price range, correct entry of metadata including coding information. 

Scanner-datasets do not have similar kind of errors as traditionally collected data therefore it is taken as such.

18.4.1. Data validation - price data

The CPI team ensures the consistency of the price information. This is done with the checking lists and manually observing the observations. Detected errors are corrected immediately after they are discovered. Then, the indices are recalculated. The following validation procedures are used to detect data entry errors:

1. Price collectors use a mobile app that contains built-in plausability checks. These checks are carried out at the same time as the  data is entered in the application. If the warning or error-signal is received, price collectors need to check the entered prices and quantities, and correct these according to the instructions received from the app.
2. Regionally collected information is transmitted from the tablet to the central office after the data collection period ends. As the data is updated to the database, several automatic checks are applied such as quantity and quality adjustment procedures, as well as treatment of missing prices.
3. All regionally collected price quotes are re-checked at the central office with pre-defined common rules that are built-in functions in the CPI/HICP-production system. Central staff executes these separate checks several times a month; at least once before the Flash HICP compilation and again before HICP/HICP-CT compilation. This way, critical data entries are checked and confirmed. The decisions about whether or not to include a price quote to the compilation is mostly done by central staff.
4. All centrally collected prices are validated at the moment when data is collected. Explicit quality adjustment methods are applied for durables. The most common methods are option pricing, supported judgmental quality adjustment, direct price comparison and bridged overlap.

18.5.1. Elementary price index formulae

The HICP is a Laspeyres type index that covers all ECOICOP categories belonging to the coverage of HICP.

Index formula and weight reference period that are applied for scanner or web-scraped datasets are as follows:

• food, non-alcoholic beverages, daily products, pharmaceutical products, alcoholic beverages, second-hand cars – Törnqvist => normalised average month of previous year
• wireless telephone services and internet subscription fees – formula: Törnqvist => 2 companies out of 3 are calculated using Törnqvist. One company calculates the deliverable index figure with Fisher. All three companies are aggregated together using retailer specific weights.
• petrol, diesel, flights, long-distance train journeys - log-Laspeyres
• holiday cottages - Jevons

Use of Törnqvist and log-Laspeyres is in line with Regulation (EU) 2016/792 because it does not restrict the use of these formulas.

The following number of decimals (behind per cent figures) is applied for:

• surveyed prices: 2
• weights: exact
• compilation: exact, no truncation or rounding
• transmission of index figures: 10 decimals,
• compilation of rates of change: 2 decimals (truncated)
• transmission: exact
• publication: 2

Official figures are always cut to two decimals, usually during the last step of calculation prior to publication. Year to year and monthly rates of change are calculated by using these published and therefore already cut figures.

18.5.2. Aggregation of different data sources

The price ratio by item is calculated on the prices between the reference and the base period. The price reference period is always December of the year before the reference year (t–1).

An elementary aggregate index is computed based on the geometric average of the price ratios, so called Jevons, for each product type (COICOP 7-digit) by region.

After this, the regional elementary aggregates are weighted to the higher levels of the index category using Laspeyres formula.

18.5.3. Chaining, linking and splicing methods

HICPs are chain-linked annually through the relevant December index (Laspeyres chain index concept).

The index of the chaining month (December t-1) is carried forward with the calculated monthly change. This is done similarly in each the ECOICOP category.

18.5.4. Quality adjustment – Detailed information

The Finnish price statistics uses the following quality adjustment methods:

• Quantity adjustment (=Package Size Adjustment) can be used for any good where a change in size/weight is relevant to the quality of the product and where we do not pre-specify a weight/volume – e.g. a kilo of apples. Adjusting the package size quantity is necessary when the quantity of a packaging unit has changed while holding its quality constant. It is crucial for the application of this method that the quantity directly and proportionally affects the monetary value of the product. Thereby, also 'hidden' price increases (through reduced quantities at the same price) are captured.
• Hedonic regression is currently applied only to second-hand cars. Hedonics are particularly applied to calculate the price increase of products which features and properties (=characteristics such as Brand/model, Age, Kilometers driven, Size of car) has strong effect on the price. 
• Direct price comparison may be used for virtually any good or service. The direct price comparison can be applied if a replacement model of equivalent quality is available. It is an extreme of a quality adjustment method as the prices of both products are directly compared, hence the share of quality is zero percent and the price change fully enters the index calculation. Particularly for technical products it is precisely defined, for which characteristics of models explicit quality adjustment should not be applied.
• Class mean imputation is used for goods and services when prices are temporarily missing and in some cases also for permanently missing prices. 
• Judgmental quality adjustment: For some product changes, none of the previously mentioned methods is applicable due to quality differences between the replaced model and the new model. In this case, experts (CPI staff) are asked for a subjective judgment. Based on their experience (and specialist knowledge), they determine the share of the price difference due to quality differences.
• Final option is to exclude price quote from index calculation and introduce it in the following month.

Importance by prevalence of the method in use, in Finland:

A) quantity adjustment B) direct comparison C) class mean imputation. Option costing and overlap pricing are used only occasionally.

Quantity adjustment is carried out in the data validation, thus we will not discuss of it here.

Typically combined quality adjustment methods are used.  This means that direct comparison is the first method that we apply. If price change is high enough (assuming that quality is changed) then direct comparison is not applicable method. Instead we use supported judgement. However if e.g. a personal computer is replaced with another computer having different quality and price then this product is taken to the index calculation on the following month.

Quality Adjustment method used in specific groups (main method/additional method):

• Garments (ECOICOP 03.1.2) – direct comparison/supported judgement
• Equipment for the reception, recording and reproduction of sound and vision (ECOICOP 09.1.12) – direct comparison/supported judgement
• Personal computers (ECOICOP 09.1.3.1) – direct comparison/if a personal computer is replaced with another computer having different quality and price then this product is taken to the index calculation on the following month.

18.5.5. Seasonal items

Generally, if prices of seasonal items are missing due to out-of-season then its weight is allocated to the other commodities in this specific 5-digit commodity group. This method is called 'class-confined weights'.

Fish, fruits and vegetables are not treated as seasonal products in Finland because these are available in outlets the whole year. Only seasonal product in group '01.1  Food' is strawberries. Most of the sales occur during the summer months in June and July. The reason for this is that these can only be cultivated in Finland in summer time. 

Not applicable.

None.