Regulation (EU) 2016/792 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 on harmonised indices of consumer prices and the house price index, and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 (Text with EEA relevance)

Article 1

Subject matter

This Regulation lays down a common framework for the development, production and dissemination of harmonised indices of consumer prices (HICP, HICP-CT, OOH price index) and of the house price index (HPI) at Union and national level.

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

(1) ‘products’ means goods and services as defined in paragraph 3.01 of Annex A to Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (¹) (‘ESA 2010’);

(2) ‘consumer prices’ means the purchase prices paid by households to purchase individual products by means of monetary transactions;

(3) ‘house prices’ means the transaction prices of dwellings purchased by households;

(4) ‘purchase prices’ means the prices actually paid by purchasers for products, including any taxes less subsidies on the products, after the deduction of discounts from standard prices or charges, excluding interest or services charges added under credit arrangements and any extra charges incurred as a result of failing to pay within the period specified at the time of purchase;

(5) ‘administered prices’ means prices that are either directly set or influenced to a significant extent by the government;

(6) ‘harmonised index of consumer prices’ or ‘HICP’ means the comparable index of consumer prices produced by each Member State;

(7) ‘harmonised index of consumer prices at constant tax rates’ or ‘HICP-CT’ means the index that measures changes in consumer prices without the impact of changes in tax rates on products over the same period of time;

(8) ‘tax rate’ means a tax parameter and may be a certain percentage of the price or an absolute tax amount levied on a physical unit;

(9) ‘owner-occupied housing price index’ or ‘OOH price index’ means the index that measures changes in the transaction prices of dwellings new to the household sector and of other products that the households acquire in their role as owner-occupiers;

(10) ‘house price index’ or ‘HPI’ means the index that measures changes in the transaction prices of dwellings purchased by households;

(11) ‘sub-index of the HICP or the HICP-CT’ means the price index for any category of the European classification of individual consumption according to purpose (ECOICOP) as set out in Annex I;

(12) ‘harmonised indices’ means the HICP, the HICP-CT, the OOH price index and the HPI;

(13) ‘flash estimate of the HICP’ means an early estimate of the HICP provided by Member States whose currency is the euro that may be based on provisional information and, if necessary, appropriate modelling;

(14) ‘Laspeyres-type index’ means the price index that measures the average change in prices from the price reference period to a comparison period using expenditure shares from a period prior to the price reference period, and where the expenditure shares are adjusted to reflect the prices of the price reference period. A ‘Laspeyres-type index’ is defined as: The price of a product is denoted by p, the price reference period is denoted by 0, and the comparison period is denoted by t. Weights (w) are expenditure shares of a period (b) prior to the price reference period, and are adjusted to reflect the prices of the price reference period 0;

(15) ‘index reference period’ means the period for which the index is set to 100 index points;

(16) ‘price reference period’ means the period to which the price of the comparison period is compared; for monthly indices, the price reference period is December of the previous year, and for quarterly indices, the price reference period is the fourth quarter of the previous year;

(17) ‘basic information’ means data covering: (a) with reference to the HICP and the HICP-CT: (i) purchase prices of products which need to be taken into account in order to compute sub-indices in accordance with this Regulation; (ii) characteristics that determine the product price; (iii) information on taxes and excise duties levied; (iv) information as to whether a price is fully or partially administered; and (v) weights reflecting the level and structure of the consumption of the products concerned; (b) with reference to the OOH price index: (i) transaction prices of dwellings new to the household sector and of other products that the households acquire in their role as owner-occupiers which need to be taken into account to compute the OOH price index in accordance with this Regulation; (ii) characteristics which determine the dwelling price and the prices of other products that the households acquire in their role as owner-occupiers; and (iii) weights reflecting the level and structure of the relevant housing expenditure categories; (c) with reference to the HPI: (i) transaction prices of dwellings purchased by households which need to be taken into account to compute the HPI in accordance with this Regulation; (ii) characteristics which determine the dwelling price; and (iii) weights reflecting the level and structure of the relevant housing expenditure categories;

(18) ‘household’ means a household as referred to in points (a) and (b) of paragraph 2.119 of Annex A to ESA 2010, irrespective of nationality or residence status;

(19) ‘economic territory of the Member State’ means the economic territory 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 the Member State are included and the territorial enclaves situated in the rest of the world are excluded;

(20) ‘household final monetary consumption expenditure’ means that part of final consumption expenditure incurred: — by households, — in monetary transactions, — on the economic territory of the Member State, — on products that are used for the direct satisfaction of individual needs or wants, as defined in paragraph 3.101 of Annex A to ESA 2010, — in one or both of the time periods being compared;

(21) ‘significant change in the production method’ means a change that is estimated to affect the annual rate of change of a given harmonised index or part thereof in any period by more than: (a) 0,1 percentage points for the all-items HICP, HICP-CT, OOH price index or HPI; (b) 0,3, 0,4, 0,5 or 0,6 percentage points for any ECOICOP division, group, class or subclass (5-digit), respectively, for the HICP or the HICP-CT.

Article 3

Compilation of the harmonised indices

Article 4

Comparability of the harmonised indices

Any sub-indices of the harmonised indices that deviate from the concepts or methods of this Regulation shall be deemed comparable if they result in an index that is estimated to differ systematically by:

(a) less than or equal to 0,1 percentage points on average over one year against the previous year from an index compiled following the methodological approach of this Regulation, in the case of the HICP and the HICP-CT;

(b) less than or equal to one percentage point on average over one year against the previous year from an index compiled following the methodological approach of this Regulation, in the case of the OOH price index and the HPI.

Where the calculations referred to in the first subparagraph are not possible, Member States shall set out in detail the consequences of using a methodology which deviates from the concepts or methods of this Regulation.

In order to ensure uniform conditions in producing comparable harmonised indices, and for the purposes of achieving the objectives of this Regulation, the Commission shall adopt implementing acts further specifying improved methods based on voluntary pilot studies as referred to in Article 8, and the methodology. Those implementing acts shall concern:

(i) sampling and representativity;

(ii) collection and treatment of prices;

(iii) replacements and quality adjustment;

(iv) index compilation;

(v) revisions;

(vi) special indices;

(vii) treatment of products in specific areas.

The Commission shall ensure that those implementing acts do not impose a significant additional burden on the Member States or on the respondents.

Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 11(2).

Article 5

Data requirements

The harmonised indices and their sub-indices shall be rescaled to a new common index reference period in the case of a major methodological change of the harmonised indices which is adopted in accordance with this Regulation, or every 10 years after the last rescaling starting from 2015. The rescaling to the new index reference period shall take effect:

(a) for monthly indices, with the index for January of the following year after the index reference period;

(b) for quarterly indices, with the index for the first quarter of the following year after the index reference period.

The Commission shall adopt implementing acts establishing detailed rules on the rescaling of the harmonised indices. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 11(2).

Member States shall not be required to produce and transmit:

(a) sub-indices of the HICP and of the HICP-CT accounting for less than one part in a thousand of the total expenditure;

(b) sub-indices of the OOH price index and of the HPI accounting for less than one part in a hundred of the total owner-occupier housing expenditure and total purchases of dwellings, respectively.

Member States shall not be required to produce the following sub-indices or parts of sub-indices of ECOICOP, either because they are not included in the household final monetary consumption expenditure or because the degree of methodological harmonisation is not yet sufficient:

02.3.	Narcotics;
12.2.	Prostitution;
12.5.1.	Life insurance;
12.6.1.	FISIM.

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 10 to modify the list set out in this paragraph in order to include games of chance in the HICP and the HICP-CT.

Article 6

Frequency

Article 7

Deadlines, exchange standards and revisions

Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with the harmonised indices and all sub-indices by no later than:

(a) 15 calendar days, for the February to December indices, and 20 calendar days, for the January indices, after the end of the month for which the indices are calculated; and

(b) 85 calendar days after the end of the quarter for which the indices are calculated.

Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with the updated weights by no later than:

(a) 13 February each year for the monthly indices;

(b) 15 June each year for the quarterly indices.

Article 8

Pilot studies

Article 9

Quality assurance

Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with:

(a) annual standard quality reports covering the quality criteria referred to in Article 12(1) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009;

(b) annually updated inventories containing details of data sources, definitions and methods used;

(c) further related information at the level of detail necessary to evaluate compliance with the comparability requirements and the quality of the harmonised indices, if requested by the Commission (Eurostat).

Article 10

Exercise of the delegation

In addition, the Commission shall duly justify the actions provided for in those delegated acts, considering, where appropriate, cost-effectiveness, including the burden on respondents and the production costs in accordance with Article 14(3) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009.

The Commission shall follow its usual practice and carry out consultations with experts, including Member States' experts, before adopting those delegated acts.

Article 11

Committee procedure

Article 12

Repeal

References to the repealed Regulation shall be construed as references to this Regulation and shall be read in accordance with the correlation table set out in Annex II.

Article 13

Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

It shall apply for the first time to data relating to January 2017.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

ANNEX I

ECOICOP version 2 is identical to UN COICOP 2018.