National consumer price index

The calculation of the price indices is based on the Laspeyres formula. Prices and price indices at the consumer level, such as the consumer price index (CPI), include direct and indirect taxes. The CPI provides a detailed picture of price developments and in many areas also the basis for value adjustments and for wage negotiations. Most importantly, the CPI is the indicator measuring inflation in Austria. Since January 2021, the CPI is undergoing its ninth revision since 1958.
According to Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95, consumer price index weightings must be updated once every five years to ensure that the basket of goods is representative of households’ current consumption behavior. Statistics Austria revised and updated the basket of goods of the HICP (Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices) and the CPI and their weightings in 2020. The modified weighting structures are based on private consumption data from the national accounts 2019 as well as the quarterly calculation of the national accounts for 2020 and the results of the consumer survey carried out in 2019–20. Starting with the index for January 2021, Statistics Austria publishes the new CPI using 2020 as the base year.  Like the HICP, the CPI is calculated as a chained index series. One important advantage of this index is that – as opposed to the fixed-base index – it allows minor adjustments to the basket of goods and the weightings on an annual basis.
The basket of goods contains about 800 items (goods and services), whose prices (some 40,000) are collected at monthly intervals in 4,200 shops across 20 Austrian cities.
The goods of the CPI basket are classified by purpose into 12 consumption groups (COICOP – Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose – main groups) and published accordingly.

Statistics Austria.

COICOP.

Consumer price, price, inflation, price increase.