Press section / Consumer Price Index (CPI)

Description

The objective of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is to provide a statistical measurement of the evolution of the set of prices of goods and services that the resident population in family dwellings in Spain consumes.

This index is elaborated with 220,000 prices from 491 articles, of which more than 30,000 establishments informed distributed in 1770 municipalities in the whole country. The data collection is carried out via personal visit to the establishments on the corresponding dates. Moreover, data is collected by telephone, fax and email. In some articles tariffed articles information is obtained from the corresponding official publications.

CPI History

The first price indices that were calculated in Spain go back to 1936 and these served as a base to establish the first Quality of Life Indices System that was maintained in force until December 1960. Subsequently two new systems entered into force with base years 1958 and 1968.

With the entry into force of the system base 1976 the indicators received the denomination of Consumer Price Indices. This system introduced significant novelties such as the classification of consumption into eight major groups and the creation of indices for each one of the Autonomous Communities. Since then another two CPI systems have existed with base years 1983 and 1992.

In January 2002 the CPI Base 2001 system entered into force. Among the main CPI Base 2001 novelties its publication in twelve groups stands out, motivated by the adaptation of the COICOP, as well as the update of the weightings of these twelve groups based on the information provided by the Continuous Household Budget Survey.

The CPI base 2001 includes sales prices, the annual revision of weightings and the linking of the indices is noteworthy.

The first indices in base 2006 were published in January 2007. The sample of municipalities increases in 25% (up to a total of 177), the number of prices collected increases 12% (up to about 220,000) and the number of articles in the shopping basket increases from 484 to 491.

The shopping basket of the Base 2006 CPI includes new articles such as dietetic and children products, homeopathy, physiotherapy, plastic surgery and myopia. Similarly, others disappear whose consumption is no longer significant, such as upholstery fabric, repairs of certain household appliances or fabric for clothing.

CPI Base 2006 Groups

The 12 CPI Base 2006 Groups are subdivided into 37 subgroups, 79 classes and 126 subclasses; 57 headings and 28 Special Groups.

The 12 groups that make up the CPI base 2006 and its weightings for 2011 are: