Council Regulation (EC) No 1688/98 of 20 July 1998 amending Commission Regulation (EC) No 1749/96 concerning the geographic and population coverage of the harmonised index of consumer prices
Date: 1998-07-20
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: consumer price, harmonisation of prices, household consumption, price index

31. 7. 98

‹

EN

‹

Official Journal of the European Communities

L 214/23

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 1688/98

of 20 July 1998

amending Commission Regulation (EC) No 1749/96 concerning the geographic
and population coverage of the harmonised index of consumer prices

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 of
23 October 1995 concerning harmonised indices of
consumer prices (1), and in particular Article 4 and
Article 5(3) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Central
Bank (2),

Whereas, by virtue of Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EC)
No 2494/95, each Member State is required to produce a
harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) starting
with the index for January 1997; whereas the requirement
to produce HICPS in no way puts in question the right of
Member States to publish their national, non-harmonised,
inflation indices, which they may wish to use for national
policy purposes;

implementing measures

Whereas Commission Regulation (EC) No 1749/96 of
9 September on initial
for
Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 concerning har-
monised indices of consumer prices (3) set down the
initial coverage for HICPs that was restricted to those
goods and services covered by all or most national
consumer prices indices (CPIs);

amending

Whereas Council Regulation (EC) No 1687/98 of 20 July
(EC)
Commission
1998,
No 1749/96 concerning the coverage of goods and
services of the harmonised index of consumer prices (4)
defined the coverage of the HICP as those goods and
services which are included in household final monetary
consumption expenditure;

Regulation

Whereas Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 2494/95
requires that the HICP should be based on the prices of
goods and services available for purchase in the economic
territory of the Member State for the purposes of directly
satisfying consumer needs; whereas the weights of the
HICP require a harmonised definition of their geographic
and population coverage;

Whereas the compilation of the Monetary Union index of
consumer prices (MUICP) and the European index of

(1) OJ L 257, 27. 10. 1995, p. 1.
(2) Opinion delivered on 14 July 1998 (not yet published in the

Official Journal).

(3) OJ L 229, 10. 9. 1996, p. 3.
(4) See page 12 of this Official Journal.

consumer prices (EICP) requires a harmonised geographic
concept for the HICPs;

Whereas the Statistical Programme Committee (SPC) has
not delivered an opinion within the time limit set by its
chairman; whereas, in this case, following the procedure
laid down in Article 14(2) of Regulation (EC) No 2494/95,
the Commission shall, without delay,
to the
Council a proposal relating to the measures to be taken,

submit

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Regulation (EC) No 1749/96 shall be amended as follows:

1. Subparagraph (a)(2) of Article 2 shall be replaced by the

following:

‘(a)(2) “Household final monetary consumption ex-
final

penditure”
consumption expenditure which is incurred:

is defined as

that part of

— by households irrespective of nationality or

residence status, and

— in monetary transactions, and

— on the economic territory of the Member

State, and

— on goods and services that are used for the
individual needs or

satisfaction of

direct
wants, and

— in one or both of the time periods being

compared.

Household final monetary consumption expen-
diture is specified in Annex 1b and follows the
definitions laid down in the European System of
Accounts (ESA) 1995 contained in Regulation
(EC) No 2223/96 (*).

(*) OJ L 310, 13.11.1996, p. 1.’;

2. the following paragraph shall be added to Article 3:

‘3. HICPs compiled using sub-index weights which
reflect final monetary consumption expenditure of a
sub-set of households, rather than of all households,
shall be deemed comparable, where this difference in
practice accounts for less than one part in a thousand
of the total expenditure covered by the HICP. Any
amendments of the weights necessary to secure com-
parability as defined in this paragraph shall be imple-
mented by December 1999 at the latest.’;

L 214/24

‹

EN

‹

Official Journal of the European Communities

31. 7. 98

3. in Annex 1b paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be replaced by

Article 2

the following:

‘1. The household sector consists of households which
include all individuals or groups of individuals (as
defined in ESA 2.76.a and 2.76.b) irrespective of, in
particular, the type of area in which they live, their
position in the income distribution and their
includes indi-
nationality or residence status. It
(as
viduals
defined in ESA 2.76.b). It does not include busi-
nesses.

in institutional households

living

Taking into account the views of the committee set up
by Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (1), the Commis-
sion shall, within two years of the date of entry into
force of this Regulation, compile a report and submit
it to the Council. The report shall assess the operation
of the provisions of this Regulation. Following this
report
if necessary, submit
appropriate initiatives to the Council for the modifica-
tion of this Regulation.

the Commission may,

that

2. The economic territory is as defined in ESA 2.05
the extraterritorial enclaves situated
except
within the boundaries of the country are included
and the territorial enclaves situated in the rest of
the world are excluded.’

Article 3

This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day
following its publication in the Official Journal of the
European Communities.

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

Done at Brussels, 20 July 1998.

For the Council

The President

W. MOLTERER

(1) OJ L 181, 28. 6. 1989, p. 47.