Opinion of the European Central Bank of 9 July 1999 at the request of the Commission of the European Communities on a draft Commission Regulation (EC) amending Commission Regulation (EC) No 2214/96 concerning the sub-indices of the Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (CON/99/08)
Date: 1999-07-09
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: EU Member State, consumer price, exchange of information, goods and services, harmonisation of prices, price index

C 285/14

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

7.10.1999

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

of 9 July 1999

at the request of the Commission of the European Communities on a draft Commission Regu-
lation (EC) amending Commission Regulation (EC) No 2214/96 concerning the sub-indices of the
Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices

(CON/99/08)

(1999/C 285/09)

1. On 25 June 1999 the European Central Bank (ECB) received
a request
from the European Commission for an ECB
Opinion on a draft Commission Regulation (EC) concerning
the Harmonised Indices of Consumer
the subindices of
Prices (HICPs)
(hereinafter referred to as the (cid:145)draft Regu-
lation(cid:146)).

2. The ECB’s competence to deliver an opinion is based on
Article 105(4) of
the Treaty establishing the European
Community and Article 5(3) of Council Regulation (EC)
No 2494/95 of 23 October 1995 concerning Harmonised
Indices of Consumer Prices. In accordance with Article 17.5,
first sentence, of the Rules of Procedure of the European
Central Bank, this ECB opinion has been adopted by the
Governing Council of the ECB.

3. The objective of the draft Regulation is twofold. First, the
draft Regulation adapts the list of
the HICP sub-indices
which are to be produced, transmitted and disseminated
in line with the extended coverage of goods and services
of HICPs from December 1999. Second, the draft Regulation
updates the list of the HICP sub-indices in accordance with
the latest version of the COICOP (classification of individual
consumption by purpose), dated October 1998.

4. The ECB supports

the proposals put

European Commission and welcomes the release of
additional

sub-indices both in the

field of

forward by the
the
extended

coverage (social services and insurance) and in the current
field of coverage. This will enhance the usefulness of the
HICPs for a detailed analysis of price developments.

5. The ECB would like to stress that it will be important to
ensure that the new classification is recalculated back to
1995 for all published HICP indices in order to provide
comparable series over time.

6. Moreover, while the ECB fully supports the current draft
Regulation and its implementation, it would like to point
out that the further development of the HICP sub-indices
will be desirable in future. At least in some groups of the
HICP sub-indices, such development should expand the level
of detail published, which is limited at present, and refine
individual
for example by introducing an
accurate separation between goods and services, which is
important for analytical purposes.

sub-indices,

7. This ECB Opinion will be published in the Official Journal of

the European Communities.

Done at Frankfurt am Main, 9 July 1999.

The Vice-President of the ECB

C. NOYER