Commission Regulation (EC) No 2601/2000 of 17 November 2000 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 as regards the timing of entering purchaser prices into the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (Text with EEA relevance)
Date: 2000-11-17
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU Member State, consumer price, goods and services, housekeeping economy, price index, statistical method

L 300/14

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

29.11.2000

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 2601/2000

of 17 November 2000

laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 as
regards the timing of entering purchaser prices into the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

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 in conjunction with Article
5(3) thereof,

(6)

(7)

The HICP should reflect the price change to the base or
reference period on the basis of the change in expendi-
ture while maintaining the consumption pattern of
households and composition of the consumer popula-
tion.

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in
accordance with
Statistical
Programme Committee established by Council Decision
89/382/EEC, Euratom (7),

opinion

the

the

of

After consulting the European Central Bank (2),

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

By virtue of Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 2494/
95, each Member State is required to produce a Harmo-
nised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) starting with the
index for January 1997.

According to Article 2(a)(3) of Commission Regulation
(EC) No 1749/96 of 9 September 1996 on initial imple-
menting measures for Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/
95 concerning harmonised
consumer
prices (3), as last amended by Council Regulation (EC) No
1688/98 (4), prices used in the HICP are the purchaser
prices paid by households to purchase individual goods
and services in monetary transactions.

indices of

There is considerable scope for procedural differences in
the timing of entering purchaser prices into the HICP. A
harmonised methodology regarding such timing is
necessary to ensure that the resulting HICPs meet the
comparability requirement of Article 4 of Regulation
(EC) No 2494/95, in particular for products in respect of
which there may be a difference between the time of
purchase, payment, or delivery and the
time of
consumption.

The rules in this Regulation are consistent with the
definitions
laid down in the European System of
Accounts 1995 (ESA 95) set up by Council Regulation
(EC) No 2223/96 of 25 June 1996 on the European
in the
System of national and regional accounts
Community (5), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No
448/98 (6) in so far as ESA 95 is consistent with the
purposes of the HICP.

In particular, point 3.89 of ESA 95 states that goods and
services
should in general be recorded when the
payables are created, that is, when the purchaser incurs a
liability to the seller.

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Aim

The aim of this Regulation is to harmonise the timing or
recording and entering purchaser prices into the Harmonised
Index of Consumer Prices (hereinafter referred to as HICP) in
order to ensure that HICPs are reliable and relevant and meet
the comparability requirement laid down in Article 4 of Regu-
lation (EC) No 2494/95.

Article 2

Timing

Prices used in the HICP shall be the purchaser prices paid by
households
in
to purchase individual goods or
monetary transactions. Prices for goods shall be entered into
the HICP for the month in which they are observed. Prices for
services shall be entered into the HICP for the month in which
the consumption of the service at the observed prices can
commence.

services

Article 3

Implementation

The provisions of this Regulation shall be applied by Member
States in December 2000 and take effect with the index for
January 2001.

Article 4

Entry into force

(1) OJ L 257, 27.10.1995, p. 1.
(2) Opinion delivered on 24 November 2000 (not yet published in the

Official Journal).

(3) OJ L 229, 10.9.1996, p. 3.
(4) OJ L 214, 31.7.1998, p. 23.
(5) OJ L 310, 30.11.1996, p. 1.
(6) OJ L 58, 27.2.1998, p. 1.

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

(7) OJ L 181, 28.6.1989, p. 47.

29.11.2000

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

L 300/15

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

Done at Brussels, 17 November 2000.

For the Commission

Pedro SOLBES MIRA

Member of the Commission