WRITTEN QUESTION E-0031/02 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission. Variation of prices.
Date: 2002-01-23
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: euro area, non-participating country (euro area), participating country (euro area), price fluctuation, statistics

4.7.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 160 E/169

According to the information made public by the Greek authorities, Greek citizenship was conferred on a
total of 87 798 persons for the period of 1 January 1994 to 1 November 2001, of which about 440 cases
have been under investigation.

(1) Declaration no 2 on nationality of a Member State, OJ C 191, 29.7.1992, p. 98.
(2) See judgement of the European Court of Justice in case C-369/90 Micheletti of 7.7.1992, ECR 1992, p. I-4239.

(2002/C 160 E/209)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0031/02

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(23 January 2002)

Subject: Variation of prices

Will the Commission provide figures for the euro-area on a comparable basis to those given for the
European Union (from 1990 to 2000) on the coefficient of variation of prices (private consumption
including indirect taxes) for each Member State in the report from the Commission ‘Economic Reform:
Report on the functioning of Community product and capital markets’ (1)?

Will the Commission also provide comparable figures for the Member States outside the euro-area?

(1) COM(2001) 736 final.

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(18 March 2002)

Table 1 showing the co-efficient of variation for the Union as a whole and for the 12 Member States
participating in the European Monetary Union (EMU) for private final consumption in the period from
1992 to 2000 (1) is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament’s Secretariat. The co-efficient
of variation for the 12 Member States has been calculated for the whole period although, the third stage of
EMU did not start until 1 January 1999 (1 January 2001 for Greece).

Since 1992 prices have converged for both the 15 Member States and 12 Member States. However, most
of the convergence took place in the first half of the nineties and in recent years, convergence seems to
have come to a halt.

The convergence among the 15 Member States seems to have been slightly stronger than for the 12
Member States, but price differences are still greater in the Union as a whole. Currently, the co-efficient of
variation is around 15 percent for the whole of the Union and 12 percent for the 12 Member States.

Table 2 showing the price level in the three countries not participating in the EMU with respect to the 15
is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to
Member States average in the period since 1990,
Parliament’s Secretariat. Price convergence to the Union average has been relatively strong in Denmark and
Sweden, while the United Kingdom has moved from below to above the Union-average (2). The strong
convergence in Denmark and Sweden explain a large part of the price convergence among the 15 Member
States.

(1) The co-efficient of variation measures the average variation in the price levels around the mean and is a measure of
the price dispersion across Member States. It has been identified by the Ecofin Council as one of the Structural
indicators of economic reform, to measure price convergence. For instance, a co-efficient of variation equal to 0,15
means that on average prices varies with ± 15 percent around the mean. Thus, if the coefficient of variation of the
relative price levels for the Union decreases (increases) over time, the national price levels in the Member States are
converging (diverging).
It should be recalled here that for comparison purposes, prices are expressed in the same currency (i.e. euros) and
therefore, these prices are sensitive to exchange rate variations between the euro and national currencies outside the
euro area.

(2)