Council Regulation (EC) No 701/2006 of  25 April 2006  laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 as regards the temporal coverage of price collection in the harmonised index of consumer prices   (Text with EEA relevance)
Date: 2006-05-09
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: consumer price, data collection, harmonisation of prices, price index

9.5.2006

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 122/3

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 701/2006

of 25 April 2006

laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 as regards the
temporal coverage of price collection in the harmonised index of consumer prices

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty
Community,

establishing the European

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

Having regard to the opinion of the European Central Bank (2),
as required under Article 5(3) of Regulation (EC) No 2494/95,

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

Harmonised indices of consumer prices
(HICPs) are
harmonised inflation figures required by the Commission
and the European Central Bank for the performance of
their functions under Article 121 of the Treaty. HICPs are
comparisons of
designed to facilitate
consumer price inflation. They serve as important indi-
cators for the management of monetary policy.

international

Pursuant
to Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No
2494/95, each Member State is required, as part of the
implementation of that Regulation, to produce an HICP
starting with the index for January 1997.

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 purposes of directly
satisfying consumer needs.

the Member State for

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1749/96 of 9
September 1996 on initial
implementing measures for
Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95 concerning

(1) OJ L 257, 27.10.1995, p. 1. Regulation as amended by Regulation
(EC) No 1882/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council
(OJ L 284, 31.10.2003, p. 1).

(2) Opinion of 27 February 2006 (not yet published in the Official

Journal).

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

harmonised indices of consumer prices (3) defined the
the HICP as
coverage of
those goods and services
included in household final monetary
which are
inter alia,
consumption expenditure which is incurred,
on the economic territory of the Member State in one
or both of the time periods being compared.

Article 8 of Regulation (EC) No 1749/96 requires the
HICP to be constructed from target samples which
have sufficient prices within each elementary aggregate
to take account of the variation of price movements in
the population.

Differences
in price collection periods may lead to
significant differences in the estimated price change for
the time periods being compared.

A harmonised approach with respect to the temporal
coverage of the HICPs is necessary in order to ensure
that the resulting HICPs meet the requirements as to
comparability, reliability, and relevance according to the
third subparagraph of Article 4 and pursuant to Article
5(3) of Regulation (EC) No 2494/95.

The compilation of
the Monetary Union index of
consumer prices (MUICP) and the European index of
consumer prices (EICP) requires a harmonised concept
for the temporal coverage of
the HICPs. This should
not, however, preclude the release of provisional HICPs
or HICP flash estimates of the average price change based
on a part of the price information observed in the month
to which the current index refers.

of Council Regulation

the harmonised index of

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1921/2001 of 28
the
September 2001 laying down detailed rules for
implementation
(EC) No
2494/95 as regards minimum standards for revisions
of
consumer prices and
amending Regulation (EC) No 2602/2000 (4) stipulates
that changes in the system of harmonised rules should
not require revisions, but that, where necessary, estimates
of the impact on the annual rates of change of the HICP
should be made.

(3) OJ L 229, 10.9.1996, p. 3. Regulation as last amended by Regu-

lation (EC) No 1708/2005 (OJ L 274, 20.10.2005, p. 9).

(4) OJ L 261, 29.9.2001, p. 49.

L 122/4

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

9.5.2006

(10)

The Statistical Programme Committee has been consulted
in accordance with Article 3 of Council Decision
89/382/EEC, Euratom of 19 June 1989 establishing a
Committee on the
the
Statistical
European Communities (1),

Programmes of

2. Where products are known to typically show sharp and
irregular price changes within the same month, price collection
shall take place over a period of more than one working week.

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

This rule shall apply in particular to the following products:

Article 1

Aim

The aim of this Regulation is to establish minimum standards
for price collection periods in order to improve the compar-
ability, reliability and relevance of HICPs.

(a) energy products; and

(b) fresh food, such as fruit and vegetables.

Article 2

Representation

Article 4

Implementation

The HICP is a sample statistic which shall represent the average
change in prices between the calendar month of the current
index and the period to which it is compared.

The provisions of
this Regulation shall be implemented in
December 2007 at the latest and take effect with the index
for January 2008.

Article 3

Minimum standards for price collection

Price collection shall

1.
least a one
working week period at, or near, the middle of the calendar
month to which the index pertains.

take place across at

Article 5

Entry into force

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

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

Done at Luxembourg, 25 April 2006.

For the Council
The President

J. PRÖLL

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