Status: 02/22/2023 2:46 p.m
Every few years, the Federal Statistical Office revises the calculation of the consumer price index, which is used to calculate the inflation rate. This was the case again. The experts are now setting the rate for 2022 lower.
The Federal Statistical Office has regularly put the calculation of consumer prices on a new basis. The new base year – i.e. the year that is used as the starting point for the calculation – is now 2020. Previously, all calculations referred to the base year 2015.
As a result, the calculated inflation rate, which results from the comparison of the current consumer price index with that of the same period of the previous year, also changes. For the annual average for 2022, the statistics office now comes to 6.9 percent inflation. The authority had previously indicated inflation at 7.9 percent. However, it is still the highest annual rate of inflation since the oil crisis in the early 1970s.
In addition, the so-called shopping cart has been reorganized. The shopping basket is the selection of around 700 goods and services that are intended to reflect the entire consumption of private households – from apples to going to the cinema to renting an apartment.
Different weighting of expenses
The various goods and services are weighted differently in the shopping basket, because households spend significantly more money on housing, energy or transport than on alcoholic beverages and dining out.
In the revision of the statistical office, for example, housing was given less weight, which includes in particular apartment rents, expenditure on owner-occupied housing and household energy. Food and non-alcoholic beverages, on the other hand, were weighted higher.
Changed consumer behavior
According to the authorities, the reasons for the shifts are volume and price effects, as consumers change their spending accordingly. Due to the corona pandemic, 2020 was an “atypical” year in terms of consumption behavior and is actually not a good base year. To take this into account, an average for the years 2019 to 2021 was used. In this way, “only temporary consumption patterns could be dampened in their impact on the weighting”.
With the recomposition of the shopping basket, the statisticians are also reacting to changes in consumer behavior. For example, it now also lists milk alternatives such as soy or rice drinks.
8.7 percent inflation in January
In January, consumer prices rose by an average of 8.7 percent compared to the same month last year, according to the statistics office. It thus confirmed his first estimate. The rate for December 2022 was revised down from 8.6 percent to 8.1 percent. In November, the inflation rate was 8.8 percent.
“We are observing price increases for many goods and increasingly also for services,” said the President of the Federal Statistical Office, Ruth Brandt. Compared to the previous month, prices in January reportedly increased by one percent.