Measuring EU Inflation: The Foundations of the HICP

1. Background to the HICP.- 2. First Meeting of the HICP Working Party.- 3. Guiding Principles: Framework Regulation.- 4.Interim Indices of Consumer Prices (IICP).- 5.Launch of the HICP.- 6.Classification of Household Consumption Expenditure.- 7.Coverage of the HICP: What, Where, Who?.- 8.Index Formulae.- 9.Price Collection Issues.- 10.Weights.- 11. Treatment of Special Products.- 12. Quality Control.- 13. Country Aggregation.- 14.Expansion of the EU; Introduction of EMU and euro.- 15.Administrative and other issues.

John Astin is an international consultant on price statistics, and he was a member of the ONS’s Advisory Panel (Technical) on Consumer Prices. He is the former Head of Price Comparisons Unit, Eurostat, European Commission.