Improving Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices

ended

The proposed grant actions aim at ensuring and improving the quality of the Austrian HICP. Work Package 1 of the action includes the developments of methods and resources to compile COICOP 2018 price indices which will be legally binding most probably by 2026. Moreover, the results & deliverables of these works (report, presentations, back data, descriptions of ECOICOP- to-COICOP 2018 mapping and estimating procedures) will be available at a time when other NSIs are likely to still work on their transition to produce COICOP 2018 indices (end of 2023). Work Package 2 focuses on the development of methods and procedures to improve the imputation of missing prices and quantitative indicators within the Austrian compilation system that help automating and monitoring the HICP production. The large scale occurrence of missing observations during the COVID crisis and the introduction of new data sources such as scanner data and web scraping require new automated approaches to compile quantitative indicators, impute missing observations and produce impact analysis. All in all, the developments and actions will provide significant support to incorporate sustainable methodological improvements that enhance the overall quality of the Austrian HICP and deliver valuable experiences and insights that will be shared with and useful for other ESS Members.