Report on the suitability of the owner-occupied housing (OOH) price index for integration into the harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) coverage

Summary:

On 29 November 2018 the European Commission presented a report assessing the suitability of the owner-occupied housing (OOH) price index for integration into the coverage of the harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP).

Further information:

The HICP is a consumer price index designed to measure inflation in a harmonised manner across Member States. It was developed for use by the Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) to assess price stability in the Member States.

When the HICP was published for the first time in 1997, there was no consensus as to whether it should cover owner-occupiers’ costs. The possibility of constructing an index based on the ‘net acquisition’ approach was examined at the time and found to involve considerable practical difficulties for the Member States.

In 2000, after consultations with the ECB, Eurostat launched a pilot project to encourage Member States to look into ways of compiling an OOH index based on that approach. The adoption of Regulation (EU) No 93/2013 provided a legal basis for the compilation of a standalone quarterly OOH price index. Subsequently, Regulation (EU) No 2016/792 introduced a requirement to compile and disseminate such an index.