On the Measurement of Inflation in Austria

Two consumer price indices are computed in Austria: the national Consumer Price Index and the Harmonised Consumer Price Index, which is comparable to those of other EU countries. Both indices differ with regard to the weighting scheme, the product coverage as well as to the formula employed at the elementary aggregation level. The national Consumer Price Index uses a formula which was explicitly banned by Eurostat and tends to overestimate the rate of inflation by at least 0.1 percentage point per year.