6446.0.55.001 - Consumer Price Index: Concordance with Household Expenditure Classification, Australia, Sep 2000  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 20/03/2001   
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INTRODUCTION

The attached workbook provides concordances between the 14th series Consumer Price Index (CPI) expenditure classes and the Household Expenditure Classification (HEC) at the 10 digit level.

Both the HEC and the CPI have a hierarchical structure; only the lowest levels of those structures are shown in this workbook as this is the level at which concordances were established.

A full listing of the HEC is in Appendix 3 of Household Expenditure Survey, Australia: User Guide 1998-99 (Cat. no. 6527.0). The CPI commodity structure is provided in each release of Consumer Price Index, Australia (Cat. no. 6401.0), while listings of the commodity structure with code numbers is provided in Introduction of the 14th Series Australian Consumer Price Index (Cat. no. 6456.0), the September quarter 2000 release of Consumer Price Index, Australia (Cat. no. 6401.0), or Appendix 1 of A Guide to the Consumer Price Index; 14th Series (Cat. no. 6440.0).

Some HEC codes could not be considered unique to a CPI expenditure class and were split (or partitioned) over relevant CPI expenditure classes. Partitioning is indicated by "p" between the HEC code and the descriptor. Since the direction of aggregation is unidirectional (from the HEC to the CPI expenditure classes), partitioning has only been shown for the HEC codes in both the concordances between HEC and CPI and between CPI and HEC.

While the CPI weights are largely based on information from the Household Expenditure Survey (HES), the weights also include adjustments to allow for factors including the following:

a) underreporting of alcohol and tobacco expenditures in the HES;

b) significant changes in expenditures between the time the HES was undertaken and the link period for the CPI, for example to health fund membership for the introduction of Lifetime Health Cover;

c) revaluing HES expenditures to CPI link period prices to maintain the underlying quantities, i.e. for the 14th series CPI, HES 1998-99 expenditures at the CPI expenditure class were adjusted by the movement in prices between 1998-99 and June quarter 2000;

d) use of other data sources where HES data are inadequate for CPI purposes, for example expenditure on net house purchase excluding land;

e) for price movements between time of purchase and reporting in the HES for those items collected in HES with a recall period of more than one quarter;

f) adjustment of HES expenditures which appear "abnormal" (excessively high or low); and

g) adjustment of some HES expenditures to an acquisitions basis appropriate for the CPI, for example for general insurance this involves estimating expenditure on the insurance service (with claim payments to households allocated back to relevant goods and services) rather than gross premiums.

Content of the worksheets:
Introduction - this page
CPI - expenditure classes for the 14th series CPI
HEC - Household Expenditure Classification at the 10 digit level
HEC-CPI - concordance between HEC items and CPI expenditure classes, identifying partitioned items
CPI-HEC - concordance between CPI and HEC
CPI alpha - an alphabetical ordering of the CPI expenditure classes
HEC alpha - an alphabetical ordering of the HEC

The worksheets have column titles set for printing and should fit one page wide on A4 in portrait mode.

For further information contact:
Steve Whennan
Consumer Price Index
02 6252 6251 or email steve.whennan@abs.gov.au