Survey Information
Survey Name:
Consumer Price Index
Business Area:
CPI
Survey Purpose:
To measure the change in the level of prices of consumer good and services.
Legislative Basis:
EU HICP Regulations 2494/95, 1749/96, 2214/96,1687/98, 2646/98,1617/99, 1749/99, 2166/99, 2601/00, 2602/00, 1920/01, 1921/01. No national regulations but required as a main economic indicator.
Periodicity:
Monthly. All field price collection takes place on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. Some of the special inquiries are conducted on a rotating basis, with some collected quarterly or yearly.
Target Population:
All retailers and suppliers of services
Sampling Frame:
No direct sampling frame. Town sample based on Census of Population. Outlets selected directly by pricers. For Special Inquiries district telephone directories are used to select samples.
Survey Size:
A total of over 50,000 price quotations are collected by pricers in direct field price collection. A further 3,000 to 4,000 are collected on a monthly basis in special postal and telephone inquiries.
Principal Variables Collected:
Price, Quantity, Description, Book Number, Shop Code, Comparability Code, Item Code.
Principal External Users:
Department of Taoiseach, Finance, Central Bank, Media, Commentators, National Accounts, Retail Sales, Eurostat, General Public.
Contact Points
Business Area Specialists:
Dympna Corry
Ann Ross
Mary O Connell
The business specialists above can be contacted by e-mail using their firstname.lastname@cso.ie
Methodology Documents
› HICP Compliance Monitoring Report (PDF 47KB)
› National Consumer Price Index Review Group Report March 2010 (PDF 125KB)
› CSO Consumer Price Index Methodology (PDF 46KB)
› How to use Consumer Price Index for Escalation (PDF 37KB)
› Consumer Price Index Tutorial (PDF 54KB)
› Consumer Price Index - A Brief Introduction (PDF 49KB)
› Consumer Price Index Special Inquiries (PDF 48KB)
› Consumer Price Index - Frequently Asked Questions (PDF 59KB)
› Package Holidays - The Seasonal Basket Approach (PDF 75KB)
› The inclusion of Tobacco in the Irish Consumer Price Index Explanatory Note (PDF 36KB)
› CPI - Introduction of Updated Series (Base December 2011=100) (PDF 381KB)
› Appendix 3 - COICOP expenditure weights (PDF 84KB)
› Research paper on the use of hedonic regression for new cars (PDF 305KB)
› How does the Producer Price Index differ from the Consumer Price Index (PDF 46KB)
› Mortgage interest methodology (PDF 43KB)
Standard Quality Report for CPI & HICP (PDF 72KB)
How to calculate a percentage change (PDF 54KB)