At the end of each year, several people at the National Institute of Statistics get together and decide which products to remove or which new products to add to the inflation accounting list. This year, there are 75 new products and 34 removed products in the cart. Gambling will soon be included in the inflation calculation.

Sometime in October, discussions begin, and in December everything is set up so that the new list can be used by statisticians on the ground, starting in the second month of the following year, when the price increase in January is expected.

New products on the list with significant growth in consumption: broccoli, avocado, chickpeas, vitamins, energy drinks

“We’re in the process of analysis, we’ve got about two weeks left, and we’re coming in with new data in January. We did not find very big changes in consumer habits, looking at spending from the household budget survey,” says the Director of the Department of Price Statistics in a conversation with HotNews.

“As for new foods on the list, I would give an example of broccoli or avocado. The avocado really surprised us, but we also looked at imports, saw an increase in consumption of this fruit and decided to introduce it. So are chickpeas. I have also noticed an increase in my intake of Omega3 or vitamins designed to boost immunity eg. They will also be included in the CPI calculation. Consumption of salad mixes, consumption of smoked salmon, and energy drinks also increased significantly. .. These are mainly products whose sales are becoming higher and higher.

Society is modernizing, and we, as the National Institute of Statistics, are obliged to modernize and keep up with new trends

Another example is sales of electric scooters, which have become relevant and will be included in the calculation of the consumer price index,” says the director of the Directorate of Prices at the INS.

To find out what Romanians consume recently and what they give up, Statistics uses a sample of families that also includes families from the first decile of income (low income) and from the richest. The sample also includes families of young people and elderly people. “We’re using a representative sample at the community level,” says Chief Price.

“Society is modernizing, and we, as the National Institute of Statistics, are obliged to modernize and keep up with new trends,” he added.

In this sense, the INS has been starting experimental statistics for several years now, calculating inflation online or launching a project that measures green areas in cities using satellites.

Back to prices and products, Statistica noticed a growing trend for gel nail extensions, so they checked to see if it was relevant in the country. And apparently it is, so it will also be included in the CPI calculation.

INS has done the same with the two most popular video streaming networks in Romania, and when other networks become relevant, they will also be included.

For those unfamiliar with the calculation of the price hikes we all experience, we will also say that the National Institute of Statistics, with the help of 112 staff, collects around 150,000 prices from 7,000 shops, as well as from agri-food markets. Statisticians consider products that are relevant to consumption, and their shares in consumption are calculated on the basis of household budget research.

But over time, some goods become irrelevant for consumption and must be removed from the list, while new ones appear and are successfully sold, gaining relevance in consumption. There are also products where the core product remains but has new features and new technology, as in the case of phones.

In 2022, for example, a robot vacuum was included, sales of which increased during the pandemic, making it relevant.

Also, in recent years, non-alcoholic beer and organic eggs have entered the list of products included in the consumer basket, although it is not only about products.

Products that left the list: some organs – kidneys, beef heart, which are no longer used. And some fabrics. “I would like to think that this is the concern of the population for their own health”

In more detail, in 2023 this meant the inclusion of 16 new food products, 16 non-food products and 10 new types of services. Excluded are 12 food products, 29 non-food products and 20 services.

Information about the assortments included in the list is confidential because it contains characteristics such as brand, manufacturer, model or type.

Products that left the list: some organs – kidneys, beef heart, which are no longer used. “We would like to think that this is the concern of the population about their own health,” says Director Price.

“That’s right, recipes change too. We adopt new recipes, maybe life makes us more comfortable. It is prepared in a less traditional way, and an example, I think, is as an appetizer. I don’t know how many people still sleep at home in the urban environment. There is a lot of work, and the costs are not much lower than the purchase price,” the statistician explains. The same thing happens with certain fabrics, such as shells.

Society changes and so do the services they offer. For example, self-service laundries are a new and relevant service. And among the less relevant, we have electrical workshops

The director of the department of prices says that we are observing the phenomenon of “modest inflation”, not “declining inflation”

By increasing the production price, pressure is exerted on the manufacturer to make the product more expensive. But the buyer’s reaction is to switch to cheaper products or even refuse certain products. Some coffee lovers, for example, may refuse the coffee served at the Cofe-shop and make their own coffee at home.

In my observations, there was more “modest inflation” than inflation in the Romanian market. It is more difficult to notice weight loss on one side. On the other hand, I don’t know how many carefully read food labels to see how much meat cold cuts contain. Or see that some products use palm oil instead of sunflower oil. Or sweeteners instead of sugar. And this is another way to preserve the profits of manufacturers.

We wanted to introduce robot vacuum cleaners to the list two years ago. They just didn’t sell it that way

We have a stage somewhere at the end of each year, a stage that also involves the territorial departments that actually collect the prices, where we offer 3 types of offers: new products, modified products or products that need to be phased out. Followed by reviews of colleagues from 42 districts. They are the ones who analyze and look at the market to find the products that are offered to determine the places where they are sold… For example, robot vacuum cleaners. We wanted to introduce them two years ago. They just didn’t sell it like it is now. Of course, there was also a pandemic period, but it is certain that only last year we included it in the list, becoming an increasingly used, popular product, – explains the head of the Office of Price Statistics of the INS.

Criteria that add or remove a product from the list

We have such a criterion of direct observation. From the articles, from the study of online sales, we also see new products that appear. But we do not post the product immediately after it appears. This product should be available for sale in most, if not all, countries. If the product is sold only in 2-3 district capitals, we do not include it. Therefore, feedback from the territory is very important.

Then statisticians from county departments come in with offers based on store visits. When they see that the product has changed its characteristics or can no longer be found at all, they send these observations to the Central INS. After this exchange of proposals, an INS-level analysis group is established to meet, analyze and decide on the final list of food, non-food goods and services that remain on the list, which is the basis for calculating inflation. .

The next step is to include gambling in the inflation calculation. Clarifications from Eurostat are still awaited, so far no country includes this category of gambling in the consumer price index. But from next year, data will be collected from this area, which seems to have become relevant in family budgets.

“It will be a whole work of analysis and testing. This is practically something new. We are bringing something new to the CPI, but we still need to see how we do it methodologically, we need to see the new Eurostat COICOP classification. We will probably collect the first data next year, and the first reports will be from 2026,” concludes the director of the Directorate for Prices.