Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices

The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) is used for comparing changes in consumer price levels in European Union (EU) Member States and for measuring the stability of prices in the euro area.

Guidance  on the compilation of the HICP in the context of the Covid-19 crisis.

Eurostat guidelines regarding compilation of indices emerging from the lifting or lockdown of Covid-19 measures.

Eurostat guidelines regarding treatment of energy price compensation measures.

Index values and rates of change refer to the 'final monetary consumption expenditure' of the whole household sector of Latvia.

Population coverage

The HICP covers the whole resident population of the country, including persons living in institutional households (social care institutions, children’s homes, prisons, etc.). The HICP does cover expenses of non-resident travellers.

Geographical coverage

The consumer price survey is conducted in Riga and 10 other towns. Using population weights survey data are generalized on all country: on both urban and rural territories.

Item coverage

The HICP covers the prices paid for goods and services in monetary transactions. The HICP excludes illegal goods and services, gifts, expenditure on the owner-occupied housing, expenditure on gambling and lotteries as well as interest and credit charges.

• Regulation (EU) 2016/792 of the European Parliament and of the Council on harmonised indices of consumer prices and the house price index, and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95;
• Commission delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/3159 amending Regulation (EU) 2016/792 of the European Parliament and of the Council on harmonised indices of consumer prices and the house price index as regards the classification of consumption and the inclusion of games of chance;
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1148 laying down the methodological and technical specifications in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/792 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards harmonised indices of consumer prices and the house price index;
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/1720 amending Regulation (EU) 2020/1148 as regards the index compilation of the harmonised indices of consumer prices.

Statistics database

Differences between HICP and national CPI
Non-resident consumer expenditure in economic territory of Latvia are included in Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICP) and are not included in Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Expenditure on gambling and resident expenditure abroad are included in CPI, but excluded from HICP.

Comparability of HICP is considered to be high in the EU countries. To ensure that harmonised indices are comparable among member states, methods, concepts, definitions and classifications are provided by the law.

HICP data of the EU countries are available in the Eurostat database.

Comparable data for the period since 1996.

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In 2025, the HICP "basket" contains 542 goods and services the prices of which are recorded regularly. Approximately 2 thousand various trade and services outlets are surveyed. In total, about 24,5 thousand prices are observed each month.

Specifications for goods and services under observation are kept unchanged during the whole year.

Average number of observed prices during the month / number of goods and services by commodity group

The prices of all goods and services, except for the prices of fuels for transport, are recorded every month from 4^th to 20^th date. Fuels for transport prices are recorded from 1^st to 25^th date. Qualitative goods with price discounts offered to all consumers are also taken into account in price collection. The prices of goods are used to calculate the HICP of the month in which they were observed, whereas the prices of services are used to calculate the HICP of the month in which the consumption of the service at the price recorded can commence.

Price collection is performed by trained CSB employees – price collectors.

To ensure adequate representation of goods and services, which require larger share of household expenditure, in the overall HICP, the weights representing the proportion of expenditure on each individual commodity to the total household expenditure are computed.

The weights used for index calculation are annual average weights derived mainly from the National Accounts and Household Budget Survey. Additional sources used to calculate the weights include administrative data, branch statistics data, as well as information provided by enterprises and retailers. The weights reference period for the year 2025 is the year T-1. The weights are updated annually and price–updated to December T-1.

The outlets, from which prices are collected, are chosen to represent the existing trade and services network, and usually they are based on the three main criteria: popularity among consumers, significant turnover from consumer sales and availability of goods and services included in the HICP basket. The sample of price recording places is regularly updated. If a shop is closed down or liquidated, it is replaced by another shop of an equal significance. The sample also includes open markets.

At first, the average price of products and services collected in localities is calculated. It is calculated as simple arithmetic mean of the prices of goods and services surveyed. From all the average prices collected in localities, the average price for the whole country of each product and service is calculated using population weights.

Afterwards, the price index of each good and service (lower-level price index) is calculated. Price indices of lower aggregation levels are calculated as the ratio of arithmetic mean prices in the comparison and reference periods.

For the calculation of higher level (commodity group) price indices and the overall HICP a Laspeyres-type formula that expresses the weighted arithmetic mean value of the lower-level price indices is used:

, where

 – the overall Harmonised Consumer Price Index in the period T, compared to the period 0 (the reference period);

 – the share of the product j in the consumer basket in the reference period;

 – the price index of the product j in the period T, compared to the period 0 (the reference period).

The reference period used in the HICP calculations is the average value of 2015 (2015 = 100). If December of each year is the linking month, then price index in month m in year G is calculated as follows:

, where

– the latest link in the chain (price index in the month of the comparison year, compared to the December of the previous year);

– the link of the chain, which is calculated from historical data by moving from December as reference period to the average value of the year.