Czech statisticians raise share of housing in CPI

...well as transport costs at the expense of foodstuffs.

The CSU is switching to a revised index this year, rebasing its calculation to 2005 and adjusting the weighting of goods and services in the basket to track the changing path of consumption.

Housing, energy and fuel costs remained the biggest single price group, making up one quarter of the reshuffled consumer basket.

The weighting of food and non-alcoholic beverages, the second biggest price group, fell to 16 percent from nearly 20 percent in the old basket, last revised between 1999-2000.

The share of transport costs, including motor fuel, rose to 11 percent from 10 percent. The outline of the new basket was released on the CSU's official Web site, www.czso.cz.

The first data published under the new CPI calculation will be January inflation , due out on Feb. 14.

It is likely to have jumped to 1.9 percent on an annual basis from December's 1.7 percent on the back of regulated price hikes and higher food prices, a Reuters poll of analysts shows.

The bureau will simultaneously publish re-calculated December inflation data using the updated consumer basket.

December will be the only month for which the bureau will calculate inflation both under the old and the revised CPI to show to what extent the switch affected the statistics.

CSU officials expect the updated December figure might be slightly lower versus the one calculated under the previous CPI.

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]