The National Institute of Statistics (INE) will advance one year, as of January 2026, the change of base of the index consumption prices (CPI), which will in turn lead to an update of the weights and the review of the products that make up the shopping cart.
This was explained by the Deputy Director General of Cayuntural Statistics of the INE, Ignacio González Veiga, in a seminar for journalists held this week and collected by EP.
The statistical body updates the basis on which the CPI sits on every five years. The previous base change occurred in 2022so the next one would not have to go into force until 2027. However, statistics will advance a year, to January 2026.
This advance, according to González Veiga, is because the European Union forces to incorporate since January of 2026 In the Harmonized CPI (IPCA) the new United Nations Consumption Classification. Although this would only force to modify the calculations that the INE does on the IPCA, the agency will take advantage of them also into the national CPI and make the base change one year in advance.
“Whenever we introduce any methodological change in the harmonized IPC, we try to check if it is good or convenient to also introduce it to our national CPI to go a little hand”
“Whenever we introduce any methodological change in the harmonized IPC, we try to check if it is good or convenient to also introduce it into our national IPC so that both indicators go a little. If we consider that the measure taken is good, because we introduce it. In this case, it is not good or bad. However, it is convenient that the change of the classification of one indicator and on the other Giving rise to users, because we would be during the year that has been publishing the IPCA data with a classification different from that of the CPI, “González Veiga said.
The new consumption classification consists of 13 large groups instead of the current 12 and basically implies the change of some articles or services from one group to another. Specifically, Group 12, which is currently called other goods and services, is divided into two groups: insurance and financial services (Group 12), and personal care, social protection and diverse goods and services (Group 13).
In addition, the current group 8, communications, will be called information and communications and will incorporate, for example, computers and tablets, which until now were in the leisure and culture group.
Weights and review of the purchase basket
Every time a base change is made in the CPI, the power is updated and the purchase basket is reviewed in case it is convenient to remove or include an item. It will also be done with this basis of advanced base as of January 2026, according to González Veiga.
Over the years, the CPI has undergone several base changes that also implied developments in certain articles for which prices are calculated. Thus, for example, in January 2002 The base IPC system entered into force 2001in which reduced prices were included.
In January of 2012with the arrival of the base 2011, the shopping basket incorporated new items, such as portable hard drives, ‘notebooks’, tablets, photodepilation, laser hair removal or the speech therapist, and others whose consumption ceased to be significant such as the recordable CD or the films rental disappeared.
Subsequently, with the base 2016 That it entered into force in January 2017, they were added to the shopping cart articles such as online video and music services, gambling or monodosis coffee and others such as brandy, camcorder or recordable DVDs were eliminated.
The last change, based 2021took place in January 2022. With this new modification, the INE incorporated new treatments for monitoring the prices of the dress and to process prices when they were missing or were not available. The number of IPC subclasses to 199 were also reduced and in the shopping basket new items entered, such as hygienic masks and subscription to the online newspaper. On the other hand, other products or services such as the image player, the portable player, the DVD and the compact disc.
In January of 2023the INE introduced a new procedure to calculate the weights, based on national accounts and in accordance with the criteria established by European regulations. In addition, electricity and gas coverage was expanded with the incorporation of free market prices.
In general, the CPI is prepared with about 210,000 prices of which they report some 29,000 establishments distributed in 177 municipalities throughout the national territory. The data collection of 462 articles is carried out in a traditional way (by means of a personal visit to the establishments on the corresponding dates), as well as by telephone and email. In addition, through automated media (such as ‘Scanner Data‘ or ‘Web Scrapping‘) data is collected from another 493 articles. In certain tariff articles information is obtained from the corresponding official publications.
New production statistics of the construction sector
As González Veiga also revealed, as of January of the year 2026 The INE will begin to publish the construction production index monthly, which is currently calculated by the Ministry of Transportation.
Thanks to an agreement signed with this ministry, the INE will be responsible for this indicator from next year. Its publication will be added to those that already makes statistics on the production of services and industry production.
