Swiss Consumer Price Index in July 2020: -0.9 percent YoY, -0.2 percent MoM

The decrease of 0.2% compared with the previous month can be explained by several factors including falling prices for clothing and footwear due to seasonal sales. The prices of mobile communication also declined, along with the prices for melons and grapes (“other fruits“). In contrast, prices for international package holidays and air transport increased.

Switzerland Consumer Price Index (CPI) YoY, July 2020

Source: investing.com - Click to enlarge

Quality of results

The current pandemic affects all of society and the entire economy. In this difficult context, the Fed-eral Statistical Office (FSO) must continue to provide public opinion, particularly the country’s deci-sion makers and media, with reliable figures. We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank our partners who also do their utmost to transmit their data to us under difficult conditions.

In July 2020, it was possible to collect all prices according to the survey plan with the exception of airfares, for which certain prices are still missing. For this index, the price trend measured for those flights that could be ascertained was applied to missing flights from the same category, neutralising their impact on the results. With the exception of airfares, the quality of the price collection for the CPI in July meets the usual standards.

Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP)

In July 2020, the Swiss Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) stood at 100.6 3 points (base 2015 = 100). This corresponds to a rate of change of +0. 1% compared with the previous month and of –1.2% compared with the same month the previous year. Due to the effects of the pandemic, the same missing price imputation techniques used for the CPI were introduced for the HICP.

The HICP is a supplementary indicator for inflation based on a harmonised method across EU member countries. It enables inflation in Switzerland to be compared with that of European countries.

The European Statistical Office, Eurostat, publishes the results according to a predefined calendar. The FSO publishes a comparison between inflation in Switzerland and Europe on the webpage www.ipch.bfs.admin.ch. A methodological note, the 2020 weighting of the Swiss standard HICP basket and the FSO News publication on the HICP are also available on this page. Eurostat will publish the HICP indices for other European countries for July 2020 on 19 August 2020. You will find the HICP results on the Eurostat website at the following address: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/hicp