Inflation Rate MoM

Swiss Inflation Rate MoM is the 1-month % change in the Swiss Consumer Price Index (CPI). The index runs since 1922 on a December 2020 = 100 base, the reference level set to 100. It covers private resident households only, so tourists, cross-border workers, short-term residents and collective homes sit outside it. It is a pure price index, not a cost-of-living index (the least cost of fixed comfort), so premiums, taxes and savings stay out.

Prices are surveyed in the first two weeks of each month, with fuels checked twice and scanner data averaged over the same weeks. Rents are checked each quarter, seasonal items in season, administered prices when they change, and missing prices carry forward.

One release covers each reference month in the first days of the next month at 8:30 am Swiss time. Each release prints the level, monthly and annual changes, two core gauges, splits and drivers. Published figures stay fixed, weights update each December and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) uses the index as a policy guide.

Monthly shifts come mainly from six heavy groups in the fixed basket (representative shopping list).

• Housing and energy, 27.000%: rents plus household energy such as heating oil and gas.
• Healthcare, 15.637%: doctors, hospitals and medicines, never insurance premiums.
• Transport and communications, 13.844%: fuels, cars, airfares, public transport and communications.
• Food, beverages and tobacco, 12.914%: food, beverages and tobacco including fresh fruit and vegetables.
• Restaurants, hotels, recreation and culture, 18.345%: meals out, holiday flats, hotels, package holidays and leisure.
• Clothing, household goods, education and other services, 12.260%: clothing, household goods, education and other services.

In December 2022 (released January 4, 2023) the index fell 0.2% to 104.4 points, while annual inflation was 2.8% and the 2022 average was 2.8%. Falling fuel, heating oil, vegetables and medicines drove the dip, offset partly by holiday flats and hired transport. Core inflation 1 rose 0.1% (+2.0% yearly) and domestic products rose 0.1% (+1.9%), while imported products fell 1.1% (+5.8%). One down month can thus sit inside high yearly inflation when energy swings, and splits can move against the headline.

1. Weighting: The Federal Statistical Office (FSO) sets basket shares from the Household Budget Survey (HBS) of 3,300 households, price-updated to each December. For scale, rice spending of CHF 2.57 in CHF 5,572 set a 0.046% weight and flour set a 0.055% weight.
2. Elementary aggregation: Inside each tiny group, price moves combine by geometric mean (a multiplicative average).
3. Upper-level aggregation: Group indices then combine with basket weights by the Lowe formula (a Laspeyres-type weighted average).
4. Chaining: Weights refresh each December since 2001, so each December starts a new link in a chained series.
5. Monthly rate: MoM equals the index divided by the prior-month index minus 1, times 100. A fall from 104.6 to 104.4 thus reads about -0.2%.
6. Annual comparison: Year-on-year divides by the same month 12 months back, and yearly averages use arithmetic means.