At the same time, the ECB attaches great importance to improving further the availability, timeliness and other qualities of the Principal European Economic Indicators and to receiving more elaborate and consistent euro area statistics for assessing and analysing productivity changes, for service activities and for housing, including house prices. Moreover, incorporating price developments of owner-occupied housing in the HICP would be an important achievement.
In any case, Member States may want to consider giving more prominence to national HICPs and less to their specific national Consumer Price Indices (CPI). By way of a supplementary measure, the analysis of any inflationary pressures would be served by the regular availability of an HICP-variant that excludes the direct effects of tax changes and, possibly, other administrative measures.