COICOP
Also called: Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose, COICOP 2018 · Topic: Inflation and Index Numbers: CPI, WPI, IIP and the Deflator · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
COICOP stands for Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose. It is an international system, issued by the United Nations, for sorting what households spend on by the purpose of the spending: food, housing, transport, health and so on. It sorts items in steps from broad to narrow: divisions, then groups, then classes, then sub-classes. India's new CPI series (base 2024=100) uses the COICOP 2018 version. Because many countries use the same system, India's CPI can now be compared with theirs category by category.
Example
India's CPI 2024 series has 358 weighted items. Under COICOP 2018 they are arranged in 12 divisions, 43 groups, 62 classes and 192 sub-classes. Division 01 is Food & beverages, with a weight of 36.75 out of 100. Inside it, group 01.1 is Food. Another division, Restaurants & accommodation services, collects eating-out spending under its own heading.
Don't confuse with
- Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES): COICOP only decides which heading an item goes under. The weights, meaning how much each item counts in the index, come from HCES 2023-24 (MMRP results).
- Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI): CFPI covers food prices only and has a weight of 34.78. It is not the same as COICOP Division 01 Food & beverages, which has a weight of 36.75. They are two different aggregates.