1998. aasta veebruarist avaldatakse tarbijahinnaindeksit baasil 1997=100. Tegemist on Laspeyres' indeksiga, mis tähendab, et indeks on fikseeritud kaaludega ning kaalude (kulutuste struktuuri) ja baashindade arvutamise aluseks olevad perioodid langevad kokku. Kulutuste grupeerimise aluseks on rahvusvaheline klassifikaator COICOP (Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose).
Member States shall process the data collected in order to produce the HICP, which shall be a Laspeyres-type index, covering the categories of the Coicop international classification (classification of individual consumption by purpose) (1), which shall be adapted under the procedure in Article 14 to establish comparable HICPs.