Central Statistics Office

Producer Prices

Central Statistics Office

Skehard Road

Cork

T12 X00E

Ireland

The construction producer price index (CPPI) measures, in index form, changes in prices received by Irish manufacturers for a sample of products used in the construction sector, along with a measure of changes in wages in the sector. The CPPI is used as an approximation of construction costs for new residential buildings.

NACE Rev. 2.

Manufacturing and wholesale local units which produce or sell construction products are sampled. Local units are sampled from the NACE Rev 2 groups below:

081
161
162
201
203
222
231
233
235
236
237
239
243
244
251
252
256
257
259
271
273
282
461
467
475

Local units are asked to provide prices for a sample of products from the list of relevant product categories below. The list of categories originally came from a dedicated survey of trades issued by the CSO in 1998. This survey requested a breakdown of materials used by building, civil engineering and other trade firms. The list was updated in 2006 to add extra categories.

Stone, sand and gravel
Stone
Sand and gravel
Cement
Ready mixed mortar and concrete
Concrete blocks and bricks
Other concrete products
Precast concrete
Other concrete products (Excluding precast concrete)
Structural steel and reinforcing metal
Structural steel
Fabricated metal
Other Structural steel
Reinforcing metal
Other steel products
Rough timber (including plain sawn)
Hardwood
Other
Other timber
Windows and doors
Other
Bituminous macadam, asphalt and bituminous emulsions
Bituminous macadam and asphalt
Bituminous emulsions
Electrical fittings
Lighting equipment
Protection & communication equipment
Other Electrical fittings
All other materials
Plumbing materials incl. sanitary ware
HVAC (heating & ventilation equipment)
Insulating materials
Pipes and fittings
PVC
Copper
Plaster
Paints, oils and varnishes
Glass
All other metal fittings
All other products

The prices requested from producers are the basic prices for the terms of sale indicated, excluding delivery charges, before discounts or surcharges, before the addition of direct subsidies, and exclusive of VAT.

The sampling units are local units in the NACE Rev 2 groups listed in 3.3. Within these local units, prices for a sample of products sold to the construction industry are collected. 

The statistical population is all products used in the construction industry that fall into one of the categories of products listed in section 3.3.

The Republic of Ireland

Data from the current series are available from January 2015.  Previous series are also available starting from January 2000.

2015=100

Index

Month

The Wholesale Price Inquiry is a statutory statistical survey conducted each month under the provisions of the Statistics (Producer Prices Survey) Order 2023 (S.I. No. 2 of 2023) made under the Statistics Act, 1993.

The survey is also conducted in compliance with EBS Regulation (EU) No 2019/2152 and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1704 of 14 July 2021

Section 34 of the 1993 Statistics Act states:

The Office may provide, for statistical purposes only, information obtained in any way under this Act or the repealed enactments, in such form that it cannot be directly or indirectly related to an identifiable person or undertaking, to such persons and subject to such charges, conditions and restrictions as the Director General may determine.

The provision on statistical confidentiality is regulated by Sections 32 and 33 of the 1993 Statistics Act.  

Section 32 states:

All information furnished by a person, undertaking or public authority under this Act shall be used only for statistical compilation and analysis purposes. 

Section 33 states:

(1) No information obtained in any way under this Act or the repealed enactments which can be related to an identifiable person or undertaking shall, except with the written consent of that person or undertaking or the personal representative or next-of-kin of a deceased person, be disseminated, shown or communicated to any person or body except as follows: 

            (a) for the purposes of a prosecution for an offence under this Act;

            (b) to officers of statistics in the course of their duties under this Act;

            (c) for the purposes of recording such information solely for the use of the Office in such form and manner as is provided for by a contract in writing made by the Director General which protects its confidentiality to his satisfaction    

 (2) The Office may, for statistical purposes only, assign codes derived from information collected under this Act classifying undertakings listed in the administrative systems of other public authorities by economic activity and size (persons engaged) categories. 

 (3) The Taoiseach may by order prescribe such further prohibitions on the disclosure of identifiable records or information obtained under this Act or the repealed enactments for such periods as may be prescribed. 

 (4) Nothing in this Act shall be construed to require any person or undertaking to provide information in relation to a matter on which information was sought in circumstances that would entitle the person or undertaking to decline to give the information in a civil proceeding in any court or on grounds of privilege.

Confidential data are treated by suppression.

A four month advance release calendar showing release dates on a “no later than” basis is issued by the CSO at the end of each month. This is available on the CSO website at www.cso.ie.

https://www.cso.ie/en/csolatestnews/releasecalendar/

An email link to the statistical release or publication is issued to interested parties at 11.00 am. In addition the full text of all releases and publications is made available on the CSO website at 11.00am at www.cso.ie.

Data are transmitted to Eurostat by SDMX after publication.

Monthly

None

Data on the Construction Producer Price Index is released monthly at:

https://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/prices/wholesalepriceindex/

and annually in the Statistical Yearbook of Ireland at:

https://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/statisticalyearbookofireland/

The monthly CPPI index for the 2015=100 series is available in Tables WPM25 and WPM27 published at https://data.cso.ie/. The index is labelled "Building and construction (i.e. materials and wages)".

An annual version of the data is available in Tables WPA12 and WPA14 at https://data.cso.ie/.

A Producer Price Index Research Microdata File (RMF) is available to researchers subject to meeting criteria as set out in the Policy on access to Research Microdata Files. This file includes data collected for the CPPI. This link has further details:

https://www.cso.ie/en/aboutus/lgdp/csodatapolicies/dataforresearchers/rmfregister/

Data are sent to Eurostat to be used in European aggregates and/or to be released as national data.

Overall information for the Wholesale Price Index which includes the CPPI is available via the following link:

https://www.cso.ie/en/methods/prices/wholesalepriceindex/

The WPI Introduction to Series 2015=100 contains more detailed information. The latest version of this document is available here:

https://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/methods/wholesalepriceindex/WPI_Revised_Introduction_to_Series_2015=100.pdf

The Standard Report on Methods and Quality for Wholesale Price Index which includes the CPPI is available here:

https://www.cso.ie/en/methods/qualityreports/wholesalepriceindex/

Unusual price changes are investigated each month. Quality information is not published.

The main quality issue is ensuring that the sample of respondents and products remains representative in between base years.

The indices are used in contracts by the building and construction industry as a measure of allowable price increases or decreases over the term of these contracts.

Not available.

All Eurostat requirements are fulfilled.

CSO has not estimated the overall accuracy of the construction producer price index.

Due to the nature of the sample (sample of local units from the population of all local units, and non-probability sample of products within each local unit) the sampling error for the index has not been estimated.

Non-response error is minimised by following up with non-respondents using telephone or e-mail contacts. The unweighted unit response rate (proportion of local units responding) for the respondents in the Wholesale Prices Survey who provide data for the construction materials during 2021 was 72.2%. Other types of non-sampling error have not been estimated.

Prices invoiced on the 15th of the reference month are requested. Questionnaires are sent to reporting units on the 15th or the following day or two. Data collection is closed eight working days before publication.

The release is published on or before the 22nd of the month for the previous month. It is considered definitive on publication.

The timeliness target is achieved every month with rare exceptions.

The Irish index uses input prices as an approximation for the output prices for construction of new residential buildings so this may impact comparisons with other European countries.

There are no breaks in the series.

There is no direct comparability with other prices.

Aggregates are consistent with their sub-aggregates.

https://www.cso.ie/en/methods/multisectoral/responseburdenbarometer/

Results are generally not revised unless exceptional calculation errors are discovered. The same revision policy is applied nationally and in transmissions to Eurostat. No revision calendar exists. No benchmarking is done at the aggregate level.

An assessment is made based on circumstances at the time.  The WPI 2015=100 series which includes the CPPI was revised on 22/10/2020. See here for further information:

https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/in/wpi/informationnote-wholesalepriceindexrevision2020/

Data collection is based on a sample survey using Central Business Register as the frame. Local units in the manufacturing and wholesaler NACE groups listed in 3.3 are in scope. A canvas form is issued to respondents when they are first selected into the sample. On this survey form, they are asked to self-select a sample of their most important products from the list of categories detailed in 3.3. In subsequent month, they are sent a survey form requesting up-to-date prices for this product sample. The materials price changes are calculated from these survey returns.

The wages price changes are sourced from an hourly wage rate index for employees in the building and construction sector based on the most recent sectoral employment orders. These orders set the statutory minimum rates of pay and other conditions (sick pay and pension entitlements) for persons employed in the construction sector.

Monthly

The Wholesale Price Index – Inquiry Form is used in the survey. It can be accessed via the following link:

https://www.cso.ie/en/methods/surveyforms/wholesalepriceindex/

Data are also collected by telephone, email and electronic questionnaire.

Edits compare values against previous returns (range checks). If differences exceed specified thresholds, an edit is raised. These are then analysed and records are corrected as appropriate.

Prices are regarded as unchanged for non-response.

The basic indices are weighted by the value of sales of an economic sector.

The output price index is a Laspeyres index.

Further details on the data compliation are provided in the Introduction to Series 2015=100 here:

https://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/methods/wholesalepriceindex/WPI_Revised_Introduction_to_Series_2015=100.pdf

The data is not seasonally adjusted.

None