Central Statistics Office

Prices Division

Central Statistics Office

Skehard Road

Cork

T12 X00E

Ireland

Import Price Index

CPA (statistical classification of products by activity)

Under the European Sample Scheme, indices are complied for the following 8 specific 4-digit CPA 2008 codes, for goods imported from outside the euro area:

• 06.10 Crude Petroleum
• 06.20 Natural gas, liquefied or in gaseous state
• 19.20 Refined petroleum products
• 20.14 Other organic base materials
• 21.10 Basic pharmaceutical products
• 21.20 Pharmaceutical preparations
• 26.20 Computers and peripheral equipment
• 32.50 Medical and dental instruments and supplies

All size classes are covered

The local units are requested to provide the following information:

• Commodity (CN) code under which product was imported
• detailed description of the product
• country of consignment from which they imported the product
• purchasing terms (for example vendor type, order size, payment period)
• price basis in other words terms of the transaction included in the price (for example CIF, FOB)
• discount if not included in the transaction price
• unit of measurement used to price the product
• price for the transaction and its currency

Local unit

The statistical population is all local units whose main business activity is classified to one of the 4-digit CPA 2008 codes listed in section 3.3

Republic of Ireland

Data first used as a source in 2006

Base Year 2015=100

Index

Month

Statistics Act 1993

Statistics (Producer Prices Survey) Order 2023 (S.I. No. 2 of 2023)

EBS Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on 27 November 2019  

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1704 of 14 July 2021

Commission Implementing Regulation 2020/1197 of 30 July 2020

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The Office may provide, for statistical purposes only, information obtained in any way under this Act or the repealed enactments, in such form that it cannot be directly or indirectly related to an identifiable person or undertaking, to such persons and subject to such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

Data is shared with Eurostat as provided for under the relevant European legislation.

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.

All data are confidential

The data is not published nationally so the releases are not included in the CSO's release calendar

Not applicable

No data is published nationally. Data is transmitted to Eurostat and provided to the CSO's National Accounts section.

Monthly

Not applicable

Not applicable

Not applicable

Not applicable

Data are sent to Eurostat to be used in European aggregates.

Not available

Not available

Data entered is verified by a supervisor. The edits are range edits comparing the prices with the corresponding prices of the previous month.

Analysis of External Trade data shows that imports in the CPA codes listed in section 3.3 are heavily concentrated among the largest companies under each CPA code. The sample design ensures that the sample includes over 80% of the value of imports in each code. While there is currently no quantitive measure calculated to assess the sampling error, this level of coverage of the target population is likely to provide indicators that are representative of the price movements in the sectors.

Indices are transmitted to Eurostat every month.

Not available.

All CPA codes required by Ireland under the European Sample Scheme are covered, as detailed in Commission Regulation 458/2015

The overall accuracy has not been measured by the CSO.

Due to the use of a cut-off sample at the first stage, and the self selection of products at the second stage, it is not possible to estimate sampling error.

Non-sampling error has not been estimated. Telephone and email contact is used to speed up and increase the rate of response.

Data are sent to Eurostat approximately 4 weeks after the reference period.

The timeliness target (see 14.1) is achieved every month with rare exceptions.

It is possible to compare the Irish indices with those of other European countries using the CPA classification system.

There are no breaks in the time series.

Import prices are not directly comparable with other prices.

Aggregates are consistent with their sub-aggregates.

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

The results are generally not revised unless calculation errors are subsequently discovered. The same revision policy is applied to STS data released nationally and transmitted to Eurostat.

Revised results would be notified to Eurostat.

Two stage sample design. At the first stage, local units that have imported goods into Ireland under relevant CPA codes are selected from a sample frame created from External Trade data. Within each CPA code, the local units are sorted by descending value of imports, and a cut-off sample selected, so that over 80% of value of imports is included in the sample for each CPA code. For the seond stage of sample selection. local units select their most frequently imported product(s) under the relevant CN code(s).

Monthly

A survey form is sent to local units that have imported goods into Ireland under the specific 4-digit CPA codes.

Data is also collected via telephone and electronic survey form.

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 quoted in currencies other than euro are converted into euro using the exchange rate for the 15th of the reference month. Indices are complied at 8-digit CN, 6-digit CPA and 4-digit CPA levels.

The import price index is a Laspeyres type index.  Annual external trade data is used to compile weights.

The data is not seasonally adjusted.

No comment.