State Data Agency (Statistics Lithuania)

Price Statistics Division

29 Gedimino Ave, LT-01500 Vilnius, Lithuania

The objective of statistical survey on prices for producer products – to collect statistical data about prices of representative products and to calculate the Producer Price Index (PPI) for industrial production of different periods on the basis of that statistical data.

The objective of the production of the PPI – to determine the overall price change in prices for Lithuanian industrial production sold over a certain period of time.

PPI is used to calculate various indicators at constant prices, to analyse economic development and evaluate industrial inflation processes.

National version (EVRK Rev. 2) of the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE Rev. 2);

Classification of Products and Services (PGPK 2022);

Nomenclature of Countries and Territories.

All activities belonging to Sections B to E36 of EVRK Rev. 2. Important exclusion is Building of ships and boats (group 30.1).

PPI is a relative indicator reflecting the overall change in prices for industrial products manufactured by Lithuanian producers over a definite period of time. Survey target – actual selling prices of representative industrial products produced and sold by domestic producers on the Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian markets, VAT and excise excluded, including subsidies and taking into account discounts, i.e. basic prices. If the application of discounts is a random phenomenon, e.g. once or twice a year, prices are provided without regard to discounts. Representative industrial products sold on the non-Lithuanian market are valued at FOB prices.

Reporting unit is enterprise.

Observation unit(s) is KAU (kind of activity unit).

Enterprises are chosen with a record of stable production and large share of sales in the respective PGPK 2022 product heading on the Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian market, i.e. the selected reporting units should cover more than 50 per cent of sales in the respective PGPK 2022 product heading. Small enterprises with less than 4 persons employed are not covered.

Activities outside the Lithuanian territory are not included in the data.

Time series cover the period back to 1998. Historical series for a limited number of indices are available back to the 1992's.

The PPI base period is 2021 (2021 - 100). 

Index. Weights and rates of change in prices are expressed in per cent (%).

Month.

Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics.

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 of 30 July 2020 laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics.

The exchange of statistical data required for the implementation of the Official Statistics Program is defined in Article 17 of the Law on Official Statistics and State Data Goverance of the Republic of Lithuania. Statistics Lithuania, implementing Agreement No. 6-6 (3.18) / STAT-34 (2016) of 5 April 2016 “On the provision of statistical information and statistics” of the Lithuanian Institute of Agrarian Economics and Statistics Lithuania, in accordance with the conditions specified in Annex 4 to the Agreement, provides statistical information on the average prices of certain food products sold by Lithuanian industrial producers on the Lithuanian market.

Also, data are transmitted to Eurostat.

In the process of statistical data collection, processing and analysis and dissemination of statistical information, Statistics Lithuania fully guarantees confidentiality of the data submitted by respondents (households, enterprises, institutions, organisations and other statistical units), as defined in the Confidentiality policy guidelines of Statistics Lithuania.

Statistical Disclosure Control Manual, approved by Order No DĮ-26 of 19 January 2024 of the Director General of Statistics Lithuania;

The State Data Governance Information System Data Security Regulations and Rules for the Secure Management of Electronic Information in the State Data Governance Information System, approved by Order No DĮ-202 of 27 August 2021 of the Director General of Statistics Lithuania.

Confidential data are not published.

Statistical information is published on the Official Statistics Portal according to the Official Statistics Calendar

Official Statistics Calendar

Statistical information is published on the Official Statistics Portal according to an approved statistical information release calendar and the Rules for the Preparation and Dissemination of Statistical Information of Statistics Lithuania.

The data are released simultaneously to all interested parties. 

PPI is produced and disseminated monthly.

Information is published in a news release on rates of change in prices for industrial production sold – on the 7^th working day after the end of the reference month at 9 a.m. (PPI data for January each year are disseminated on the 9^th working day, due to introduction of the updated weights.).

PPI is published in the following publication of Statistics Lithuania: Lithuania in Figures.

The Database of Statistical Indicators provides the monthly PPI (2021=100), as well as rates of change  in prices over a month, for the period from the beginning of the year, over twelve months. Database (Economy and finance–>Price, indices, changes and prices–>Producer price index, price changes and index weights Database of Indicators

Microdata for scientific purposes are available and provided for scientific purposes according to the provisions set in the Description of Procedures for the Provision of Confidential Statistical

Data for Scientific Purposes. More information is available on the Official Statistics Portal, at Data for scientific 

Data are sent to Eurostat.

Statistical information can also be provided upon individual requests (more information on the website of the Official Statistics Portal).

A complete description of the methodology used to compile the PPI is published on the Official Statistics Portal:

Methotodological documentation.

Quality indicators for PPI is prepared (in Lithuanian and English) each month and published on the Official Statistics Portal under Metadata

The quality of statistical information and its production process is ensured by the provisions of the European Statistics Code of Practice. In 2007, a quality management system, conforming with the requirements of the international quality management system standard ISO 9001, was introduced at Statistics Lithuania.

The quality of the data corresponds requirements of accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, comparability and compatibility. A self-assessment of statistical survey managers indicating the quality of the indicator was performed, statistical questionnaires used to collect statistical data were tested.

The main users of statistical information are the institutions of the European Commission, the European Central Bank, public authorities, international organizations, the media, business and academia, students and other users whose needs are met without prejudice to the principle of confidentiality. PPI is used to recalculate valuables at constant prices for analytical, planning, forecasting, market research and indexing purposes.

Since 2005, user opinion surveys have been conducted on a regular basis. The Official Statistics Portal traffic is monitored, website visitor opinion polls, general opinion poll on the products and services of Statistics Lithuania, target user group opinion polls and other surveys are conducted.

In 2007, the compilation of a user satisfaction index was launched. The said surveys are aimed at the assessment of the overall demand for and necessity of statistical information in general and specific statistical indicators in particular.

More information on user opinion surveys and results thereof are published in the User Surveys section on the Statistics Lithuania website.

PPI published by sections B to E36 of EVRK Rev. 2 as well as by 2-digit level and by Main Industrial Groupings (MIG) at the national level by markets: all items, Lithuanian, non Lithuanian (Euro area, non Euro area).

A purposive sampling method is applied to the selection of product categories (codes). The product categories (codes) at the PGPK 10-digit level are selected. The amount of such industrial production sold accounts for a large part (more than 50 per cent) of production of a corresponding economic activity. The PPI results received are analysed, looking for errors which may affect the final results. Monthly price changes are calculated; closer attention is paid to those producer price changes which are ≥ 10 and ≤–10 per cent, as well as those prices which changed due to quality, the change of the season. Moreover, special attention is paid to those price changes which had the largest impact on the general change in the PPI.

Sampling errors are not calculated for PPI because the sample is not based on random sampling. As cut-off method is used in sampling, it is not possible to obtain sampling errors. The sample is updated annualy. In 2023, for the PPI calculation, 786 enterprises were providing prices about 2 022 items.

The response rate is 100%.

Reminder calls and e-mails are used to maintain high response rate. On-line price data collection system is actively developed in order to reduce the response burden and obtain data of good quality.

Each month,  on average about 8 % of prices are not collected for various reasons (due to seasonality about 4% and due to other reason about 4%) Missing prices are estimated using the appropriate methods.

The Electronics business statistics compilation and transmission system e Statistics of a KA-09 questionnaire (annual) and a KA-08 (monthly) is used for the statistical data collection Database ORACLE and MS Excel is used for producer prices validation and PPI calculation.

In order to correct the non-sampling errors, due to a lack of response or quality change, imputations and quality adjustments are carried out (also point 18.6).

Data editing the primary statistical data verification is carried out by Data Preparation Divisions, the secondary – by central staff of Price Statistics Division (also see point 18.4).

Coding: The products are coded according to the Classification of Products and Services (PGPK 2022) based on the information provided by the respondents. Models are not used in the PPI.

The PPI is published on the 7^th working day after the end of the reference month, at 9:00 a.m. (local time). PPI data for January each year are disseminated on the 9^th working day, due to introduction of the updated weights.

Statistical information is published in accordance with an approved release calendar.

The same statistical concepts and classifications are applied in the entire national territory. Definitions and classifications applied accordance requirements of EU regulations.

From 2009, Statistics Lithuania has been publishing the PPI and price changes based on a new revision of EVRK (EVRK Rev. 2). Since 1998 PPI is comparised.

There is no similar survey which could be the source for comparison, only PPI is cross-checked against the Import Price Index (IPI).

Elementary price indices are consistently aggregated to higher-level price indices and all-items PPI according to established procedures.

In 2023, the average time of respondents to fill in the Statistical Report KA-08 (monthly) on the Prices of Industrial Production Sold by Producers was 17 minutes, for the Statistical Report KA-09 (annual) On the Selection of Representative Industrial Products Sold was 59 min.  In 2023 the costs of the NSI where 5217,5 hours per year, burden of respondents – 2098 hours per year.

The revision policy applied by Statistics Lithuania is described in the  Description of Procedure for Performance, Analysis and Publication of Revisions of Statistical Information. The same revision policy is applied to PPI data released nationally and transmitted to Eurostat. 

Revisions are conducted in accordance with an approved statistical information revision calendar. The PPI for the reference month may be revised due to the correction of statistical data submitted by enterprises. The PPI the reference month is provisional. In the publication of statistical information for the reference month, PPIs for the reference month are provisional, for the previous month – revised in the revised indices and price changes are clearly identified. Users are made aware of the data revisions in footnotes to the publications, and, were necessary, the footnotes are also accompanied by explanatory notes.

After revision in 2021-2023 the size of MR stood between 0.02-0.05 precentage points, MAR 2021-2023 - 0.03 precentage points.

Revisions are conducted in accordance with an approved statistical information revision calendar: revision calendar.

Sources of weights – statistical data of the Industry Statistics Division on the amount of industrial production sold in value terms, VAT and excises excluded. Enterprises selected for the survey provide statistical data on prices for industrial products sold on the Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian market on a monthly basis. Such statistical data serve as a basis for the calculation of PPIs and their changes.

Prices are collected monthly.

Statistical data on the annual sales volume of representative industrial products in value terms are received from a statistical questionnaire KA-09 (annual).

The specialists of the regional data preparation divisions of Statistics Lithuania collect statistical data on prices for representative industrial products through statistical questionnaires KA-08 (monthly) and KA-09 (annual).

Reporting methods: electronic statistical data preparation and transfer system e-Statistics.

Statistical data control requirements are provided in a survey programming technical specification. Error protocol is formed from the errors detected, which contains error code, error text, error attribute indicating whether the error must be corrected or may be ignored. Errors may be logical and arithmetical; they may have been made by the respondent or during the data entry or processing stages.

To ensure statistical data quality, primary database check is run additionally (secondary editing, statistical data validation).

The error protocol, statistical data completeness and reliability are checked, links between indicators are analysed. Statistical data are corrected according to error types (errors that must be corrected or may be ignored).

The PPI is calculated from the lowest level, i.e. representative products, to the highest level, i.e. the all-items PPI. In calculating the PPI, the Laspeyres formula is applied. The lowest-level price indices are then aggregated to higher-level price indices according to EVRK Rev. 2 levels: divisions (2-digit level),  sections (1-letter level), all-items PPI, and by Main Industrial Groupings at the national level. Fixed base weights are used for aggregation. PPIs for the reference year are linked to the PPIs for the previous year using a chain-linking method.

Missing prices estimate used the price of the previous month; may be repeated in case if the price of the analogous product in other enterprises has not changed or has changed very inconsiderably;

The missing price may be imputed by using the price index computed with reference to the prices of other products of the same kind of industry activity.

Compilation of the producer price index for industrial producion metholdology: 

Methotodological documentation.

The specialists of the Price Statistics Division are responsible for price adjustment. Primary data of prices representative products  are adjusted because of  changes in its quality, If the quality of the replacement product significantly differs from that of the replaced one, the assessment of the impact of the change in quality on the increase or decrease in the price has to be made and price is recalculated. To maintain comparability between the price of the replaced and replacing product, the price of the replaced product in the previous month is adjusted by eliminating the impact of the change in quality. In order to reduce the number of items adjusted in terms of quality, products are grouped into product segments taking into account the purpose of use. The quality adjustment may be done by several methods: expert judgment, option pricing, bridged overlap, quantity adjustment.

Price indices are not seasonally adjusted.

Not applicable.