Croatian Bureau of Statistics

Service Statistics Department

Croatian Bureau of Statistics

Ilica 3

10000 Zagreb

Croatia

Quarterly services producer price indices are important short-term indicators used to analyse business cycle trends in the service sector and as input for National accounts statistics.

• They are intended to trace price movements that reflect the supply and demand conditions in the service market.
• They are also used as a deflators for compiling Index of Services Production (ISP). 

NACE Rev. 2

CPA used for determining groups of services

SPPIs cover services activities listed in sectors H to N of NACE Rev. 2.

In Croatia the covered services activities are:

Activities in Section H:

• H494 Freight transport by road
• H501 Sea and coastal water passenger transport
• H502 Sea and coastal water freight transport
• H51 Regular passenger air transport
• H521 Warehousing and storage services
• H5224 Cargo handling
• H53 Postal and courier services

Activities in Section J:

• J58 Publishing activities
• J59 Motion picture, video and television programme production, sound recording and music publishing activities
• J61 Telecommunications
• J62 Computer programming, consultancy and related activities
• J63 Information service activities

Activities in Section M:

• M691 Legal activities
• M692 Accounting activities
• M702 Management consultancy activities
• M711 Architectural and engineering services and related tecnical consulting services
• M731 Advertising services
• M732 Market research and public opinion polling services

Activities in Section N:

• N78 Employment activities
• N79 Travel agency, tour operator and other reservation service and related activities
• N80 Security and investigation activities
• N812 Cleaning activities
• N82 Office administrative, office support and other business support activities

In 2022, the following activities were developed and will be published in 2023:  

• H491 Passenger rail transport, interurban
• H492 Freight rail transport
• H493 Other passenger land transport
• H495 Transport via pipelin
• H5221 Service activities incidental to land transportation
• H5222 Service activities incidental to water transportation
• H5223 Service activities incidental to air transportation
• H5229 Other transportation support activities
• I55 Accommodation
• I56 Food and beverage service activities
• J60 Programming and broadcasting activities
• N77 Rental and leasing activities

Statistical variables provided by the SPPI surveys are services producer prices and turnover.

The services producer prices are in general transaction prices, i.e. the prices of the performed services which enterprise achieves on the market (excluding  VAT). All price-determining characteristics of the products are taken into account, including quantity of units sold, transport provided, rabates, discounts, services conditions, subsidies, guarantee conditions and destination. Prices are collected for well specified services for reference quarter and for the previous quarter.

Information is also collected on turnover (excluding VAT) for the previous year. STS definition of turnover is used. Turnover comprises the totals invoiced by the observation unit during the whole reference year and this corresponds to market sales of services supplied to third parties. Turnover is used to calculate weights. Turnover covers flows during the calendar year.

Information about turnover cover total turnover from all activities of the enterprise and turnover from the specified activities. Share of that turnover by groups of services is also required.

Reporting unit

• In some SPPIs reporting unit is Kind of activity units. In case of Telecommunication activities reporting unit is HAKOM - regulatory body for this services. In case of Passenger air transport services, the biggest enterprise is reporting unit. Enterprise is used as proxy for KAU.

Observation units

• Observation units are mostly kind of activity units and in some cases enterprise.

The target population are business entities (legal units, tradesmen and free lances) which perform service activities that are proposed in the Requiremen (listed under 3.3.).

The frame for identifying units for the population is the Statistical Business Register.

In the case of NACE J61 national regulator obtains the statistical population.

Sample frame consists of about 103.900 units.

Sample covers about 1.300 units.

Geographical area covered: Republic of Croatia. 

Time series for SPPIs have different length, depending on when the production of industry index started and how long in the past the backcasting was performed. Some series have data from 2006 but most of them have data from 2010 and some from 2015.

• From 2006 data are available for: H501+H502, H51, H521, H5224, H531, J61, N80.
• From 2010 data are available for: H494_TO_N812_STS, H494, J58, J62+J63, M691, M692, M711, M731, M732 N78, N79, N812
• From 2015 data are available for: J59, M702, N82

Base year (the year on which the weights are based) is previous year (2021).

Base period (the period to which the index values are compared) is the last quarter of the previous year.

Reference year (the year when the index equals 100) is 2015.

The variables for which data are collected are prices (without VAT), expressed in kuna and turnover (without VAT) expressed in thousand kuna.

Only price index numbers are calculated as the results of the surveys.

Data in absolute figures are not published nationally.

Data on prices are collected in reference period of the quarter with the exception of:

• NACE H51 for which data on prices are collected on monthly basis 
• but price indices for all SPPIs are calculated on quarterly basis.

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

Council Regulation No 1165/98/EC of 19/05/98, concerning short-term statistics

European Parliament and Council Regulation No. 1158/2005 of 06/07/2005, amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 concerning short-term statistics

Commission Regulation No 588/2001/EC of 26/03/2001,  implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 concerning short-term statistics

Methodological Guide for Developing Producer Price Indices for Services, Theme: Industry, Trade and Services, ISSN 1725-0099, European Commission, OECD, Eurostat, Luxembourg 2005

Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 establishing the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities NACE Rev. 2 and amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90 and certain EC Regulations on specific statistical domains.

Obligation on units to provide data is compulsory based on Law on Official Statistics. Fees for non-response are regulated by the Law on Official Statistics, but not really used in practice. 

Data sets for 19 SPPI series (for H494_TO_N812_STS, H494, H501_H502, H51, H521, H5224, H531, J58, J61, J62, J63, M69, M702, M71, M73, N78, N79, N80 and N812) are regularly transmitted to Eurostat on quarterly basis.

There is no data sharing to other international institutions.

National legislation

• Under the Official Statistics Act (NN No.25/20), the CBS can not publish, or otherwise make available, to any individual or organization, statistics that would enable the identification of data for any individual person or legal entity. Individual data are strictly confidential and must not be published or reported.  

European legislation

• European legislation Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 11 March 2009, on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

Confidential data are treated according to policy rules (see point 7.1).

Data series on the levels proposed as obligatory by Annex D of STS Regulation for selected activities (listed under 6.2.) are transmitted to Eurostat. For certain service activities in which an observation is based on a very few dominating enterprises data are considered confidential and are marked with the confidential flag.

With the first quarter of 2016 price indices started to be regularly nationally published. 

The same treatment with confidential data has been applied when published nationally as well as when transmitted data to Eurostat.

A release schedule for the coming year, specifying dates of release  is published each December in the CBS Publishing Program. This document is available in both Croatian and English.

The exact dates of release are pre-announced in the Calendar of Statistical Data Issues.

A release calendar for the year ahead is available on the statistical office's website https://dzs.gov.hr/en

Release calendar is available on CBS website in Croatian and English language: 

• HR   https://dzs.gov.hr/objavljivanje/330
• EN   https://dzs.gov.hr/publishing/765

Data are simultaneous released at the same time (11.00 ) to all interested parties by publishing on the CBS’s website.

There is no prior access to data before its release.

Data are transmitted to Eurostat 90 days after the reference quarter.  

Data are disseminated quarterly to Eurostat as well as nationally.

News Release is not published.

Indices are published in excel sheet format in the STS database of CBS.

Gross series of indices are quarterly published for following activities: H494-N812_STS, H494, H501_H502, H51, H521, H5224, H531,H532, J58,J59, J61, J62_J63, J62, J63, M69, M702, M71, M73, N78, N79, N80, N812 and N82.

There is no specific paper publication for SPPIs.

Indices are published online on the CBS website in STS Database https://stsbaza.dzs.hr/en.

Gross series of indices are quarterly published for following activities: H494-N812_STS, H494, H501_H502, H51, H521, H5224, H531,H532, J58, J59, J61, J62_J63, J62, J63, M69, M702, M71, M73, N78, N79, N80, N812, N82

Indices are pubished only in CBS's STS database.

Only indices on the base year 2015=100 are published.

Micro data are available only in some cases and in specific conditions.

Those conditions are regulated in special regulation that can be found on the homepage www.dzs.gov.hr.

SPPI indices have been disseminated to Eurostat in pre-defined tables through eDamis, to be used in European aggregates as well as released as national data.

A short description on methodology is available in the excel sheet: https://podaci.dzs.hr/en/statistics-in-line/ under Distributive Trade and Other Services.

There are some internal methodological documents available to statisticians.      

Also, methodological notes are available in STS Database under Services Producer Price Indices.

Documentation on quality management is available only for internal users in database specially designed for the purpose of storing information on quality and assessing data quality.

There is a written statement under the Official Statistical Act (NN No 25/20) that official statistics in Croatia should be of enough quality. 

CBS has started systematic approach to quality management with the adoption of the European Code of Practice and with the decision to implement TQM. This process is still in course. 

Data base for storing information for the purpose of assessing data quality has been developing.

CBS has started systematic approach to quality management with the adoption of the European Code of Practice and with the decision to implement TQM. This process is still in course.

Data base for storing information for the purpose of assessing data quality has been developing.

Overall quality of SPPI indicators is good. Quality is achieved:

• by complying with methodological recommendations,
• by applying manual and automatic controls on reported data,
• by comparing results with results from previous periods and with other countries and other statistical areas. 

User needs are considered almost fully met. Users of the SPPI are:

1. Internal CBS user:

• National Accounts 
• Structural Business Statistics

2. External users:

• Eurostat: Use a selection of Croatian SPPIs in the construction of an aggregate of services sector price index for all EU member states.
• National Bank
• Government
• Research institutions
• Media
• Enterprises.

There is a good cooperation with national accounts as a main users of SPPIs. Also, all questions from users are answered but there is no sistematic way to monitor user satisfaction.

According to STS Regulation there is one service activity that is not covered by SPPI (M712 Technical testing and analysis) but CBS will be develop in 2023 and disseminate in 2024. 

Some service activities are still in experimental phase and are not ready to be published.

Other services activities are regularly published and sent to Eurostat.

Accorging to new EBS Regulation there is more services activity that has to be included. Service activities that are still not completely developed under SPPI are: H49, H52, I55, I56, J60, L68, M74, N77, N81. Most of these activites were developed in 2022 and disseminated in 2023 and M74,N81 will be develop in 2023.  

These activities will be developed during the next year. For some activities SPPI survey will be developed and for some activities appproximation will be made.

CBS does not measure difference between indices calculated with the real population value.

It is generaly considered that SPPIs are unbiased and accurate.

The main source of errors are:

• out of date information in Business Register - influence on the quality of sample frame - coverage errors
• misunderstanding of price questionnaires
• errors in data editing
• non-response
• dealing with quality changes in services

Indices are not subject to revisions.  

Most of SPPI surveys are based on a cut-off method where 60% to 70% of total turnover of that service activity is covered.

In just a few SPPI surveys PPS sample is used. Those are service activities where there is a lot of small units.

Sample error is not measured due to lack of resources. 

The main source of errors is the degree of the accuracy of sample frame and non-response. Non-response amounts 10% on average.

Fixed quantity indices may contain a bias as a result from the entry of new services or if significant changes occure in the service structures and weights by industries. The bias caused by new service is minimised by adding new service to the ones monitored with the index.

The SPPIs' objective is to measure pure price movements, so changes in the quality must be  taken into consideration during the index calculation. This is the main challenge in index calculation, so quality changes are very carefully monitored and treated. Two methods are frequently used: overlaping method and carrying forward method in order to find the price difference equal to the quality difference of the service. If the data are not obtained in two periods, new service is selected.

Data collected on prices sometimes are considered as confidential by the reporting units which influences on non-response rate. 

During the survey conduction great number of units are found not in the scope of the survey.

In order to update the sample frame and in order to give a feedback to the Statistical Business Register, based on the information from the survey, units from the sample are classified as:

• 0 - runs business, refuse to report the data
• 1 - runs business, report submitted
• 2 - stopped running the business
• 3 - does not perform any service activities
• 4 - dormant unit
• 5 - bankruptcy
• 6 - undeliverable
• 7 - does not perform specified service activity but some other service activity
• 8 - paid by the state, unprofitable organisation
• 9 - organizational changes (merge, splits etc.)

Double checks and error listings of input data are used to avoid processing errors.

Results are published no later than 90 days after the reference quarter.

Indices are regularly calculated and sent to Eurostat on quarterly basis.

Reference period-Date of publishing

1st quarter 2022-30/6/2022

2nd quarter 2022-30/9/2022

3rd quarter 2022-30/12/2022

4th quarter 2022-30/3/2023 

There is no time lag between the actual delivery of the data to Eurostat and the target date when it should have been delivered.No definition available for this concept

Same statistical concepts are applied in the entire national territory: there is no problem of geographical comparability.

Data are also comparable with other member states because the methodology is based on the same regulations.

Data series for 7 SPPIs developed so far have been compiled from 2006 and are comparable over time (NACE H51, H521, H501_H502, H5224, H531, J61 and N80).

Other are available from 2010 and some from 2015.

All data series are comparable.

Price movements for several activities in which private consumers are significant are cross-checked with CPI indices like in Regular Air Passenger Transport (NACE H51) and Sea and Coastal Passenger Water Transport (NACE H501).

SPPI indices are internally coherent.

For all NACE areas the same definitions of turnover and output prices are used.

Cost is presented in working hours of CBS staff that is spent on the compilation of producer price index and it is approximately 2500 hours per year. It includes work of 8 persons on 23 rugular surveys and 5 pilot surveys.

Burden for reporting units is available  for 25 SPPI surveys which are conducted via Internet survey.

Reporting units give information on time they spent to fill out the questionnaire only in first quarter of the year.

There is no official revision policy on the level of CBS. The "de facto revision policy" used for this survey includes:

- for mayor revisions (such as change of base year) -all series are recalculated but changes are not announced in advance. Explanations are given when new data are published.

- if errors occur, corrected data are published as soon as possible or in the next issue of the published. 

The same revision policy is applied nationally and in transmission to Eurostat.  

The data as indices in original, non-adjusted form are in general calculated and transmitted to Eurostat as final.

The exception could occur for data for the first quarter of the year when new sample is drawn and the results are provided before all units from the new sample respond.

If error on data occurs, corrected data are transmitted with the next delivery of data. The same revision is applied internally and transmitted to Eurostat.

The source for SPPI  is in most cases statistical survey. Most of these surveys are web based surveys. In case of J61 Telecommunication sercices, the source is regulatory body.

For statistical surveys the frame is derived from Statistical Business Register. 

The surveys on SPPIs are conducted either by using census (for NACE H51 and J61), cut-off method (for NACE H501_H502, H521, H5224, H53, J58, J59, J62_J63, N732, N78, N79, N80, N812, N82) or sample method (for NACE H494, M691_M692, M702, M711, M731).

The sample is updated every year.

Data are in general collected on quarterly basis.

For NACE H51 data are collected monthly.

Quarterly questionnaires are used, mostly web questionnaires, in some cases paper questionnaires, and in few cases excel tables sent via e-mail. In future it is planned to convert those paper questionnaires in web questionnaires.

Actions taken to speed up or increase the rate of response: automatic reminders sent through the web application, re-contact by mail or by e-mail (written reminders), telephone contacts.

There is an automatic control during the entering data into the SPPI web aplication. At data entry essential errors are identified which force responding unit or administrator to eliminate them, if not the data could not be successfully send to database.

The main checkings are looking for and dealing with the large fluctuations in prices between curent and previous period and with the influence of quality changes on the price movement.

The Statistical Business Register is in general used as a frame for sample selection.

Unit non-response and item non-response are treated by data editing (imputed). 

In the index calculation first step is calculation of elementary indices as a ratio of the geometric mean of the prices collected in the observed quarter and the last quarter of the previous year.

Elementary indices are aggregated by weighted arithmetic mean. Values of turnover are used for weights. The main source for weights is the SPPI survey itself. Weights (turnovers) are collected for each service group for each enterprise for previous year.

Missing prices are estimated as an average change of the rest of prices of the service group (branch).

Indices are calculated in original, non-adjusted form.

Not available.