National Institute of Statistics (Istat)

Directorate for Economic Statistics (DCSE)
Division for Statistics on Production and Foreign Trade (SEB)

Via Tuscolana, 1788

00173 Rome Italy

Services producer price indices (SPPIs) measure quarterly changes in the prices of services provided by enterprises to other enterprises and to persons representing enterprises. They cover business-to-business transactions (BtoB), thus leaving out sales to private consumers. They are used as a deflator too.

NACE Rev. 2.

CPA 2.1

Main and secondary activities of the NACE Rev. 2 industries covered:

in Section H: H49.4; H50.1+H50.2 (sum); H51; H52.1; H52.24; H53.1; H53.2; in Section J: J61; J62; J63.1; J63.9;

in Section M: M69.1+M69.2+M70.2 (sum); M71; M73;

in Section N: N78; N80; N81.2.

List and definition of variables:

Output prices for services delivered to customers that are enterprises or persons representing enterprises are collected (Business-to-Business).

Domestic and non-domestic services are monitored.

The prices are the effective transaction prices reflecting the revenue received by the producer for services actually sold to customers. They exclude taxes (VAT) whereas they include subsidies on products received by the producer.

Moreover, they take into account any applicable discounts, rebates, surcharges, etc. applied to the customers.

 Planned changes in the information collected:

None

Accounting conventions:

By definition, the prices are the effective transaction prices reflecting the revenue received by the producer for services actually sold to customers. They exclude taxes (VAT) whereas they include subsidies on products received by the producer; discounts, rebates and surcharges applied to the customers.

Data refer to calendar quarter.

Reporting unit: Service enterprise

Observation unit(s): Enterprise’ activities (primary or secondary) according to service products sold in CPA classes/categories are observation units.

Italian Business Register (SBS) according to the NACE Rev. 2 Groups/Classes activities listed above is used as the sampling frame for SPPI:

H49.4; H50.1+H50.2 (sum); H51; H52.1; H52.24; H53.1; H53.2; J61; J62; J63.1; J63.9; M69.1+M69.2+M70.2 (sum); M71; M73; N78; N80; N81.2.

Indices have been developed independently for service sectors, which is why the used sampling method varies by sector. For the majority of NACE sectors covered, reporting units have been selected by non-probabilistic sampling (cut-off method); for few sectors, reporting units have been selected by probabilistic sampling.

Whole national territory

Date of first use as a source:

2006 for H53; H53.1; H53.2; J61; J61.1; J61.2; 69.1; 69.2.

2010 for all the others activities.

The indexes are chain-type indexes.

Reference period: 2021=100

Base period: The base period of the index of year y is the fourth quarter of the previous year y-1.

Indices, percentage changes (%)

Quarter

Legal basis:

National level: This is one of the compulsory surveys fixed every year by a Decree of the President of the Republic (D.P.R.). European level:

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;

Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/1003 of 18 June 2021 granting derogations to certain Member States with respect to the transmission of statistics pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197; 

Council Regulation No 1165/1998 of 19 May 1998 introducing short-term statistics at European level;

Council Regulation No1158/2005 amending Regulation 1165/98 introducing the European sample schemes, industrial import prices, output prices for services and other changes;

Commission Regulation 1503/2006 defining variables and frequency of data compilation, repealing new orders received for building construction and new orders received for civil engineering.

Obligation on units to provide data: Surveys are mandatory. Penalties are foreseen for non-response.

Planned changes in legal basis, obligation to respond and frame used: None.

Data on producer price index of services are transmitted only to Eurostat.

Several national legal acts guarantee the confidentiality of data requested for statistical purposes.

According to Art. 9, paragraph 1 of the Legislative Decree n. 322 of 1989, personal data can only be disseminated in aggregate form, in order to make it impossible to identify individuals.

The Personal Data Protection Code introduced by the Legislative Decree No. 196 of 30 June 2003 and the Legislative  Decree no. 101 of 19 September 2018 (General Data Protection Regulation) provides special rules concerning the processing of personal data for statistical purposes within the National Statistical System (Sistan).

Further, in order to make statistical secrecy and protection of personal data effective, Istat is currently taking appropriate organizational, logistical, methodological and statistical measures in accordance with internationally established standards.

Links to relevant legal acts on statistics are also listed on the website of Sistan (htttp://www.sistan.it).

Survey elementary data are treated as confidential. Aggregated data are disseminated in IstatData Some variables can be transmitted to Eurostat as confidential when they are not disseminated in Italy.

Press release calendar: Press release calendar 

Data are released simultaneously to all interested parties by issuing the press release on producer prices. There is no pre-release access. The press release (Italian version and short English version) is subsequently posted on the Istat's website.

Data are also sent to Eurostat according to the required standards by EDAMIS using SDMX format to Eurostat at the same time as the quarterly data release. The information is also used for quarterly and annual National Accounts.

Quarterly

Quarterly press release.   Press release archive

Indices are published in theItalian Statistical Yearbook.

Data are disseminated in IstatData, the Italian National Institute of Statistics data warehouse – category Prices.

IstatData’s online database is open and free of charge, the statistics are organized by categories and themes. The data are presented in aggregate form in multidimensional tables. By acting on variables, reference periods and the arrangement of heads and sides, users can create custom tables and charts. Data sets can be searched by keyword, theme and region. The platform uses the open-source tools "Data Browser" and "Meta & Data Manager" developed by Istat (https://sdmxistattoolkit.github.io) following the international standard SDMX (Statistical Data and Metadata exchange) for the exchange and sharing of statistical data and metadata.

More information is available in the User Guide.

Before data dissemination, validated microdata are stored in the repository of the Institute, ARMIDA.

The ARMIDA repository (Archive of validated microdata) was established with the main objective of preserving and documenting the data produced by Istat surveys, and has subsequently supported the objective of disseminating data. The data archived in ARMIDA, in fact, supply the different channels for the dissemination of microdata (for internal use at the Institute through the "Memorandum of access to microdata of ARMIDA "internal users", for authorities in Sistan, for research files, for standard files, etc.).

Data are sent to Eurostat according to the required standards by EDAMIS using SDMX format. Eurostat receives embargoed data in advance of its publishing date.

Description of the methodology and characteristics of the survey is contained in the methodological note attached to the press release updated regularly.

A more detailed description on methodology and sources for the compilation of indices is reported in the Information System for Survey Documentation and Quality Control (SIQual). This system manages qualitative information related to every single phase of a survey's production process.

More information about procedures applied for quality management and quality assessment in the document Quality Guidelines for Statistical Process December 2012. 

The quality assurance framework is based on the contents of the document "Quality guidelines for statistical process”, December 2012.

Istat reference framework for quality policies relies on the European Statistics Code of Practice adopted in 2005 (last revised in 2017), on the Eurostat Quality Definition and on the recommendations of the LEG on Quality. The Data Quality Assessment Framework, developed by the International Monetary Fund, also represents an important reference. Following the principles of the European Statistics Code of Practice, Italy has adopted the Italian Code of Official Statistics in order to promote quality improvements of the statistics produced by the Italian National Statistical System. (Directive No 12/COMSTAT in Italian Official Journal No. 23, General Series of 29 January 2022).

In accordance with Eurostat Quality Definition, the requirements of statistical products are:

•  to be relevant with regard to users’ information needs;
• to be accurate, that is to provide estimates or indicators that are as reliable as possible;
• to be timely catching the phenomena to be observed;
• to be easily accessible and supported by metadata allowing for a fully understanding of the data;
• to enable comparisons over time or among different sources.

A description of methodology and sources used in preparing statistics is also contained in the Information System for Survey Documentation and Quality Control (SIQual).

Data meet the quality criteria of relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, coherence and accessibility. They are computed according to the recommendations of the Methodological guide for developing producer price indices for services (OECD/Eurostat) and the Produce Price Index Manual: Theory and Practice (IMF) as well.

Methodological Guide For Developing Producer Price Indices For Services

Producer Price Index Manual: Theory and Practice

Main users are:

•   Institutions: government departments, ECB, national central bank, international organizations, etc.
•   Social actors: employers' organizations, trade unions, lobby groups, etc.
•   Media
•   Researchers & students
•   Enterprises/businesses
•   Internal users
•   Eurostat

Requirements according to EU regulations and national laws are fulfilled.

Samples are designed with the cut-off method for the majority of NACE sectors covered. Accuracy can be evaluated relying on the non-sampling error component; component referring to sampling errors is not measured.

Non-sampling errors are reduced or eliminated in the collection phase using an electronic questionnaire that helps both debugging and aiming at an increase of the response rate of enterprises. Data check procedure is as well very effective. The response rate is very high for each NACE sector.

Not applicable/measured as a non-probability sampling method (cut-off) is used for the majority of NACE sectors covered.

The response rate varies from 80% to 100%, according to the different NACE classes.
To speed up and increase the rate of response, about one month after the end of the reference period reminders are sent to non-respondents by sending priority mail to listed addresses. Non-respondents are also contacted directly by phone more than once.

Not applicable, only national level.

It is possible to compare the results of some SPPIs activities with the corresponding ones of the turnover index or the consumer price index but these cross-checks often can give different results because the indexes are computed according to different targets and methodologies.

SPPIs are internally coherent. Each SPPI is computed as weighted average mean (Laspeyres type index) of sub-indexes, therefore internal coherence is straightforward. Moreover the coherence is achieved annually updating weights (indexes are annually chain linked).

The cost estimate is compiled in terms of total number of hours worked (THW). It is equal to the product of three terms: (total) Annual Working Days (AWD), (total) Hours Worked per Day (HWD), Number of Persons involved in the Survey (NPS).

The burden estimate is compiled in terms of total number of minutes (TNM) taken to fill in the (web) questionnaire. The burden is applied to respondent, i.e. the person who fills in the questionnaire on behalf of the enterprise. To estimate it, two elements have been taken into account. The former distinguishes between beginner and expert respondent, to point out respectively the person who fills in the web questionnaire for the first time and the one who is familiar with filling in the form. The latter, closely concerns the information that have to be  provided. On average, by combining these two elements, the time spent to fill in the questionnaire (just the burden) is estimated in terms of total number of minutes between a minimum and a maximum threshold.

Quarterly, final data are disseminated as indices.
Major changes in methodology are announced in ad hoc publications.
Advance notification of methodological changes is also provided through seminars and papers disseminated throughout the scientific community.
Any unplanned revisions are communicated to the users in a transparent manner.
The same revision policy is applied nationally and in transmissions to Eurostat.

At present time, Services producer price indices are both not revised and both not seasonal adjusted.
Final data are published about 60 days after the end of the reference quarter. 

Data are collected through a statistical survey or are obtained from an administrative DB.

SBS is used as a frame. The survey is conducted on the basis of a sample (based both non-probabilistic design – for the majority of NACE sectors – and on probabilistic one).

Criteria for stratification:

-  Non-probabilistic design: the sample is drawn by a turnover cut-off (with a census above the cut-off). The chosen threshold guarantees a good/sufficient coverage in terms of turnover;

-  Probabilistic design: enterprise turnover is used to create strata in which enterprises are chosen with a probabilistic approach.

The questionnaires are different according to the economic sector they refer to collected through a web portal called Portale Imprese.

Respondents need to login for insert data in the web questionnaire.

Index Calculation

For all NACE Rev. 2 activities, chained Laspeyres indexes are compiled.

Weights

The weights structure for each service and each enterprise is defined by the BtoB turnover information given by the enterprise itself. Each enterprise is turnover that declares in the questionnaire.

Estimates for non-response