Statistics Finland

Information and Statistical Services

FI-00022 Statistics Finland

21 January 2026

21 January 2026

21 January 2026

See concept 3.1 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

Organisation and resources

Statistics Finland is the institution responsible for the European Comparison Programme for the compilation of Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) in Finland. 

In this chapter we have described briefly how the national PPP exercise is organised in our office. 

This PPP inventory has been drafted by several experts from Statistics Finland. The experts have drafted the text related to their own statistical domains like rents, salaries and construction. The national PPP coordinator has acted as a main editor.

Statistics Finland's activity and finances are steered by the Director General. 

The activity is organised into four service areas: 1. Information and Statistical Services 2. Development and Digitalisation 3. Partnership and Ecosystem Relations and 4. Enabling Services. 

Social Statistics

Statistics Finland is responsible for the European Comparison Programme for the compilation of Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs).   

Social Statistics Department covers following statistical groups: 1. Working life and livelihood 2. Population and justice 3. Prices and built environment
4. Education and transport. The Social Statistics Department employs a permanent staff of 95 persons, comprising experts and office staff.

The Social Statistics Department conducts price collection and validation of data for consumer price surveys in Finland. The department also conducts the Rent Survey for the Article 64 of the Staff Regulations. For the price collections from outlets the Social Statistics Department has at its disposal a team of price surveyors from the group “Interview data collections” of the service area Enabling Services. 

PPP team 

Firstly, in everyday life in the office both versions PPP team and ECP team are used. The team possesses extensive and thorough experience in all the activities specified for the consumer goods surveys.

The current PPP team consists of four members, each with extensive experience in the field.

The team leader has been involved in PPP-related work since 1992. Another member has contributed to the team since 1999, coinciding with a major reform in economic price comparisons. A third member brings expertise in international consumer price comparisons, having worked in this area since 2003, while the fourth joined the team in 2014.

All team members hold university degrees, in line with the qualifications of professionals working on the PPP exercise at the national statistical office. Collectively, the team possesses in-depth knowledge of PPP methodologies, including price data collection, validation (both domestic and cross-country), and the calculation and analysis of statistical outputs.

Following an organisational restructuring, the PPP team has been part of the "Prices and Built Environment" unit since early 2026. Current workload allocations for PPP tasks are as follows:

• Two members dedicate 30% and 70% of their working time, respectively.
• The remaining two members work on PPP-related duties on a full-time basis.

Steering Group for prices and costs indices

The Finnish PPP Coordinator is responsible for the management and for the execution of the contracts including the PPP grant agreements. He approves all outputs and reports and is the prime external interface with the European Commission.

In 2013 the Steering Group for prices and costs indices was created. The Finnish PPP Coordinator is a member of this group. The Steering Group has extensive knowledge about EU requirements and their practical implementation.  One of the main goals of the Steering Group is to monitor progress and provide support for all price and cost statistics including PPPs.  

PPP price collection from outlets

For PPP price collections from outlets the PPP team has at its disposal a team of price surveyors from the group “Interview data collections” of the service area Enabling Services. Nowadays the policy of Statistics Finland is to use transaction data and internet price collection as much as possible. Visits to outlets are more an exception than the norm.  

Training for price collectors prior to the price collections is always organised. During the training the price collectors receive all the related survey material. The product groups are often divided for the price collectors. In this way each of them can specialise in certain product groups.

During the price collection the price collectors contact the office experts, in other words the PPP team, when needed. Besides training prior to the price collection, the follow-up sessions afterwards are at least as important. It is essential to give feedback to the price collectors about their work. At the same time, the PPP team can get useful information about the difficulties encountered during the execution of the price collection. After the price collection a specific feedback meeting is held as well. 

Equipment goods 

For equipment goods survey two permanent employees belonging to the Data Resources department of the service area Information and Statistical Services are employed. The equipment goods survey is co-ordinated by an external contractor, to which Eurostat has outsourced this part of the exercise.

In many cases the importer is also the main dealer, when we are dealing with the equipment goods. Especially so is for heavy equipment. In these cases the supplier of information is the importer. In cases, where there are clear organisations of resellers, the prices are collected from them, as this represents the real purchasing event and thus the real market price. With smaller items, such as tools and computers, the information is collected from various sources, like hardware stores and specialised stores. More and more, these prices can be collected from the internet where the price data is continuously updated.

The importers are contacted mainly by e-mail and phone.  Resellers are also contacted in the same fashion but whenever it has been possible to use internet, we have done so.

Some of the prices for equipment goods can be in theory obtained for the PPP purposes through our Producer Price Index. Producer Price Indices measure the development of commodity prices from the perspective of enterprises. The Producer Price Indices comprise five separately produced indices, which measure price development differently because the used price concepts and the covered industries vary by index. The coverage of industries and the applied price concept vary somewhat by index. The item lists have been so far very different for PPP and PPI purposes. 

Rents

The Housing Price Team (in the group “Prices and built environment” in Social Statistics) provides data for a price approach in the PPP rent survey. Data are collected from the Social Insurance Institution's register of housing allowances and total rents of the two major private rental housing companies.   

The data needed for a quantity approach is obtained from the housing stock statistics. This statistics is compiled in the Social Statistics Department too.   

In the National Accounts the main data sources used for calculation purposes are rent statistics, housing stock statistics and the Household Budget Survey.

Salaries

Since 2020 wages, salaries and labour costs have been a part of the department of Social Statistics. From 2026 on our salary expert has belonged to the group “Working life and livelihood”.

The statistics on Central Government Monthly Salaries describe the earnings and numbers of employees in the service relationships that are valid on the last day of November and are remunerated within the framework of the national budget. The basic data for these statistics are derived from the State’s Personnel Register maintained by The Finnish Government Shared Services Centre for Finance and HR (Palkeet).

The statistics on Local Government Sector Wages and Salaries describe the earnings and numbers of local government employees. The data derive from an inquiry of Statistics Finland concerning monthly and hourly paid local government employees to which municipalities and joint municipal boards report data annually on their employment contracts and wage and salary amounts valid on 1 October.  

Construction Trends (CT)

The task of the Construction team is to produce statistics on construction trends, the built environment and manufacturing trends. The team belongs to the “Prices and built environment” in Social Statistics Department.

Statistics on construction trends and the built environment are production of new buildings and dwellings, indices of owner-occupied housing prices, prices of dwellings in housing companies, volume index of building production, current and fixed price value of newbuilding, price index of newbuilding. Newbuilding also covers expansions of existing buildings. In addition, the Unit produces statistics on the turnover and wage bill of construction, building costs, real estate maintenance costs, and renovation of buildings.

The Prices and Construction team is responsible for the construction projects survey for the PPP exercise in Finland. 

The construction projects survey has been put out to tender for years.  From 2007 on the survey has been outsourced to a specific company. 

National Accounts

National Accounts is a statistical system that describes Finland’s national economy comprehensively, systematically, and precisely. The PPP prices should be consistent with the methods of valuation used to estimate final expenditure on GDP. Accordingly, the National Accounts group of the Economic Statistics Department provides support to the PPP team in questions regarding consistency. 

Moreover, the National Accounts group reports details of the Finnish final expenditure on GDP for PPP purposes to Eurostat. 

Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) 

The Consumer Price Index describes development in the prices of products and services purchased by households in Finland. The Consumer Price Index is used as a general measure of inflation. The Consumer Price Index is calculated with a method in which the prices of different commodities are weighed together with their shares of consumption. The calculation of the index follows Laspeyres’ price index formula whereby the shares of consumption used as the weights relate to the base period. Consumer price indices that are reviewed at intervals of a fixed number of years are suitable for short-term examinations. From the user’s point of view, the Cost-of-living Index is the most practical, because index revisions do not interrupt the series. The Cost-of-living Index 1951:10=100 is a long time series calculated by chaining from the latest Consumer Price Index 2015=100, for which reason its development follows the Consumer Price Index. The point figures are published monthly at the same time as the Consumer Price Index. The index adjustment of rental agreements on dwellings, business premises and land can be tied to the Cost-of-living Index.

In addition to their national Consumer Price Index, the Member States of the European Union also produce a Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices. Its main purpose is to enable comparisons of inflation between the EU Member States. The European Central Bank uses the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices as the measure of inflation in its monetary policy. Calculation of the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices is guided by EU Regulations. Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union, calculates the European Index of Consumer Prices and the Monetary Union Index of Consumer Prices by weighting together the Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices calculated by the Member States. The Finnish Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices is mainly based on the same price data and national accounts data as the Finnish national Consumer Price Index. The development of the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices deviates slightly from that of the national consumer price indices, because it includes fewer commodities. In the Harmonised Index of Consumer Price, the concept of consumption excludes owner-occupancy, games of chance, interests and tax-like payments. Its coverage of the national Consumer Price Index is therefore slightly less than 85 per cent.

Social Statistics department provides, by the PPP-team, Eurostat with monthly temporal adjustment factors as well as spatial adjustment factors with which the capital survey prices can be converted to national annual prices. The temporal adjustment factors for PPP exercise have been extracted from the Consumer Price Index database.

The PPP team co-ordinates the provision of CPI-subindices for PPP exercise at Statistics Finland. Most of the template is pre-filled with HICP data and the CPI staff fill in the empty cells with CPI data for BH A25.06.1.1.0 Medicines. These figures are based on transaction data and are according to full price concept. For BH A25.06.1.2.0 figures for higher aggregate (061) are used as the BH is not part of the Finnish CPI.

Spatial adjustment factors

Statistics Finland shall provide Eurostat with spatial adjustment factors with which the capital survey prices are converted to national annual prices. Research on the regional price differences has been among the primary development challenges for the Finnish PPP work.  More details will follow in the chapter  “SAFs for other product groups”.

Hospital services

There is an agreement between Statistics Finland and National Institute for Health and Welfare. The agreement concerns also the data submission for the hospital services surveys. National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) is a research and development institute under the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

See concept 3.2 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

See concept 3.3 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

See concept 3.4 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

See concept 3.5 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

See concept 3.6 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

The whole country.

See concept 3.8 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

Not applicable, because PPPs (Purchasing power parities) are primarily spatial indicators.

See concept 4 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

See concept 5 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

See concept 6.1 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

See concept 6.2 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

Statistics Finland:

According to the Statistics Act, Statistics Finland has the right to release confidential personal data for statistics compilation to another statistical authority, which are the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finnish Customs and the Natural Resources Institute Finland. Data are also released to the Statistical Office of the European Union, Eurostat.

Data collected for statistical purposes can be released for scientific research. Releasing is always done so that individuals cannot be directly identified from the data. A significant part of research data are used in Statistics Finland's remote access system, when the data are held by Statistics Finland and a researcher processes the data through remote access.

Confidential data may never be released for use in administrative decision-making, investigation, surveillance, legal proceedings or similar purposes.

Further information about research use of data is available on the research services’ microdata pages.

Statistics Finland's data security principles

Data are handled only by persons who need the data in their work. The use of data is restricted by usage rights. All persons employed by Statistics Finland have signed a pledge of secrecy, where they have obliged to keep secret the data prescribed as confidential by virtue of the Statistics Act or the Act on the Openness of Government Activities.

Researchers handling Statistics Finland's data also sign a pledge of secrecy.

Legislation

The compilation of statistics is steered by the Statistics Act (280/2004).  Alongside the Statistics Act, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation EU 2016/679You are moving to another service. and the national Data Protection Act will be applied to the processing of personal data.

Confidentiality of data collected for statistical purposes is decreed in the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999)You are moving to another service.

In addition, statistics compilation is steered by the EU Regulation on European statistics.

The PPP exercise is a multilateral statistical undertaking, in which the quality on each country's results is depending on all the other participating countries as well as on its own data. Therefore, it is important that all input data is available, for validation purposes, to all NSIs involved. Since individual price observations are confidential, only average prices are exchanged among countries for this purpose.

Statistics Finland:

According to Section 22 in the Statistics Act an authority producing statistics may outsource parts of tasks or auxiliary tasks related to the different stages of statistics production to an outside contractor. When considering the use and terms of such subcontracts, and making control arrangements for them, special attention shall be paid to matters concerning protection of private life and personal data and business or professional secret.

This section 22 has been taken into account in the contract between Statistics Finland and Haahtela-kehitys Ltd to which the construction part has been outsourced. The contract specifies that a party in service of an authority must not disclose any confidential statistical or other information it has obtained in the service of the authority. The provision on non-disclosure also applies after the performance of the task on behalf of the authority has ceased. When an agreement is being drawn up, it must also be ensured that the provider of the outside service knows the legal obligations that will bind him and that persons in the service of the provider of the outside service are also committed to these obligations.

No data concerning an individual outlet are disclosed so that the outlet can be identified. The data are published as index-format statistics at product group level. Individual outlets or products cannot be identified on the basis of the data.

ECP data

Even if national statistical offices have access to results at the basic heading level, they are not allowed to publish or disseminate results at level below that given in Eurostat’s public database. Requests for further access are granted by Eurostat. 

Regarding the procedures to protect confidentiality of the basic data from other countries all the general data protection rules are applied. All the main rules are contained in the Statistics Act, the Personal Data Act and the EU Regulation on Community Statistics.

First estimates of PPPs and related indicators for the preceding year are released in June each year. In December, these indicators are recalculated and released for the three preceding years

As of 2022, Eurostat publishes in March for the preceding year a GDP PPP flash estimate for the EU27.

Not applicable

In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

The data to be published are screened and approved by the participating countries.

Statistics Finland: 

Statistics Finland publishes new statistical data at 8 am on weekdays in its web service. The release times of statistics are given in advance in the release calendar available in the web service. The data are public after they have been updated in the web service.

See concept 9 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

PPPs are compiled on an annual basis. Twice a year, in June and December, the most recent price survey results and national accounts data are incorporated into the calculation. The PPPs, PLIs and volume indices for GDP, its main sub-aggregates and a selected number of categories are published in Eurostat's dissemination database. 

News releases published online in June and December each year, focusing on volume indices per capita at the level of Actual Individual Consumption or price level indices for household final consumption expenditure

News item on the PPP flash estimate published online in March each year.

News releases on:

• AIC per capita in PPS, twice per year
• PLIs for household final consumption expenditure, annual

"Statistics Explained" articles:

• Comparative price levels for food, beverages and tobacco
• Comparative price levels for investment
• Comparative price levels of consumer goods and services
• GDP per capita, consumption per capita and price level indices

Dedicated section on PPPs

PPPs for a given year (t) are published in four steps: 

• After t+6 months: First preliminary results, based on extrapolations from year t-1 and on the new data for year t that are available at that time (nowcast);
  
  
• After t+12 months: Preliminary results, incorporating all new price and expenditure data of year t;

• After t+24 months: Revised preliminary results, incorporating the most recent expenditure estimates; 

• After t+36 months: Final results for year t. These results are "final" in the sense that there will be no further updates when countries revise their National Accounts estimates. 

The PPP domain of Eurostat's database can be accessed under "Economy and finance" - "Prices" - "Purchasing power parities" (prc_ppp). It contains the indicators listed in 3.1.

Of course, we can serve our customers in more details using Eurostat’s database available in Eurostat’s website.

Starting in 2009, Eurostat publishes the comparative price levels of goods and services for household consumption, to be released each year in June. Every third year, the comparative price level of food, beverages and tobacco is published. These releases are issued in Finnish in our website normally during the same day Eurostat has published them. In the case of public holidays, there might be one or two days delays.  

See concept 10.4 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

Not applicable

The latest version of the "EUROSTAT-OECD Methodological manual on purchasing power parities" is available online. 

See concept 10.7 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

All data provided by participating countries undergo a detailed multilateral validation process, described in detail in the PPP Manual (see 10.6).

Statistics Finland: 

Quality management requires comprehensive guidance of activities. The quality management framework of the field of statistics is the European Statistics Code of Practice (CoP). The quality criteria of Official Statistics of Finland are also compatible with the European Statistics Code of Practice.

Further information: Quality management | Statistics Finland (stat.fi)

Statistics Finland conducts statistical audits to ensure the high quality of the statistics. The international price comparison statistics were audited in the autumn of 2018.

At European level, the PPP Regulation requires Eurostat to assess the PPP processes of each EU Member State at least once every six years and to publish the results of these assessments on the Eurostat website. The outcome of these assessments are released on Eurostat's website.

Statistics Finland: 

Eurostat carries out an assessment visit to each participating country at least once every six years to ensure that the implementation of the requirements of the PPP Regulation meets the high quality standards. Eurostat carried out an assessment visit to Statistics Finland in October 2015 and in December 2024. 

See concept 12.1 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

See concept 12.2 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

All indicators are calculated and published.

See concept 13.1 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

See the concept 13.2 of the 6 different Inventories (Consumer goods Inventory : PPP_CGSES_A, Housing Services Inventory : PPP_RENTSES_A, Compensation of Government Employees Inventory : PPP_SALARES_A, Hospital Services Inventory : PPP_HOSPES_A, Equipment Goods Inventory : PPP_EQIPMES_A and Construction Inventory : PPP_CNSTES_A).

See the concept 13.3 of the 6 different Inventories (Consumer goods Inventory : PPP_CGSES_A, Housing Services Inventory : PPP_RENTSES_A, Compensation of Government Employees Inventory : PPP_SALARES_A, Hospital Services Inventory : PPP_HOSPES_A, Equipment Goods Inventory : PPP_EQIPMES_A and Construction Inventory : PPP_CNSTES_A).

See concept 14.1 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

See concept 14.2 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

See concept 15.1 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

See concept 15.2 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

See concept 15.3 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

Not applicable

Not applicable.

See concept 17.1 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

Not applicable, cf. 17.1.

See concept 18.1 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

See concept 18.2 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms 

See concept 18.3 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms 

See concept 18.4 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms 

See concept 18.5 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms.

See concept 18.6 of the Eurostat metadata file prc_ppp_esms