State Data Agency (Statistics Lithuania)

Price Statistics Division

29 Gedimino Ave., LT-01500 Vilnius, Lithuania

The objective of Import price index (IPI) is to calculate the overall price change over a certain period of time for imported goods to Lithuanian Republic territory. The unit weight and imported good price changes are published over a month, year and from beginning of the year. The statistical information is published in accordance with  Statistical Classification of Products by Activity in the European Economic Community (CPA 2.1) divisions (2-digit level), sections (1-letter level) and general IPI, also by Main Industrial Groupings at the national level.

Combined Nomenclature (CN);

Classification of Products by Activity (CPA 2.1);

Classification of Products and Services (PGPK);

Nomenclature of Countries and Territories. 

All activities belonging to Sections A to J of CPA 2.1 (sections B to D for variable A340 and sections A to J for local data users).

Detailed definitions of each indicator are described in the Commission Regulation 461/2012.

IPI is a relative indicator measuring the overall change in prices for goods purchased by the residents of the country from abroad over a certain period of time.

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 CPA 2.1 product heading, i.e. the selected reporting units should cover more than 50 percent of import in the respective CPA 2.1 product heading. Small enterprises with less than 4 persons employed are not covered.

The entire territory of the country. Activities outside the Lithuanian territory are not included in the data.

Time series cover the period back to 2006. 

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

Indices, percentage changes (%).

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.

Data on IPI are transmitted only to Eurostat.

Law on Official Statistics;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.

In the process of statistical data collection, processing and analysis and dissemination of statistical information, Statistics Lithuania fully guarantees the 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-153 of 17 June 2022 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 State Data Agency. The data are released simultaneously to all interested parties.

IPI is produced and disseminates monthly.

Message is published in a news release on rates of change in prices of import goods on the 45^th  day after the end of the reporting month at 9 a.m.

IPI is published in the following publications of Statistics Lithuania State Data Agency: Lithuania in Figures.

The Database of Statistical Indicators provides the monthly IPI (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→Import price index, price changes and index weights)

Statistics Lithuania may, on the basis of contracts concluded with higher education institutions or research institutes, provide statistical data to researchers of these higher education institutions and research institutes to carry out specific statistical analyses for research purposes. Statistical data are provided in accordance with the provisions specified in the Description of Procedure for Data Depersonalisation and Pseudonymisation. More information is available on the Official Statistics Portal, in the section Data Provision.

Data are sent to Eurostat.

A complete description of the methodology used to compile the IPI is published on the Official Statistics Portal: Methodological documentation (only in Lithuanian).

Quality indicators for IPI 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 and ESS Quality Assurance Framework. In 2019, a quality management system, conforming with the requirements of the international quality management system standard ISO 9001:2015, was introduced at Statistics Lithuania and in 2022 it  was re-certified for the sixth time in turn according to the ISO 9001:2015 version. On 24 August 2018 the Statistics Lithuania was certified in accordance with LST EN ISO / IEC 27001: 2017 standard for the first time. 

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 are the Bank of Lithuania, State and Municipal Institutions, Agencies, International Organizations, the Media, Business and Academia, students whose needs are satisfied without a breach of the confidentiality principle.

From 2005, user opinion surveys have been conducted on a regular basis. 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 State Data Agency of Lithuania website.

Statistical information compatible with the Regulation and published in accordance with the classification levels.

IPI is published according to the CPA 2.1 divisions (2-digit level), sections (1-letter level) and all-items IPI, also by the Main Industrial Groupings at the national level. Comparable data are available since 2006. All-items IPI is published according Euro area and non Euro area since 2010.

Data collection is based on a sample from enterprices. Data is collected by web questionnaire and obtained from the Foreign trade statistics database, using the data validation rules. Received IPI results are analyzed, looking for errors, which may affect the final results. Monthly price changes are calculated, more attention is paid to whose representative cost elements price changes, which are ≥ 10 and ≤ -10 percent, as well as those prices, which changed due to the quality, the change of the season. Also, special attention is paid to those price changes, which most influence the general change in the IPI.

Sampling error cannot be calculated because the survey is not conducted on the basis of a random sample. As cut-off method is used in sampling,  it is not possible to obtain sampling errors. The sample is updated annually. In 2023, for the IPI calculation, 1079 enterprises were providing import prices for abaut 3 836 items. Enterprises with the largest share (by value) in the respective CN code are involved into import prices survey. For further price collection the enterprises are selecting representative products that are imported regularly and in the large amounts.

The response rate is 100%. Reminder e-mails are used to maintain high response rate.An online price data collection system has been developed to reduce the response burden and obtain good quality data. Each month, on average, about 25% of prices are not collected for various reasons (due to seasonality about 18% and due to other reasons about 7%). Missing prices are estimated using the appropriate methods.

The Electronic business statistics compilation and transmission system e. Statistics and electronic forms of a KA-24 questionnaire (annual) and a KA-25 (monthly) is used for the statistical data collection. Database ORACLE and MS Excel is used for import prices validation and  IPI calculation.

Imputation: 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 see 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 Combined Nomenclature based on the information provided by the respondents.

Models are not used in the IPI.  

On the 45^th day after the end of the reporting month, at 9:00 a.m. (local time)

IPI is published according to the announced release calendar.

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

The overall quarterly import unit value indices time series is directly linked with IPI time series. From 2006, imported products have been classified and IPIs have been calculated and published based on the CPA 2.1. Before 2006, the Combined Nomenclature was applied; therefore, price indices at a more detailed level are not comparable. IPIs at a more detailed CPA 2.1 level are comparable since 2006.

Not available.

The IPI is internally coherent. Lower level aggregations are derived to the higher level indices according CPA 2.1.

Time spent by respondents on the filling in of questionnaire KA-24 (annual) makes, on average, 72 min, of questionnaire KA-25 (monthly) – about 20 min.

In 2023 the costs of the NSI where 6743 hours per year, burden of respondents – 6450 hours per year.

The revision policy applied by State Data Agency of Lithuania is described in the Description of Procedure for Performance, Analysis and Publication of Revisions of Statistical Information.

Users are informed about scheduled revisions in advance through a Calendar of Scheduled Revisions of Statistical Indicators. The same revision policy is applied to IPI data released nationally and transmitted to Eurostat.

The IPI revision procedure is published on the Official Statistics Portal.

The IPI for the reference month may be revised due to the supplementation, refinement of and errors detected in primary statistical data used to calculate the statistical indicator. The revised indices and price changes are clearly identifierd. Users are made aware of the data revisions in footnotes to the publications, and, where necessary, the footnotes are also accompanied by explanatory notes. The size of MAR and MR for 2023 year was 0,0%. Revisions are conducted in accordance with an approved statistical information revision calendar: revision calendar.

The source of statistical information for the preparation of a weighting structure is foreign trade statistics on the volume of imports for the previous year in value terms. Additional source of statistical information is foreign trade statistical data on imported goods value and amounts.

Prices are collected monthly.

Statistical data on the annual sales volume of representative goods in value terms are received from a statistical questionnaire KA-24 (annual). Statistical data on prices for representative goods are received from a statistical questionnaire KA-25 (monthly). The specialists of the Data Preparations Divisions of Statistics Lithuania collect statistical data, perform control and correct the errors detected. Foreign trade statistics database is used for obtaining monthly information on unit values.

An additional source of statistical data for calculating IPI is the foreign trade statistical data of the reporting month on the value and quantity of exported goods.

Statistical reporting forms are regularly reviewed and, if necessary, improved (last tested in 2023), in order to reduce the statistical reporting burden on respondents.

To collect statistical data is used Electronic business statistics compilation and transmission system e-Statistics or paper and electronic forms of  KA-24 questionnaire (annual) and KA-25 (monthly) questionnaire which are placed Statistical questionnaire.

Statistical data control requirements are provided in research of the technical programming task. Errors protocol is formed from the discovered errors. Error code, error text, error attribute indicates wheather the error must be fixed or may be ignored. Errors can be logical and arithmetical or made by the respondent in the submission or processing stage. To ensure the statistical data quality, the, in addition, the primary data check is performed (secondary corrections, statistical data acceptant confirmation). The control of error protocol, entered statistical data completeness and reliability, analyzed indicators associations and etc. are performed. The statistical data are corrected accordingly errors types: ignored or must be corrected. The decision to correct or not correct the error is taken by the responsible for inspectation employee, while the must by fixed errors are always corrected.

The IPI is calculated from the lowest level, i.e. representative products, to the highest level, i.e. the all-items IPI. In calculating the IPI, the Laspeyres formula is applied. The lowest level price indices are then aggregated into higher level price indices according to the Laspeyres formula according to CPA classification levels: subcategories (6 symbols level), categories (5 symbols level), classes (4 symbols level),  groups (3 symbols level), divisions (2 symbols level), sections (1 letter level) and general IPI. Fixed base weights are used for agregation. The reporting year IPI are linked to previous year IPI using chain method. The linking period is the previous year.

Primary statistical data of prices are adjusted due to changes in the products quality. Where the quality of the new (replacement) representative product is considerably different from that of the original (replaced) one, the impact of the change in quality on the price rise or drop is estimated. In order to maintain comparability between the price of the new (replacement) and the original (replaced) product, the quality of the products must be harmonised. The quality of the products is harmonised by correcting the price of the original (replaced) product in the base period through eliminating the influence of quality change. This is calculated by adjusting the replaced product base price, removing the impact of changes in quality.

Price indices are not seasonally adjusted.

Not applicable.