Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
The producer price index (PPI) and import price index for commodities measures the price development of domestic produced goods sold both to the Norwegian and the foreign market, and imported commodities. The survey covers oil and gas extraction, manufacturing, mining, electricity and some service industries. Starting with the index for January 2024, published the 9th of February 2024, the index is published with reference year 2021=100. From January 2019 to December 2023 the reference year was 2015=100.
3.2. Classification system
NACE Rev. 2.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Most market activities within Sections B to E of NACE Rev. 2.
The following activities are covered: mining (05, 07, 08), oil and gas extraction (06), extraction related services (09), manufacturing (10-33), electricity (35) and water supply (36) according to NACE Rev. 2.
The following activities are not covered: mining of uranium and thorium ores (07.21), processing of nuclear fuel (24.46), building of ships and boats (30.1), manufacturing of aeroplanes and spacecraft (30.3) and manufacture of military fighting machinery (30.4).
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Domestic prices: The Norwegian market is a joint description of all goods produced and purchased in Norway. Price regarding sales to the Norwegian market is defined ab fabric (ex works) and should refer to the sales price out of the factory on the 15th of the month.
Export prices: The export market consists of all goods produced and sold to foreign customers: exported goods. Price regarding sales to the export market is defined free on board (fob), at the Norwegian border.
Import prices: The import market refers to goods produced outside Norway, purchased by Norwegian firms. Prices are measured CIF (cost, insurance, freight) at the national border.
Extraordinary discounts should not be included. Real transactions prices rather than list prices should be used. The prices correspond to prices stated at moment of order. Prices should be valid per 15th of the month. The questionnaires also include check boxes for “expired commodities" and "temporary out of sale". If the reported price increases or decreases with more then 20 per cent from last month the respondent are asked to give a short explanation. In addition the questionnaire includes an area where additional information can be noted, for example replacements for expired commodities.
3.5. Statistical unit
Reporting unit: Local Kind of Activity Unit (LKAU).
Observation unit: The products are selected based on foreign trade data and the PRODCOM survey, where the HS products are selected to cover the CPA products. The number of HS products is usually about 3500 total to cover the domestic, export and import market. A selection of LKAUs are used in the monthly price collection. In cooperation with these companies a range of goods are chosen to cover the selected HS products. CPA products are selected in cooperation with the Division for National Accounts and cover important commodities in the national accounts. Furthermore, the HS products are selected using data from foreign trade and Norwegian manufacturing statistics, and cover the chosen CPA products. The range of CPA products and HS products is adjusted according to changes in the national accounts and foreign trade - even so, the annual changes are modest. The changes are carried out to introduce new products into the sample.
3.6. Statistical population
All commodities and some services produced by companies within mining (05, 07, 08), oil and gas extraction (06), extraction related services (09), manufacturing (10 - 33), electricity (35) and water supply (36).
The following industries are not covered: mining of uranium and thorium ores (07.21), processing of nuclear fuel (24.46), building of ships and boats (30.1), manufacturing of airplanes and spacecraft (30.3) and manufacture of military fighting machinery (30.4).
The commodities, whose prices are measured, are mainly from enterprises belonging to these industries, and the enterprises are sampled from Statistics Norway's Register of Establishments and Enterprises. Parts of the primary industries and wholesalers are also included in order to cover first-hand domestic transactions.
3.7. Reference area
National.
3.8. Coverage - Time
The import Price Index has been compiled since 2000.
3.9. Base period
Base year is 2021=100 from March 2024 and onwards.
Index
Month.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
National legal acts:
The legal basis is The Statistical Act of 21st of June 2019 No. 32 section 10 and 20
The reporting units are obliged to provide information. Fines for refusing to provide information are laid down by the Statistics of 21st of June 2019 No. 32
European legislation:
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 (EBS-Regulation)
Commission Implementing Regulation 2020/1197 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 statistic (General Implementing Act)
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
STS data from the Norwegian import price index are transmitted to Eurostat on a regular monthly basis.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Confidential micro data: According to § 7 of the Statistics Act, collected data are subject to secrecy and are to be kept or erased in a secure manner. Any use of the data must be in accordance with the rules set out by the Data Inspectorate.
Time series that are not to be published: The publication of data is subject to the provisions of § 7 of the Statistics Act. The main rule is that data should not be published if they can be traced back to the respondent.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Data is only published at an activity level at which it is not confidential. Detailed confidential data is aggregated with other confidential or non-confidential cells to produce a non-confidential (non-standard NACE) aggregate.
In data transmitted to Eurostat some series are marked as confidential.
8.1. Release calendar
the import price index is not public.
8.2. Release calendar access
The release calendar is avalible on Statistics Norway's website.
No governmental or non-governmental bodies have prior access to the statistics before its release.
Monthly.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Not released.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Not released.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
Import price index for commodities (2021=100) by industry.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
No microdata are avaliable for the public.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Transmission to Eurostat.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
The import price index is produced together with the producer price index (PPI). Information about methodology and how the statistics are produced is provided in the "About the statistics" section at the webpage for PPI. See espcially under "Production" which lies under "About the statistics".
Relevance: The statistics is relevant in the way that it is defined as one of the STS indicators. It is also relevant when preforming quality checks with other indicators such as PII. Media also use the indicator when assessing the business cycle.
Accuracy and reliability: Total non response by the time of release is on average 1,55 per cent for 2024.
Timeliness and punctuality: The statistics is released about 10 days after the end of reference month. Statistics Norway’s release system on Internet assures data to be published exactly 8:00 AM, and the date is given in the release calendar not less than 3 months prior to the release.
Comparability: Geographically comparability with other countries is assured by using international standards given in the Eurostat framework (same reference year, same classification ; NACE Rev.2). While there may be some quality issues with comparability over time. This is due to the revision of standard classification NACE Rev. 2, and back-casting of time series prior to the implementation of the new standard.
Coherence: Quality assessment is carried out by comparing with other short-term indicators.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The statistics are used internally.
Among other users of the import price index statistics are Eurostat.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
No quantitative measures.
Ongoing discussions with internal users. Sporadic contact via mail or phone with external users.
12.3. Completeness
The statistics are complient with the EBS regulation.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
No quantitative measure.
13.2. Sampling error
The sampling error in the PPI and import price index are not expected to be a big issue. Statistcs Norway has especially good data on external trade of commodities through Norway's comprehensive customs- and declerations system. This allows us to sample products and enterprises on 8-digit (Norwegian) HS/CN level. For the domestic market the Prodcom-survey are used and combined with the exports data. This source is not as comprehensive and are not always consistent with the external trade data. It is expected that the domestic market are more prone to sampling errors than exports and imports.
Large complex enterprise groups and other enterprises, that organizes them selfs in ways such that the productuion and flow of goods are not easily defined in accordance with traditional statistical measurements, might be a source of sampling error.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Non-sampling errors are expected to exist and to a higher degree than sampling errors. The biggest issue is expected to be measuring errors related to the monthly survey and to the questionnaire itself which is not always self-explaing. This includes: respondents not understaing the questionnaire, respondents not understanding how we define a price or distinguish between markets or respondents just being uninterested in providing up-to-date and representative data. This can lead to wrong prices and wrong combiantions of products, prices and markets. Other non-sampling errors could be quality changes that are not acounted for by us.
The response rate is on average 98,45 per cent (unweighted) for 2024.
14.1. Timeliness
The statistics are not published. The statistics are not subject to revision.
14.2. Punctuality
All releases are delivered on time, based on scheduled release dates.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The statistics are produced at a national level only.
15.2. Comparability - over time
The statistics in its current form are comparable back to 2000.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Most of the business statistics at Statistics Norway are comparable across domains. The same classification (NACE rev. 2) is incorporated in all relevant statistical domains.
15.4. Coherence - internal
For most relevant purposes data are classified such that it is directly comparable across statistical domains. Correspondance tables are maintained where needed. Data from different sources may not be consistent and that is mostly expected to stem from measuring errors.
In 2024 there were approx 2820 working hours dedicated to production and development of the statistics within the price division. 200 or some hours from other departments, such as data collection, IT and administartion can probably be added to that.
The burden on the respondents are measured from time to time through the regular monthly survey. There are about 1120 units in this survey which covers domestic, export and import market prices. The median time usage were 10 minutes per survey in 2024 which gives 2 hours of time usage each year for the median respondent. The total burden is thus 2240 hours a year based on the median respondent.
17.1. Data revision - policy
The statistics are not subject to revision after it is published unless big errors were to be revealed. The same revision policies applied to STS data released nationally and transmitted to Eurostat
17.2. Data revision - practice
If a big error is revealed it will be revised and the correct statistic will be re-published with a highly visible mark alerting the users of the revision. No revisions have been made in 2024, nor are any revisions scheduled.
MAR=0
MR=0
18.1. Source data
Type of source
Prices are mainly surveyed using electronic questionnaires. In addition, data are collected from various other sources such as: the external trade (internal), the consumer price index (internal), the London Metal Exchange, the BLS and other available rescources on the web.
Frame on which the source is based
The external trade data, the Prodcom survey and the central register of establishments and enterprises. All in-house.
Sample or census
Sample.
Criteria for stratification
The stratification is 2-digit NACE * market (domestic/eksports/imports). Within each strata a product (HS/CN) based PPS-sampling are carried out. The "size" is value of the product (domestic sales, exports or imports) combined with the price variance within the class, where value are the most important parameter. This resembles a Neyman-allocation. A large number of products are thus drawn with certainty to comlpy with the restrictions of a PPS sampling with replacement scheme.
Threshold values and percentages
Number of reporting units is about 1120
Number of products is about 4229
Frequency of updating the sample
Annual or semiannual.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Monthly.
18.3. Data collection
Electronic questionnaire.
18.4. Data validation
The responses from the electronical questionnaires are ongoingly downloaded to the production system. The data are checked for duplicates, comments, product replacements and extraordinary little movement over time. In addition the data are checked for extreme deviations in prices. If there are significant price changes and there is no clear explanation or reason, the establishments are contacted directly. Observations with great impact are checked and analyzed. Sectors and industries that has great impact or that shows unuasual or special development are analysed and discussed.
18.5. Data compilation
Estimates for non-response
In the event of non-response, the price is imputed by using the percentage change of the index for a similar group of products. Which aggregate of similar products to be used is determined by the number of actual price observations within an aggregate. If there are five or more observations within the elemntary aggregate the missing price is given as the price times the index change at that level. If there are fewer, the algorithm will look for actual price observations in an aggregate on a successively higher level. The algorithm works from HS/CN (elementary aggragate) through 6-digit, 4-digit and 3-digit NACE. If none delivers at least five actual prices, last month's price is copied. By using the percentage change from the previous to the present period, the variance is minimized.
Estimates for grossing-up to population levels
Data are not grossed up.
Type of index
Jevons index at the elementary level. Annual chain linked Young index at the aggregate level.
Method of weighting and chaining
The weights are updated annually and derived from the most recent (t-3) national accounts (NA), the PRODCOM survey and the external trade data. To keep the weights as up to date as possible, weights from the NA are projected to year T-1 using the most recent quarterly national account totals. This way, weights always refer to the year previous to the index period. These 6-digit CPA-NA levels are then distributed to HS/CN commodities using the PRODCOM survey and external trade data. Short-term indices are chained annually.
Short-term indices are calculated using December year T-1 as base period. The development in these short term indices is then chained to the long-term index. New price information is introduced immediately if the commodity is represented in the weights, otherwise it is included at the turn of the year. Discontinued price quotations are imputed till the end of the year, and then excluded.
18.6. Adjustment
No adjustments are made to the data.
No comment
The producer price index (PPI) and import price index for commodities measures the price development of domestic produced goods sold both to the Norwegian and the foreign market, and imported commodities. The survey covers oil and gas extraction, manufacturing, mining, electricity and some service industries. Starting with the index for January 2024, published the 9th of February 2024, the index is published with reference year 2021=100. From January 2019 to December 2023 the reference year was 2015=100.
30 June 2025
Domestic prices: The Norwegian market is a joint description of all goods produced and purchased in Norway. Price regarding sales to the Norwegian market is defined ab fabric (ex works) and should refer to the sales price out of the factory on the 15th of the month.
Export prices: The export market consists of all goods produced and sold to foreign customers: exported goods. Price regarding sales to the export market is defined free on board (fob), at the Norwegian border.
Import prices: The import market refers to goods produced outside Norway, purchased by Norwegian firms. Prices are measured CIF (cost, insurance, freight) at the national border.
Extraordinary discounts should not be included. Real transactions prices rather than list prices should be used. The prices correspond to prices stated at moment of order. Prices should be valid per 15th of the month. The questionnaires also include check boxes for “expired commodities" and "temporary out of sale". If the reported price increases or decreases with more then 20 per cent from last month the respondent are asked to give a short explanation. In addition the questionnaire includes an area where additional information can be noted, for example replacements for expired commodities.
Reporting unit: Local Kind of Activity Unit (LKAU).
Observation unit: The products are selected based on foreign trade data and the PRODCOM survey, where the HS products are selected to cover the CPA products. The number of HS products is usually about 3500 total to cover the domestic, export and import market. A selection of LKAUs are used in the monthly price collection. In cooperation with these companies a range of goods are chosen to cover the selected HS products. CPA products are selected in cooperation with the Division for National Accounts and cover important commodities in the national accounts. Furthermore, the HS products are selected using data from foreign trade and Norwegian manufacturing statistics, and cover the chosen CPA products. The range of CPA products and HS products is adjusted according to changes in the national accounts and foreign trade - even so, the annual changes are modest. The changes are carried out to introduce new products into the sample.
All commodities and some services produced by companies within mining (05, 07, 08), oil and gas extraction (06), extraction related services (09), manufacturing (10 - 33), electricity (35) and water supply (36).
The following industries are not covered: mining of uranium and thorium ores (07.21), processing of nuclear fuel (24.46), building of ships and boats (30.1), manufacturing of airplanes and spacecraft (30.3) and manufacture of military fighting machinery (30.4).
The commodities, whose prices are measured, are mainly from enterprises belonging to these industries, and the enterprises are sampled from Statistics Norway's Register of Establishments and Enterprises. Parts of the primary industries and wholesalers are also included in order to cover first-hand domestic transactions.
National.
Month.
No quantitative measure.
Index
Estimates for non-response
In the event of non-response, the price is imputed by using the percentage change of the index for a similar group of products. Which aggregate of similar products to be used is determined by the number of actual price observations within an aggregate. If there are five or more observations within the elemntary aggregate the missing price is given as the price times the index change at that level. If there are fewer, the algorithm will look for actual price observations in an aggregate on a successively higher level. The algorithm works from HS/CN (elementary aggragate) through 6-digit, 4-digit and 3-digit NACE. If none delivers at least five actual prices, last month's price is copied. By using the percentage change from the previous to the present period, the variance is minimized.
Estimates for grossing-up to population levels
Data are not grossed up.
Type of index
Jevons index at the elementary level. Annual chain linked Young index at the aggregate level.
Method of weighting and chaining
The weights are updated annually and derived from the most recent (t-3) national accounts (NA), the PRODCOM survey and the external trade data. To keep the weights as up to date as possible, weights from the NA are projected to year T-1 using the most recent quarterly national account totals. This way, weights always refer to the year previous to the index period. These 6-digit CPA-NA levels are then distributed to HS/CN commodities using the PRODCOM survey and external trade data. Short-term indices are chained annually.
Short-term indices are calculated using December year T-1 as base period. The development in these short term indices is then chained to the long-term index. New price information is introduced immediately if the commodity is represented in the weights, otherwise it is included at the turn of the year. Discontinued price quotations are imputed till the end of the year, and then excluded.
Type of source
Prices are mainly surveyed using electronic questionnaires. In addition, data are collected from various other sources such as: the external trade (internal), the consumer price index (internal), the London Metal Exchange, the BLS and other available rescources on the web.
Frame on which the source is based
The external trade data, the Prodcom survey and the central register of establishments and enterprises. All in-house.
Sample or census
Sample.
Criteria for stratification
The stratification is 2-digit NACE * market (domestic/eksports/imports). Within each strata a product (HS/CN) based PPS-sampling are carried out. The "size" is value of the product (domestic sales, exports or imports) combined with the price variance within the class, where value are the most important parameter. This resembles a Neyman-allocation. A large number of products are thus drawn with certainty to comlpy with the restrictions of a PPS sampling with replacement scheme.
Threshold values and percentages
Number of reporting units is about 1120
Number of products is about 4229
Frequency of updating the sample
Annual or semiannual.
Monthly.
The statistics are not published. The statistics are not subject to revision.
The statistics are produced at a national level only.
The statistics in its current form are comparable back to 2000.
