National Statistics Institute - INE Spain

S.G. Short-Term Statistics

Avenida de Manoteras, 50-51 28071 Madrid Spain

The objective of the Industrial Producer Price Index (PPI) is to measure the monthly evolution of the prices of those industrial products produced in Spain.

The Industrial Producer Price Index in the domestic market measures the monthly development of the price of products manufactured and sold in the domestic market, during the first step of their commercialisation. In other words, the sales prices of products coming out of the factory, excluding transport and commercialisation costs and the VAT invoiced.

The Industrial Producer Price Index in the non domestic market (Export Price Index for Industrial Products) measures the monthly development of the prices of those industrial products manufactured in the domestic market and sold in the foreign market.

The Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, Rev. 2 (NACE) for activities (to 4 digit-level).

For products, the Community Production Classification (PRODCOM) is used in the case of domestic market while in the case of exports the Combined Nomenclature is used.

For disseminating data the Main Industrial Groupings classification (MIGs) is also used.

The Industrial Producer Price Index covers sections B,C, D and E36 (Mining and quarrying, Manufacturing, Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply and Water supply) of the National Classification of Economic Activities (CNAE-2009). 

Aggregate index:

Weighted arithmetic mean of elementary indices.

Basket of products:

Set of products whose price is monthly collected.

Contribution:

The contribution of a product is the extent to which the overall index changes when there are price changes only for that product (that is, all other prices remain constant).

Elementary index:

Ratio of average prices in the current month to average prices in December of the previous year (multiplied by 100). Indices are unitless and measure price changes from the base period to the current month.

Industrial prices in the domestic market:

Prices included in the index are current prices on 15th of the month, excluding VAT, other indirect taxes, transport and commercialisation costs, even though all sales or discounts are included.

Industrial prices in the non-domestic market:

Prices included in the index are producer prices with the following characteristics:

1. They are the prices existing at the national border, excluding VAT, other indirect taxes or customs duties, even though all sales or discounts are included.
2. They are FOB prices (Free On Board), excluding transport or insurance costs relating to the part of the journey outside Spain.
3. They are current prices on 15th of the month.
4. The currency is euro. If the price is provided in other currency, they are exchanged to euros.

Quality adjustment:

Estimation of the price difference between the new (replacement) product and the old (replaced) one that is due to the quality change.

Quality change:

Change that occurs when the new product (variety or model) that replaces a previously selected one presents a change in specification that results in a significant difference in utility of the product.

Rates of change:

They show price developments between two periods of time.

Subvariety:

Specific model of a product, in a concrete industrial establishment, whose price is collected monthly.

Weights:

Product weight is the relative importance of each product in the basket.

Weights in the domestic market:

They are calculated based on the turnover of each of the products that make up the basket. The turnover information is obtained from the Industrial Companies Survey and the Industrial Products Survey.

Weights in the non domestic market:

They are calculated using turnover from from the Industrial Companies Survey, Itrastat and the Single Administrative Document (SAD).

Local units which manufacture industrial products in Spain. The observation units are the same as the information units.

The target population is all local units which manufacture industrial products in Spain.

The frame for the domestic market is the Industrial Products Survey and the frame for the non-domestic market is the Custom Data.

According to Industrial Companies Survey, in Spain, there were, in 2023, 189036 enterprises which manufactured industrial products in Spain.

The whole national territory is covered except the Autonomous Cities of Ceuta and Melilla, as the industrial activity is non significant.

In the non-domestic market, a breakdown between export market is calculated, distinguishing by euro and non-euro zone. The list of euro-zone countries is updated every time a new country joins the euro-zone.

The industrial producer price index is produced monthly.

For the domestic market, results are available from 1975; for the non-domestic market, its results are available from 2005. The industrial producer price index (which is the aggregation of both) is available from January 2005.

Base period:

The index reference period or base period is 2021=100.

Price reference period:

Since the PPI is a Laspeyres chain index, monthly elementary indices are compiled as the ratio of current prices to prices of December of the previous year.

Therefore the price reference period is December of the previous year.

Weight reference period:

In the current year, weights have been compiled basing on 2021 data and updated with price information to December of the year immediately prior to the considered.

Weights are updated yearly.

Indices:

Indices are compiled as ratios of prices in a given month to prices in the reference month (December of the previous year) multiplied by 100. Therefore indices are unitless.

Rates of change:

All rates of change are usually given as percentage changes.

Weights:

For each item or group of items, weights represent the corresponding percentage share of the total value of production.

The reference period for data is the month, in particular day 15th.

The legal basis for the STS indicators are 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) and 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).

Before the EBS, the STS legal base was Council Regulation No 1165/98 of 19 May 1998 concerning short-term statistics, amended by Regulation No 1158/2005 of 6 July 2005 concerning short-term statistics. The Article 25.3 of Regulation (EU) 2019/2152  mentions that Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 is repealed with effect from 1 January 2024.

The definitions of short-term statistics variables are laid down in CommissionRegulation No 1503/2006 of 28 September 2006 implementing and amending Council Regulation No 1165/98 of 19 May 1998 concerning short-term statistics as regards the definition of variables.

The classification by the main industrial groupings (MIGs) is defined by the Commission Regulation No 656/2007.

According to the Spanish legislation, the Industrial Producer Price Index is a compulsory statistic. It is based on the Royal Decree 410/2016 that establishes the approval of the National Statistical Plan 2021-2024 and Law No 12/1989 of the Public Statistical Function.

Laws 4/1990 and 13/1996 establish the obligation to provide data for the compilation of statistics included in the National Statistical Plan. Penalties for non-response range from EUR 60.10 to EUR 30,050.61.

INE makes available all the non-confidential data on its dissemination website.

Industrial Producer Price Indices are transmitted to Eurostat on a monthly basis in order to produce the aggregates for the European Union and the Monetary Union.

The legal act Ley de la Función Pública, Chapter III on Confidentiality.

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.

If data is based on less than three companies, it is not published.

An advance notice of release dates is drawn up in the last quarter of the previous year. This release calendar is available on the web site http://www.ine.es

INE website: Industrial Producer Price Indices release calendar.

All users have access to the data at the same time by using the press release called:

'Industrial Price Indices' (It only includes domestic market).

'Import and Export Price Indices for Industrial Products' (It includes data of non domestic market and the aggregation of both markets (domestic and non-domestic).

The data are posted on the Internet web site of INE (http://www.ine.es) immediately after the press release is issued.

Customised requests are also sent to registered users.

Monthly.

News releases, on-line: News releases.

Variations over previous month and over one year are presented in news releases for the national total and MIGS, commenting on groups that have had the greatest impact on them. In addition, indices and variations are also presented to division level.

Press Release, the day of its dissemination.

Generic publications as Spain in Figures,  Statistical Yearbook of Spain and Monthly Statistical Bulletin contain information related to Industrial Producer Price Indices.

The monographic publication Industry Overview, which is a document devoted to the analysis of the industrial sector of the economy.

The different databases are:

• Industrial Producer Price Index
• Industrial Producer Price Index for domestic market
• Industrial Producer Price Index for non-domestic market

None.

It is possible to apply for customised requests at INE's Information Area.

Moreover, the data are sent to Eurostat, either to be used in European aggregates or to be released also as national data.

The methodological notes on the Industrial Producer Price Index in the domestic market and in the non-domestic market can be consulted.

Following the recommendations of Eurostat and the European institutions, the INE is developing systems for systematic quality assessment of all statistical products and processes.

In the INE website, reports and quality indicators of each statistic are published (fields 11 to 19):

Domestic market: http://www.ine.es/dynt3/metadatos/en/RespuestaDatos.htm?oe=30051

Non-domestic market: http://www.ine.es/dynt3/metadatos/en/RespuestaDatos.htm?oe=30071

The quality assurance framework for INE statistics is based on the ESSCoP, the European Statistics Code of Practice. The ESSCoP consists of 16 principles, grouped into three areas: Institutional Environment, Process and Products. Each principle is associated with a number of indicators to measure. In order to assess quality, different tools provided by Eurostat are used: the indicators mentioned above, the self-assessment, peer review, quality audits and user satisfaction surveys.

The Industrial Producer Price Indices (PPI) have a process designed to control and validate data quality throughout the entire process. There are validation controls in the electronic questionnaire, a data checking process in collection units and a control from the developer unit to ensure the quality of the statistic.

PPI are indicators of high statistical quality that meet all the criteria of consistency, comparability, accuracy and timeliness. The methodology follows the recommendations of the "Producer Price Index Manual: Theory and Practice" and the "Export and Import Price Index Manual: Theory and Practice", published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and agreed upon internationally.

The entry into force of the Base 2021, in January 2024, has been a methodological improvement as it has expanded the coverage of the branches studied and the basket of products; additionally, the weights have been updated to improve representativeness. Index are still chain indices thanks to that, modifications may be made in the sample each year, which will ensure that the indices remain updated.

The main users are:

• Ministries and other public organisms;
• Autonomous Communities;
• Companies;
• Researchers and universities;
• Press;
• Foreign users, so much institutional as individuals. Between the first ones they stand out, Eurostat, the European Central Bank and the OECD.

Among the main uses it is worth noting:

• Direct use as an indicator for the analysis of the economic activity. It provides information in order to monitor monthly prices of different groups of products and markets (domestic and non-domestic market (Euro zone and non-euro zone)). It is also a useful tool for analysts and companies to analyze certain products or markets.
• Indirect use as a deflator, in industrial production statistics, foreign trade statistics and national accounts.

INE has conducted general surveys of user satisfaction in 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016, and plans to continue doing so. The purpose is to know the perception of users regarding the quality of the information they use and if their needs are covered.

The users’ specific needs are taken into account when methodological revisions are carried out in order to tailor the content of the survey to the specific requirements of its users, thereby increasing their levels of satisfaction.

In the Industrial Producer Price Index base 2010, the requests of information made by users were taken into account and INE started to publish data to a more detailed level of the classification. In the base 2021, the same level of disaggregation is maintained in the publication.

All levels of NACE Rev.2 indices are produced and disseminated, to a 4-digit level.

The rate of mandatory statistical available results for the industrial producer price indices is 100%.

The accuracy is tackled at national, Community and market (euro and non-euro zone) levels by eliminating non-sampling errors as much as possible and studying and analyzing revisions.

The main sources of error are non-response and overcoverage. There is no evidence that the response rate is distributed in a way that generates a bias in the index or its evolution. In addition, steps are taken to improve the updating of the sample, replacing, in a more agile way, units that have been deleted from the sample for new ones.

Due to the timeliness of the survey there is a non-response rate of 8% at the time of the initial release. The questionnaires keep being required three months after the end of the reference month. This way new questionnaires are recorded after the first publication of the results and the non-response rate decreases. Another consequence is that the published results are updated monthly including both new and edited data.

Since the cutoff sampling is used, best sampling method to be used taking into account the skewness of the distribution of the Industrial businesses size in Spain, the estimation is biased, although there is no information about how much.

Data editing consists on several phases throughout the process. The first one is microediting and takes place during the data collection. The e-questionnaire contains workflows and several hard and soft edits. It makes possible that the data are cleaned by the respondent and there is no need to recontact. Finally the macroediting phase occurs, for the purpose of checking the results to be published.

During the whole data collection process the response rate is checked and attention is paid to get the data of the influential units.

As a non-probability sampling is used, it is not possible to obtain sampling errors.

The sample is based on the cut-off method, which, given the nature of the sector, is considered the most appropriate.

The Industrial Producer Price Index has a sample of approximately 12.600 local units and it includes around 1500 products in domestic market and 1700 products in non-domestic market. The products in the sample represent the 70% of the total production.

The cut-off method is applied at product level, firstly products are included depending on the production value of the product within the class to which they belong, covering up to 60% thereof, in those weighing over 0.1%, and covering up to 40% in the remainder. In each product, the local units with more production are selected (according to the Industrial Products Survey in the domestic market and to foreign trade data in the non domestic market).

Revisions are made periodically with the aim of reaching 60% of coverage in production value in each activity of NACE Rev2 as compared to the total estimated production value in the Industrial Products Survey. Aggregating activities MIGs are obtained, so keeping the coverage of the turnover in each activity assures the coverage in MIGs.

The sample is updated monthly in order to replace the products’ subvarieties of those local units that no longer produce them.

Different controls of non-sampling errors are carried out throughout the whole process.

Coverage: survey framework contains local units whose main activity is included in sections B to E36 of NACE Rev 2. It is updated annually. Overcoverage rate can be estimated as the units in the sample that are duplicated, unreachable, final closures and wrongly included. In 2023, it reached 0.9% in domestic market and 0.5% in non-domestic market. Overcoverage is minimised by deleting the units mentioned before and under-coverage is minimised by including the new units in the framework.

Total non-response: In 2023, the non-response rate is 5.4% for domestic and 6.2% for non-domestic market. The measures taken to reduce the non-response rate are: e-mail recontact to those informants who have not answered 7, 12 and 17 days after the end of reference month, increasing the period of data collection (not delaying the press-release day), sending specific information to those local units that provide information through the web questionnaire and request it and carrying out a more thorough follow up of the most influential units during the collection phase.

Partial non-response: Due to the data collection instrument, the short length of the questionnaire and the sample being a panel, the partial non-response is negligible.

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 (see point 18.5)

Data editing: a first editing phase, at micro-data level takes place when the respondent fills in the e-questionnaire. Finally the macro-data editing phase takes place.

Coding: Identification variables are obtained from the survey frame and coded according to the NACE Rev 2. The products’ subvarieties are coded according to the PRODCOM (domestic market) or Combined Nomenclature (non-domestic market) based on the information provided by the informants.

Estimation models: Not applicable (Estimation models are not used).

As established in the Regulation, the deadline for the data transmission is 30 days after the end of the reference period.

This deadline is met since the results for the non-domestic market and their aggregation with the domestic market are published 30 days after the end of the reference period, unless there is a public holiday. In this case the results are published the previous working day. The results for the domestic market are published 25 days after the end of the reference period.

Results are published in accordance with the release calendar for short-term business statistics (see calendar).

The Industrial Producer Price Index has always been published on the pre-announced release dates.

The comparability between EU countries is ensured by the EBS-Regulation (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) and its General Implementing Act (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). They provide these statistics with homogeneity regarding the rest of European Union countries, which disseminate the same information on their respective industrial sectors.

The Industrial Producer Price Indices of domestic market were published for the first time in 1975. The Industrial Producer Price Indices of non-domestic market and its aggregation with the domestic market were published for the first time in January 2005. Since then there have been changes in the used classification as well as changes in the base year.

Since January 2009, the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, Rev. 2 (NACE-Rev. 2) is used. Indices are available since the beginning of the series with the new classification.

The changes of base have led to changes of some of the methodological aspects in the survey, which have led to a breach in the series which has been suitably treated to provide linked series from the first year of publication of the survey to the present date. Thus, the time series are comparable since their beginning.

The Industrial Producer Price Index (PPI) is consistent with the Import Price Index of Industrial Products because both are designed in the same way and use the same methodology.

As a cut-off sampling method is used, in order to obtain the sample in each stratum (NUTS2-product), the Industrial Products Survey (PRODCOM) is drawn on as a frame, as well as Custom Data in the case of the non-domestic market. The Industrial Company Survey (ICS) is also used to complete the frame variables.
This way, most of the sampled units are included in the PRODCOM and in the ICS samples. The main reasons to sample this way are:

• There is a priori confirmation that the units belong to the Industrial sector.
• There is information about the "size" in production value.

The Industrial Producer Price Indices (PPI) are internally coherent. Higher level aggregations are derived from detailed indices according to well-defined procedures.

The estimated to produce this survey in 2023 is 1504.7 thousand euros.

In order to significantly reduce the burden on respondents, large companies that complete multiple surveys in one year are assisted from a special unit which coordinates all their questionnaires. The statistical burden on reporting units is taken into account when changes are performed on the sample, in order to avoid overloading the time dedicated to its completion.

In 2023, the burden of the The Industrial Producer Price Index was 31756 hours per year.

These cost and burden are due not only for STS needs, but also for national needs as well.

Revised data are used both for the National dissemination and to obtain the STS data transmitted to Eurostat, so the same policy is applied to the STS data released nationally and sent to Eurostat.

The revision policy encompasses several types of revisions:

Routine revisions and errors are corrected within three months since their first publication.

Major revisions are performed on the occasion of rebasing or methodological changes like changes in definitions and classifications as well as legal changes like those due to new Regulations or updates in the already existing.

The link to the revision policy for raw data adopted at INE Spain is the following: http://ine.es/ss/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1259947560358&pagename=MetodologiaYEstandares%2FINELayout&L=1

The differences registered between the provisional and the final data are due to the unavailability of data in the provisional publication because of a late receipt of the questionnaire. 

To measure the degree of variation between the provisional and the final results, changes between the first and the final publication were analyzed for the period between January 2021 and December 2023.

The computed values for this 36 monthly General PPI Index are:

Year-on-year growth rates for domestic market:

• MAR (Mean Absolute Revision)=0.279
• RMAR (Relative Mean Absolute Revision)=1.376%
• MR (Mean Revision)=0.024

Year-on-year growth rates for non-domestic market:

• MAR=0.048, RMAR=0.496% and MR=0.029

Changes to the published data are listed in the press release for information.

The data used to calculate the Industrial Producer Price Indices are obtained by surveys of establishments. The frame of the survey is all establishments that have manufactured industrial products.

The criteria used to define which activities are part of the calculation of Industrial Producer Price Index, base 2021, are:

Domestic market: for the entire country, classes (4 digits NACE Rev. 2) that exceed 0.1% of the total turnover of the industry; for the Autonomous Communities, divisions (2 digits NACE Rev. 2) which exceed 1.0% of the total turnover of the industry in each Community (according to the Industrial Companies Survey of 2021).
In the domestic PPI, base 2021, around 29.000 prices of 1.400 products in approximately 9.200 establishments are monthly collected.

Non-domestic market: for the entire country, classes (4 digits NACE Rev. 2) that exceed 0.1% of the total turnover of the industry; for the markets (Euro zone and non-euro zone), divisions (2 digits NACE Rev. 2) which exceed 1.0% of the total turnover of the industry in each market (according to Customs data of 2021).
In the non-domestic PPI, base 2021, around 14.000 prices of 1.700 products in approximately 4.100 establishments are monthly collected.

Prices are collected once a month. The reference period for the data is day 15th of every month.

Price collection is done through a questionnaire to industrial establishments that are part of the sample. Most respondents (80%) fill in the questionnaires through IRIA (data collection application via Internet), the rest are sent completed by email, fax, telephone or mail.

The questionnaire lists the products for which the industrial establishment must include the price, with a detailed description of their characteristics, allowing the company to identify the exact product.

In each collection unit all information requested in the questionnaire is checked and all incidents related to enterprises, establishments, subvarieties and prices are properly justified and explained. Next, a centralized data cleaning is done, in order to detect possible errors or unjustified price changes.

Data checking
As a general rule, respondents are recontacted in order to justify or correct any anomaly detected in subvarieties or prices during the validation process, in case they have changed the characteristics (both physical and commercial) or the unit of measure of the subvariety.

Index Calculation
First, the elementary indices are calculated as a ratio of the geometric mean of the prices collected in the reference month between the prices reported in December last year.

Subsequently, the elementary indices are aggregated using a weighted arithmetic mean.

Weights
The main sources for the weights of the Industrial Producer Price Indices are the Industrial Companies Survey and the Industrial Products Survey and Custom data (Intrastat data and the SAD).

In domestic PPI, there are weights for each product in each Autonomous Community while in non-domestic PPI, the weights are for each product in each market (Euro zone - rest of the world).

Treatment of missing items
When occasionally the product price has not been reported, the establishment is contacted to see if they can estimate the price that would have had the transaction.

In case this is not possible, the price is estimated using the average change of the rest of prices collected for the same product or the corresponding branch, in the same market.

Treatment of replacement products
When a subvariety disappears, INE contacts the informant to know if it is something temporary or permanent. In the event that the disappearance is permanent, the subvariety is to be replaced by another item of the same product and market.

In case the establishment does not have a substitute for the product, we try to find another establishment to provide information.

Adjustments for quality change
When there is a change in the specifications of a subvariety or it disappears and it is replaced, a quality adjustment must be done in order to determine the share of the price difference that is due to a quality change.

In general terms, estimated prices are used to make this adjustment. This method involves the estimation of a relative price change as the average price change of the aggregate that contains the subvariety (product or class).

Prices quoted in currencies other than the national one are converted into the national currency using the average exchange rate for the reference month.

There are not seasonal adjustment.

Not applicable.