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.
Division for Statistics on Production and Foreign Trade (SEB)
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
Via Tuscolana, 1788
00173 Rome Italy
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
9 June 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
9 June 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
9 June 2025
3.1. Data description
The Producer Price Index measures the average price development of industrial products sold on both domestic and non-domestic markets at the initial stage of commercialization. The purpose of this index is to provide information on price dynamics over the business cycle.
It is also used in National Accounts as a deflator and for updating contracts in the private sector.
3.2. Classification system
NACE Rev. 2.
For dissemination it is also used the MIGs breakdown (Main Industrial Groupings)
3.3. Coverage - sector
Activities covered: NACE Rev. 2 Sections B to E36 are covered by the output prices data. Indexes are not required for the following Groups or Classes of NACE Rev. 2: 07.21, 24.46, 25.4, 30.1, 30.3, 30.4.
Size classes covered: all enterprises
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
List and definition of variables: the list of products comprises approximately one thousand items (PRODCOM). Prices, consisting of around twenty-three thousand price series, are collected from a list of 7129 enterprises.
Planned changes in information collected: none
Accounting conventions: data are collected for products manufactured and sold on both the domestic and non-domestic market. Reporting units are the industrial enterprises. By definition, prices are effective transaction prices surveyed on the day the orders are made (collected prices are registered at the moment of contract). The price, expressed in euros, refers to an actual transaction (excluding list prices and transfer prices); it excludes VAT and similar deductible taxes directly related to turnover, as well as all duties and taxes on invoiced goods and services; it includes subsidies received by the producer, discounts, rebates, and surcharges given to the buyer. Other sale conditions are defined by the most common contracts.
The target population of potential reporting units corresponds to all enterprises of Sections B to E36 of NACE.Rev2. The total number of enterprises is about 380.000 enterprises.
3.7. Reference area
Whole national territory.
3.8. Coverage - Time
The indicator has been available since 1981. Data have been disseminated according to the NACE 2 classification at the four-digit level since January 2000.
3.9. Base period
The base period is the month of December of the preceding year. The reference base is obtained by chain-linking. Since January 2024, the reference base is the year 2021. Before January 2024, all indices were rescaled to the reference base 2021.
Indices
Month
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Legal basis:
National level: this survey is one of the compulsory surveys fixed every year by a Decree of the President of the Republic (D.P.R.). Europeanlevel:
Commission Implementing Regulation 2020/1197 laying down technical specifications and arrangements according to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 (General Implementing Act);
Obligation on units to provide data: the surveys are mandatory. Penalties are foreseen for non-response. Planned changes in legal basis, obligation to respond and frame used: None
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
This indicator is part of the official data shown on page Istat-nsdp and corresponds to the data described on the International Monetary Fund's Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB). An explanation of the DSBB and the statistical standards to which Italy has committed are published on the IFM
The data are transmitted to Eurostat monthly and are available at Database - Eurostat
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Several national legal acts guarantee the confidentiality of data requested for statistical purposes. According to art. 9, paragraph 1 of the Legislative Decree n. 322 of 1989, personal data can only be disseminated in aggregate form, in order to make it impossible to identify individuals. The Personal Data Protection Code - introduced by the Legislative Decree No. 196 of 30 June 2003 - and Legislative Decree No. 101 of 10 September 2018 (General Data Protection Regulation) provide special rules concerning the processing of personal data for statistical purposes within the National Statistical System (Sistan). Furthermore, in order to make statistical confidentiality and protection of personal data effective, Istat is currently taking appropriate organizational, logistical, methodological and statistical measures in accordance with internationally established standards.
Links to relevant legal acts on statistics are also listed on the website of Sistan.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Survey elementary data are treated as confidential. Aggregated data are disseminated in IstatData
Some variables can be transmitted to Eurostat as confidential data when they are not disseminated in Italy.
8.1. Release calendar
Every year, in December, Istat publishes a release calendar providing the precise release dates for the coming year. The calendar is distributed to the press and is available free of charge to interested parties.
8.2. Release calendar access
The release calendar is disseminated on ISTAT's website: Release calendar
8.3. Release policy - user access
Data are released simultaneously to all interested parties by issuing the press release "Prezzi alla produzione dell'industria e delle
costruzioni". Eurostat receives embargoed data in advance of its publishing date. There is no pre-release access. The press release (Italian version and short English version) is subsequently posted on Istat's website, section Prices.
Data are also sent to Eurostat according to the required standards by EDAMIS using the SDMX format. Data are transmitted once per month: provisional data for month t-1 and final data for month t-2.
The short-term information is also used for quarterly and annual National Accounts.
Monthly
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
A monthly press release "Prezzi alla produzione dell'industria delle e costruzioni" including breakdown for domestic, non-domestic and total market (Prices/Archive).
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Indices are published in the "Annuario Statistico Italiano" (ASI) -Italian Statistical Yearbook - Chapter 16 Annuario Statistico Italiano/Prezzi.
The document is available in Italian only.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
The data are disseminated in IstatData, a theme of the database "Prices", dataset “Industrial producer prices - (base 2021).” IstatData’s online database is open and free of charge, the statistics are organized by categories and themes. The data are presented in aggregate form in multidimensional tables. By acting on variables, reference periods and the arrangement of heads and sides, users can create custom tables and charts. Data sets can be searched by keyword, theme and region. The platform uses the open-source tools "Data Browser" and "Meta & Data Manager" developed by Istat (ISTAT Statkit), following the international standard SDMX (Statistical Data and Metadata exchange) for the exchange and sharing of statistical data and metadata.
Before data dissemination, validated microdata are stored in the repository of the Institute, ARMIDA.
The ARMIDA repository (Archive of validated microdata) was established with the main objective of preserving and documenting the data produced by Istat surveys and has subsequently supported the objective of disseminating data. The data archived in ARMIDA supplies the different channels for the dissemination of microdata (for internal use at the Institute through the Memorandum of access to microdata of ARMIDA "internal users", for authorities in Sistan, for research files, for standard files, etc.).
10.5. Dissemination format - other
This index is also one of the 'Principal European Economic Indicators (PEEIs)"
The series of the updated final indices are also published on Istat's web database, Rivaluta, which stores price indices, consumer prices, producer prices and construction costs indices. This software is aimed at certifying price indices’ rates of change over a period of time selected by users.
Data are sent to Eurostat according to the required standards by EDAMIS using the SDMX format. Eurostat receives embargoed data in advance of its publishing date.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
A short description of the methodology and characteristics of the survey is contained in the technical explanatory note attached to the press release updated regularly.
A more detailed description of the methodology and sources used in preparing statistics is contained in the Information System for Survey Documentation and Quality Control (Siqual), which is available on Istat's website: SIQUAL. This system manages qualitative information related to every single phase of a survey's production process.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
More information about procedures applied for quality management and quality assessment can be found in the document "Quality Guidelines For Statistical Processes" - December 2012
The quality assurance framework is based on the contents of the document "Quality Guidelines For Statistical Processes" - Istat - December 2012 (Quality guidelines for statistical process.)
Istat reference framework for quality policies relies on the European Statistics Code of Practice, adopted in 2005 (last revised in 2017), on the Eurostat Quality Definition and on the recommendations of the LEG on Quality. The Data Quality Assessment Framework, developed by the International Monetary Fund, also represents an important reference. Following the principles of the European Statistics Code of Practice, Italy has adopted the Italian Code of Official Statistics to promote quality improvements in the statistics produced by the Italian National Statistical System.
(Directive No. 12/COMSTAT in Italian Official Journal No. 23, General Series of 29 January 2022), the document is available in Italian only. In accordance with Eurostat Quality Definition, the requirements of statistical products are:
to be relevant concerning users' information needs
to be accurate, that is to provide estimates or indicators that are as reliable as possible; to be timely, catching the phenomena to be observed
to be easily accessible and supported by metadata, allowing for a full understanding of the data
to enable comparisons over time or among different sources.
A description of methodology and sources used in preparing statistics is also contained in the Information SIqual
11.2. Quality management - assessment
In 2010 this survey was submitted to an audit on quality in a testing phase.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The main users of the producer price index are:
Institutions: government departments, ECB, national central bank, international organizations, etc.
Social actors: employers' organizations, trade unions, lobby groups, etc.
Media
Researchers & students
Enterprises/businesses
Internal users
Eurostat.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not available
12.3. Completeness
Eurostat's requirements in terms of time series are fulfilled.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The samples are designed with the cut-off method and therefore, sampling errors cannot be measured. Non-sampling errors are reduced or eliminated in the collection phase both using an electronic questionnaire that helps to debug and aiming to increase the response rate of enterprises.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable, it is not possible to compute sampling errors because a non-probability sampling method (cut-off) is used.
13.3. Non-sampling error
The response rate of the first estimate is about 95%. Reminders are sent to non-respondents and follow-up operations are carried out.
14.1. Timeliness
The deadline for the data transmission is 30 days after the end of the reference period.
14.2. Punctuality
All releases are delivered according to the timetable.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Not applicable, only national level.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Time series are available since January 2000.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Not available
15.4. Coherence - internal
PPI is a system of five variables, algebraically coherent; three of them are surveyed (domestic market, non-domestic market eurozone, non-domestic market non-eurozone). The other two variables are compiled as the weighted arithmetic mean of the surveyed ones. In particular, total non-domestic market is a weighted arithmetic mean of the euro and non-eurozone; the overall variable is a weighted mean of the domestic market and the total non-domestic market. Furthermore, each variable is computed as a weighted average mean (Laspeyres type index) of sub-indexes, therefore, internal coherence is straightforward. Moreover, coherence is achieved annually by updating weights (indexes are annually chain-linked).
The cost estimate is compiled in terms of total number of hours worked (THW),which is equal to the product of three terms: (total) Annual Working Days (AWD), (total) Hours Worked per Day (HWD), Number of Persons involved in the Survey (NPS).
AWD
HWD
NPS
Cost estimate(THW)
220
7.12
10
15,664
The burden estimate is compiled in terms of the total number of minutes (TNM) taken to fill in the (web) questionnaire. The burden is applied to the respondent, i.e., the person who fills in the questionnaire on behalf of the enterprise. To estimate it, two elements have been taken into account. The first distinguishes between beginner and expert respondents, to point out respectively the person who fills in the web questionnaire for the first time and the one who is familiar with filling in the form. The second closely concerns the information that has to be provided monthly. On average, by combining these two elements, the time spent to fill in the questionnaire (just the burden) is estimated in terms of the total number of minutes, ranging between a minimum and a maximum threshold.
Type of Respondent
Burden estimate (TNM)
Beginner
15 min. ≤ burden ≤ 30 min.
Expert
5 min. ≤ burden ≤ 10 min.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Monthly, provisional and final data are disseminated as indices. Data concerning the current month are provisional, while data referring to the previous months are final.
Major changes in methodology are announced in ad hoc publications. Annually, the base period is updated (Nota_Informativa_PPI_10marzo 2025), the document is available in Italian only. Time series indices are available in the online database.
Advance notification of methodological changes is also provided through seminars and papers disseminated throughout the scientific community. The same revision policy is applied nationally and in transmissions to Eurostat.
17.2. Data revision - practice
At present, Producer Price Indices are not revised and seasonally adjusted. Data are first released as "provisional" (30 days after the end of the reference period) and subsequently as "final" (60 days after the end of the reference period). The distance between provisional and final data allows for an increase in the response rate, allowing revisions, too (if any). The Mean Absolute Revision (MAR), Mean Revision (MR) and RMAR (Relative Mean Absolute Revision) are compiled for totals. These indicators refer to 36 monthly data from 2022 to 2024. The indicators refer to the Total market.
MAR
RMAR
MR
0,138889
0,014535
-0,03889
18.1. Source data
Data are collected through a statistical survey. The PRODCOM annual survey and the annual Survey on Enterprises accounts are used as a frame. The survey is conducted on the basis of a sample (based on a non-probabilistic design). The sample is drawn by quotas, calculated in order to guarantee sufficient coverage in terms of turnover. The sample of products and the list of enterprises are updated every year.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Monthly
18.3. Data collection
Self-administered data collection is conducted via electronic transmission, data are collected through a web portal called Portale Imprese
Respondents must log in to enter data in the web questionnaire.
18.4. Data validation
Data validation is carried out on:
prices, by guided and checked data-entry procedures that prevent the incompleteness errors that could occur during the recording phases and to identify the outlier prices (filtering method)
rend of indices, by comparison between the percentage change on the previous month, the percentage change on the corresponding month of the previous year and a similar product index
non-response data (prices) are estimated.
18.5. Data compilation
PPI are a system of Laspeyres chain-linked type indices. The indices compilation is carried out through three main steps:
firstly, by calculating price relatives, i.e. ratios between the surveyed price at the time (y,m) and that of the base period (the month of December of the preceding year) pointed out as (y,0) or (y-1,12)
price ratios are aggregated by simple geometric mean to derive the elementary product index
Laspeyres indices are compiled by grouping product indices at the class level (4-digit of the NACE Rev. 2) up to the overall index.
Adjustments for quality changes: when a price variation is due to a change in price-determining characteristics, a quality change occurs; the overlap algorithm is applied to link the old and new price.
New price quotations are introduced only when the index base is updated
Seasonal items: the most recent price collected is held constant until new prices are reported for the same season.
Method of weighting and chaining: The weights system is defined at a national level. For the higher aggregation level (from the 4-digit level upwards), the weighting coefficients are determined on the basis of (billed) domestic sales of own-produced manufacturing products according to the Survey on "Enterprises Accounting Systems" (the main annual SBS survey). For lower levels, the PRODCOM survey is used.
Seasonally adjusted indices are planned to be added to the raw indices.
18.6. Adjustment
Seasonally adjusted indices are not yet calculated.
Not applicable
The Producer Price Index measures the average price development of industrial products sold on both domestic and non-domestic markets at the initial stage of commercialization. The purpose of this index is to provide information on price dynamics over the business cycle.
It is also used in National Accounts as a deflator and for updating contracts in the private sector.
9 June 2025
List and definition of variables: the list of products comprises approximately one thousand items (PRODCOM). Prices, consisting of around twenty-three thousand price series, are collected from a list of 7129 enterprises.
Planned changes in information collected: none
Accounting conventions: data are collected for products manufactured and sold on both the domestic and non-domestic market. Reporting units are the industrial enterprises. By definition, prices are effective transaction prices surveyed on the day the orders are made (collected prices are registered at the moment of contract). The price, expressed in euros, refers to an actual transaction (excluding list prices and transfer prices); it excludes VAT and similar deductible taxes directly related to turnover, as well as all duties and taxes on invoiced goods and services; it includes subsidies received by the producer, discounts, rebates, and surcharges given to the buyer. Other sale conditions are defined by the most common contracts.
The target population of potential reporting units corresponds to all enterprises of Sections B to E36 of NACE.Rev2. The total number of enterprises is about 380.000 enterprises.
Whole national territory.
Month
The samples are designed with the cut-off method and therefore, sampling errors cannot be measured. Non-sampling errors are reduced or eliminated in the collection phase both using an electronic questionnaire that helps to debug and aiming to increase the response rate of enterprises.
Indices
PPI are a system of Laspeyres chain-linked type indices. The indices compilation is carried out through three main steps:
firstly, by calculating price relatives, i.e. ratios between the surveyed price at the time (y,m) and that of the base period (the month of December of the preceding year) pointed out as (y,0) or (y-1,12)
price ratios are aggregated by simple geometric mean to derive the elementary product index
Laspeyres indices are compiled by grouping product indices at the class level (4-digit of the NACE Rev. 2) up to the overall index.
Adjustments for quality changes: when a price variation is due to a change in price-determining characteristics, a quality change occurs; the overlap algorithm is applied to link the old and new price.
New price quotations are introduced only when the index base is updated
Seasonal items: the most recent price collected is held constant until new prices are reported for the same season.
Method of weighting and chaining: The weights system is defined at a national level. For the higher aggregation level (from the 4-digit level upwards), the weighting coefficients are determined on the basis of (billed) domestic sales of own-produced manufacturing products according to the Survey on "Enterprises Accounting Systems" (the main annual SBS survey). For lower levels, the PRODCOM survey is used.
Seasonally adjusted indices are planned to be added to the raw indices.
Data are collected through a statistical survey. The PRODCOM annual survey and the annual Survey on Enterprises accounts are used as a frame. The survey is conducted on the basis of a sample (based on a non-probabilistic design). The sample is drawn by quotas, calculated in order to guarantee sufficient coverage in terms of turnover. The sample of products and the list of enterprises are updated every year.
Monthly
The deadline for the data transmission is 30 days after the end of the reference period.
