Statistical Service of Cyprus (Cystat)

Services Statistics Unit

Michael Karaoli str., 1444 Nicosia, Cyprus

Services Producer Price Indices (SPPIs).

NACE Rev. 2.

NACE Rev. 2 Divisions H494, H501_H502, H521, H5224, H531, H532, J61, J62, J63, M69_M702, M71, M73, N78, N80, N812. H51 is a "low weight" activity since the 2015 weightings (weight ≤ 0.05%) and it is not transmitted to Eurostat. 

The Services Producer Price Index is an output price index for the services production and it reflects changes in transaction prices reflecting the terminology used in the Commission Implementing Regulation 2020/1197.

Enterprise.

The frame for selecting the enterpsises is the Business Register (as for the SBS Services Survey) and numbers around 8.000 units in 2015.

Republic of Cyprus.

The survey has been carried out since 2007.

Base year 2015.

Index (2015=100).

Quarter.

Article 3 of the National Official Statistics Law, No. 25(I) of 2021 defines the functions of the Statistical Service of Cyprus regarding the production and dissemination of official statistics. Moreover, Article 13, explicitly stipulates the mandate for data collection and introduces a mandatory response to statistical enquiries by stipulating the obligation of respondents to reply to surveys and provide the data required. This relates not only to national but also to European statistics which, by virtue of Article 8 of the said Law, are incorporated in the annual and multiannual programmes of work without any further procedure. 

The legal basis for the short-term statistics is the European Business Statistics (EBS) Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on 27 November 2019, followed by the Commission Implementing Regulation 2020/1197 laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to the mentioned EBS Regulation (General Implementing Act). The former legal basis for the STS indicators is the Council Regulation No 1165/98 of 19 May 1998 concerning short-term statistics and subsequent amending regulations.

Apart from Eurostat, the index is not transmitted to any other international organisation.

Official statistics are released in accordance to all confidentiality provisions of the following:

• National Official Statistics Law No. 25(I) of 2021 (especially Article 16 on statistical confidentiality).
• Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics and its later amendments (especially Chapter 5 on statistical confidentiality).
• European Statistics Code of Practice (especially Principle 5 on statistical confidentiality).
• CYSTAT's Code of Practice for the Collection, Publication and Storage of Statistical Data.

Links to all of the above documents:

• Statistics Law No. 25(I) of 2021: 

https://www.cystat.gov.cy/en/StaticPage?id=1074  

• Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (consolidated text):

 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:02009R0223-20150608&qid=1504858409240&from=EN

• European Statistics Code of Practice:

 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-32-11-955

• Code of Practice for the Collection, Publication and Storage of Statistical Data: 

https://www.cystat.gov.cy/en/StaticPage?id=1066

The confidential data are transmitted to Eurostat with confidentiality flag, if needed. The treatment of confidential data is regulated by CYSTAT's Code of Practice for the Collection, Publication and Storage of Statistical Data.  

The link is as follows: https://www.cystat.gov.cy/en/StaticPage?id=1066

An annual release calendar is prepared and forwarded to Eurostat. The index is compiled solely for the purposes of the EBS Regulation. 

Not applicable.

Not applicable. The index is transmitted to Eurostat at the level of detail required by the Regulation.

The data are transmitted to Eurostat on a quarterly basis.

The short-term business statistics on producer prices in services is not published nationally.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The index is transmitted to Eurostat to be used for the calculation of European aggregates.

Eurostat methodological guide for developing producer price indices for services.

Not available.

The quality of statistics in CYSTAT is managed in the framework of the European Statistics Code of Practice which sets the standards for developing, producing and disseminating European Statistics as well as the ESS Quality Assurance Framework (QAF). CYSTAT endorses the Quality Declaration of the European Statistical System. In addition, CYSTAT is guided by the requirements provided for in Article 11 of the Statistics Law No. 25(I) of 2021 as well as Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics, which sets out the quality criteria to be applied in the development, production and dissemination of European statistics.

Links to all of the above documents:

• European Statistics Code of Practice:

 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-32-11-955

• ESS Quality Assurance Framework (QAF): 

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/64157/4392716/ESS-QAF-V1-2final.pdf/bbf5970c-1adf-46c8-afc3-58ce177a0646

• Quality Declaration of the European Statistical System: 

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/4031688/8188985/KS0217428ENN_corr.pdf/116f7c85-cd3e-4bff-b695-4a8e71385fd4

• Statistics Law No. 25(I) of 2021: 

https://www.cystat.gov.cy/en/StaticPage?id=1074

• Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (consolidated text):

 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:02009R0223-20150608&qid=1504858409240&from=EN

The quality of statistics is assessed according to the following quality criteria: relevance, accuracy, timeliness, punctuality, accessibility and clarity, coherence and comparability. The quality indicators are assessed taking into account Eurostat defined methodology and recommendations. On the basis of the above criteria, the indicator is assessed as being of good quality. Also, the statistical information meet Eurostat's needs, there are no gaps on time series and high response rate.

Eurostat.

Not applicable. The data are transmitted only to Eurostat at the level of detail required by the Regulation.

The data are transmitted to Eurostat at the level of detail required by the Regulation.

The Services Producer Price Index is based on a sample survey and therefore sampling errors are likely to occur but are not estimated. Non-sampling errors derived from data collection and processing as well as quality issues are considered to be small, nevertheless actions are undertaken to minimize them. Pricing mechanisms and pricing methods are distinguished by the nature of the service. The data check procedure is very effective. The data usually do not changed after their first release, but if needed, revisions are carried out while releasing the data for the following quarter.

For the Services Producer Price Index, the sampling scheme is as follows:

For the sample selection, a cut-off threshold based on turnover is used. Then a survey of prices for a sample of products within the enterprise is used. There are about 120 enterprises in the sample from which about 1800 products/prices are collected. The annual turnover of the enterprise in the base year is used for weighting. The weights are revised every five years.

The sampling error is induced by the sample design, thus can be summarized in the following:

• Errors in determining a representative sample of enterprises.
• Errors in determining a representative sample of products within enterprises.

The sampling error is reduced by selecting large enterprises (in terms of turnover).  It is assumed that prices are determined by the large enterprises and the price development in the sample adequately reflects the price development of the whole population since small enterprises are not likely to deviate from the rest of the market in their price policy. Furthermore a variety of products are selected, thus there is a large coverage of the enterprise’s products and there is more than one price per product.

For the Services Producer Price Index the non-sampling error is not quantified, but is considered to be small.

• The personnel working at the collection stage is well experienced and properly guided in order to be able to deal with quality issues, such as replacements and new products.
• To minimise the respondent’s burden as much as possible, the questionnaire is designed to be clear and simple. The data collection is made using the means that each enterprise prefers (e-mail, fax or telephone) in order to reduce non-response.
• Since services are unique by their nature, pricing mechanisms and pricing methods are distinguished from the nature of the service.
• The compilation of prices is based on clearly specified, representative products whose prices are followed over time.
• There are many ways of trying to encourage response and minimise refusals, including reminders to the non responding units. The response rate reached 100%.
• Many checks are carried out at the micro level. Comparisons are being made between current and previous quarter’s prices. Also during the data editing process, the price entered is being checked twice.
• To ensure the quality of the time series, comparative analysis is made with previous years’ results. If inconsistencies are detected, the data are verified at micro level again by using the raw data of the questionnaire.

Indices are submitted to Eurostat three months after the end of the reference period.

Eurostat's deadlines are respected. All releases are delivered on time, based on the scheduled release dates.

The EBS Regulation and the EBS methodological guidelines are applied, therefore it is possible to compare the national index with that of other European countries.

Indices are comparable over time. When significant changes are introduced (e.g. change of classification, base year or methodology), historical time series are recalculated as far back as it is reasonably possible. There are no breaks in series. Generally, the comparability of national data is considered to be of a good quality.

Comparisons with Turnover indices for related sectors are carried out.

The data are internally consistent.

No cost and burden exercise has been recently performed.

There is a formal revision policy at Cystat. Cystat publishes its Revision Policy on its web portal Revision Policy (cystat.gov.cy) describing the general rules and principles governing the procedure of revising data published by Cystat. The policy is based on the guidelines of the European Statistical System (ESS) regarding revision policies for Principal European Economic Indicators, also taking into account the Quality Assurance Framework of the ESS and the European Statistics Code of Practice. 

CYSTAT also publishes a list of scheduled revisions (regular or major revisions), also published on its web portal at: https://www.cystat.gov.cy/en/AnnouncementList.

 The index is compiled only for Eurostat purposes and is not released nationally. But the same practice is applied to data transmitted to Eurostat; when revised data are transmitted to Eurostat, these are flagged accordingly and accompanied by the necessary explanations.

Furthermore, CYSTAT has set its strategic goal to provide high-quality statistical information in an objective, transparent, reliable and timely manner. CYSTAT consider quality to be its main advantage in a world experiencing a growing trend of instant information which often lacks the necessary proof of quality. In order to realise strategic goals it is imperative to establish policies which ensure that an organisation is moving towards the right direction. For this reason, CYSTAT establishes the "Quality Policy" which forms the basis of all statistical activities and leads towards continuous improvement of its statistical output.

Data revisions on the Services Producer Price Index are rarely performed, but if needed, these are carried out while releasing the data for the following quarter. When revised data are transmitted to Eurostat, these are flagged accordingly and accompanied by the necessary explanations. Major revisions also take place every five years, as a result of the procedure of changing the base year of the index and the weights used in its compilation.

The Mean Revision (MR) of year-on-year growth rates for the Services producer prices (SPPI), taking into account 20 values/growth rates, is as follows: H494 (0%), H53 (0,06%), J61 (0,01%), J62 (-0,14%), J63 (0,01%), M69_M702 (0,07%), M71 (-0,19%), M73 (-0,30%), N78 (-0,02%), N80 (0,01%), N812 (0,01%).

The Mean Average Revision (MAR) of year-on-year growth rates for the Services producer prices (SPPI), taking into account 20 values/growth rates, is as follows: H494 (0,01%), H53 (0,08%), J61 (0,26%), J62 (0,18%), J63 (0,01%), M69_M702 (0,19%), M71 (1,22%), M73 (0,30%), N78 (0,02%), N80 (0,03%), N812 (0,01%).

The data are collected by survey. The sample size is around 120 enterprises. In special cases such as replacements or deaths/births of significant enterprises, the sample is updated. The method is purposive sampling where the large enterprises are selected and the prices of their products are recorded. 

It is a regular quarterly survey with the some exceptions which are surveyed on a monthly basis. 

Data collection is based on telephone interviews, e-mail or internet. Close cooperation and telephone contacts with the data providers are performed in order to ensure high quality of the data. Re-contacts by e-mail and phone as many times as necessary increase the rate of response. The response rate is around 100%.

Quarterly and year-to-year validation checks are performed on microdata level in order to flag any possible data errors for investigation and appropriate correction. Validations on final indices disseminated are applied by comparing price indices with turnover indices for related sectors.

A Laspeyres index is compiled with fixed base year. Weights are calculated based on the turnover in the base year (derived from the SBS survey). 

No adjustments.

No additional comments.