Federal Statistical Office (destatis)

E 21 "Business indices, seasonal adjustment"

Statistisches Bundesamt

Gustav-Stresemann-Ring 11

65180 Wiesbaden, Germany

This indicator is part of the overall STS indicator system which supports business cycle observation. The producer price index for services (SPPI) is defined as an output price index for the service production of resident producers. The index relates to the production of those services that may constitute the principal or secondary activity of an industry.

NACE Rev. 2.

Main and secondary activities of the NACE-industries cover:

• Activities in NACE Section H: 49: Land transport and transport via pipelines; 50: Water transport; 51: Air transport; 52: Warehousing and support activities for transportation; 53: postal and courier activities;
• Activities in NACE Section I: 55: Accomodation; 56: Food and beverage service activites;
• Activities in NACE Section J: 58: Publishing activities; 59: Motion picture, video and television programme production, sound recording and music publishing activities; 61: Telecommunications; 62: Computer programming, consultancy and related services; 63:Information service activities;
• Activities in NACE Section L: 68: Real estate activities;
• Activities in NACE Section M: 69: Legal and accounting activities; 70.2: management consultancy activities; 71: Architectural and engineering activities; technical testing and analysis; 73: Advertising and market research; 74: Other professional, scientific and technical activities;
• Activities in NACE Section N: 77: Rental and leasing acitivies; 78: Employment activities; 79: Travel agency, tour operator reservation service and related activities; 80: Security and investigation activities; 81: Services to buildings and landscape activities; 82: Office administrative, office support and other business support activities;

Size classes do not cover small enterprises (usually up to revenue of EUR 250,000). However, size classes differ between industries.

Real producer prices (excluding VAT) cannot be collected for all sub-sectors of the above-mentioned economic divisions. For some of the sub-sectors, estimates from other price statistics are included in the NACE-2-digit index. This is currently done for sub-sectors that are very small in terms of their turnover significance or whose product portfolio is very inhomogeneous. The calculation of the producer price index for base year 2021 bases on the price development of approximately 750 products.

Planned changes in information collected occur in connection with rebasing procedures.

Producer prices for services are reported by legal units.

The target population of the SPPI survey are the kind-of-activity units that belong to the economic sectors mentioned above. As the statistical business register cannot provide this unit, the KAUs are approximated by the legal units. About 3550 legal units out of all legal units classified in the above mentioned industries (1.4 million units) according to the German business register are providing statistical information for SPPI production.

Country as a whole.

Since 2006.

2021 = 100

Index as a result of survey on prices.

Quarter.

The laws regulating the collection, treatment and dissemination of statistical data are the Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of 27 November 2019– last update 22.02.2021 concerning short-term statistics with implementing acts (e.g. COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2020/1197 of 30 July 2020 concerning the definitions) as well as the Federal Statistics Act (1987) and the law on price statistics (PreisStatG of 1958 – last update 22.02.2021).

Data sent to Eurostat may contain confidential data to compile the European aggregate.

Confidentiality is guaranteed by section 16 of the Federal Statistics Act. It requires that respondents must be informed about their rights and obligations in providing statistical information. This rule is strictly followed. It also applies to the notification that individual data are only used for statistical purposes and - subject to  protection  procedures  - for scientific purposes.

Furthermore, Chapter V “Statistical Confidentiality” of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council and of Regulation (EU) 2015/759 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2015 amending Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics applies.

As regards the confidentiality of data in tables, methods of primary and secondary confidentiality checking have been developed and are being used. For SPPIs, disclosure risk assessment is based on concentration-rules. Cell suppression is used to prevent residual disclosure in tables for dissemination.

The next release date is published on the website of destatis.

https://www.destatis.de/SiteGlobals/Forms/Suche/Termine/EN/Terminsuche_Formular.html?nn=43216

Indices are simultaneously released to all users. The data are available at the database “GENESIS-Online” for all users at the same time.

Identification of internal government access to data before release in accordance with Principle 6.7 of the European Statistics Code of Practice: The German Central Bank gets internal access to data one day before press release.

Data are transmitted quarterly to Eurostat on the same day as national dissemination.

Quarterly.

Yes, on the release date published in the release calendar

Not available.

Indices are also published at the time series database

https://www-genesis.destatis.de/genesis/online/data?operation=sprachwechsel&language=en

The indices are published for selected products and product groups at different levels.

Not available.

Data are transmitted to Eurostat.

Methodologies and sources used in preparing the producer price index are described in various publications on the destatis website

https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Economy/Prices/Producer-Price-Index-For-Services/Methods/_node.html

Standardized quality reports are published on the website of destatis.

https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Economy/Prices/Producer-Price-Index-For-Services/Methods/_node.html

The data of German official statistics enjoy a reputation of high reliability in Germany and abroad. Destatis has committed itself to assure and further enhance the level of quality already attained. In order to achieve this task – also in the ESS – the activities of destatis are based on quality guidelines. To assure quality in the long term, destatis applies a variety of systematic quality assurance measures, among others the European Statistics Code of Practice.

Detailed descriptions can be found here:

https://www.destatis.de/EN/Methods/Quality/_node.html

The German SPPIs are trusted by internal and external users as indicators of high quality. They are, among others, used for deflation of turnover in the calculation of GDP in constant prices, for the calculation of the index of services production and are in demand by external users. In addition, publication dates are monitored regularly.

Due to their function as deflator of turnover in the calculation of GDP in constant prices and in the calculation of the German ISP, German SPPIs are significant to both internal and external users. The SPPIs serve in the use in contracts as well as for market monitoring. Furthermore, they indicate – among others – to what extent price stability is achieved.

Destatis conducts user satisfaction surveys in various sectors of statistics. The Statistical Advisory Committee (Statistischer Beirat) represents the interests of the users of federal statistics and regularly consults with destatis.

Additionally, user satisfaction is measured by the number of monthly visits on specialized publications on the website of destatis and the respective number of printed products sold or downloads, quarterly downloads from the on-line database “GENESIS” and the number of external queries via the costumer management system.

STS requirements according to EU regulations and national laws are fulfilled.

The company size classes from which the sample of providers of statistical information is drawn represent at least 75% of the turnover of the respective industry. Non-response mainly occurs in context with expiring contracts. In these cases the price is estimated by well-defined compensation methods and the price representative is replaced as soon as possible.

A business census for the service sector is not available as data source for turnover by product in Germany. For many SPPI-industries, the derivation of weighting schemes is difficult due to the lack of reliable data sources. However, due to missing data it is not possible to calculate possible deviations of indices from exact values. 

With the new basis and the extended coverage under the EBS Regulation, some sub-aggregates for which no survey could be established must be estimated using related price indices from other price statistics. Some of these are not yet available for the current quarter at the time of publication of the SPPIs. Therefore, these sub-aggregates and all higher aggregates must be updated and revised as soon as possible. Apart from these sub-aggregates, the SPPI figures are very rarely revised. First releases are highly reliable. Results are normally final with the first release.

Actually, the population of price statistics is the entirety of prices of a certain product. As there is no source for identification of this assumed population, statisticians draw (random) samples of legal units instead. The sampling error in terms of turnover of the chosen entities is assumed to be small.

The response rate is 100% as response is obligatory. Otherwise, fines can be imposed up to EUR 5,000.

Results are published not later than 80 days after the end of the reference month. The indices are final with the exception of the aggregates, which must be supplemented by estimates that are not yet available for the current quarter at the time of publication. They become final as soon as final results are also available for the estimators. The deadline for delivering data to destatis is the 15th of the month following the reference period.

The price to be reported is valid for the middle of the reporting quarter.

All publication deadlines are met.

SPPIs are produced according to common methodological concepts in all Member States of the European Union. Comparability of the results with those of other EU Member States is therefore ensured.

Methodological changes or the incorporation of changed sales structures take place between two regular revisions which fully guarantees comparability over time.

The SPPIs of different base years are chain-linked. Due to the introduction of new weighing schemes and methodological changes in the course of implementing a new base year, the long series of chained SPPIs are comparable to a limited extent.

National accounts:

NA have the task to provide a quantitative overall picture of economic activity in a national economy as comprehensive, clear, sufficiently structured as possible for a certain period of time. This also includes the representation of the real gross added value of the service sector in the economic area. For the deflation of production values in the service sector, the national accounts often use SPPIs for individual results. However, SPPIs are not available for all industries of the services sector. The delimitation of the scope of the existing EPIs essentially follows the definition of the production values in the national accounts. The estimators used for the remaining gaps are harmonized with the national accounts. The SPPIs and the corresponding deflators of the national accounts therefore differ due to the different index concepts (chain index and Laspeyres index with fixed base) and the methodology of double deflation of the output of products in the national accounts, while the SPPIs are calculated for industries.

SBS in the Service Sector:

The quarterly SPPIs reflect price developments in most of the industries of the service sector. For these and other sectors, the annual SBS in the service sector shows, for example, sales figures, number of companies and active persons. Turnover figures of SBS in the base year are key figures for the calculation of the weighing schemes for the SPPIs. In addition, the results of the supplementary survey "Turnover by product type and residence of client" carried out for selected industries provide important details for the determination of turnover weights by type of service. As the EES Regulation for the SBS prescribes the presentation of results by statistical enterprise, the reports are prepared and calculated separately by KAU for the purpose of weighing the SPPIs. There is a lively exchange on current production and future planning through joint meetings with Eurostat, cooperation in international bodies such as the Voorburg Group, as well as participation in meetings of the German statistical offices.

Price indices of stages in the economic process:

Price developments of services are also measured at other stages of the economic process, in particular the consumer price index (CPI). Differences in the results are mainly due to different definitions of service providers and the use of different methods. Consumer price statistics show the development of prices on the "private consumption" level and, in contrast to the SPPIs, only include services which are demanded by private households - according to their share of expenditure. The producer price statistics for services take account of all customers of service providers, including companies in Germany, foreign purchasers or government-owned enterprises (business to all). This leads to different product portfolios with different weighs than in consumer price indices. Another difference is that consumer prices, including VAT, are recorded.

Prices for transport services are charged both in the consumer price statistics and in the producer price statistics. The same applies to tax and legal advice as well as to telecommunications services. Both the consumer price indices and the SPPIs are of Laspeyres type. Only the calculation of the elementary indexes is done differently in the CPI and the SPPIs. The consumer price statistics compute elementary indices with the formula for Dutot, while the producer price statistics for services apply the formula according to Jevons. Where consumer price indices are used as estimates for missing sub-aggregates, these are adjusted for VAT.

Statistics of transport:

The freight statistics are used in particular for the calculation of weighting schemes for SPPIs for transport and logistics services. These figures represent the transport performance expressed in tonne-kilometers by type of transport. The depth of detail of the regional data in the statistical individual data, in particular maritime traffic statistics and air traffic statistics, completely cover the needs of producer price statistics with regard to the importance of countries and areas of travel. However, the presentation unit of the tonne does not correspond to the concept of producer price statistics to weight the types of activity according to their turnover in the overall turnover of the industry. Estimates are required for this purpose, which are based on the prices shown for the base year. In addition, surveys of transport statistics are not restricted to carriers based in Germany.

The SPPIs for Germany are internally coherent. For the selection, collection and preparation of the price series, there are clear regulations based on international guideline mentioned in section 11 “Quality Management”.

Index calculation costs about 29,000 hours per year in the national statistical institute. Respondents pay about EUR 328,000 (7,100 working hours).

The general revision policy adopted by destatis covers routine revisions, major revisions and non-scheduled revisions. It is published on the website

https://www.destatis.de/EN/Methods/Quality/GeneralRevisionsPolicy.html

The national revision policy is the same as for Eurostat data.

SPPI figures are very rarely revised (MAR=MR=0). First releases are highly reliable.

A major revision on SPPIs takes place in June 2024 when the year 2021 is introduced as base year which results in new computations of the indices, publication of newly developed SPPIs and the introduction of new methodology.

Users are informed about the upcoming rebasing at least three months in advance. Documentation of rebasing is further given in "Wirtschaft und Statistik". Destatis also publishes the rebased figures on its website.

Publication errors are corrected in accordance with the general destatis policy on non-scheduled revisions which deals with publication errors.

Data on prices and values of price determining characteristics are usually collected via statistical surveys. For some service products data bases and scales of fees are used.

The frame on which the source is based is the national business register, SBS, transport statistics and other sources.

Generally, collection of data is carried out through a sample. In some cases, data collection takes place via an exhaustive coverage. Samples are supposed to represent at least 75% of the turnover of the industries. Sample size, cut-off thresholds and thresholds for exhaustive selections depend on the concentration of the industries. The sample design depends on the structure of the industry. Turnover serves as criteria for stratification.

Units with turnover less than EUR 250,000 are excluded. An exhaustive selection is made in the class with the highest turnover (differs between industries). The definition of the size classes of turnover is based on the structure of size classes of SBS in the service sector.

A fundamental revision of the samples is carried out every five years. The new samples serve for rotation of respondents and permanent adjustments due to the necessity of replacements forced by changes in the market structures.

Data for the calculation of the SPPIs are collected quarterly.

Specific web-based questionnaires for statistics of producer prices for services are used. They include a data checking process during the input process. Reporting via electronic media (internet) is obligatory since August 2013. Missing responses are requested by telephone, postal or e-mail reminders.

Various plausibility checks are performed on single price observations and on aggregations of price indices.

Estimates for non-response are necessary in the case where reporting units are closed down. They rely on imputation techniques such as repeating previous prices or averaging over the whole stratum (in rare cases also averaging on the enterprise level), are used.

These techniques are only executed until replacements are found.

Estimates for grossing-up to population levels are not applicable.

The type of indices is Laspeyres which are in general re-based every five years.

The method of weighting and chaining requires three stages. First, for each price representative a simple index (price relative) is compiled as a ratio of the current price and the average price in the base year. Second, for each product an elementary index is compiled as a geometric average of the simple indices compiled at stage 1 (Jevons-Index). Third, elementary indices compiled at stage 2 are combined to aggregate indices up to the level required by STS regulation using fixed weights. These weights represent the share of each product at elementary index level in terms of turnover. This information is derived from the price surveys themselves, SBS, transport statistics and various sources for industry information of the base year.

No adjustment.

None.