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 objective of the Service Producer Price Index (SPPI) is to measure the quarterly evolution of prices, of services provided to both companies and households, from the supply perspective.
3.2. Classification system
The Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, Rev. 2 (NACE Rev.2) for activities (to 4 digit-level) and the Statistical Classification of Products by Activity in the European Economic Community (CPA 2008) for products.
3.3. Coverage - sector
The IPS covers certain service sector activities, belonging to NACE Sections H, I, J, L, M (except M701, M72, and M75) and N, as indicated in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Aggregate index: Weighted arithmetic mean of elementary indices.
Basket of services: Set of services whose price is collected every quarter.
Contribution: The contribution of a service is the extent to which the overall index changes when there are price changes only for that service (that is, all other prices remain constant).
Elementary index: Ratio of average prices in the current quarter to average prices in the fourth quarter of the previous year (multiplied by 100). Indices are unitless and measure price changes from the base period to the current quarter.
Service producer prices: The prices used to calculate SPPI are transaction prices to customers who are businesses. The VAT, other similar deductible taxes directly linked to turnover and the rights and taxes on services invoiced by the unit are excluded, but they include any rebates or discounts made to the purchaser and any subsidies on products received by the producer.
Quality adjustment: Estimation of the price difference between the new (replacement) service and the old (replaced) one that is due to the quality change.
Quality change: Change that occurs when the new service that replaces a previously selected one presents a change in its specification that results in a significant difference in the utility of the service.
Rates of change: They show price developments between two periods of time.
Weights: Service weight is the relative importance of each service in the basket. They are calculated based on the turnover of each of the services that make up the basket. The turnover information is obtained from the Annual Services Survey.
3.5. Statistical unit
The KAU is the observation unit, and the legal unit is the reporting unit.
3.6. Statistical population
All enterprises which provide services in NACE Sections H, I, J, L, M (except M701, M72, and M75) and N.
3.7. Reference area
The whole national territory is covered.
3.8. Coverage - Time
The SPPI is produced on a quarterly basis.
Results are available from the first quarter of 2007.
3.9. Base period
Base period: The index reference period or base period is 2021=100.
Price reference period: Since the SPPI is a Laspeyres chain index, quarterly elementary indices are compiled as the ratio of current prices to prices of the fourth quarter of the previous year. Therefore the price reference period is the fourth quarter of the previous year.
Weight reference period: In the current year, weights have been compiled based on the 2021 data and updated with the price information to fourth quarter 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 quarter.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
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 Commission Regulation No 1503/2006 of 28 September 2006 implementing and amending Council Regulation No 1165/98 of 19 May 1998 that concerns short-term statistics as regards the definition of variables.
According to Spanish legislation the Service Producer Price Index is a compulsory estatistic. It is based on 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.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Service Producer Price Indices are transmitted to Eurostat quarterly in order to produce the aggregates for the European Union and the Monetary Union.
Data are not transmitted directly to other international organisations (OECD, the UN, etc).
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
The legal act Ley de la Función Pública, Chapter III on Confidentiality.
Generic publications as "Spain in Figures, Statistical Yearbook of Spain" and "Monthly Statistical Bulletin" contain information related to Service Producer Price Indices.
Following the recommendations of Eurostat and the European institutions, the NSI 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): Standardised Methodological Report
11.1. Quality assurance
The quality assurance framework for INE statistics is based on the ESCOP, the European Statistics Code of Practice. The ESCOP consists of 15 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 Service Producer Price Indices (SPPI) 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 the collection units and a control from the developer unit to ensure the quality of the statistic.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
SPPI 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 "Methodological guide for developing producer price indices for services", published by the OECD and agreed 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.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The main users are:
ministries and other public organisms
autonomous Communities
companies
researchers and universities
press
Among the main uses it is worth noting:
direct use as an indicator for the analysis of the economic activity in services sector
indirect use as a deflator, in the services sector activity indicators and in national accounts.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
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 whether their needs are covered.
User 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 Service 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 Service Producer Price Index base 2021, the number of covered activities has been expanded.
12.3. Completeness
Indices are calculated for a breakdown of division (two-digit of NACE Rev.2), for the activities included in the Regulation. In some of them, the disaggregation is of three digits.
The rate of mandatory statistical results available for the SPPI is 100%.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The accuracy is tackled at national 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, in 2024 there was a non-response rate of 10.9% at the time of the initial release. The questionnaires keep being required one year 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 decreased until the 6.3% the next publication. Because of that the published results are updated quarterly including both new and edited data.
Since the cut-off sampling is used, best sampling method to be used taking into account the skewness of the distribution of the Services 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.
13.2. Sampling error
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 SPPI has a sample of approximately 1400 companies and it includes around 151 products.
For each activity, units forming part of the sample are selected in such a way that between 60% and 70% of turnover for said activity is covered. Information for selecting units is obtained from the Annual Services Survey. Revisions are made periodically with the aim of maintain the coverage in turnover in each activity of NACE Rev 2.
The sample is updated annualy in order to replace the products’ subvarieties of those companies that no longer provide them.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Different controls of non-sampling errors are carried out throughout the whole process.
Coverage: survey framework contains companies whose main activity is included in the activities covered by the index (see point 3.6). It is updated annually. Overcoverage rate can be estimated as the units in the sample that are duplicated, unreachable, final closures and wrongly included. It reached 7.4% in 2024. 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: the non-response rate in 2024 was 10.9% at the time of the initial release. The measures taken to reduce the non-response rate are: e-mail recontact to those informants who have not answered, increasing the period of data collection (not delaying the press-release day), sending specific information to those companies 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 low.
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 Rev2. The services provided by the companies are coded according to the CPA based on the information provided by the informants.
Estimation models: Not applicable (Estimation models are not used).
14.1. Timeliness
As established in the Regulation, the deadline for the data transmission is 90 days after the end of the reference period.
This deadline is met, since the results for the SPPI are published around 77 days after the end of the reference period.
14.2. Punctuality
Results are published in accordance with the release calendar for short-term business statistics (calendar).
The Industrial Producer Price Index has always been published on the pre-announced release dates.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The SPPI data are not disaggregated by Spanish regions.
Moreover, 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.
15.2. Comparability - over time
The Service Producer Price Indices were published for the first time in 2007. Since then there have been changes in the used classification as well as changes in the base year.
Since the first quarter of 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 series are comparable since their beginning, in the first quarter of 2007.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Data of other sources can be used to compare the results of some activities covered by the SPPI. For example, the price indices of fixed and mobile telephony obtained by the Telecommunications Market Commission (CMT) can be compared to the Telecommunication SPPI. It is also possible to compare the data of some activities with similar activities included in the CPI, but these may not provide the same results as they are statistics of a different nature and methodologies. The SPPI is a price index from the point of view of supply, while the CPI is a price index from the point of view of demand.
As a cut-off sampling method is used, in order to obtain the sample in each activity, the Annual Services Survey is drawn on as a frame. This way, most of the sampled units are included in the Annual Services Survey. The main reasons to sample this way are:
there is a priori confirmation that the units belong to the Service Sector and to the activity considered
there is a priori information about the "size" in turnover in the activity considered.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Service Producer Price Indices (SPPI) are internally coherent. Higher level aggregations are derived from detailed indices according to well-defined procedures.
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. Meetings with professional associations were held in most of the areas covered by the index, in order to adapt the questionnaires to the information available in companies and to facilitate the completion of the same as far as possible.
The estimated cost to produce this survey in 2024 is 283.23 thousand euros.
These cost and burden are due only for STS needs.
17.1. Data revision - policy
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 one year 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 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.
The same revisions are applied to data released nationally and transmitted to Eurostat.
18.1. Source data
The data used to calculate the Service Producer Price Indices are obtained through surveys that are filled out by enterprises. The frame of the survey is all enterprises that provide services (of the activities included in the indices) to other businesses.
For each activity, the selection of the units that are part of the sample is carried out to cover between 60% and 70% of the turnover of this activity (according to data from the Annual Survey of Services, referred to 2021).
In the SPPI, base 2021, around 8,500 prices of 151 products in approximately 1,400 enterprises are quarterly collected.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Prices are collected once a quarter in most activities and refer to the average price of the quarter.
For Air Transport prices are collected on a monthly basis referring to the average of the month.
18.3. Data collection
Price collection is done by questionnaire to enterprises that are part of the sample. Questionnaires are carried out by email, fax, telephone or mail.
With the beginning of base 2010, the collection of questionnaires through IRIA (data collection application via Internet) was introduced gradually.
The questionnaire lists the products for which the company must include the price, with a detailed description of their characteristics, allowing the company to identify the exact product.
18.4. Data validation
In each collection unit all information requested in the questionnaire is checked and all incidents related to enterprises, services and prices are properly justified and explained. Next, a centralized data cleaning is done, in order to detect possible errors or unjustified price changes.
18.5. Data compilation
Data checking
As a general rule, respondents are contacted again in order to justify or correct any anomalies detected in subvarieties or prices during the validation process, in case they have changed the characteristics or the unit of measure of the product.
Index Calculation
First, the elementary indices are calculated as a ratio of the geometric mean of the prices collected in the quarter between the prices reported in the fourth quarter last year. Subsequently, the elementary indices are aggregated using a weighted arithmetic mean.
Weights
The main sources for the weights of SPPI are the Annual Services Survey and the SPPI itself. There are weights for each product in each enterprise.
Treatment of missing items
When occasionally the product price has not been reported, the enterprise is contacted to see if they can estimate the price that the transaction would have had. 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.
Treatment of replacement products
When a service disappears, INE contacts the informant to know if it is something temporary or permanent. In the event that the disappearance is permanent, the service is replaced by another. In case the enterprise does not have a substitute for the product, we try to find another enterprise to provide information.
Adjustments for quality change
When there is a change in the specifications of a product 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 product.
18.6. Adjustment
Prices quoted in currencies other than the national one are converted into the national currency using the average exchange rate for the reference month.
Data are not calendar and seasonal adjusted.
Not applicable.
The objective of the Service Producer Price Index (SPPI) is to measure the quarterly evolution of prices, of services provided to both companies and households, from the supply perspective.
1 April 2025
Aggregate index: Weighted arithmetic mean of elementary indices.
Basket of services: Set of services whose price is collected every quarter.
Contribution: The contribution of a service is the extent to which the overall index changes when there are price changes only for that service (that is, all other prices remain constant).
Elementary index: Ratio of average prices in the current quarter to average prices in the fourth quarter of the previous year (multiplied by 100). Indices are unitless and measure price changes from the base period to the current quarter.
Service producer prices: The prices used to calculate SPPI are transaction prices to customers who are businesses. The VAT, other similar deductible taxes directly linked to turnover and the rights and taxes on services invoiced by the unit are excluded, but they include any rebates or discounts made to the purchaser and any subsidies on products received by the producer.
Quality adjustment: Estimation of the price difference between the new (replacement) service and the old (replaced) one that is due to the quality change.
Quality change: Change that occurs when the new service that replaces a previously selected one presents a change in its specification that results in a significant difference in the utility of the service.
Rates of change: They show price developments between two periods of time.
Weights: Service weight is the relative importance of each service in the basket. They are calculated based on the turnover of each of the services that make up the basket. The turnover information is obtained from the Annual Services Survey.
The KAU is the observation unit, and the legal unit is the reporting unit.
All enterprises which provide services in NACE Sections H, I, J, L, M (except M701, M72, and M75) and N.
The whole national territory is covered.
The reference period for data is the quarter.
The accuracy is tackled at national 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, in 2024 there was a non-response rate of 10.9% at the time of the initial release. The questionnaires keep being required one year 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 decreased until the 6.3% the next publication. Because of that the published results are updated quarterly including both new and edited data.
Since the cut-off sampling is used, best sampling method to be used taking into account the skewness of the distribution of the Services 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.
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.
Data checking
As a general rule, respondents are contacted again in order to justify or correct any anomalies detected in subvarieties or prices during the validation process, in case they have changed the characteristics or the unit of measure of the product.
Index Calculation
First, the elementary indices are calculated as a ratio of the geometric mean of the prices collected in the quarter between the prices reported in the fourth quarter last year. Subsequently, the elementary indices are aggregated using a weighted arithmetic mean.
Weights
The main sources for the weights of SPPI are the Annual Services Survey and the SPPI itself. There are weights for each product in each enterprise.
Treatment of missing items
When occasionally the product price has not been reported, the enterprise is contacted to see if they can estimate the price that the transaction would have had. 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.
Treatment of replacement products
When a service disappears, INE contacts the informant to know if it is something temporary or permanent. In the event that the disappearance is permanent, the service is replaced by another. In case the enterprise does not have a substitute for the product, we try to find another enterprise to provide information.
Adjustments for quality change
When there is a change in the specifications of a product 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 product.
The data used to calculate the Service Producer Price Indices are obtained through surveys that are filled out by enterprises. The frame of the survey is all enterprises that provide services (of the activities included in the indices) to other businesses.
For each activity, the selection of the units that are part of the sample is carried out to cover between 60% and 70% of the turnover of this activity (according to data from the Annual Survey of Services, referred to 2021).
In the SPPI, base 2021, around 8,500 prices of 151 products in approximately 1,400 enterprises are quarterly collected.
Quarterly.
As established in the Regulation, the deadline for the data transmission is 90 days after the end of the reference period.
This deadline is met, since the results for the SPPI are published around 77 days after the end of the reference period.
The SPPI data are not disaggregated by Spanish regions.
Moreover, 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 Service Producer Price Indices were published for the first time in 2007. Since then there have been changes in the used classification as well as changes in the base year.
Since the first quarter of 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 series are comparable since their beginning, in the first quarter of 2007.
