Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO)

Sectoral Statistics Department, Industrial and Services Prices Section

H-1525 Budapest P.O.B. 51, Hungary

The services producer price index (SPPI) covers services delivered by the resident business service producers and sold to all customers (economic units or persons representing economic units, public bodies, households and other users) and reflect the average price development of selected service activities compared to the several base periods (e.g. year 2015=100.0). Both domestic prices of services (sold to the resident customers) and export prices of services (sold to the non-resident customers) are collected. The frequency of the electronic data collection is quarterly. The production and transmission of data (indicator 130201) is required by the current EBS regulation.

Product-based price indices of services provided for businesses (B-B) are the aggregates of enterprise-level product-based price indices of CPA 2.1 / TESZOR’15 categories (previous quarter = 100%).

Price indices of services provided for all customers (B-All) are also computed – as weighted averages of Service Producer Price Indices (SPPI, B-B) and Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices at Constant Tax (HICT-CT).

Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE Rev. 2) and Statistical Classification of Products by Activity, Version 2.1

The SPPI’s cover economic activities listed in sections H, I, J, L, M, N

• H: Transportation and storage services
• 49 Land transport services and transport services via pipelines
• 50 Water transport services
• 51 Air transport services
• 52 Warehousing and support services for transportation
• 53 Postal and courier services
• I: Accommodation and food services
• 55 Accommodation services
• 56 Food and beverage serving services
• J: Information and communication services
• 58 Publishing services
• 59 Motion picture, video and television programme production services, sound recording and music publishing
• 60 Programming and broadcasting services
• 61 Telecommunications
• 62 Computer programming, consultancy and related services
• 63 Information services
• L: Real estate services
• 68 Real estate services
• M: Professional, scientific and technical services
• 69 Legal and accounting services
• 70.2 Management consulting services
• 71 Architectural and engineering services; technical testing and analysis services
• 73 Advertising and market research
• 74 Other professional, scientific and technical services
• N: Administrative and support service activities
• 77 Rental and leasing services
• 78 Employment services
• 79 Travel agency, tour operator and other reservation services and related services
• 80 Security and investigation services
• 81 Services to buildings and landscape
• 82 Office administrative, office support and other business support services
• Observed services, total (sections H–N, except for section K)

According to the current EBS regulation the service producer price index for an economic activity measures the average price development of all services, Business-to-All, which is composed of Business-to-Business- B2B, and Business-to-consumers- B2C. Sales to public sector, Business-to-Government – B2G, is also included in B2B.

Price representative of services is a service item with well delimited parameters of quality, relevant in pricing aspects, which represents considerable weight in sales, and data on which can be continuously supplied.

Pricing methods for services: all specific information based on which the unit service producer price can be determined.

The Methodological guide for developing producer price indices for services (publication of OECD and Eurostat, second edition, KS-04-14-661-EN-C) suggests using eight pricing methods:

• Direct use of prices of repeated services: real transaction prices or list prices (although this latter is not proposed) are surveyed. It can be applied when services or “service packages” are actually realized in every survey period.
• Contract pricing uses real transaction prices. It is applied when the same producer sells the same (or very similar) service to the same client in several survey periods.
• Component pricing divides the composite service into a number of key output components, which are priced separately based on real transaction prices, then component data are combined to form the service price.
• Model pricing: the price for a standardised product is estimated based on a model transaction which is not actually transacted in the comparison period.
• Unit value method: the unit price is determined as the quotient of the value (sales revenue) and quantity of services sold over a large number of transactions. The method is applicable in cases when the different service types in a group of services are relatively homogeneous.
• The percentage fee method estimates a price by multiplying the value of an asset tied to the service by a percentage.
• The pricing based on working time surveys the amount of money charged to a buyer of a service for a standard unit (e.g. one hour) of work carried out by an employee contributing to the production (provision) of that service (which amount of money should not be mistaken for the employee’s salary.
• Margin pricing method: margin prices are defined as those prices that are not directly observable but where the value of the service can be measured as the difference between the observed acquisition and selling prices of a given product. It is important to differentiate this method from pricing mechanisms that may be used by typical margin charging industries. In some cases these industries will specify the price of a service for a given delivery/provision of a product, which may also be invoiced as a percentage of the value of the underlying product. In these cases the appropriate methods are those that relate real transaction prices or percentage fees. There are however similarities in practice between the percentage fee and margin pricing methods.

Price data are collected quarterly via internet by the questionnaire: No 2130 on business services producer prices.

The sub-indices for “large” and “smaller” enterprises are computed using product-type annual sales data for the year preceding the reference year as weights, covered by the SPPI survey. The national weights for the 4-digit level of NACE Rev. 2 are annual SBS sales data from the second year prior to the reference year.

As regards the definitions of variables used in practice of the HCSO the Commission Implementing Regulation 2020/1197 is the standard source.

Enterprise

The frame of the survey is Business Register.

Sample size: 3000 enterprises were selected. Full coverage for “large” enterprises (cut-off according to the annual sales and/or the number of persons employed).
Representative sample for “smaller” enterprises.

Territory of Hungary. The whole national territory is covered and the activities performed outside the national territory is not taken into account in this variable.

The time-series of SPPI’s are disseminated from the 1^st quarter of 2007 as required by the STS Regulation, and from the 1^st quarter of 2016 as requested by the EBS Regulation.

Base year: 2021

The switching date is 2024 for changing the base year from 2015 to 2021 (in 2023 the base year was still 2015 but from 2024 the whole time series is recalculated to the base year 2021).

Indices percentage changes (%)

Quarter

At European level:

• Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics concerning short term statistics.
• 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 concerning short term statistics. (General Implementing Act)
• Council Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 of 19 May 1998 concerning short term statistics; Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 is repealed with effect from 1 January 2024.
• Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics;
• Regulation (EU) 2015/759 of the European Parliament and of the council amending Regulation (EC) No. 223/2009 on European statistics.
• STS data requirements overview June 2021
• STS data requirements by country size June 2021

All relevant regulations can be found in the STS section on Eurostat’s website under Statistics => Short-term business statistics => Legislation

At national level:

• The Act CLV of 2016 on Statistics (the Hungarian Statistical Law)
• Government Decree on the National Statistical Data Collection Programme enacting the surveys of reference period.

Additional information in English can be found here.

According to the Regulation (EU)  2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics concerning short term statistics data were transmitted to Eurostat.

At European level:

• Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics concerning short term statistics.
• 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 concerning short term statistics. (General Implementing Act)
• Council Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 of 19 May 1998 concerning short term statistics; Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 is repealed with effect from 1 January 2024.

All relevant regulations can be found in the STS section on Eurostat’s website under Statistics => Short-term business statistics => Legislation

At national level:

• The Act CLV of 2016 on Statistics (the Hungarian Statistical Law);
• Act CXII of 2011 on Informational self-administration and freedom of information.
• Additional information in English can be found here.
• The confidentiality policy of HCSO is available on its website

HCSO ensures confidentiality for all the data reported by data providers and the exclusive use of the data for statistical purposes. We disseminate only aggregated data in full compliance with the rules of confidentiality. Individual data, as well as aggregated data consisting of fewer than 3 enterprises are regarded as confidential and therefore not published. Researchers have access to de-identified data sets and to anonymised micro data for scientific purposes with appropriate legal and methodological guaranties in place. As for the employees, they can work with datasets in their competence with registered and controlled access rights. For details see Information on confidentiality for data providers on the website of HCSO.

All of the features of dissemination activity are consistent with the Dissemination and Communication Policy of Hungarian Central Statistical Office. In the elaboration of this document the

• The Act CLV of 2016 on Statistics (the Hungarian Statistical Law)
• Act CXII of 2011 on Right of Informational Self-Determination and Freedom of Information and
• Regulation 223/2009/EC of EP and Council on European Statistics provided the most important legal basis. Furthermore, Dissemination Policy is in line with the Quality Declaration of ESS, the Code of Practice and Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics.

(Since the last update of Dissemination Policy of HCSO a new statistical law has been adopted in Hungary and the European Statistical law has been amended, but the changes do not affect the principals of Dissemination Policy.)

HCSO has a public Dissemination calendar that contains the dissemination dates of all First releases. The public dissemination calendar (Catalogue) on the website of HCSO provided information not only the first releases but the analyses, methodological publications, promotional publications, reports, statistical reflections, yearbooks and pocketbooks. Both calendars are prepared in line with the annual dissemination programme.

A public dissemination calendar of the first releases is accessible and it can be downloaded in Excel format by everyone via the website of HCSO. It provides information about publish date, the date of any modification, the title of publication, the reference period or date and the date of inclusion in the database.

First releases and the related databases are published at 9 a. m. on the day provided in the Dissemination calendar. Some key user groups are subjected to other rules because of their special role in the economic and political life. Journalists can read the first release in the Press Room at 8:30 a. m. but they are allowed to transmit their reports at 9 a. m. after the publication of HCSO. Certain first releases are sent to the members of the government and the President of the National Bank of Hungary at 5 p. m. on the day prior to the publication after closure of the Budapest Stock Exchange. Within the given ministry and the National Bank of Hungary responsible use of our data is ensured by strict rules.

As for the SPPIs no specific user group gets the information before publication. Eurostat also receives the data via eDAMIS with a “free for publication” condition.

Quarterly

Not applicable.

Statistical reflections are released quarterly in Publication Repertory on website HCSO in theme SPPI’s.

Dissemination database on the website of HCSO.

In HCSO the following four data access channels are available only for researchers for scientific purposes. The HCSO performs a researcher accreditation procedure for all data requests for these four data access channels.

• Safe Centre access

The HCSO offers access to deidentified microdata sets for scientific purposes in the safe environment of the Safe Centre operated by the HCSO in Budapest.

• Remote access

The offers access to deidentified microdata sets for scientific purposes in the safe environment of the remote access points operated by the HCSO under the same access conditions as the Safe Centre access.

• Remote execution

For scientific purposes, the HCSO produces the requested research outputs inside its own safe environment based on the specifications/syntax files provided by the researcher.

• Release of anonymised microdata sets

By using this data access channel the HCSO provides anonymised microdata sets for the researcher for scientific purposes.

Data transmission is fulfilled to Eurostat each quarter to be released as national data. The transmission is carried out in SDMX format.

There are methodological notes on HCSOs website.

User-oriented quality reports on statistical domains are prepared in the framework of methodological documentation and are published as metainformation on the HCSO website: Methodological documentation .

An internal HCSO regulation is in place regarding the preparation of producer-oriented quality reports for each statistical domain on a yearly basis.

In case of some statistical domains – concerning first releases – quality check is carried out and documented each month for the management of HCSO. However, this report is not published.

The HCSO Quality Policy lays out the principles and commitments related to the quality of statistics. The documentis consistent with the goals set out in the Mission and Vision statements andwith the principles of the European Statistics Code of Practice and is publicly available on the HCSO website.

The European Statistics Code of Practice is available on the website of the HCSO. Also, HCSO together with the member-organisations of the Hungarian Official Statistical Service created a National Statistics Code of Practice based on the European Statistics Code of Practice.

Quality Guidelines are meant to ensure the quality of the statistical processes. The document has been in place since 2007 (1st revision in 2009, 2nd revision in 2014 and 3rd revision is currently ongoing). The latest version (2014) is available on the HCSO website.

Procedures are in place in order to ensure updated documentation on product quality. (See above about Quality Documentation in 10.7) Apart from the internal reports, quality reports are regularly provided to Eurostat as well.

The 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 concerning short term statistics) prescribe the scope, the level of detail the deadlines and also the implementation of definitions of variables. The processing of data production has been developed according to these regulations.

The time series of service producer price indices is available in dissemination database and STADAT system for everyone. STADAT (the acronym stands for statistical data), which involves mostly time series can be found on the HCSOs website. STADAT includes plenty of data in pre-made tables about numerous topics, with methodological notes. The tables can be downloaded but the user cannot transform them. (While working with the dissemination database the user can assemble a cross table, elements to the table columns and rows can be added as well as filters can be applied).

HCSO is committed to develop the quality and ensure the credibility of statistics. In order to provide better quality data the annual internal quality report and SWOT analysis is made, documentation of quality is updated regularly.

Main users are: Eurostat and Hungarian National Accounts

User satisfaction is measured via download statistics for publications.

Length of time series, scope of economic activities is complete according to EBS Regulations.

Sampling error and non-sampling error are not relevant in scope of SPPI’s. We are out to reach better response rate in every quarter.

In the reference period a missing price is estimated by the previous period’s data of enterprises (regarding contracts) in certain cases or by using the average price development of similar products/enterprises. To impute missing weighting data the annual SBS sales data from the second year prior to the reference year are used. Administrative sources are also applied.

Not available. As one of the main sources could be mentioned misclassification of activities and/or products.

In the HCSO an industry- specified multi-modal sample (including parts with full coverage and representative sample) is applied taking into account the structure of the Business Register as well as the respondent’s burden.

Full coverage for “large” enterprises (cut-off according to the annual sales and/or the number of persons employed). Representative sample for “smaller” enterprises.

The possible sources are: survey instrument (survey via Web, administrative source, the lack of knowledge of respondent).

The response rate of data collection exceeded of 80% in every quarter in 2023.

The main reasons of non-response are: contact failure (no information on the availability of data provider), the data provider is not registered in the electronic system of HCSO (KSH_ELEKTRA).

Editing, coding and imputations errors are not relevant.

3 months after the end of the reference period – according to the STS Regulation.

Hungarian SPPI’s are published according to the announced release calendars.

Over the data collection and calculation domestic and non-domestic markets are interpreted according to territory of Hungary. The whole country is treated in a uniform manner in statistical point of view. The same statistical concepts can be applied all of the territory. All data sources coverage fully the regions.

There are no difficulties concerning the geographical comparability.

There is no break in SPPI’s time series, which are relatively short; the data are available from the 1st quarter of 2007. The change of classification systems applied (NACE and CPA) has been successful. The national rebasing of the individual STS indicators including SPPIs was realized according to the Eurostat’s requirements.

Hungarian SPPI’s are compared with CPI’s and European SPPI time series. SPPIs as deflators are coherent with the performance indicators (e.g. turnover, value added, foreign sales of services) in terms of classification used, frequency, coverage of services areas and users (domestic, non-domestic, business, households).

The internal coherence of SPPI’s data is validated in time series.

Cost (NSI hours per year): 9500

Burden (Respondents hours per year): 5000

The electronic forms (e-mail, internet) of data collection and the “tailor-made” questionnaire for each respondent reduced the cost and burden through the years from 2007.

A revision in official statistics is defined as any change in a value of a statistic released to the public. The fundamental aim of revision is to improve data quality and thereby to be more accurate when reflecting the reality.

Hungarian SPPI’s have got relatively short time series; the data are available from the 1st quarter of 2007. The use of revision is not typical for these statistics, we do not revise the final data, unless we discover an error, so we apply revision if necessary. There was no planned or unplanned revision last year in this statistical domain.

The indicator of SPPI’s is derived from statistical survey using questionnaires. “Blanket” or class-specific questionnaires are used to collect unit prices, and 4- and 6-digit-level sales data of services sold on domestic and external market by enterprises. Unit prices are sales prices according to the invoice, rather than list prices. Taxes are excluded but discounts, rebates and surcharges have to be taken into account. Sample size: 2000 enterprises were selected with full coverage for „large” enterprises (according to annual sales or the number of employed persons) and representative sample for „smaller” enterprises. Data from other statistical domains: weighting data are taken from Structural Business Statistics (SBS) surveys (annual performance indicators of enterprises). Administrative data sources: for imputation and validation of data administrative source (tax data) is also used.

Quarter

Price data are collected via internet (KSH_ELEKTRA). Questionnaires are sent to the reporting units at the end of each reference period. The deadline for replies is the 8^th day after the reference period.

Micro data validation: price data can be compared with those of the previous quarters.

In case of inconsistency or large difference we contact respondents.

Macro data validation is made regularly by time series monitoring.

Method for index calculation (B-B):

1. Elementary price indices (price relatives)
2. Individual price index for each company (unweighted geometrical average and/or weighted arithmetical average, product-based)
3. Sub-index for “big” companies (full coverage, weighted arithmetical average, product-based)
4. Sub-index for “small” companies (representative sample, unweighted geometrical average, product-based)
5. Compiling indices for the products (CPA’08 4-digit level indices, weighted arithmetical average with rate of the turnover of “big” and “small” companies). For aggregation indices of “big” companies we apply product-based turnover data 1 year prior to the actual year collected by the SPPI survey.

The CPA’08 4-digit level nationwide coverage weights are SBS turnover data from 2 years prior to the actual year. The indices are chain linked with annually up-dated weights.

Price indices of services provided for all customers (B-All) are also computed – as weighted averages of Service Producer Price Indices (SPPI, B-B) and Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices at Constant Tax (HICT-CT).

SPPI data are not seasonally or other (e.g. calendar) adjusted.

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