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 Services Producer Price Index (SPPI) is made up of a set of individual price indices that measure changes in the average level of prices charged by producers for a selected range of services supplied to businesses and government. In most cases these services are provided to business customers only.
The individual price indices are aggregated together to create a “services industry” index that is limited in coverage.
3.2. Classification system
NACE Rev. 2.
3.3. Coverage - sector
The NACE Sectors covered are:
49 Land Transport 50 Water Transport 51 Air Transport 52 Warehouse & Storage 53 Postal & Courier
77 Rental & Leasing 78 Employment 79 Travel Agency, Tour Operator & Other Reservation 80 Security & Investigation 81 Services to Buildings & Landscape 82 Office Adminstration & Other Business Supports
The Size Classes of Enterprises covered are:
Sizeclass 1: A business with 0-9 employees.
Sizeclass 2: A business with 10-50 employeses.
Sizeclass 3: A business with 50+ employees.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
The Services Producer Price Index covers services delivered by resident business service providers to economic units or persons representing economic units.
3.5. Statistical unit
Enterprises act as both the reporting units and the observation units.
3.6. Statistical population
The statistical population is all enterprises whose main business activity is classified to one of the Nace Rev. 2 codes listed in section 3.3.
3.7. Reference area
Republic of Ireland
3.8. Coverage - Time
Data are available from the first quarter of 2006 onwards.
3.9. Base period
The base year is 2021=100.
Index.
Quarter.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
(EBS) Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on 27 November 2019 and the Commission implementing Regulation 2020/1197.
This statutory survey is conducted under the S.I. No. 2/2023 - Statistics (Producer Prices Survey) Order 2023 made under the Statistics Act, 1993 and Article 6(1)(a) and (b) and (2)(j) of Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 as amended by Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1704 of 14 July 2021.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Section 34 of the 1993 Statistics Act states:
The Office may provide, for statistical purposes only, information obtained in any way under this Act or the repealed enactments, in such form that it cannot be directly or indirectly related to an identifiable person or undertaking, to such persons and subject to such charges, conditions and restrictions as the Director General may determine.
Data is shared with Eurostat as provided for under the relevant European legislation.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
The provision on statistical confidentiality is regulated by Sections 32 and 33 of the 1993 Statistics Act.
Section 32 states:
All information furnished by a person, undertaking or public authority under this Act shall be used only for statistical compilation and analysis purposes.
Section 33 states:
(1) No information obtained in any way under this Act or the repealed enactments which can be related to an identifiable person or undertaking shall, except with the written consent of that person or undertaking or the personal representative or next-of-kin of a deceased person, be disseminated, shown or communicated to any person or body except as follows:
(a) for the purposes of a prosecution for an offence under this Act;
(b) to officers of statistics in the course of their duties under this Act;
(c) for the purposes of recording such information solely for the use of the Office in such form and manner as is provided for by a contract in writing made by the Director General which protects its confidentiality to his satisfaction
(2) The Office may, for statistical purposes only, assign codes derived from information collected under this Act classifying undertakings listed in the administrative systems of other public authorities by economic activity and size (persons engaged) categories.
(3) The Taoiseach may by order prescribe such further prohibitions on the disclosure of identifiable records or information obtained under this Act or the repealed enactments for such periods as may be prescribed.
(4) Nothing in this Act shall be construed to require any person or undertaking to provide information in relation to a matter on which information was sought in circumstances that would entitle the person or undertaking to decline to give the information in a civil proceeding in any court or on grounds of privilege.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Confidentiality is not an issue due to the level of aggregation in the release.
8.1. Release calendar
A four month advance release calendar is published on the CSO website.
8.2. Release calendar access
The Central Statistics Office has a webpage for the official release calendar.
8.3. Release policy - user access
There is no advance dissemination to data users. Results are released via the CSO website at 11.00am on the day of publication.
No prior access is granted.
Data is transmitted to Eurostat on or just before the day of national release in SDMX format using EDAMIS.
Quarterly.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
None.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
The Central Statistics Office website hosts the SPPI Publication.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
The quarterly SPPI data for the 2021=100 series is available online in Tables SPP06 and SPP08.
Annual versions of the data are available in Tables SPP05 and SPP07.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Microdata is not disseminated.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Data are sent to Eurostat to be used in European aggregates and/or to be released as national data.
The edits are range edits comparing the prices with the corresponding prices of the previous quarter.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
As part of the rebase the process behind SPPI was redeveloped to extend coverage to meet the new EBS requirements. The review covered aspects from sample selection to aggregation.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
There are three main uses of SPPI; as a short-term indicator of the business cycle and to provide deflators for both National Accounts and the Monthly Services Index.
The indices are also transmitted to Eurostat every quarter.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not available.
12.3. Completeness
Indices have been developed for all sectors specified in the European Business Statistics Regulation(EC) No 2019/2152, At present the indices for motion picture, sound and music publshing (59) and information service activities (63) are not included in the publication but 63 is due to be embeded later in this year. Indices for all other sectors specified in the Short Term Statistics Regulation are transmitted to Eurostat quarterly.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
CSO has not estimated the accuracy of the service producer price index.
13.2. Sampling error
Sampling error for the index has not been estimated.
13.3. Non-sampling error
There is very little non-sampling error due to non-response or processing errors. The amount of error in the data returned by the surveyed enterprises has not been estimated. The unweighted mean response rate for the 4 quarters of 2023 was 82%.
14.1. Timeliness
The results are published at or before T + 77 days.
14.2. Punctuality
The timeliness target (see 15.1) is achieved every quarter with rare exceptions.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
It is possible to compare the Irish indices with those of other European countries using the Nace Rev. 2 industry classification system.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Comparisons can be made quarterly back to Quarter 1 2006.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
It would be possible to compare indices in some industries with the equivalent industries in the Consumer Price Index. But the results should be somewhat different as the SPPI is for business to business prices only.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Aggregates are consistent with their sub-aggregates.
The results are generally not revised. Exceptions are in case of discovering an error in calculation, or if an important respondent's data arrives after publication. The same revision policy is applied nationally and in transmissions to Eurostat.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Data revisions are made to the historic tables in subsequent publications.
18.1. Source data
Approximately 750 enterprises are surveyed by email each quarter. The frame on which the sample was based was the CSO Business Register. These enterprises are asked to update price observations for a list of specific items they sell. These items were agreed with the enterprises during a canvassing stage. In some cases the enterprises specify the hourly rate for a particular type of employee.
The surveyed enterprises return a total of approximately 2500 such price observations.
All indices in the series are based on price observations collected on a quarterly basis, using either the average price per quarter or the price on the 15th of the middle month of the reference period.
Prices used in the compilation of these indices are:
Exclusive of VAT
Inclusive of surcharges (such as for fuel)
Following the expansion of SPPI, data collected by the Consumer Price Section is used in the construction of the indices for all NACE sectors.
The Employment and Human Resource Activities index is constructed using a combination of survey data and data from the Earnings, Hours and Employment Cost Survey.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Quarterly
18.3. Data collection
Data are collected by electronic form.
Email and telephone calls are used to seek the return of forms from non-respondents.
18.4. Data validation
Edits compare values against previous returns (range checks). If differences exceed specified thresholds, an edit is raised. These are then analysed and records are corrected as appropriate.
18.5. Data compilation
The calculation of the SPPI has been redesigned following the 2021=100 rebase and expansion.
The quarterly changes of product prices for each enterprise are combined in an unweighted geometric (Jevons) index for that enterprise.
These enterprise indices are combined using a weighted arithemetic (Laspeyres) formula to produce indices for each industry.
The industry indices are then combined using a Laspeyres formula to produce the published indices.
18.6. Adjustment
No adjustments are made
No further comments.
The Services Producer Price Index (SPPI) is made up of a set of individual price indices that measure changes in the average level of prices charged by producers for a selected range of services supplied to businesses and government. In most cases these services are provided to business customers only.
The individual price indices are aggregated together to create a “services industry” index that is limited in coverage.
28 July 2025
The Services Producer Price Index covers services delivered by resident business service providers to economic units or persons representing economic units.
Enterprises act as both the reporting units and the observation units.
The statistical population is all enterprises whose main business activity is classified to one of the Nace Rev. 2 codes listed in section 3.3.
Republic of Ireland
Quarter.
CSO has not estimated the accuracy of the service producer price index.
Index.
The calculation of the SPPI has been redesigned following the 2021=100 rebase and expansion.
The quarterly changes of product prices for each enterprise are combined in an unweighted geometric (Jevons) index for that enterprise.
These enterprise indices are combined using a weighted arithemetic (Laspeyres) formula to produce indices for each industry.
The industry indices are then combined using a Laspeyres formula to produce the published indices.
Approximately 750 enterprises are surveyed by email each quarter. The frame on which the sample was based was the CSO Business Register. These enterprises are asked to update price observations for a list of specific items they sell. These items were agreed with the enterprises during a canvassing stage. In some cases the enterprises specify the hourly rate for a particular type of employee.
The surveyed enterprises return a total of approximately 2500 such price observations.
All indices in the series are based on price observations collected on a quarterly basis, using either the average price per quarter or the price on the 15th of the middle month of the reference period.
Prices used in the compilation of these indices are:
Exclusive of VAT
Inclusive of surcharges (such as for fuel)
Following the expansion of SPPI, data collected by the Consumer Price Section is used in the construction of the indices for all NACE sectors.
The Employment and Human Resource Activities index is constructed using a combination of survey data and data from the Earnings, Hours and Employment Cost Survey.
Quarterly.
The results are published at or before T + 77 days.
It is possible to compare the Irish indices with those of other European countries using the Nace Rev. 2 industry classification system.
Comparisons can be made quarterly back to Quarter 1 2006.
