Services Producer Price Indices (SPPIs) or Output Price Indices for Services measure quarterly changes in the prices received for services provided by enterprises to other enterprises and Government. This means the SPPIs cover what are commonly known as business to business transactions, thus leaving out sales to consumers.
The indices are chained based, namely the basket of services and the weighting system are annually updated. Quarterly indices for the current year are calculated with reference to the last quarter of the previous year (base period) and subsequently chained over the period chosen as reference period (2010=100) in order to be able to measure price trends over a period of time of more than a year. The indices are calculated according to Ateco 2007 classification (Italian edition of Nace Rev. 2).
In Q4 2014 the producer price indices in the following sectors decreased compared with the previous quarter: Freight transport by road (-0.2%); Air transport (-1.6%); Warehousing and storage (-0.8%); Cargo handling (-0.8%); Postal and courier activities (-0.2%); Telecommunications (-4.4%). Only the producer price index in the sector of Sea and coastal water transport increased by +8.7%.
Moreover, in the same period the following producer price indices decreased compared with the same quarter of 2013: Air transport (-2.4%); Warehousing and storage (-0.5%); Postal and courier activities (-1.0%); Telecommunications (-6.2). On the contrary, the list of indices that increased: Freight transport by road (+1.9%); Sea and coastal water transport (+7.0%); Cargo handling (+2.0%).
Date of next release: 26 June 2015