Services producer price indices

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 quarter I 2015 the producer price indices in the following sectors decreased compared with the previous quarter: Freight transport by road (-0.5%); Sea and coastal water transport (-5.7%); Air transport (-3.5%); Postal and courier activities (-0.4%). In the same period the following indices increased: Warehousing and storage (+1,2%); Cargo handling (+1.3%); Telecommunications (+0.3%), Security and investigation activities (+0.3%).

Moreover, in quarter I 2015 the following producer price indices decreased compared with the same quarter  of 2014: Sea and coastal water transport (-7.1%); Air  transport (-7.4%); Postal and courier activities (-2.5%); Telecommunications (-4.5%). On the contrary, the list of indices that increased: Freight transport by road (+0.3%); Warehousing and storage (+1.5%); Cargo handling (+1.7%), Security and investigation activities (+0.1%).

Date of next release: 25 September 2015