Wholesale trade, price index (discontinued), Q1 2020

National level only

Quarterly

Published approximately 5 days after given quarter

not relevant

Micro data, information about selected units, population, and catalogues are stored in the programming language SAS  

The purpose of the statistics is to measure the price development for businesses classified within wholesale trade. The data series date back to 1985.

Users include public- and private sector agencies, organisations and individuals index is also used as a basis for the regulation of various contracts.  

No external users have access to the statistics and analyses before they are published and accessible simultaneously for all users on ssb.no at 8 am. Prior to this, a minimum of three months' advance notice is given in the Statistics Release Calendar. This is one of Statistics Norway’s key principles for ensuring that all users are treated equally.

The Wholesale trade price index is used to calculate volume indexes for wholesale trade.

The Statistics Act, § 2-2 and §2-3

not relevant

The population consists of all establishments in wholesale trade with a yearly annual sales over NOK 10 million in industrial Wholesale trade (SIC2007:46), except of industry group agency trading (SIC2007:46.1).

From Establishments and Enterprises we get information about the geographic location, number of employees and the company's age. Prices are collected from the companies via a separate form survey.

The sample of about 1000 units contributes about 40 per cent of the total turnover and about 15 per cent of the establisments in the total population. The sample consists of establishments with an annual turnover in excess of NOK 10 million, and a quarter of the sample is rotated annually, in first quarter. Companies that have been in the sample for four years replaced if they do not belong to a full census strata.

The population is stratified according to industrial classification and turnover. The grouping of strata according to turnover will vary between different industrial classification groups.

Questionnaires are sent by post or over the Internet.  Establishments normally receive the questionnaire around the 15th in the second month of the quarter. The submission deadline is approximately two weeks later.

There are logical controls in the data entry routine, big difference in price compared to previously provided, and missing price or percentage of groups will be checked and corrected if needed.

For each respondent the reported prices are compared with the prices reported in the previous quarter. Longer data series for prices are also evaluated. Finally, prices of the same commodity are compared. In case of any major differences respondents are contacted by telephone. When a price is missing, the company is contacted by telephone. If the commodity in question is discontinued, the company is asked to report the price of the most similar commodity.

Price changes are compared with the Price index of first-hand domestic sales.

The calculation of the index use the formula of Laspeyres type. The index is calculated in 6 steps;

Step 1: For each establishment in the sample the index is computed for the representative commodities that have prices in the base period and the calculationperiod.

Step 2: A price index is computed for each group of commodities as an unweighted average of the representative commodities within the group of commodities.

Step 3: An index is computed for establishments as a weighted average of the index of the group of commoditites.

Step 4: A price index for each stratum within a group of industriy is computed as an unweighted average of the price indices for the establisments within the stratum. The establishments are divided into 3 stratum based on the establishments' Revenue. The stratums varies between different industries.

Step 5: For each group of industry a price index is computed as a weighted average of the price indices for stratums with revenue within each stratum as weight.

Step 6: The price indices for groups of industries and main industries, in addition to whole sale trade as a whole is computed as a weighted average following the same Method. For each level the indices are weighted as a whole together with corrosponding ratio of Revenue and are summed.

From the establishments information about the weights for the different groups of commodities are also obtained. The revenue for each stratum and each group of industry is obtained from the wholesale and Retail trade statistics. The Revenue from the most recent publication of the mentioned statistics is used as weights.

Not relevant

It is not possible to identify information on individual establishments in the statistics. The data collected from respondents are used in accordance with the regulations in the Statistics Act.

The index has been published in its present form since 1985.

In compliance with Eurostat regulations the reference year was changed to 2015=100 when indices for Q1 2018 were published. Prior to this the reference year of the Wholesale trade price index was 2005=100.

Prior to 1989 the name "Wholesale price index" was used on what today is called "Price index of first-hand domestic sales" (PIF), https://www.ssb.no/pif.