Brief
Introduction
I. Main Content
Price indexes in this chapter reflect the trend and rate of changes in
prices of production, circulation, consumption and investment, mainly
consisting of consumer price index (CPI), retail price index (RPI), producer
price index for farm products, producer price index for industrial products
(PPI); purchasing price index for industrial products; price index for
investment in fixed assets; and selling price index for residential houses.
II. Source of Statistics
Statistics in this chapter are from NBS
Survey Office in
III. Survey Methods
1. Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Retail Price Index (RPI)
Data for compilation of the consumer price index and retail price index
are collected through a combination of sample surveys and surveys of key units.
Different areas are selected across the city as the sample areas and
representative commodities with large amount of consumption and price changes
are selected as the sample commodities in reasonable layout. Commodity and service
items are identified by the central government. Regular surveys are conducted
to collect data on their market prices. General indexes are inferred on the
basis of the sample data. The process of CPI development is described as the
following steps.
The selection of price survey sites: By adopting the principle of reasonable
layout, an equidistant sampling is conducted for department stores,
agricultural product trade markets and service outlets in different types and
in different areas by their sales value, transaction value and operational
scale, which will be ranked in a descending order based on the number of survey
sites required.
The selection of representative commodities:
Representative commodity and service items are determined
by the country. Representative commodities are selected by provinces and cities
according to relevant principles. Principles for selection: (1) large quantity
of consumption; (2) strongly representative trend and extent of price changes, which
means the characteristics of price changes of selected commodities shall be
highly correlated with price changes of those that are not selected; (3)
selected commodities shall be different in their nature and least correlated in
the characteristics of price changes between each other; the selected
industrial products must be qualified products, with registered trademark,
origin, specifications, grade and other marks on the their package.
At present, data are collected over 600 specifications each month under
262 basic headings in 8 categories in the consumer price surveys. In
Method of data collection: Price data are collected through direct
surveys by designated personnel at designated sites on periodic basis.
Source and calculation of the weights: CPI weights are calculated
according to survey information on living expenditures of urban residents. RPI
weights are calculated according to the total retail sales of commodities.
2. Producer Price Index for Industrial Products (PPI); Purchasing Price
Index for Industrial Products
The producer price index for industrial products refers to the producer’s
price of industrial products when sold for the first time. The survey program
is a combination of the key units’ survey and typical units’ survey methods. Key
units refer to industrial enterprises with annual turnover from primary
activities at and above RMB 20 million. Typical units refer to the industrial
enterprises with annual revenue from the primary activities below RMB 20
million.
Purchasing price for Industrial Products refers to the price of intermediate
inputs of industrial enterprise. Enterprises for survey are selected among
those that have submitted the ex-factory prices of industrial products.
Principles for selecting the representative enterprises: (1) enterprises
to be covered in the survey are selected by industrial sectors. In principle,
every branch should have enterprises selected; (2) all (or a majority of)
large-sized enterprises should be selected; (3) enterprises selected should be
those with normal and stable production; (4) enterprises selected should
include those with different ownerships.
Principles for selecting representative products: (1) representative
products are be selected by industrial sectors; (2) the selected products should
have significant impact on the national economy and people’s livelihood; (3) the
production of the goods selected should be relatively more stable; (4) the
prospects of the goods selected should be promising; (5) the products selected
shall represent the localities.
In addition to the above-mentioned principles, a special condition
shall be taken into account in the survey of producer price index for
industrial products. Namely, enterprises under survey shall report main raw
materials, fuel and power consumed in production.
Determination of weights: Weights used for compiling producer price
index for industrial products (PPI) are calculated according to sales value of industrial
products. Data for calculation are industrial data from economic census. If no
economic census is conducted recently, data from annual industrial statistics will
be used. Weights for compiling the purchasing price index for industrial products
are from consumption value of different materials. Data for calculation are
data from economic census combined with data from primary product survey; the weights
are changed every five years.
3. Price Index for Investment in Fixed Assets
A combined method of key survey and typical survey is used for the collection
of data on prices of investment in fixed assets. The prices collected in the
surveys of investment in fixed assets are the actual purchasing prices (or
settlement prices) of entities of investment in fixed assets. The survey covers
the prices of main construction materials that constitute the architectural
engineering entities in the year, such as steel, timber, cement, local construction
materials, electric parts and chemical materials in construction projects;
prices of labor input (wages) and costs of use of construction machines; purchasing
price of equipment, tools and devices as well as other expenditures.
Principles for selecting survey sites of construction and installation
projects: (1) the sample unit shall have certain coverage; (2) the economic
activity of investment should have strong representativeness;
(3) different types of registration should be considered; (4) key projects
shall be selected; (5) attention should be given to various types of projects.
Principles for selecting survey sites of other expenditures: in the
selection of survey sites of other expenditures, the same principles shall be
followed as in the selection of survey sites of building and installation
projects. Especially projects with larger amount of investment shall be
selected. Since it is not easy to obtain data on other expenditures, during the
actual data operations, survey on key builders and construction units is to be
conducted concurrently with survey on typical units (with information from
administration units).
Determination of weights. Weights used for calculating the fixed assets investment price index
are determined according to the average proportion of investment amount of construction
and installation projects, purchase of equipment, tools and instruments and
other expenditures completed in the previous three years.
4.
Selling Price Index for Residential Houses is a relative number reflecting the
trend and extent of overall level of house selling prices. It includes selling
price index for new houses and second-hand houses.
Survey method of new house selling price:
At present, real estate price survey is conducted in 70 medium and large-sized
cities across the country. For new houses, selling price, area, amount and
other data are taken directly from the online data recorded by local real
estate authorities. Online data of new house transaction mainly consist of the
name of construction project in process, project location, building number,
total number of floors, floor number, house structure, building area, total
price of transaction (contractual amount), and date of contract signing, etc.
Survey method of second-hand house selling price: Survey of
second-house selling price is incomplete survey conducted with the combined
method of key survey and typical survey. Basic data are collected in a combined
manner of reporting by real estate broker agencies, providing by real estate
authorities and field survey by investigators.
5. Producer Price Index for Farm Products
A combined method of sample survey and key survey was used for the
survey of producer prices of farm products. 300 entities and administrative
villages producing and selling agricultural products are sampled. For some
regional agricultural products, data on farm entities and administrative
villages are collected with the method of subjective sampling in main production
areas.
Under the instruction of assistant investigators, the surveyed entities
and administrative villages will record the name, quantity, price and amount of farm products sold during the reporting
period onto the log book and report them for summarization at the municipal
level.
As the production of forestry products (saplings) in Beijing is
relatively small, taking no more than 1%, so no survey on producer price for
forestry products is conducted according to statistical requirements of National
Bureau of Statistics.