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 Beijing and Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics.
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: Representat- ive 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 Beijing, due to the development of CPI by income class, representative commodities have increased to 1728 specifications. Retail price index consists of 16 categories, 229 basic headings and 1297 specifications of representative commodities.
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) Large-sized enterprises (or enterprises accounting for large proportion) 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: Materials of weights used for compiling producer price index for industrial products (PPI) of small class and above come from data of industrial sales value collected by sectors in industrial statistics. Materials of weights in basic classification come from independent survey on industrial enterprise product weights. Materials of purchase price weights mainly come from independent survey on industrial enterprise product weights. Weights of medium class and above shall also take reference to input and output data collected by sectors and materials of factory weights in relevant sectors. 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.