Italy Producer Price Index (PPI) y/y

The Producer Price Index (PPI) y/y implements the recognition of both the production prices of industrial products sold on the domestic market and the production prices of industrial products sold on foreign markets, therefore it is the index that measures the variations over time of the output prices that are formed in the first stage of marketing.

The PPI may present different percentage variations of the indices depending on the calculation period. The PPI y/y is considered the tendential change (in Italian "variazione tendenziale"), i.e. the change compared to the same month but the previous year.

The index is calculated in Italy by ISTAT on the basis of the European rules and covers the following industrial sectors as per ATECO 2002 classification: Mining and carrying; Manufacturing; Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply; Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities. The product items are aggregated according to the ATECO hierarchy, i.e. categories, classes, groups, divisions and sections, as well as they are distinguished between consumer durables, non-durable consumer goods, capital goods, intermediate goods and energy.

The prices are recorded on 'ex works' (or warehouse) terms net of VAT. The data series includes price information on 1,102 product items collected from a sample of 3,667 companies, with a total of about 12,600 observations for each month.

A weight is determined for each aggregate based on the value of sales invoiced in the domestic market, as determined by ISTAT in its 2000 survey of income statements.

A higher than expected PPI y/y reading can be seen as positive for the euro quotes.