Producer Price Indexes, Australia methodology

Latest release
Reference period
December 2024

Overview

Scope

The quarterly PPI measures the change in prices of goods and services in Australia as they leave or enter the production process. More details on scope of each index can be found under Indexes

Geography

Producer Price Indexes are available at the national level, and state or capital city level for selected indexes

Source

Prices for a range of goods and services are collected from a sample of businesses undertaking economic activity in Australia, and supplemented by using internal ABS data sources and publicly available administrative data

Collection method

Prices are collected via a webform based tailored survey questionnaire

Concepts, sources and methods

Descriptions of the underlying concepts and methods used are available in the PPI and ITPI Concepts, Sources and Methods 

History of changes

  • Childcare Services Cost Index released December quarter 2024
  • For a detailed list see History of changes  

Introduction

The Australian Producer Price Indexes (PPIs) are a collection of indexes that measure the price change of products (goods and services) as they leave the place of production or as they enter the production process. This price change is measured from the perspective of the industries that produce goods and services. Other measures, such as the Consumer Price Index (CPI), measure price change from the consumers' perspective. When measuring prices from the seller’s perspective, factors such as distribution costs, taxes and the impact of government subsidies are generally excluded.

About PPI

General

Uses

Quality declaration

Indexes

Final demand Producer Price Index

Mining industries Producer Price Indexes

Manufacturing industries Producer Price Indexes

Construction industries Producer Price Indexes

Services industries Producer Price Indexes

Retail trade industry Producer Price Indexes

Childcare Services Cost Index

Using the indexes

Analysis of index numbers

Care should be exercised when interpreting quarter-to-quarter movements in the indexes as short-term movements do not necessarily indicate changes in trend.
Movements in indexes from one period to another can be expressed either as changes in index points or as percentage changes. The following example illustrates the method of calculating index points changes and percentage changes between any two periods:
 

Final demand index numbers
September quarter 2024 131.9 (see Table 1)
less September quarter 2023 127.0 (see Table 1)
Change in index points 4.9
Percentage change 4.9/127.0 X 100 = 3.9% (see Table 1)


The data cube for Final demand (Table 5) provides analyses of the index points contribution of select ANZSIC groups towards the Final demand index. For example, Petroleum refining and petroleum fuel manufacturing contributed 1.04 index points to the Final demand index number of 131.9 for the September quarter 2024 and -0.11 index points to the net change of 1.2 index points between the June 2024 and September 2024 quarters.

For more information, watch our data literacy presentation on CPI, inflation and cost of living data as well as our ABS data crash course, designed especially for journalists to learn how to find, download and interpret our data.

Rounding

Published index numbers are rounded to one decimal place. Percentage change movements are calculated from the index numbers and then rounded to one decimal place. Rounding errors can occur, causing discrepancies (e.g. when calculating percentage changes of aggregates and their components).

Index reference periods

All index numbers are calculated on the index reference period 2011-12 = 100.0, exceptions are listed below. Exceptions are due to the introduction of new indexes at a later date than the original reference period.

  • Selected series in Table 35 - Output of the Health care and social assistance industries, group and class index numbers are calculated on an index reference period of 2012-13 = 100.0 
  • Selected series in Table 27 - Output of the Other services industries, group and class index numbers  are calculated on an index reference period of 2015-16 = 100.0 
  • Table 36 - Output of the Mining industries are calculated on an index reference period of 2015-16 = 100.0
  • Table 37 - Childcare Services Cost Index is calculated on an index reference period of 2018-2019 = 100.0

Revisions to indexes

Index numbers are released as final figures at the time they are first published. Revisions will only occur in exceptional circumstances.

Enquiries

For enquiries about these and related statistics, contact the Customer Assistance Service via the ABS website Contact Us page. The ABS Privacy Policy outlines how the ABS will handle any personal information that you provide to us.

History of changes

History of changes

Further information on price index developments in the ABS is presented in the following publications:

December 2024, Introduction of Childcare Services Cost Index

March 2024, Review of Final demand and resulting changes to published components

June 2022, updated Producer and International Trade Price Indexes, Concepts, Sources and Methods 

March 2020, indefinite pause of RTPI

December 2019, PPI Stage of Production (SOP) Review and the resulting changes

September 2017, Inclusion of the Output of Mining industries index

September 2015, implementation of new weighting patterns

September 2013, discontinued series

September 2012, review of the Producer and International Trade Price Indexes

September 2009, updates to industry classifications through implementation of ANZSIC 2006

March 2006, changes to time series spreadsheets

2000, new tax system, affecting all Price indexes

Abbreviations

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