Prices indices of goods and services currently consumed in agriculture and goods and services contributing to agricultural investment

National Statistical Institute

Agriculture and Forestry Statistics Department

Raya Petrova

Marta Georgieva

State expert

Chief expert

2, P. Volov Str.; 1038 Sofia, Bulgaria

[email protected]

[email protected]

+359 2 9857 159

+359 2 9857 433

The data are developed in compliance with the general requirements of Handbook of EU Agricultural Price Statistics, Version 2.0 March 2008.

Thus achieving harmonization in the field of price statistics and indices in agriculture with the EU practice with regard of definitions, techniques of price registration, type of calculated indices, survey periodicity and classifications used. Two data sets are calculated:

· Prices of goods and services currently consumed in agriculture (quarterly and annual);

· Price Indices of goods and services currently consumed in agriculture (quarterly and annual).

The purpose of the indices is to provide information about trends in purchase prices of products and services currently consumed in agriculture for comparisons between different products within a country or between Member States of the European Union, to compare trends in producer prices and the price of goods and services currently consumed in agriculture and for compilation of data on economic accounts for agriculture (as deflator for items of intermediate consumption in agriculture).

Specific classifications of products and services currently consumed in agriculture are used. Classifications include representative products defined by their qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the following groups:

· Fertilizers;

· animal feeding stuffs;

· plant protection products;

· veterinary products;

· planting stocks and seeds.

The Price index (input) is based on purchases of products and services currently consumed in agriculture made by farm.

· Price of Goods and Services currently consumed in agriculture

The goods and services currently consumed in agriculture are valued at purchase price, i.e. the price actually paid for the products. It includes taxes on products (excluding deductible taxes and VAT), but does not include subsidies on products. Information is collected within five surveys on prices of: fertilizers, animal feeding stuffs, plant protection products, veterinary products and planting stocks and seeds.

For data collection on the prices of products and services currently consumed in agriculture representative products (most frequently purchased by agricultural holdings) are chosen, defined by their qualitative and quantitative characteristics. This way the lists with products for observation are build-up. Information is usually collected once in every five years, when the new base year appears. There is an exception for the products with great dynamics on the markets, the nomenclature of which is updated quarterly. In the second stage data on prices of the defined products is collected. According to the methodology the price of the largest purchase in quantity for each month of the reference period is taken into account. On the base of the collected prices not weighted average price of the product and simple and aggregate indices for the period are calculated.

· Price Indices of Goods and Services currently consumed in agriculture

The indices are calculated by the Laspeyre?s formula. It can be calculated for a period of several years without being necessary to alter the basket of representative products or the weights. Furthermore the parameters used for the calculation of the indices are well known at the time the base is established. Changes only need to be made when the evolution of the products used and of their relative importance have made the basic structure inappropriate.

· Weighting scheme for the calculation of the indices.

For the calculation of Price indices (Annex 2 of the Handbook) a weighting scheme should be available. Weights are calculated within the frame of the economic accounts for agriculture and they reflect the costs incurred by the farm to purchase products and services for current consumption, including purchases of plant products from other agricultural units for intermediate consumption. The weights remain the same for the four quarters (one/forth of the annual weight) for each product group.

Agricultural Holdings.

Annual Report of agricultural holdings.

For all territory of the country (NUTS0).

From 2005 onwards

2005 = 100; 2010=100 (Eurostat base); corresponding quarter of the previous year=100 and previous year = 100.

Per cent (%)

Quarter, year

· Law on Statistics;

· Memorandum of Understanding between the National Statistical Institute of and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, which distributes the responsibilities for the production of statistical information on agriculture;

· National Statistical Programme;

· Gentlemen's Agreement between the Member States and Eurostat;

· Handbook for EU Agricultural Price Statistics, Version 2.0 March 2008.

Agreement between the National Statistical Institute and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food for data exchange and strategic partnership.

· Law on Statistics;

· Regulation EC/223/2009 on European Statistics (consideration 24 and article 20 (4) of 11 March 2009 (Ob L 87, p. 164) foresee that for that purpose it is necessary to establish common principles and guidelines, ensuring data confidentiality of data used for production of European Statistics and access to those confidential data with account for technical developments and requirements of users in democratic society.

Personal data shall not be published, observing art. 25 of the Law on Statistics. The dissemination of individual data is made only under Art. 26 of the Law on Statistics.

The schedule for dissemination of statistical information is published in the Calendar for the presentation of the results of statistical surveys carried out by the NSI.

The Calendar is available on the NSI website: https://www.nsi.bg/en/node/480

Data on the Price Indices of the goods and services currently consumed in agriculture are published on the NSI website according to the Chapter 5 of the Law on Statistics and European Statistics Code of Practice, considering professional independence and with aim of impartiality and transparensy, where all users are treated equal.

Quarterly

Quarterly press releases are disseminated on the website of the NSI.
The press releases dissemination is done by the Calendar for presentation of the results of statistical surveys carried out by the NSI.

· Statistical Reference Book;

· Statistical Year Book.

Detailed data on Price Indices of Goods and Services currently consumed in Agriculture are available to all users of the NSI website under the heading Domain statistics - Agriculture: https://www.nsi.bg/en/node/4264

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

· Handbook for EU Agricultural Price Statistics, Version 2.0 March 2008.

Methodological inventory related to methodology used for data compilation on the Prices and Price Indices of goods and services currently consumed in agriculture in Bulgaria, elaborated within Eurostat Project.

The methods and procedures for data calculation in compliance with the EU methodology are periodically described and documented. During the meetings of WG Eurostat "Agricultural accounts and prices" methodological issues are discussed and examples for good practices for data calculation are provided from Member States.

The comparative analysis of the data with previous years is done.

No discrepancy with EU methodology is found out.

· NSI ? Economic Accounts for Agriculture, National Accounts;

· Eurostat;

· State Administration - Ministry of Agriculture and Food and other institutions;

· Scientific and Research Institutes;

· Business Structures;

· Individuals.

No satisfied needs of users concerning data on Price Indices of good and services currently consumed in agriculture were found out.

The production of statistics is under Handbook for EU Agricultural Price Statistics, Version 2.0, March 2008, and taking into account national specificities. Within the scope of the study information for all significant products and services for current consumption is collected with aim to provide representative information for the prices and price indices.

Accuracy/data quality is achieved by providing representativness of the observed products and services currently consumed in agriculture, maintaining the necessary registrations and elimination of extreme price values from data processing.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

• Quarterly Price Indices: 45 days after the end of the reference quarter data are sent to Eurostat and published on the website of NSI
• Annual Price Indices: 60 days after the end of the reference year data are sent to Eurostat and published on the website of NSI
• Annual Estimates of Price Indices: 45 days before the end of the reference data are sent to Eurostat Data are not published on the website of NSI yet.

Not delays in the deadlines for submission of data to Eurostat and dissemination in the Calendar for presentation of the results of statistical surveys carried out by the NSI were admitted.

Data are geographically comparable for the entire period for which they are available.

Data are comparable over time for the entire period for which they are available.

There is data consistency between the Price Indices of Goods and Services currently consumed in agriculture and data on Consumer Price Index and Producer Prices Indices on the domestic market in industry (for fertilizers and animal feeding stuffs). There is consistency between the data on the economic accounts for agriculture in the development of weighting schemes for calculating price indices of goods and services currently consumed in agriculture.

Internal data consistency is ensured by monitoring the variation in the average price in comparison with the previous period. For this purpose specially developed software is used. If significant deviations are detected (+, -25% compared to the previous period) additional checks are made and sometimes extreme values are eliminated.

The budget of the surveys is published in the National Statistical Programme on the NSI website. As basic criteria for response burden at this stage the time required for filling-in the questionnaire is used. Each form includes such section that respondents must complete. The time needed for filling-in the form includes also the time for data preparation. Based on this information, the burden on respondents can be defined as relatively high.

In 2011, by order of the President of NSI a special thematic working group was established. It consists of representatives of several RSO and its aim is to review and suggest measures for improvement of statistical tools in the field of statistics, agriculture and forestry. One of the main objectives of this review was to reduce the burden on respondents. As a result of suggestions made by the TWG has taken the following actions:

· further use of modern means for statistical data collection (introduction of on-line and off-line questionnaires);

· reducing the number of parameters in the statistical questionnaires;

· use of information from other sources.

There is no established policy on data revisions.

After receiving the data for the last quarter of the year, revisions to the preliminary data are made.

Questionnaires about the characteristics and prices:

· Fertilizers;

· Animal feeding stuffs;

· Plant protection products;

· Veterinary products;

· Planting stock and seeds.

Quarterly

Data collection is in accordance with a Calendar for data collection, data processing and data dissemination of statistical surveys carried out by the NSI. Data are collected by statistical form that is sent to the respondents by post.

The validation of data is done by using developed software for this purpose. Software development is in accordance with the Terms of Reference, elaborated by the experts responsible for the conduction of statistical surveys. Data processing is performed at two levels: at the regional level - from experts of the RSOs, and at national level - from the experts in the NSI.

Data compilation is carried out in accordance with a Calendar for data collection, data processing and data dissemination of statistical survey carried out by the NSI. Data processing is performed by using developed software for this. The development of software is in accordance with the Terms of reference, elaborated by the experts responsible for the surveys implementation. Data processing is performed at two levels: at regional level ? from the experts from the RSO's and at national level ? from the experts of the NSI. At regional level, the process involves the data control, data editing, data validation and the establishment of a regional data base. At the national level, the process includes control of regional data, data editing, data validation, establishment of a national data base, data tabulation, imputation and calculation of indices at next bases: 2005 = 100, 2010=100, corresponding quarter of the previous year and the previous year.

Do not apply seasonal adjustment. The weights are equal for all four quarters with the handbook for prices.