Switzerland - Producer Price Index (PPI)

For Switzerland, a detailed "total supply price index," and its components, an "index of producer prices" (domestic production) and "index of import prices."

Data are disseminated on the PPI, a Laspeyres index (2020=100), which covers the agriculture, forestry, industrial products and energy sectors of NACE Rev. 2 For the time being, the coverage of services includes freight transport as well as architectural and engineering activities.

Concepts: The manuals mentioned below are followed largely:

• Producer Price Index Manual: Theory and Practice 2004 (ILO, IMF, OECD, UNECE, and World Bank)
• Methodology of Short-Term Business Statistics. Interpretation and Guidelines 2005 (Eurostat)

Definition: Measure of average change in producer prices of a fixed set of products of constant quality for covered producer units.

Active:

• Classification: NACE Rev. 2
• Measurement: Fixed-base index relative to December 2025 (Index Dec2025=100)
• Adjustment: Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
• Native frequency: Monthly
• Start dates: 2003m5, 2010m12

Predecessors:

• Dec2020=100 - 2010m12 to 2025m12
• Dec2015=100 - 1963 to 2020
• Dec2010=100 - 2003* to 2015
• May2003=100 - 1963 to 2010
• May1993=100 - 1963 to 2003
• Monthly, percent change year-over-year - 1964 to 2013
• Annual, Dec2010=100 - 1964 to 2015
• Annual, percent change year-over-year - 1964 to 2014

Global concept alias:

• PPI

In 2026, the source wrote:

The prices of domestic products are surveyed for the domestic market at the first marketing stage (i.e. ex works). These ex works prices include neither valued added tax nor consumption tax (e.g. on tobacco, alcohol or petroleum products).

For exports, net sales prices are surveyed FOB (free on board) which, pursuant to definition, do not include valued added tax.

For imports, prices are surveyed at the Swiss border minus valued added, consumption and customs taxes.

In general, the market prices (transaction prices) for products are surveyed at the time of ordering. Price reductions (discounts) are deducted. Prices in foreign currencies are converted at the exchange rate on the first working day of the survey reference period in Swiss francs. The reference period always covers the period from the 1st to 8th of the survey month. This provision allows the results for the reference month to be calculated and published in the course of the subsequent month.

Over a period of several years, the producer price index has gradually been extended to the service sector.

Earlier, the source writes:

Classification

Classification: Nomenclature statistique des activités économiques dans la Communauté européenne, (NACE Rev. 2) (Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community).

Scope of the data

• Sector coverage: NACE Rev. 2, sections A and C to E (agriculture, forestry, industrial products, electricity and gas). For the time being, services coverage includes freight transport as well as architectural and engineering activities.
• Product coverage: 17 main groups with about 820 items.
• Geographical coverage: All of Switzerland.

Valuation

Types of prices: transaction prices ex-factory gate, VAT and rebates deducted, excise duties included.

Recording basis

In product groups where the prices fluctuate at short notice the data collection is done once a month during the first 8 days of the month. Other prices are collected on a quarterly or half-yearly basis.

Source data collection programs

• Sources of weights: Gross production value or turnover, if gross production value is not available.
• Period of current index weights: Calendar year 2020.
• Frequency of weight updates: The weights are revised and the index re-based every 5 years (2015, 2020 etc).
• Establishment selection: The selection of reporting units is purposive. For each family of products, the sample includes most of the main producers and a sufficient number of small and medium producers.
• Product/Transaction specification: Products with the largest production value based on the national product classification are selected with transaction specifications obtained from producers.
• Sample size: Approximately 10,000 prices are collected from about 1,500 reporting units.
• Price collection methods: Price collection is done in most cases by means of postal questionnaires (shuttle-lists) reported by individual establishments and returned to the FSO as pre-arranged.

Source data statistical techniques

• Treatment of missing prices and selection of replacement items: When a product is temporarily unavailable, the last price collected is carried forward; when a product becomes permanently unavailable, a product with similar quality characteristics and sales conditions is selected as a replacement.
• Adjustments of quality differences: Small quality changes are not taken into account, while prices are adjusted for substantial quality change, wherever quality difference can be quantified; otherwise products are considered as totally new and linked into the index.
• Introducing new products: Reporting units select products with significant market share and where possible with the same quality; quality defined in terms of characteristics listed in product description; list of products reviewed continuously and rules established to introduce new products.
• Seasonal items: Prices are collected for pre-specified months and last available price carried forward for months with no collection; weights held constant throughout the year.
• Verification procedures: The FSO staff asks the reporting units to provide reasons for large variations; automatic validation at FSO; invalidated prices checked by staff. Compilers and statisticians analyze item indices to ensure that changes are consistent with information about product markets.
• Seasonally adjusted indices: No seasonally adjusted indices are published.
• Other:

• Plans for improvements: Step by step, different services will be integrated into the index.

Other statistical procedures

• Computation of lowest level indices: Unweighted arithmetic average of price relatives for the current and the base period.
• Aggregation formula: Direct Laspeyres with fixed weights.
• Aggregation structure: The products’ basic price indices are aggregated by product groups and sector, by main agricultural and industrial groupings (products of agriculture and forestry, intermediate goods, capital goods, consumer durables, consumer non-durables, energy), by product destination (domestic or export market), and for calculating the core inflation.
• Alignment of value weights and base period: No alignment is made.
• Reference period: Dec 2020 = 100.

Moody's Analytics supplements

We back-extend the general index to 1914m7. We produce a seasonally adjusted counterpart using the X-13ARIMA-SEATS program.

No. The data are final when first released and are not subject to revision.

• For the total supply price index, data goes back to July 1914. There is a break in data from August 1914 to December 1925.
• Prior to 1993, the total producer price index and total import price index were calculated as one number called the wholesales price index. All history is calculated using the method after the split. 

Further reading

At the source:

• https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/de/home/statistiken/preise.html (German)
• Prices (English)
• Producer and Import Price Index (English)

At Eurostat:

• Short-term business statistics (STS) » Industrial producer price index overview

At IMF (SDDS):

• Price index: Producer prices

• Sep 2005 - Initial version.
• Apr 2016 - Rebased to 2015.
• Mar 2021 - Rebased to 2020.
• 1 Apr 2026, Phillip Thorne - Rebased to 2025: Properties, Methodology, Moody's Analytics supplements, Further reading.