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Revision of the Corporate Service Price Index (CSPI) to the 2000 base

November 25, 2004
Bank of Japan
Research and Statistics Department

Click on ntcspi03.pdf (427KB) to download the full text.

I. Purpose and Basic Strategy of the Revision

The Bank of Japan has revised the Corporate Service Price Index (CSPI) from the 1995 base to the 2000 base.

In this revision, in addition to the update of the base year for weights and indexes from the 1995 base to the 2000 base, the selection of items and sample prices are reviewed. The revision was undertaken based on the understanding that services transacted among corporations and the price-setting behaviors of the corporations have been changing over the past five years since the last revision.

This revision is intended to incorporate the emergence of new services and the diversification of the existent services accompanied by the structural changes in Japan's economy and industry, the diversification of prices stemming from the changes in price setting behaviors among corporations. Moreover, it is intended to provide convenient use of statistics on services, and to reduce the reporting burdens of the correspondent companies. The basic points of the revisions are as follows.

(1) Revision of selected items

The progress of information technology and the development of deregulation have brought about drastic changes in the transaction conditions between corporations; this has resulted in the emergence of many new services and diversification of existent services. In this revision, the selected items have been revised, especially in the fields that are significantly affected by those changes. Those revisions include the selection of new items, division of existent items, expansion of services included in the scope of the items, and abolishment and combination of the items. In addition to those changes, the total number of selected items has been increased for the convenience of the users.

Concerning the classification of the index, the general structure remains unchanged because the weights for index calculation are based on the year 2000 Input-Output table, which is based on the 1993 revision of Japanese Standard Industrial Classification.

(2) Review of sample prices (increase of sample prices, review of surveyed services, and incorporations of diversified prices)

In recent years, the price-setting behaviors of corporations have changed. Moreover, the diversification of prices of goods and services is growing ever wider. There are two main reasons that explain this phenomenon. First, corporations are differentiating the supply of their services from other suppliers, and are offering price discounts through individual negotiations with the specific customers, as the requirements from the demand sides becomes more diverse and the competition among suppliers becomes increasingly competitive. Second, the development of deregulation about prices, such as the loosening of restrictions on price-setting, has had a significant effect. To deal with these changes, a wide range of sample prices have been reviewed, not only for newly selected items but also for existent items.

A variety of discounted prices was also adopted, since it has become obvious that the price survey typically faces difficulties in obtaining actual prices, due to the increasing diversification of prices.

In addition to the arguments mentioned above, averaged prices have been adopted further, after very careful examination for ensuring constant quality, as the conventional price survey method--which states the surveyed services to be representative, fixed in transaction condition and in trading partners, and continuous--has become difficult due to the increased diversification of services and their prices.

(3) Adoption of price survey methods that take the reporting burden into consideration (use of databases provided by private companies)

To reduce the reporting burden in surveying sample prices, price survey has been designed taking the customs of transactions and the availability of data held in the computer system of the correspondent companies into considerations. In addition, the data provided by private companies has begun to be adopted as sample prices in some items.

Due to punctual difficulties accompanied by current revision of the CSPI to the 2000 base, the publication procedure has been changed as follows. From the first monthly release date of the 2000 base CSPI, both preliminary and final figures will be released for each surveyed month. In principle, the preliminary figures will be released on the 18th working day of the following month (the date will be shifted a few working days earlier, when the number of working days in the month is small.) At the same time, final figures will be released two months after the surveyed month of the index, based on revisions to the preliminary figures.

Table of Contents

  • I. Purpose and Basic Strategy of the Revision
  • II. Detailed contents of the revision
    • 1. Selected items
    • 2. Revision of index classifications
    • 3. Update of base year for both index and weight calculation
    • 4. Review of sample prices
    • 5. Adoption of survey methods that consider reporting burden
  • III. Changes in publication procedure
  • IV. Developments of the 2000 base CSPI
    • 1. Overview
    • 2. Cause of the Discrepancy
      • (BOX) Revised points in focused groups
      • (Appendix 1) Changes in Groupings and Items
      • (Appendix 2) Changes in Items
      • (Appendix 3) Index Groupings, Items and Weights
      • (Appendix 4) Changes in weights
      • (Appendix 5) Newly surveyed services
      • (Appendix 6) Number of sample prices
      • (Appendix 7) Number of sample prices by type of prices

<Figures> Revision of the Corporate Service Price Index (CSPI) to the 2000 base

Click on ntcspi03.zip (35KB[MS-Excel]) to download the (Figures).