CHAPTER 4: THE NEW EXPERIMENTAL RTPI

4.1 This chapter outlines the publication strategy for the PPIs for the output of the retail trade industry.


INDEXES PRODUCED TO SUPPORT THE PURPOSE AND USES OF A RTPI

4.2 The ABS has initially limited data collection to 27 SUPCs out of a total of 119 SUPCs corresponding with the National Accounts S–U tables. However, the retail trade margins represented by these 27 SUPCs account for approximately two–thirds of total retail trade margins across the ANZSIC06 Retail Trade industry.

4.3 Total sales and cost of goods sold are collected for the SUPCs listed below in Table 4.1. For confidentiality reasons it may not be possible to publish all RTPIs by individual SUPCs. Where confidentiality concerns exist, related product groups will be aggregated using retail trade margin shares from unpublished S–U tables as weights to form groups of selected product groups for publication.

TABLE 4.1 – Product Groups included in Retail Trade Margins Survey

Selected Product Group	SUPC codes	Description
A. Clothing, footwear and textiles	13070	Clothing (excl knitted or crocheted)
	13075	Footwear
	13040	Textile products nec
	13010	Textile fabrics, yarns, threads and fibres
B. Selected foods and alcohol	01035	Fruits, nuts and vegetables
	11005	Edible meat, offal and meat products
	12010	Alcoholic beverages (not bought and consumed on licensed premises)
	11055	Bakery products
	11025	Dairy products
C. Furniture	25005	Furniture (excl plastic)
D. Motor vehicles, parts and tyres	23005	Motor cars
	19015	Pneumatic tyres (motor car and motor cycles) and tubes
	23060	Motor vehicle parts (excl engines and panels) and accessories
	23015	Second hand motor vehicles
E. Telecommunications, computers, audio visual equipment and photographic goods	24030	Telecommunication and audio visual equipment
	24050	Household appliances
	24025	Computers
	24005	Photographic goods (incl optical fibres) and ophthalmic equipment (excl spectacles)
F. Automotive fuel products	17005	Liquefied petroleum gas produced at refineries
	17015	Automotive petroleum and coal products
G. Watches and jewellery	25025	Jewellery and silverware
	24015	Watches (incl metal watch straps), watch cases, clocks and parts
H. Other	54005	Newspaper, magazine and book publishing
	25010	Toys and sporting equipment and parts
	12015	Tobacco products
	16005	Printing
	55020	Music publishing; music and other sound recording activities

PUBLICATION SCHEDULE FOR RTPI

4.4 PPIs for the output of the retail trade industry cannot be compiled with the same timeliness as the other PPIs (Endnote 23). The basic data required for the construction of the PPIs for output of the retail trade industry are quarterly sales and cost of goods sold. These economic flow data cannot be collected until some time after the end of the reference quarter. By comparison, price indexes for goods and some services are based on point in time prices prevailing at selected dates during the quarter. Further, calculation of the RTPIs requires the latest period CPI data to be available for price updating purposes.

4.5 Because of these constraints, the ABS will publish RTPIs as stand–alone indexes. This will occur until the necessary systems and processes are in place to enable RTPIs to be incorporated into the SOP framework. The implementation of RTPIs in the SOP indexes will be communicated ahead of time in the publication Producer Price Indexes, Australia (cat.no. 6427.0).

4.6 The ABS will:

i. Publish quarterly PPIs for the Output of the Retail Trade Industry (RTPIs) as standalone indexes in the period following the release of the Producer Price Index, Australia publication (ABS cat. no.6427.0) and prior to the quarterly National Accounts (ABS cat.no. 5206.0). The RTPIs will be released on the ABS website in electronic format only. The indexes will be available as an additional data cube under the PPI publication (ABS cat. no. 6427.0) approximately 3 weeks after the date of the initial release. The ABS will advise users of the additional data in the ‘changes to this issue’ section of the PPI publication,

ii. Subject to further review, retain the experimental label on RTPIs.


4.7 The RTPIs to be produced and their availability to users are listed below in Table 4.2.


TABLE 4.2 Producer Price Indexes for the Output of the Retail Trade Industry (RTPIs)

Index	Availability	Comments
National total RTPI (index number and annual/quarterly % change).	2003 onwards	Index linked to original series per Table 3 in 6402.0.
National aggregation of products represented by selected SUPC s– total RTPI (index number and annual/quarterly % change).	2008 onwards	Outputs available subject to confidentiality.
State/territory total RTPI (index number and annual/quarterly % change).	2008 onwards	Outputs available subject to confidentiality.
National SUPC level – total RTPI (index number and annual/quarterly % change).	Internal use only - for use in the compilation of the National Accounts.	Outputs unlikely to be available external to ABS due to confidentiality constraints.
State/territory SUPC level – total RTPI (index number and annual/quarterly % change).	Internal use only - for use in the compilation of the National Accounts.	Outputs unlikely to be available external to ABS due to confidentiality constraints.

ENDNOTES

23. The ABS has delayed the release of the PPI publication by nine working days from the September quarter 2012. However, even with this delay, the RTMPI cannot be compiled in time to meet the PPI (SOP) publication deadline. Note – this delay to the PPIs was announced on the 6th March 2012 as part of the Information Paper: Outcome of the Review of the Producer and International Trade Price Indexes, 2012 (cat. no. 6427.0.55.004)