Rebasing of the Services Producer Price Index to the Base Year 2015

The Bank of Japan has rebased the Services Producer Price Index (SPPI), updating its base year from 2010 to 2015 and plans to begin monthly releases of the 2015 base SPPI from June 25, 2019, when indexes for April and May are scheduled to be published. As a result of the rebasing, the coverage of the SPPI will expand and the number of sample prices will increase. This results from the incorporation of services that are not covered in the 2010 SPPI with the aim of reflecting changes in economic and industrial structures and meeting the demands for deflators including in the System of National Accounts (SNA). Moreover, new sample prices have been added for existing items in response to structural changes such as the advancement of information and communication technologies, and the quality adjustment methods as well as pricing methods have been revised in order to improve the index accuracy. As for the index level of "All items" in the 2015 base SPPI, figures after late 2017 have shifted somewhat upward compared to the 2010 base SPPI. Moreover, the year-on-year changes of the index have shifted somewhat upward in many months during the period from late 2017 through 2018. These upward shifts are mainly attributable to the incorporation of sample prices related to the internet, reflecting recent digitalization in service industry. During the process of this rebasing, a number of companies cooperated with the Bank and constructive opinions were received from relevant experts. The Bank will continue to closely exchange views with companies and users, so as to continually review its price statistics.