Indicators of Service Sector Activity. Production Index (IPROSS) and Turnover Index (IASSVN)

The Indicators of the Service Sectors Activity (IASS) measure short-term changes in the operations of service sector companies. Research is conducted of trade, transport and storage, accommodation and food service activities, information and communications, professional, scientific and technical activities and administrative activities and auxiliary services, in accordance with the Catalan Catalan Classification of Economic Activities (NAVE Rev. 2).

The main objective of the Service Sector Production Index (IPROSS) is to find out the evolution of service sector activity in terms of gross value added. To produce this indicator, the components are first weighted depending on their value added, and then the aggregate value added index (IAVASS) is obtained. This makes it possible to value the weight in the trade sector by its profit margins and not by its sales, and therefore avoids any overvaluation of these services that might distort the service sector's aggregate data. Secondly, to obtain the IPROSS, the influence of economic activity prices is eliminated from the IAVASS, in order to isolate its real growth (in volume).

The IPROSS uses a quarterly deflator of the IAVASS that is produced by combining two phases: estimation of the annual deflator of the IVASS and its quarter. This deflator of the IAVASS measures the evolution of prices by branches. It is constructed in the framework of the economic accounts base 2008 and is based on the deflators of the GVA of these branches. The annual series of the deflator is constructed from the two components. In the period where there is detailed information on the accounts, the estimation of the deflator is the aggregate result of twenty activity branches. In the previous years in the series, when the results of the annuals accounts were more aggregated, it is estimated from the three main branches considered: trade, transport and accommodation and food service activities, information and communications and professional activities and scientific and technical, administrative and auxiliary services.

The annual IAVASS deflator was broken down by quarters on the basis of an implicit quarterly deflator from the Spanish accounts, which is close to the service branches that are the object of the IASS estimation, by means of a specific program (Ecotrim) designed for breaking economic series into quarters.

The Index of Service Sector Turnover (IASSVN) measures the short-term evolution of the business activity of non-financial market services through the business volume variable, which includes amounts invoiced by businesses in compensation for services and sales of goods. Idescat creates this index using data provided by the INE and publishes information for all of the Trade and Other services sectors.

The weightings used for this calculation are obtained from the service sector structural information supplied by the Annual Services Study, which examines more than 18,000 companies in the sector. The sector weighting variable is turnover.

In 2010, the INE introduced new changes to the IASS in order to make it homogeneous with the Eurostat system and thus facilitate any cross analyses made by users. In order to guarantee the comparability of the information over time, Idescat publishes retrospective series from 2005 using this new classification. From year 2011 Idescat publishes quaterly IPROSS data, and monthly and quaterly IASSVN data.

The data for the two previous quarters in the series are provisional.