Energy and Material Price Indices and National Labour Force Indices

• 1. Contact

  • 1.1. Contact organisation
    • National Statistics Institute of Spain
  • 1.5. Contact mail address

    • Avenida de Manoteras 50-52 - 28050 Madrid

• 2. Metadata update

  • 2.1. Metadata last certified
    • 29/07/2026
  • 2.2. Metadata last posted
    • 15/07/2026
  • 2.3. Metadata last update
    • 29/07/2026

• 3. Statistical presentation

  • 3.1. Data description

    • This operation provides information on three groups of indices that constitute the components used in the standard formulas for the revision of prices in Public Administration contracts:

      - National Labour Cost Index

      - Construction Materials Price Indices (classified into general-use materials and specific materials)

      - Road Passenger Transport Component Price Indices.

      The data for this operation are obtained from official statistics produced by the INE, primarily from the Industrial Producer Price Index (PPI).
  • 3.2. Classification system
    • • Materiales
        • 1   Cemento 2   Cerámica 3   Madera 4   Acero 5   Energía 6   Cobre 7   Aluminio 8   Ligantes
      • Materiales específicos
        • 1   Cabezas explosivas 2   Materiales textiles 3   Materiales para fabricación de calzado 4   Materiales minerales no metálicos 5   Materiales y equipos eléctricos
      • Materiales generales
        • 1   Aluminio 2   Materiales bituminosos 3   Cemento 4   Energía 5   Focos y luminarias 6   Materiales cerámicos 7   Madera 8   Productos plásticos 9   Productos químicos 10   Áridos y rocas 11   Materiales siderúrgicos 12   Materiales electrónicos 13   Cobre 14   Vidrio 15   Materiales explosivos
  • 3.3. Sector coverage

    • The material price indices cover the following materials: "A. Aluminium", "B. Bituminous materials", "C. Cement", "E. Energy", "F. Light bulbs and luminaries", "L. Ceramic materials", "M. Wood", "O. Plants", "P. Plastic products", "Q. Chemical products", "R. Aggregates and rocks", "S. Iron and steel materials", "T. Electronic materials", "U. Copper", "V. Glass", "X. Explosive materials", "H. Textile materials", "J. Footwear materials", "D. Explosive heads", "W. Non-metallic mineral materials", "Y. Electrical materials and equipment".

      The road passenger transport components are:

      • Driving staff costs
      • Vehicle maintenance costs – labour
      • Vehicle maintenance costs – spare parts
      • Tyre costs
      • Fuel costs
      • Station fee costs

      The labour cost price index, in turn, covers all household consumption expenditure categories

  • 3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
    • • Adjustment due to change in quality
        • Estimate of the part of the price difference between the new item (substitute) and the old one (substituted) due to the difference in quality between the two.
      • Aggregate index
        • Weighted arithmetic average of basic indices.
      • Basic Index
        • Quotient between the average price for the current month and the average price for December of the previous year (multiplied by 100). The indices have no measurement unit and show price variation from the base period until the current month.
      • Basket
        • Set of products for which the price is collected monthly.
      • Change in quality
        • A change that occurs when a subvariety of the basket is substituted by another with different features, that imply a change in usefulness of the product.
      • Contribution
        • The contribution of a product measures how much the general index would change if only the price of the aforementioned product changed (in other words, if the other prices remain constant).
      • Domestic market industrial prices
        • Prices considered for calculating the IPRI are sale prices valid on the 15th of each reference month, not including VAT or other indirect taxes invoiced or transport costs and marketing, and including all reductions or discounts.
      • Product or aggregate weight
        • The weight of a product or aggregate is the relative importance it has in relation to the rest of products or aggregates in the basket, according to expenditure/income.
      • Sub-variety
        • Specific model of a product in a specific industrial establishment for which the price is collected monthly.
      • Variation
        • This shows the evolution of prices between the time periods.
  • 3.5. Statistical unit

    • Establishments which manufacture industrial products and sell them on the domestic market.

  • 3.6. Statistical population

    • All establishments which manufacture industrial products and sell them on the domestic market.

  • 3.7. Reference area

    • The geographical scope is the entire national territory, except for Ceuta and Melilla.

  • 3.8. Time coverage

    • The results of the survey are available since January 1995.

  • 3.9. Base period

    • The base period, or reference period, for the materials price index is December 2011 = 100 (Dec-11 = 100).

      The base period for the national construction labor index is July 1980 = 100 (Jul-1980 = 100).

      The price indices for components of road passenger transport have a base period of December 2017 = 100 (Dec-17 = 100), except for the station cost index, which has a base period of December 2022 = 100 (Dec-22 = 100).

• 4. Unit of measure

  • 4.1. Unit of measure

• 5. Reference period

  • 5.1. Reference period

    • The reference period of the data is the month.

      Data referred to the period: Mensual A: 2025 MES: 12

• 6. Institutional mandate

  • 6.1. Legal acts and other agreements

    • The compilation and dissemination of the data are governed by the Statistical Law No. 12/1989 "Public Statistical Function" of May 9, 1989, and Law No. 4/1990 of June 29 on “National Budget of State for the year 1990" amended by Law No. 13/1996 "Fiscal, administrative and social measures" of December 30, 1996, makes compulsory all statistics included in the National Statistics Plan. The National Statistical Plan 2009-2012 was approved by the Royal Decree 1663/2008. It contains the statistics that must be developed in the four year period by the State General Administration's services or any other entity dependent on it. All statistics included in the National Statistics Plan are statistics for state purposes and are obligatory. The National Statistics Plan 2025-2028, approved by Royal Decree 1225/2024, of  3 December, is the Plan currently implemented. This statistical operation has governmental purposes, and it is included in the National Statistics Plan 2025-2028. (Statistics of the State Administration).

      The materials price indices are subject to Order HAP/1292/2013, of 28 June, which establishes the rules for determining the indices that intervene in the price revision formulas of public contracts.

  • 6.2. Data sharing
    • The exchanges of information needed to elaborate statistics between the INE and the rest of the State statistical offices (Ministerial Departments, independent bodies and administrative bodies depending on the State General Administration), or between these offices and the Autonomic statistical offices, are regulated in the LFEP (Law of the Public Statistic Function). This law also regulates the mechanisms of statistical coordination, and concludes cooperation agreements between the different offices when necessary.

      In relation to this operation there is no exchange of information with other statistics producer bodies.

• 7. Confidentiality

  • 7.1. Confidentiality - policy

    • The Statistical Law No. 12/1989 specifies that the INE cannot publish, or make otherwise available, individual data or statistics that would enable the identification of data for any individual person or entity. Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society

  • 7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
    • INE provides information on the protection of confidentiality at all stages of the statistical process: INE questionnaires for the operations in the national statistical plan include a legal clause protecting data under statistical confidentiality. Notices prior to data collection announcing a statistical operation notify respondents that data are subject to statistical confidentiality at all stages. For data processing, INE employees have available the INE data protection handbook, which specifies the steps that should be taken at each stage of processing to ensure reporting units' individual data are protected. The microdata files provided to users are anonymised.

      All materials included in this operation contain enough respondents, thus confidentiality is preserved.

• 8. Release policy

  • 8.1. Release calendar

    • The advance release calendar that shows the precise release dates for the coming year is disseminated in the last quarter of each year.

  • 8.2. Release calendar access

    • The calendar is disseminated on the INEs Internet website (Publications Calendar)

  • 8.3. User access

    • The data are released simultaneously according to the advance release calendar to all interested parties by issuing the press release. At the same time, the data are posted on the INE's Internet website (www.ine.es/en) almost immediately after the press release is issued. Also some predefined tailor-made requests are sent to registered users. Some users could receive partial information under embargo as it is publicly described in the European Statistics Code of Practice

• 9. Frequency of dissemination

  • 9.1. Frequency of dissemination

    • The publication of materials price indices and national labour indices is done once they are approved by the High Committee on State Contract Prices, attached to the Ministry of Finance and Civil Service, and have followed the legal procedures for their publication in the Official State Gazette. Therefore, there is no established frequency for data publication.

• 10. Accessibility and clarity

  • 10.1. News release

    • The results of the statistical operations are normally disseminated by using press releases that can be accessed via both the corresponding menu and the Press Releases Section in the web

      Given the peculiarity of this statistic, which is calculated for the High Committee on Prices and published in the Official State Gazette, once the indices have been approved in the committee, no Press Release is prepared for its dissemination.

  • 10.2. Publications

    • The publication of the data of this operation is included in the Official State Gazette.

  • 10.3. On-line database

    • INEbase is the system the INE uses to store statistical information on the Internet. It contains all the information the INE produces in electronic formats. The primary organisation of the information follows the theme-based classification of the Inventory of Statistical Operations of the State General Administration . The basic unit of INEbase is the statistical operation, defined as the set of activities that lead to obtaining statistical results on a determined sector or subject based on the individually collected data. Also included in the scope of this definition are synthesis preparation.

      The online database of the Materials and Labour Price Index, which contains information on indices, is included in the Industry, Energy and Construction section Industry, energy and construction of INEBase.

      Number of entries to data bases in 2020 was AC1=38,270 and to methodology was AC2=1,557.

  • 10.4. Micro-data access
    • A lot of statistical operations disseminate public domain anonymized files, available free of charge for downloading in the INE website Microdata Section

      No microdata information is provided.

  • 10.5. Other
  • 10.6. Documentation on methodology

    • Base Dec-2011

      General methodology, base Dec-2011

      Base Jan-64

      General methodology, base Jan-64

  • 10.7. Quality documentation

    • This standardised methodological report contains all the elements of what is considered a "User-oriented Quality Report" for this operation.

• 11. Quality management

  • 11.1. Quality assurance

    • Quality assurance framework for the INE statistics is based on the ESSCoP, the European Statistics Code of Practice made by EUROSTAT. The ESSCoP is made up of 16 principles, gathered in three areas: Institutional Environment, Processes and Products. Each principle is associated with some indicators which make possible to measure it. In order to evaluate quality, EUROSTAT provides different tools: the indicators mentioned above, Self-assessment based on the DESAP model, peer review, user satisfaction surveys and other proceedings for evaluation.

      Since these price indices are obtained, mainly, by aggregating indices from the Industrial Price Index (PPI), this guarantees the quality of this statistic.

      The PPI quality management documentation can be consulted in point 11 of the IPRI reference metadata.

  • 11.2. Quality assessment

    • The derivation of the material price indices from official statistics produced by the INE, most of them from the Industrial Producer Price Index (PPI), ensures continuous monitoring of data quality and avoids increasing the reporting burden on respondents.

      The PPI quality management documentation can be found in point 11 of the PPI reference metadata.

• 12. Relevance

  • 12.1. User needs

    • The main users of the materials price indices are companies that have contracts with the Public Administrations.

      The main application of these indices is their use in the revision of prices of Public Administration contracts.

  • 12.2. User satisfaction

    • The INE has carried out general user satisfaction surveys in 2007, 2010, 2013,  2016 and 2019 and it plans to continue doing so every three years. The purpose of these surveys is to find out what users think about the quality of the information of the INE statistics and the extent to which their needs of information are covered. In addition, additional surveys are carried out in order to acknowledge better other fields such as dissemination of the information, quality of some publications...

      On the INE website, in its section Methods and Projects / Quality and Code of Practice / INE quality management / User surveys are available surveys conducted to date.(Click  next link)

       

      The specific needs of users have been taken into account in the review carried out on these indices in 2012, in order to adapt the content to the specific requirements of its users, thus increasing their levels of satisfaction.

  • 12.3. Completeness

    • Indices are prepared for all materials included in the Royal Decree.

      The rate of mandatory statistical results available for the Materials Price Index is R1=100%.

• 13. Accuracy and reliability

  • 13.1. Overall accuracy

    • As it is an operation that mainly uses the PPI indices, there are no sampling errors.

      As for non-sampling errors, they are controlled in all the processes of the survey from which the data come.

      The documentation on the accuracy and reliability of the PPI can be found in point 13 of the PPI reference metadata.

  • 13.2. Sampling error

    • As it is a statistic that mainly uses the PPI indices, there are no sampling errors.

      The documentation on the accuracy and reliability of the PPI can be found in point 13 of the PPI reference metadata.

  • 13.3. Non-sampling error

    • As it is a statistic that mailny uses the PPI indices, it has the same non-sampling errors as this one.

      The documentation on the accuracy and reliability of the PPI can be found in point 13 of the PPI reference metadata.

       

• 14. Timeliness and punctuality

  • 14.1. Timeliness

    • The publication of the materials price indices and national labour indices is carried out once they are approved by the High Committee on State Contract Prices, attached to the Ministry of Finance and Civil Service, and have followed the legal procedures for their publication in the Official State Gazette.

      Therefore, there is no concrete time lapse between the end of the data reference period and the publication of the data.

  • 14.2. Punctuality

    • The publication of the materials price indices and national labour indices is carried out once they are approved by the High Committee on State Contract Prices, attached to the Ministry of Finance and Public Administrations, and have followed the legal procedures for their publication in the Official State Gazette.

      Therefore, there is no publication calendar for these indices.

• 15. Coherence and Comparability

  • 15.1. Comparability - geographical

    • The data of the price indices are geographically comparable since they use mainly the PPI indices, and the method of calculation of this statistic in all its phases is the same for the whole national territory.

  • 15.2. Comparability - over time

    • The materials price indices have been calculated since January 1995.

      As of January 2012, the materials price indices included in Order HAP/1292/2013 are calculated in base Dec-11=100, with new methodology.

      In July 2026, the number of elements in the serie base 1964 is CC2=372, and in the serie base Dec-11 is CC2=168.

      The indices in base January 1964 are calculated by linking the indices in base December 2011, from August 2013 onwards. This link has been calculated using the indices of July 2013, calculated on both bases.

  • 15.3. Coherence - cross domain

    • The materials price index is consistent with the Industrial Price Index, which measures the evolution of the prices of industrial products manufactured and sold in the domestic market, since the elementary data of the latter are used for its calculation.

  • 15.4. Coherence - internal

    • The materials price indices are internally consistent. Aggregations are made from the lowest level of information to the highest, both geographically and functionally.

• 16. Cost and burden

  • 16.1. Cost and burden

    • The estimated budget appropriation necessary to finance this statistic foreseen in the 2026 Annual Programme is 0,75 thousands of euros.

      In order to significantly reduce the burden on reporting units, since January 2014 all the information used for the calculation of these indices is obtained from official statistics produced by the INE, primarily from the Industrial Producer Price Index (PPI).

• 17. Data revision

  • 17.1. Data revision - policy

    • The INE of Spain has a policy which regulates the basic aspects of statistical data revision, seeking to ensure process transparency and product quality. This policy is laid out in the document approved by the INE board of directors on 13 March of 2015, which is available on the INE website, in the section "Methods and projects/Quality and Code of Practice/INE’s Quality management/INE’s Revision policy" (link).

      This general policy sets the criteria that the different type of revisions should follow:  routine revision- it is the case of statistics whose production process includes regular revisions-; more extensive revision- when methodological or basic reference source changes take place-; and exceptional revision- for instance, when an error appears in a published statistic-.

      Materials price index data are final from the first time they are published and are therefore not subject to routine revisions.

  • 17.2. Data revision - practice

• 18. Statistical processing

  • 18.1. Source data

    • The data used for the compilation of the materials price indices are obtained from official statistics produced by the INE, primarily from the Industrial Producer Price Index (PPI).

  • 18.2. Frequency of data collection

    • The prices used to calculate the IPRI indices, used in turn in the calculation of these indicators, are collected once a month and refer to the price in effect on the 15th day of the reference month.

  • 18.3. Data collection

    • The IPRI price indices, used to calculate these indicators, are obtained quarterly for each of the months included in the quarter.

  • 18.4. Data validation

    • Since these price indices are obtained from the IPRI indices, they are validated in the calculation process thereof.

  • 18.5. Data compilation

    • The IPRI indices are aggregated, in the case of materials composed of several products, with the specific weightings of each product.

  • 18.6. Adjustment

    • No seasonal adjustment is applied.

• 19. Comment

  • 19.1. Comment