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The CSO needs to collect data on a sample of your products to provide insight on changes in producer and wholesale prices so that you and other enterprises can see trends over time.
Certain data only needs to be entered once, while other information will need to be supplied every time you complete the questionnaire.
For the standard questionnaire, you will be asked to check your current products are correct and provide prices for these. Further details on this will be outlined below.
After the price enquiries of all your current products in our sample are completed, you will be asked to provide details about further products. If you are providing us with fewer than five products, we request that you increase the number of products so the details you provide us are an appropriate reflection of your current product sales mix.
When providing information about a new product you will be asked for the information outlined in the Once-Off Information section.
Please note, that when using the eQ to submit your information to the CSO, we will only be able to access and process your information once you hit submit at the end of the survey.
Below is a detailed list of the type of information you need to complete once, and what we need every time you fill out the questionnaire.
If providing information for a completely new product, rather than an amended or replacement product, you will be required to provide a short description of the product so that you can subsequently identify the product to complete the rest of the information.
When providing information about a new, replacement, or amended product, we require the following information:
A short description of the product is necessary so that the person completing the survey from your company will know exactly which product is being referred to.
We collect comparable prices, so that each time the survey takes place, prices need to be for the exact same product and same terms of sales. Therefore, we need specific additional information about the sale conditions to ensure that we are comparing identical products.
If you sell the same product both domestically and for export, we consider them two different products for this questionnaire. This ensures we are comparing like-for-like.
Examples of terms include specified credit periods, sales quantity, or who the product is sold to (intercompany / wholesaler / government etc.).
[Followed by Country / Region of Sale]
Is this product sold on the home or export market? You may need to enter the exact same product details multiple times to capture the different markets that you sell it to. Note that you must complete details about Country or Region of Sale, even if you select Home.
The currency that the sale occurs in needs to be recorded. This allows us to account for the effect of currency fluctuations in our calculations.
The units of measurement (for example kilograms or square metres) and the quantity of units that you are providing prices for.
Again, this is to ensure that we are comparing like-for-like when constructing the index.
When constructing the index, similar products are grouped together. Therefore, if you are a manufacturing company, it is particularly helpful for you to supply us with the Prodcom Code/Tariff Code/CN code if known.
This is especially relevant for manufacturing sectors where classifying the individual products can be difficult without specialist domain knowledge.
Prodcom classifications: Prodcom List 2024
Six digits of Prodcom Code is sufficient for our purposes.
If the product is simple, and its categorisation is obvious based on the name [for example, butter – we would immediately be able to identify it as 10.51.30] then we would not require this information. However, if the product is a pharmaceutical product for example, then the name alone may not be sufficient for us to be able to classify it correctly without further input.
Each time you are surveyed we ask you to confirm that the description of the product is still correct. If that is the case we ask for the basic price, any discounts/surcharges, and the reason for any price changes.
Note: If you are providing a price for a pack of items, please inform us if the pack size has changed so that we can account for that in the compilation of the index.
1. Basic Price as of the 15th of the month
This should be for the product (including terms etc.) as described above. If there are any changes to the product or terms, we ask that you inform us of these.
2. Standard discount or surcharge on the basic price
If you have a standard discount or surcharge on the basic price for the terms of this product, then we ask you to supply this. If you do not have a standard discount or surcharge, please leave this amount blank.
3. Reason for Price Change if there has been a price change. It is helpful if you can supply us with a reason. This will reduce the numbers of queries that we will have for you when we receive your data.
If any of the parts of the product’s full description (including terms of sale or market) have changed you will be requested to provide us with updated information.
If the product is no longer one of your important products in terms of sales, we request that you supply us with details of a replacement product if available.
The new eQ questionnaire will also allow you to add additional products that are not replacements for existing products. This is to ensure that the products you are supplying us with reflect the range of price changes across all your important products.
We recommend that you save or print a copy of your eQ return on submission for future reference as copies of it will not be available through the eQ system at a later point.
If your company details or structure have changed, or the contact person has changed, please contact the Wholesale Price Index team on wpi@cso.ie or phone: +353 (21) 4515118, or Freephone: 1800 313 414 (ROI), 0870 876 0256 (UK/NI) and request to be transferred to WPI.