PRICE ANALYSIS AND A SYSTEM OF PRICE STATISTICS

For some considerable time the interest in price statistics has mainly been focused on their use as “intermediate goods”. The requirements of a system of price index numbers which have to be established in this connection are largely in the field of statistical coordination (integration of statistics on quantities, values and prices). Recently the inflation problem has given rise to an increased interest in price statistics as “final goods”. A meaningful analysis of inflation will devote attention to the relation between input prices and output prices. In this article several versions of an analysis of prices of final demand categories based on an ordinary Leontief input‐output scheme are presented and the needs for price statistics are discussed. In fact a self‐contained system of price statistics emerges from the price analysis. There is a difference in the nature of the price index numbers required in compiling input‐output tables in constant prices (Paasche) and that in the case of price analysis (Laspeyres). However the need for price observation runs largely parallel because in both cases the same detailed information on price developments will probably be used. Price analysis gives the possibility of a step‐by‐step approach in building up a system of price index numbers.