Study title

The wholesale price index’ aim is to represent the development of the prices for goods sold by the wholesale. The wholsale price index is represented on the general basis of good categories. For the period before 1945 the ‘German wholesale indizes’ (= Deutsche Großhandelsindexziffern) and the ‘indizes of manufactured goods’ ( Indexziffern für Fertigwaren) were published by the official price statistics. In the context of the German (FRG) system of price statistics the wholsale price index is located between the indizes of producer´s prices and import prices on the one hand and the consumer price index, especially the retail price index on the other hand. The wholesale price index measures the price history of goods on a representative basis, sold at wholesale, as far as these sales are attributed to the wholesale (i.e. agreements with trade, agreements with fabricators or with other large customers). The index summarises the price history of home-produced and imported goods. Sales from manufactorers to the retail trade or the ultimate customer are excluded. Because wholesale prices are very sensitive to economic developments, they are of particulare interest to the monitoring of the economic situation. The analysis can be drawn upon two different subcategorizations of the index: upon branches of trade (institutional subcategorization) and upon a goods based classification (production management context). Topics: Data Tables in HISTAT (research- and download system ‚Historical Statistics’): A. German Empire (Deutsches Reich): - German wholesale price indices (1880-1925); - Indices of wholesale prices (1924-1944); - wholsale prices of industrial finished products (1924-1944). B. Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland): - Index of wholesale prices by categories of goods (1960-1999); - Index of wholesale prices by industrial groups (1960-1999); - Index of wholesale market prices by production management context (1968-1999). C. Long-term...