Turnover indices, indices of services production and volume of sales indices for trade  Insee Méthodes n° 143 - june 2023

This document aims to present the methodology applied for the development of turnover indices and the associated volume indices – the index of services production (ISP) and the volume of sales indices (VSIs) for trade. These indices are largely derived from a common key source – the VAT source from the Direction Générale des Finances Publiques (Directorate-General for Public Finance, DGFiP) – and developed according to common production principles. These indices cover the majority of the market activity undertaken in France (with the exception of agriculture and financial services) and, when combined with other indicators (industrial production index, producer price indices or consumer price indices, data concerning foreign trade, employment, etc.) describe the development of the economic situation in France at an early stage.

The Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM) is an international standard defined by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Eurostat and the OECD to provide a generic description of a statistical production process. The GSBPM defines the majority of the concepts relevant to describing statistical production activities and establishes eight standard phases within a statistical production process; in doing so, the GSBPM contributes to the standardisation and harmonisation of language within the statistical community, which reduces the risk of misunderstandings and misinterpretations between statisticians and during exchanges between the latter and users of statistics. It was therefore only natural that we would take the opportunity to structure this edition of INSEE-Méthodes around the breakdown of phases used by the GSBPM, which should facilitate comparisons with the practices applied in other statistical processes in France or those used to develop sets of production and turnover indices for foreign countries.