Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS)

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics continues to work on data collection and production of Palestinian Wholesale Price Index in light COVID-19 (CORONA VIRUS) pandemic

Decrease in the Wholesale Price[1] Index (WPI) During the Second Quarter of 2020

The overall WPI in Palestine with its base year (2007=100) reached 124.00 in the Second quarter 2020, which indicates a decrease of 0.61% compared with the First quarter 2020.

WPI for local products (2007=100) reached 128.64 in the Second quarter 2020, which indicates a decrease of 0.75% compared with the First quarter 2020.

WPI for imported products (2007=100) reached 120.01 in the Second quarter 2020, which indicates a decrease of 0.38% compared with the First quarter 2020.

WPI for the Second Quarter of 2020 decreased due to the decrease in the activities of Mining & Quarrying by 1.76%, and the activities of Manufacturing by 1.06%, while the activities of Fishing increased by 7.41%, and the activities of Agriculture increased by 0.35%.

Notice for Users:

1.    As a result of CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) outbreak, and the implemented measures to limit its spread, the data collection process for Wholesale Price Index has been replaced with data collection via phone and websites for all sale outlets in all of the Palestinian Governorates instead of collecting data face to face from the field.

2.    The number of sale outlets, from which Wholesale Prices are collected in Palestine, reached 430 outlets in the second quarter 2020. Thus and in light of the temporary closure of many outlets due to applying the Palestinian emergency plan, the completion of data collection process is as follows:

3.    The number of price observations collected to compile the Palestinian Wholesale Price index is 3,543 price observations; where 89% was collected in the second quarter 2020. Hence, the observations collected are as follows:

4.    International recommendations were followed in estimating the missing data, which are mentioned in Price Index guide. Moreover, the (Group Relative Method) is one of the best methods used to estimate the missing data, which is the process of estimating the prices based on the change in the prices of the remaining sources for the same category.  Accordingly and in case of the closure of an entire source on a temporary basis, all the prices of that source are estimated based on the change in the prices of the sources that share the same items which are collected from that source.

5.    The estimate is also used at the (Next Level Up in Aggregation) in case of the disappearance of the index for a whole sub-group or a higher group reaching up to the major groups that constitute the index.