U.S. Import Price Index
Encyclopedia
The United States Import Price Index is published by the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics
Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics. The BLS is a governmental statistical agency that collects, processes, analyzes, and...

. It is part of the Office of Prices and Living Conditions. It began as an annual publication, publishing its first index in 1973. It began publishing on a quarterly basis in 1974. A major program milestone occurred in 1982 when the Office of Management and Budget placed the IPP indexes on its list of Principal Federal Economic Indicators together with the Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index. In January 1993, the IPP began the monthly publication of merchandise indexes. The IPP is constantly expanding in its mission to measure the import and export of goods and services to/from the U.S.

The IPP publishes indexes on merchandize categories and selected categories of services. Currently, the IPP publishes monthly air passenger, air freight, ocean liner, and ocean tanker service indexes.

The IPP publishes its merchandize indexes following the Harmonized Classification System, the SITC classification system, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis
Bureau of Economic Analysis
The Bureau of Economic Analysis is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that provides important economic statistics including the gross domestic product of the United States. Its stated mission is to "promote a better understanding of the U.S...

 (or END USE) classification system. The IPP will begin publishing based on the North American Industrial Classification System system in the January 2006 news release.

In January 2005, the IPP expanded its Locality of Origin indexes adding a break-out for China. Starting with the January 2006 news release, the IPP will begin publishing import and export indexes based on the NAICS
NAICS
The North American Industry Classification System or NAICS is used by business and government to classify business establishments according to type of economic activity in Canada, Mexico and the United States...

.

One of the primary customers of the IPP is the Bureau of Economic Analysis
Bureau of Economic Analysis
The Bureau of Economic Analysis is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that provides important economic statistics including the gross domestic product of the United States. Its stated mission is to "promote a better understanding of the U.S...

. They use the Import and Export price indexes to deflate GDP.
The IPP is currently headed by William Alterman.

The IPP's Current News Release

BLS Handbook of Methods, Chapter 15
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