Almost everyday, national and international attention is being given by television, radio and the newspaper on the different kinds of indices such as stock, volume of production and wage indices, to cite a few.

The most popular, highly recognized and utilized index is the cost of living index, more popularly known as the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

The CPI is an indicator of average changes in prices of commodities and services commonly bought and consumed by an average Filipino household.

The need for appropriate indicators that will provide measures of growth in employment, compensation and production in the various sectors of the economy has prompted the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) to take the lead in the compilation of the Quarterly Economic Indices (QEI) of the Philippines.

The QEI intends to measure the average percent change on the volume of production, gross revenue, employment, compensation, and compensation per employee.

Specifically, these indicators were developed to guide users for a more meaningful economic analysis of current economic behavior and events. It can also be used as deflators to express a current value in real terms, as bases for wage formulation and for forecasting and projections. The sectors covered for the QEI are:

• Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry
• Mining and Quarrying
• Manufacturing
• Construction
• Electricity and Water
• Trade
• Transport and Communication
• Finance
• Real Estate
• Private Services

The following tables are taken from the Third Quarter 1999 QEI of the Philippines.

Indices on volume of production, estimated as the ratio between the value of production for the period t at 1978 prices and total value of production in 1978, are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Quarterly Indices on Volume of Production
At Constant 1978 Prices

Meanwhile, compensation per employee (C/E) index at current prices, is derived using the ratio between the index of compensation and index on employment.  At constant prices, compensation per employee index is divided by the CPI with 1978 as base year.  Table 2 present the C/E index at constant prices.

Table 2. Quarterly Indices on Compensation Per Employee
At Constant 1978 Prices

Note: Data series contained in the publication is from 1st Quarter 1978 to 3rd Quarter 1999 . However, only the QEI from 1st Quarter 1998 to 3rd Quarter 1999 are illustrated .

• Technical Notes on the Quarterly Economic Indices (QEI)