Development of Prices according to the Overall Macroeconomic Calculations, Federal Republic of Germany, 1950–2000.

The price indices according to the national accounting (German: VGR) represented herein constitute an essential part of the deflator system as it is found in the official German statistics. By means of these price indices, it is possible to perform a time-related adjustment of the value sums referring to goods and services in order to find “values in constant prices”. In fact, price indices are of great importance as regards comparable representations of economic figures, as they allow the elimination of the influence of price fluctuations on the development of value figures.

For the consistent evaluation of the national accounting data at comparable prices, the price basis is allocated to a pre-determined time period (base year).

The price development as calculated in the VGR is a measure for the alteration of goods prices within the report year as compared to a pre-determined base year. A deflationisation of economic figures, i.e. their determination within a base year at comparable prices, is especially necessary on the level of macroeconomic aggregates.

The related price indices in relation to the price development of the individual components of the national (or domestic) product are based on the following factors:
- private consumption,
- governmental consumption,
- capital investment (equipment, buildings),
- import and export of goods and services,
- terms of trade,
- final domestic use of goods,
- final use of goods.

From the procedure of double deflationisation (alternating weighting, Paasche and Laspeyres indices), the following implicit prices result:
- price index of the gross national product at market prices,
- price index of the gross domestic product at market prices.

The determination of these price indices referring to the use of the gross national and the domestic product follows the “basket of commodities” of the respective year of report (Paasche price index).

In addition, the price indices represent the development of prices within the report year in relation to the respective base year, i.e. the base year of the domestic product calculations at constant prices. Moreover, the price index for the gross national product and for the gross domestic product relate to the development of prices in accordance with the economic output. They are calculated as the difference (double deflationisation) between all goods and services created by the national economy, and the sum of all values of goods and services during the preceding process of production (including the imported goods).

This study considers the use of the national/domestic product and the development of the import and export prices (for the former territory of the Federal Republic of Germany including the goods traffic in East Germany), as well as the goods prices at the time of their final domestic use (total: including reserve changes): private consumption, governmental consumption, and capital investment (subdivided into equipment and buildings). Thereby the price development for the “final use of goods” comprises private and governmental consumption, gross investment (equipment, buildings, and alternating reserves), and exports. Furthermore, the terms of trade involved describe the development of the export prices in relation to the import prices.

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List of Data tables within the HISTAT research and download system:

- Price index of gross national product;
- Price index of gross domestic product;
- Price indices for imports and exports, terms of trade price index;
- Price index for the “final use” of goods;
- Price indices for the “final domestic use” of goods (total, private consumption, governmental use, and gross fixed asset investment.
Here the respective annual and quarterly records have been considered.