FOI reference: FOI-2026-3608
You asked
Please can you clarify what would be the suitable replacement of the MB56 Producer Price Index (PPI) series that was discontinued since 2020?
We said
Thank you for your request.
In late 2020 we introduced some methodology changes to the PPI, such as:
the move from net to gross
the removal of duty
the implementation of chain-linking
Because of these changes the index MB56 was discontinued in 2020, starting with the publication of the October 2020 data on 18 November 2020.
A suitable replacement is the GHHN index.
However, we would advise reading the Producer Price Indices methods changes article before using the index. The article provides details of the implemented methodological changes in the PPI so you can understand how these changes impact you. In particular, you should note that the MB56 index was published on a 2010=100 basis, whereas the GHHN index is published on a 2015=100 basis.
Other articles you may find useful are:
Chain-linking methodology error
On 21 March 2025, we announced a pause to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Producer Price Index (PPI) and Services Producer Price Indices (SPPI), because of an error identified with the chain-linking methods used to calculate these indices. We also requested that the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) accreditation of the PPI statistics be temporarily removed from all releases dating back to November 2020, when this annual chain-linking was first introduced.
On 22 October 2025, we recommenced the publication of PPI and SPPI data following a period of reviewing, correcting and quality assuring the index weights and chain-linking methodology. This is described fully in our Impact of correction to chain-linking methodology article.
As a result of these corrections, all data covering the period Dec 2008 to Aug 2025 was revised. As such, the values for an index may now vary from those that were downloaded from our website prior to the publication pause. Users should cease the use of any of this previously published data and instead use the revised (and corrected) data that is now available. The MB56 index was unaffected by this issue.
Time series data
We previously published 2 time series collections, named PPI and MM22. Index GHHN was in both collections. When we resumed publication in October 2025 we brought all our indices together into the PPI time series collection and stopped publishing the MM22 collection. The MM22 version was not corrected but is still showing on our website (albeit only for data up to Jan 2025).