United Nations Central Product Classification
United Nations Central Product Classification
The United Nations Central Product Classification (CPC) is a comprehensive product classification that covers all goods and services. It serves as an international standard for compiling and tabulating all types of data requiring product detail, including statistics on industrial production, domestic and foreign trade in goods, international trade in services, balance of payments, consumption and price statistics, and other data used in national accounts. It provides a framework for international comparisons and promotes the harmonization of different types of statistics relating to goods and services.
The first version of the CPC, the Provisional Central Product Classification, was published in 1991. This version was superseded by the Central Product Classification (CPC) Version 1.0, published in 1998. This version paid special attention to the detailed elaboration of the services section of the classification. CPC Version 1.1, published in 2002, was a further update of the CPC, incorporating amendments resulting from recent developments in economies around the world and sustained technological progress over the period since the development of CPC Version 1.0. CPC Version 2, published in 2008, again reflected the latest changes in the characteristics of output, especially in relation to the rapidly growing service sectors. In addition, detailed information has been introduced in the CPC to better describe agricultural and agricultural-related products, as well as information products. The review of the concept of products covered by the CPC also led to the introduction of a broader concept of goods and services. The current version, CPC Version 2.1, is the result of a planned review of the structure and detail of the CPC to ensure the appropriateness of the classification in describing current products in the economy. The changes in this version are mainly the result of additional reviews of agricultural products (including inputs from fisheries, forestry and agriculture), outputs from selected service sectors, energy products and necessary adjustments to reflect changes made to the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System.
The continuous revision of the Central Product Classification demonstrates a commitment to systematizing the improvement of the classification over time, keeping it up to date and more in line with existing economic and technological practices while maintaining conceptual consistency.
See different versions of CPC at the link below: