Methodology of short-term business statistics

European Commission Eurostat

Informations

• Publié par: EUROPEAN-COMMISSION-EUROSTAT
• Nombre de lectures: 22
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

ISSN 1725-0099
Methodology
of short-term
business statistics
Interpretation and guidelines
THEME
E U R O P E A N Industry, trade
and servicesCOMMISSION
M E T H O D S A N D N O M E N C L A T U R E S
2006 EDITION Europe Direct is a service to help you find answers to your questions about the European Union
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Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2006
ISBN 92-79-01295-9
ISSN 1725-0099
© European Communities, 2006


FOREWORD




Short term business statistics are in great demand for economic analysis by a large number of users
in the Commission services, the European Centra l Bank, national governments as well as private
sector companies and financial markets. Considerab le progress has been achieved in recent years to
improve their coverage, their content and their timeliness.
The basis of these improvements was Council Regul ation 1165/98 in 1998 which set the legal basis
and the framework for these improvements. In Ju ly 2005 an amending regulation (1158/2005) added
new variables, in particular output prices for ser vices and import prices. This new regulation obliged
the Commission to publish an updated version of the methodological manual, taking into account
these changes.
The present volume is the third edition of the Methodology of Short term Statistics , Interpretation
and Guidelines , updated to include these new variables. At the same time, some sections of the
previous editions that had become obsolete with the passage of time have been deleted. Furthermore,
the manual was reviewed to ensure as far as possible a consistency with national accounts definitions.
There are a number of supporting documents associated with this manual including the texts of the
Council Regulations, the implementing Commission Re gulations, a detailed description of the data
delivery requirements resulting from the regul ations, the NACE activity classification, the
construction classification, various recommendations by the Working Group on Short term Statistics
and the detailed transmission protocol (GESMES) wh ich ensures reliable and speedy transmission of
the data between national statistical offices and Eu rostat. These associated documents will be made
available in electronic form.
Eurostat hopes this manual will be useful to both producers and users of short term statistics to
understand the contents and the compilation of these data.




Ina Steinbuka













Methodological Manual





Structure and contents




STRUCTURE AND CONTENTS 1
THE MANUAL AS A GUIDE 3
SECTION A: INTRODUCTION 3
1. EUROPEAN STATISTICS 3
SECTION B: INFRASTRUCTURE & COVERAGE 5
2. INFRASTRUCTURE 5
2.1. Statistical units 5
2.2. Classifications 7
3. BUSINESS POPULATIONS 12
3.1. Registers at the heart of business statistics - the frame population 13
3.2. Contents, coverage and maintenance of the SBR 14
SECTION C: COLLECTION TO PROCESSING GE NERAL 16
4. NATIONAL DATA COLLECTION 16
4.1. Subsidiarity, national coverage 16
4.2. Combination of sources 16
4.3. Sources 16
5. COMPILING NATIONAL RESULTS 19
5.1. Data control/editing 20
5.2. Treating non-response 20
5.3. Weighting samples / grossing up 21
5.4. Confrontation 22
5.5. Compiling indices 22
5.6. Decomposition 27
SECTION D: COLLECTION TO PROCESSING INDEX SPECIFIC 31
6. COMMON INDICATORS 31
6.1. Employment 31
6.2. Hours worked 34
6.3. Wages and salaries 37
6.4. New orders and alternative leading indicators 41
7. INDUSTRIAL INDICATORS 46
7.1. Production 46
7.2. Turnover 55
7.3. Output prices 59
7.4. Import prices 66
8. CONSTRUCTION INDICATORS 71
8.1. Production 71
8.2. Construction costs and prices 75
8.3. Building permits 79
9. SERVICES INDICATORS (INCLUDING RETAIL TRADE) 81
9.1. Turnover 81
9.2. Deflator of sales 83
9.3. Output prices of services 84
1 Methodological Manual
SECTION E: TRANSMISSION TO DISSEMINATION 91
10. NATIONAL DATA TRANSMISSION TO EUROSTAT 91
10.1. Preparation: identification of confidential data, data robustness 91
10.2. Transmission: format and media 92
10.3. Data transmission timetable 93
10.4. Data revisions 93
11. COMPILING EU INDICES 94
11.1. Data reception 94
11.2. Compiling EU indices and decomposition 94
12. DISSEMINATION OF RESULTS BY EUROSTAT 96
12.1. Identification of confidential data for geographical aggregates 96
12.2. Choice of data for compilation: indices and growth rates 96
12.3. Choice of dissemination format/media 97
12.4. Timetable for compilation and dissemination 98
12.5. Revisions of EU indices 98
12.6. Quality 99


2 Methodological Manual

The manual as a guide
Section A: Introduction



1. European statistics
Since February 1997 the organisation of the • The definition of statistical confidentiality, the
European statistical system has the Council conditions under which such data must be
Regulation on Community statistics as its legal transmitted to Eurostat and the uses that can be
basis and this is known as the statistical law. This made of this data. This la st part is of particular
legal basis concerns the production of Community significance for business statistics.
statistics and lays down the roles to be played by
national and Community authorities in the A Commission Decision on the role of Eurostat as
production of these statistics. regards the production of Community statistics was
adopted on the 21st of April 1997 which restates the
The statistical law is structured into four main parts: principles of the statistical law to be followed by
Eurostat, explains the tasks of Eurostat, its
• The procedures for the drawing up and autonomy, its obligations to disseminate data
implementation of Community statistical simply and impartially and its responsibility for
programmes that all Community statistics, coordination and co operation with other services
including business statistics. of the Commission. This Decision reiterates the
importance of the Community Statistical • The definition of the principles of impartiality,
Programme, the rules governing the use of reliability, relevance, cost effectiveness,
confidential data and the access to administrative statistical confidentiality and transparency by
data sources held by the Commission. which all Community statistics shall be
governed.
For more information on the statistical law see: • The dissemination of Community statistics with Council Regulation No 322/97 of the 17 February 1997 on Community
a qualified obligation on Eurostat to statistics, Official Journal No L 52 p.1 of 22.2.97
Commission Decision No 281/97 of 21 April 1997 on the role of disseminate Community level results before the Eurostat as regards the production of Community statistics, Official next transmission of national results is due. Journal No L 112 p.56 of 29.4.97



















3 Methodological Manual
Section B: Infrastructure & Coverage

2. Infrastructure

The definitions contained in the Annex to the SU 2.1. Statistical units
Regulation are to be used by the national statistical
2.1.1. Introduction Statistical Units Regulation and authorities to identify units for the collection,
the list of types of statistical units transmission, publication and analysis of business
Statistical units play a prominent role in the EU statistics data. The SU Regulation does not
system of business statistics. Indeed, the Council however specify which units should be used for
Regulation on statistical units (SU Regulation) each of these actions, nor does it specify which
explicitly states "only if the member states use units should be used in particular surveys.
common definitions of statistical units will it be Section 2 of the Annex to the SU Regulation lists
possible to provide integrated statistical information three criteria, by which statistical units can be
with the reliability, speed, flexibility and degree of defined.
detail required for the management of the internal
market". Statistical units are therefore: They are:
A. Legal, accounting or organizational criteria • the corner stones of business statistics;
In order to define units that are recognisable and • the building blocks of statistical aggregates;
identifiable in the economy, legal or institutional
• the links allowing statistics to be harmonised. criteria must be applied. In some cases, legally
separate units must be grouped together as they are
The SU Regulation lists and defines eight ty