Transcript Bridging trade statistics with business statistics – Eurostat's experiences of register linkages Karo Nuortila Eurostat/Unit G3 International Trade Statistics - Production.

Bridging trade statistics with business statistics –
Eurostat's experiences of register linkages
Karo Nuortila
Eurostat/Unit G3
International Trade Statistics - Production
Trade statistics vs. business statistics
 Statistics on trading of goods describe trade flows between
countries with a breakdown of products
– Monthly statistics with detailed breakdowns of products and partner
countries
– No data on traders (no explicit statistical units)
 Business Statistics, in particular SBS, describe the structure and
evolution of activities of businesses
– Annual (SBS) or monthly (STS) statistics with a great number of
variables
– Basic breakdown according to the economic activity
– Limited information on external trade
 Trade and business statistics are based on different concepts and
classification, thus using them separately may provide incoherent
basis for analysing the effects of external trade on production,
employment and enterprises’ performances.
Identification of traders in trade statistics
 European trade statistics consist of two systems: intra-EU trade
(Intrastat) and extra-EU trade (Extrastat)
 Data on intra-EU trade is collected via statistical survey (Intrastat)
directly from traders
– Close link to VAT system
– Member States need to keep a register on intra-EU traders
 Data on extra-EU trade is collected through Customs declarations
– Registering of traders is not (yet) harmonised across Member States
 Identification codes are administrative codes
How to make trade statistics coherent with
business characteristics?
 Macro or micro approach?
 Macro approach: use product correspondence tables or input-output
tables to associate products to manufacturing origin or to final use
 Micro approach: link trade registers/data with business register
 Arguments why micro approach is beneficial:
– Relies on the real information rather than theoretical assumptions
– The link between traders and businesses is required by Business
Register Regulation
– No need for data collection; uses the data already collected
– Consistent and coherent definition of statistical units
– Detailed level of trade data can be maintained
– The most important economic characteristics are available (economic
activity, number of employees, turnover)
– Can be extended to cover all statistics related to businesses
Link between trade operators and
statistical units
Business Register
Legal unit
(id-code)
Trade Register
(Intrastat/Extrastat) and
detailed data
Trade operator
(id-code)
Trade value by
• Product code
• Partner country
Enterprise
• Economic
activity (NACE)
• Number of employees
Trade statistics by enterprise characteristics:
project history in brief
 First discussions and methodological studies started in late 1990s.
 Methodology and indicators developed by Eurostat Task Force
”Trade Registers/Globalisation”
 Four centralised pilot studies undertaken since 2002
– Reference years 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2005
– Actions by the EU Member States co-financed by the
Commission
– Fifth study for reference year 2006 just started
 Methodology developed over time
– Changes in indicators, breakdowns and compilation rules
– Currently 6 indicators with harmonised breakdowns
 Results of the last two studies are available in public Circa site:
Circa
Matching of trade and business registers
 Quality of statistics based on register linkage depends on the
matching rates between source data sets
 In most cases the matching has been very successful,
sometimes almost perfect
 Some systematic non-matching cases
–
–
–
–
Non-resident traders
NACE sections A, B and L
Private individuals
Artificial codes
 A particular problem in matching of complex businesses: trade
may be allocated to headquarter instead of “true” trader
Next steps
 Thus far data collection has been voluntary but the revisions of
Intrastat and Extrastat legal acts will make it obligatory from
2009/2010 (reference years) onwards
 Before that data collection will continue on voluntary basis
 New areas to be studied in the frame of MEETS programme
– Possible extension to other variables (SBS, trade of services)
– Enterprise group through the EGR: trade of multinational enterprise
groups