National Statistics Office

Directorate B: Business Statistics

Short-term Business Statistics

Lascaris Valletta, VLT 2000, Malta

The indicator is the Construction Producer Price Index (CPPI). However, Malta compiles the Construction Cost Index (CCI), which is an approximation to the CPPI. The indicator shows the trend in the cost of new residential buildings.

The classifications used in STS is NACE rev.2

Section F (Construction) of NACE Rev 2 classification.

There are 3 specific indices for this indicator. The labour cost index, the material cost index and the total construction cost index. The labour cost index covers the expenses related to the labour involved in the construction industry. Basically, this covers the wages and salaries paid per hour worked. The material cost index covers the costs of material used in the construction industry. The construction cost is the total cost in the construction industry, made up of the labour cost and the material cost. The use of SBS weights is used for the 2 sub indices.

Kind of Activity Unit (KAU)

There are approximately 120 units for the labour cost index, while for the material cost index the PPI data are used.

The indicator covers the national territory of the Maltese Islands.

The data are compiled from 2000.

Base year (year on which weights are based): 2015

Reference year (year when the index equals 100): 2015

The same base and reference years are used for data published locally and that transmitted to Eurostat.

The data are provided in index form.

The data are collected and published on a quarterly basis.

The NSO was established by virtue of the Malta Statistics Authority Act XXIV of 2000 and replaced the Central Office of Statistics as from 1 March 2001. 

https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/422/eng/pdf

The related European legislation is the European Business Statistics Regulations 2019/2152 and 2020/1197.

Data Sharing matters are governed by the Malta Statistics Authority Act XXIV of 2000. The LCI data are not provided to any other organisations.

Apart from the established legislative framework, the NSO is also guided by an internal general confidentiality policy. Data tagged as confidential are not available for publication.

Confidentiality matters are regulated by the Malta Statistics Authority Act XXIV of 2000. Such data are marked as such.

An advance release calendar is published on the NSOs website.

ll releases are published and disseminated at 1100 hrs as scheduled in the Advance Release Calendar. The calendar is published on the NSO website and includes a 3 month advance notice (the current month and the next two months).

https://nso.gov.mt/calendars/

No news release is published for this indicator.

National statistical releases are issued according to the release calendar and are made available to all users simultaneously.

Data are only sent to Eurostat.

Eurostat transmissions for this index are carried out on a quarterly basis and 90 days after the end of the reference period.

Not available

The short-term statistics only publishes its figures in an annual compendium named Malta in Figures or Trends in Malta. These can be accessed from the NSO website: www.nso.gov.mt.

The NSO website offers an online statistical database (StatDB) that provides a more in-depth analysis for the more expert statistical user or researcher. The StatDB requires registration as only registered users can extract data from the database. Registration is free-of-charge.

In general, index results made available to Eurostat ensure a sufficient degree of representativeness of data. More detailed data than that published locally and internationally are available on request but are subject to the confidentiality clauses.

In such cases, data are provided in index form. Micro data are not provided to users.

Data are only transmitted to Eurostat.

The main document used for the production of this index is the following:

European Business Statistics Regulation, 2021

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/ks-gq-21-001

Not available.

The NSO quality assurance principles are developed according to the ESS Handbook for Quality Reports (2014). 

Aspects of quality are divided into several steps. These are specifying needs, designing and building data instruments and collecting, processing, analysing, disseminating, archiving and evaluating data. The main guiding principles in quality management are found in the:

European Statistics Code of Practice - https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/quality/european-quality-standards/european-statistics-code-of-practice

Quality Assurance Framework of the ESS - http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/64157/4392716/ESS-QAF-V1-2final.pdf/bbf5970c-1adf-46c8-afc3-58ce177a0646

Overall, the quality of the index is of good quality and very reliable.

The main user of this index is Eurostat.

Not available.

Data are compliant with relevant European and local regulations and requirements are fully fulfilled.

The overall accuracy of the indicator is considered to be of good quality. 

Sampling error is negligible, non-sampling error is small and the first estimates are not biased.

The sampling error is considered to be low.

Non-sampling errors relate to problems such as under or over coverage, non-response, data-processing and estimation. 

Non-sampling errors in this index are mainly due to non-response error.

The weighted response rate is approximately 86% for the first estimates.

The index is disseminated 90 days after the reference period.

The NSO is committed to adhere to the timelines established by the European Business Statistics Regulations 2019/2152 and 2020/1197 and also issues news releases according to its pre-published calendar.

All deadlines were respected during the course of the year.

To ensure geographical comparability across member states the index is compiled according to the STS Regulations and STS Methodological Guidelines. The same concepts are applied to the whole national territory of the Maltese Islands.

Data are comparable over time.

Data are not compared with any other source.

Aggregates are consistent with the other components.

No official costs and burden have been compiled. However, it is estimated that the compilation of this index amount to around 200 hours per year.

Revisions are carried according to the European Business Statistics Regulation. Internal procedures are also established.

The same revision policy is applied to both data released nationally (although this indicator is not released nationally) and that sent to Eurostat.

Revision analysis is carried out before every transmission sent to Eurostat and clear explanations are also sought. Detailed explanations at micro data level are also analysed  but only used internally for quality information purposes. Generally, this index will have routine minor revisions due to actual data replacing estimates. Major revisions may also be done but this will be on an exceptional basis.

A revision calendar does not exist.

Data marked as provisional are revised when actual data are received and estimates are replaced.

However, major changes are rare in this index except for an improvement in methodology.

The data for the labour cost index are obtained from the gross wages and salaries and hours worked data. The material cost index is derived from the PPI data.

Quarterly

Data are derived from already available STS data.

Validations of format and file structure checks and intra-dataset checks are checked with the use of in-house excel sheets and access databases.

Revisions analysis is also carried out for every data transmission sent to Eurostat using in-house access queries. When data revisions are significantly large, a short explanation is also given to Eurostat.

Non-response is treated by micro-estimation to ensure a full response for all surveyed units.

The current file conversion is GESMES/TS and the plan is to use the SDMX-ML tool in the future.

No adjustments are done.

No further comments.