National Statistics Institute - INE Spain

Deputy Directorate for Industrial and Services Statistics

Avenida de Manoteras, 50-52

28050 Madrid (Spain)

The main purpose of the statistical operation of Services Sector Activity Indicators (SSAI) is to provide short-term performance indicators of the economic activity of enterprises operating in the non-financial market services in Spain via two variables: turnover and persons employed. The objective of this operation is to fulfil Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics (EBS-Regulation) and Commission Implementing Regulation 2020/1197 laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistic (General Implementing Act).

Before the EBS, the STS legal base was Council Regulation No 1165/98 of 19 May 1998 concerning short-term statistics, amended by Regulation No 1158/2005 of 6 July 2005 concerning short-term statistics. The Article 25.3 of Regulation (EU) 2019/2152  mentions that Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 is repealed with effect from 1 January 2024.

These Regulations aim to create a common framework for the production of Community statistics on the short-term evolution of supply, demand, production factors and prices.
This entails an actual set of statistics with direct data collection. Results are presented as indices so as to measure variations as compared to base year 2015.

This operation began to be carried out in the year 2002, although we have data from year 2000. In the year 2005, the sample was increased in order to disseminate regional data, and as of January 2009 SSAI provides information in NACE Rev.2. In January 2013, coinciding with the base change from 2005 to 2010, the formulation used is modified, from direct Laspeyres-type indices with fixed base year 2005, to chain-linked Laspeyres indices, with base year 2010 (monthly chain-linking during last December).

Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Communities (NACE Rev.2).

Sections H (Transport and Storage), I (Accommodation), J (Information and Communications), M (Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities, excluded 70.1, 72 and 75) and N (Administrative and Support Services Activities, excluded 77, 81.1 and 81.3) of the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Communities (NACE Rev.2).

Enterprise classification variables

Economic activity

The economic activity carried out by a enterprise is defined as the creation of added value by means of the production of goods and services.

Each one of the statistical units studied (enterprises) frequently carries out several activities that should be classified in separate categories of the National Classification of the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE Rev.2).

In general, the activities carried out by an economic unit may be of three types: main, secondary and auxiliary activities. The main activity differs from secondary activities because it generates the greatest added value and auxiliary activities are those that generate services that are not sold on the market and only serve the unit they depend on (administration departments, transport or storage services).

Due to the difficulties faced by enterprises in calculating added value when various activities are carried out, the activity which generates the greatest volume of business is considered the main activity or, failing that, that which employs the greatest number of persons.

Although statistical units are classified according to their main activity, the information that is requested from the informant units refers not only to the main activity under consideration, but also to all the secondary and auxiliary activities which are carried out.

Enterprise size

The size of enterprises is one of the most important variables when it comes to classifying enterprises. This size may be established in terms of the magnitude of turnover or production value, or by considering the number of persons on the enterprise staff.

In SSAI, this latter option is chosen to determine the size of the enterprises.

Definition of variables

Income or turnover

Income or turnover is the total invoicing for the enterprise. Its definition is deduced from accountancy definitions used by enterprises. This includes those amounts invoiced by the enterprise due to the provision of services and the sale of goods that are the traffic objective, including those carried out through subcontracting.

Expenses invoiced for packaging and transport are included; the sale of purchased goods for resale in the same conditions in which they were received, and sales of subproducts. As well as hours worked invoiced to third parties solely for subcontracted work.
These amounts are considered, including the taxes that are levied on the goods and services, and excluding the VAT paid by the client.

It does not cover subsidies received from public authorities or from the European Union, financial profit or other operating profit such as subsidies, sales of shares and fixed assets, income from interest, dividends and patents, leasing of enterprise and production unit property and machinery. Neither does it include income from staff amenities (canteens etc.) and the supply of goods or services within the observation unit.

The statistical unit of the legal unit carrying out as its main economic activity some of the services included in the population scope has been used. It's also the informant unit, because as it is perfectly defined and located, and since it has the accounting and employment data available, the response is provided and homogeneous information is obtained.

 NACE Rev.2 codes:

TRANSPORT AND STORAGE (H)
Land transport (49)
49.1+49.2+49.5: railway and pipeline transport,
49.32: transport by taxi,
49.31+49.39: other land passenger transport,
49.4: freight transport by road and removal services, Sea transport and transport by domestic navigable routes,
50: sea transport and transport by domestic navigable routes, both of passengers and of goods, Air transport,
51: air transport, storage and activities connected to transport,
52: deposit, storage activities connected to land, sea and air transport, and cargo handling, Postal and courier activities,
53: postal activities subject to the obligation of universal service and other postal and courier activities.

ACCOMMODATION (I)
Accommodation services,
55: accommodation services, Food and beverage services,
56: food and beverage services.

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS ( J )
Publishing
58: publishing (of books, newspapers, magazines, directories; of video games and of other software programs), Motion picture, video and television programme activities and music publishing,
59: motion picture, video and television programme activities, sounds recording and music publishing, Radio and television programming and broadcasting,
60: radio and television programming and broadcasting activities, Telecommunications,
61: telecommunications (by cable, wireless, by satellite and other telecommunication activities), Programming, consultancy and other IT-related activities,
62: Programming, consultancy and other IT-related activities, Information services,
63: information services (data processing, hosting, websites and related activities; news agency activities and other information services).

PROFESSIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES{(M)
Legal, accounting and business and management consultancy activities,
69+70.2: legal activities, accounting activities, bookkeeping, auditing and tax advisory, as well as business management consultancy activities, Technical architecture and engineering services; technical trials and analysis,
71: technical architecture and engineering services; technical trials and analysis, Advertising and market studies,
73: advertising agencies and media representation services. Market research and public opinion polling, Other professional, scientific and technical activities,
74: specialised design activities, photographic activities, translation and interpretation activities, technical consultancy and other professional, scientific and technical activities.

ADMINISTRATIVE AND SUPPORT SERVICE ACTIVITIES (N)
Employment-related activities
78: recruitment enterprise and temporary employment agency activities and other provision of human resources, Travel agency and tour operators,
79: travel agency and tour operator activities, reservation services and related activities, Investigation and surveillance services,
80: private security activities and security system services; research activities, Cleaning activities,
81.2: general building cleaning and other cleaning activities, Office management activities,
82: combined administrative services, photocopying activities, preparing documents and other office related activities; call centre activities; organisation of conventions and trade fairs; activities of debt collection agencies and commercial information, packaging activities by third parties and other 82. Administrative office activities and other business support activities.

The population is around 1.300.000 enterprises for sections G, H, I, J, M (excluded 70.1, 72 and 75) and N (excluded 77, 81.1 and 81.3) included in Other Services of the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Communities (NACE Rev.2.). The SBS population includes this enterprises, although its scope is bigger.

The geographical coverage of Services is the whole Spanish territory excluding the Autonomous Cities of Ceuta and Melilla.

Turnover of the units located outside the Spanish territory are not included in the aggregates.

The sampled units located in Spain provide their total turnover.

This operation began to be carried out in the year 2002, although we have data from year 2000. In the year 2005, the sample was increased in order to disseminate regional data, and as of January 2009 SSAI provides information in NACE Rev.2.

The historical series begin in January, 2000 except the correspondents to the activities 58 of NACE Rev.2 (Publishing activities) that begin in January, 2002 and the activities 59 of NACE Rev.2 (Motion picture, video and television programme activities, sounds recording and music publishing) and 60 of the NACE Rev.2 (Radio and television programming and broadcasting activities) and the general indexes of turnover of the autonomous communities that begin in January, 2005.

In year 2018, we begin to publish our data in new base year. We choose this year to meet the requirements established in the Regulation of Parliament and EU Council which requires that the base years are those ending in zero or five. This facilitates the construction of European aggregates.

Services Sector Activity Indicators (SSAI) use chain linking indexes:

-       The Base year: Year 2015 (the year when the index equals 100)

-       The reference period: December t-1 (our chain linking is based on a period shorter than a year)

-       The reference year: December t-1 (the year on which the weights are based)

Our base and reference periods released national are equal than data transmitted to Eurostat.

In year 2024 we will begin to publish our data in new base year (2021).

Indices and percentage changes (on previous period or compared to the same period in previous year).

Variable reference period
The reference period is the month.

Legal basis

The legal basis for the STS indicators are Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics (EBS-Regulation) and Commission Implementing Regulation 2020/1197 laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistic (General Implementing Act).

Before the EBS, the STS legal base was Council Regulation No 1165/98 of 19 May 1998 concerning short-term statistics, amended by Regulation No 1158/2005 of 6 July 2005 concerning short-term statistics. The Article 25.3 of Regulation (EU) 2019/2152  mentions that Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 is repealed with effect from 1 January 2024.

According to the Spanish legislation, SSAI is a compulsory statistic.

The compilation and dissemination of data are governed by the Statistical Law No 12/1989 "Public Statistical Function" of May 9, 1989, and Law No 4/1990 of June 29 on "National Budget of State for the year 1990" amended by Law No 13/1996 "Fiscal, administrative and social measures" of December 30, 1996, makes compulsory all statistics included in the National Statistics Plan. The Plan contains the statistics that must be developed in the four year period by the State General Administration's services or any other entity dependent on it. All statistics included in the National Statistics Plan are statistics for state purposes and are obligatory. The National Statistics Plan 2021-2024, approved by Royal Decree 1110/2020, of December 15th, is the Plan currently implemented. This statistical operation has governmental purposes, and it is included in the National Statistics Plan 2021-2024, which is available in the following link.

The exchanges of information between the INE and the rest of the State statistical offices (Ministerial Departments, independent bodies and administrative bodies depending on the State General Administration), or between these offices and the Autonomous Communities Statistical Offices, are regulated in the Statistical Law No 12/1989 "Public Statistical Function". This law also regulates the mechanisms of statistical coordination, and concludes cooperation agreements between the different offices when necessary.

Through the collaboration agreements signed with regional statistical institutes, monthly information exchange is done meeting the requirements established to preserve statistical confidentiality.

SSAI is a statistical operation included in the National Statistics Plan 2021-2024, therefore, it is subject to Statistics Law No 12/1989 "Public Statistical Function" and, consequently, data is protected by the principle of statistical confidentiality in all the storages of production.

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European statistics stipulates the need to establish a guideline and common principles to ensure confidentiality of data used during the production of European statistics and also when accessing the confidential data.

INE Spain Confidentiality Policy can be found in the following link.

INE Spain takes the necessary logical, physical and administrative provisions to protect confidential data, from data collection to dissemination.

Questionnaires of the survey include a legal clause related to protection and preservation of data collected.

In the case of this survey, only aggregate information is disseminated. Besides data are only published down to an activity level at which they are not confidential and no confidential data can be obtained.

The publication advances of the calendar it is made in the last quarter of every year and shows the exact dates of the publications.

This release calendar is available on the web site.

All users have access to the data since 9 am on the press release day. The data are disseminated at INE Spain website. Users are informed that the data are being released via Twitter and also at INE Spain website "News flash" section.

In accordance with the European Statistics Code of Practice, all users have access to the same statistical information at the same time, and any privileged pre-release access to any outside user must be limited, controlled and made public.

In this sense, a few hours before its official publication, some statistical information of the INE is transmitted, under embargo, to the appointed body, the Secretariat of State for Economic Affairs and Business Support of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, for the purpose of providing sufficient time for their responsible parties to prepare answers to any possible questions that journalists might ask them.

Likewise, by virtue of the signing of the Multilateral Working Agreement for the development of a statistics partnership between the INE and the Central Statistics Offices of the Autonomous Communities (OCECA), sixteen OCECA receive information under embargo, relating to both their territory (at Autonomous Community level) and the national total (on a national scale), for the purpose of compiling and publishing, in parallel to the INE, press releases relating to their respective territorial scopes. As with the INE, the OCECA are governed by the Laws and regulations that guarantee statistical confidentiality.

The release policy doesn't determine the time at which data are disseminated. The dissemination policy is available in the following link.

The same release policy is applied to national releases and to transmissions to Eurostat.

Data are transmitted in SDMX-ML format to Eurostat at the moment of the national release.

Monthly. The publication is released around 50 days after the end of the reference period.

The press releases can be consulted on-line.

There are no publications in paper, the information related to this indicator is published in the web page of the INE.

In it is possible to find the following information:

• Press release, where are outlined the components that more influence the evolution of the indicator the month of reference.
• Principal results, which it contains the attached tables to the Press release.
• Detailed Results: with the information of the historical series of the indicators.
• Methodology, in which the methodological characteristics of the indicator are outlined with major detail.
• Weighting used in the added indexes.

Also results of the indicators are attached in previous bases.

EUROSTAT, the statistical office of the European Union, provide the European Union with statistics at European level that enable comparisons between countries and regions. This information is available in the Database - Short-term business statistics - Eurostat.

INEbase is the system that the INE uses to store and to disseminate in the Web all the statistical information. It contains all the information that the INE produces in electronic format. It is organized basically following the thematic classification of the Inventory of Statistical Operations of the General Administration of the State.

 The basic unit is the statistical operation defined as the set of activities that lead to the obtaining of statistical results for a certain sector or topic, from information gathered individually.

The users can accede to the information in INEbase-Services Sector Activity Indicators (SSAI).

In 2022 the total number of accesses to Services Sector Activity Indicators website was AC2=1339.

The microdata of the Services Sector Activity Indicators (SSAI) are not accessible to the general public. A file of microdata does not disseminated anonymous, only these are facilitated to the Oficinas Centrales de Estadística de las Comunidades Autónomas (OCECAS) with which an agreement of collaboration has been signed for the reference of the above mentioned information, by virtue of the Framework agreement of Collaboration between the INE and the OCECAS.

It is possible to request information as to the user service area INE. It takes into account when processing such requests limitations on confidentiality or precision.

Our data are sent to Eurostat, either to be used in European aggregates or to be released also as national data.

The documentation on the methodology is available at the link:

methodology report

The statistics are prepared in accordance with EU guidelines in order to meet the Code of Practice implemented by Eurostat following the quality criteria on relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, comparability, consistency and completeness.

To ensure the quality of statistics, every three years the Commission shall submit to the European Parliament and the Council a report on the statistics compiled pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1165/1998 of the Council and in particular on their relevance and quality and the revision of indicators.

This report addresses the relevance, quality and review of the indicators as well as the cost of the statistical system and the burden for businesses in relation to its benefits.

There aren't additional national quality reports.

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL concerning short term statistics as required by Article 14(2) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1165/1998.

The frame of quality guarantee for the statistics of the INE is based on the ESCOP, the Code of Good practices of EUROSTAT'S European Statistics. The ESCOP consists of 15 principles grouped in three areas: Institutional Environment, Processes and Products. Every principle has associate a series of indicators that allow his measure. To value the quality different tools provided by EUROSTAT are in use: the already mentioned indicators, the self-evaluation (DESAP), the Review for counterparts (Peer Review), the Audits of quality and the Surveys of users' satisfaction.

The statistical operation Services Sector Activity Indicators (SSAI) is realized in conformity with the community directives, fulfilling the Code of Good Practices implanted by Eurostat and taking the necessary measurements in order that the published indicators fulfill all the requirements of quality needed.

The statistical operation of the Services Sector Activity Indicators (SSAI) constitutes a product of high quality. His sample size allows to offer information up to the autonomous level inside a few reasonable sampling error, the harmonized used methodology allows to offer comparisons in the international area with a high level of solvency and an extremely valuable measure gives on the sector services, which no other statistical source provides with the same level of detail with monthly frequency.

As for the limitations of the survey it is necessary to indicate the inherent ones in the statistical operations for sampling, such as not response and the already mentioned sampling errors or coefficients of variation of the estimations. In both cases, they are kept inside reasonable limits.

The Regulation n º 1158/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Advice of July 6, 2005 establishes that the quality of the variables will verify from time to time comparing them with another statistical information. The above mentioned comparison will be effected by each of the members states and by the Commission (Eurostat). In addition, the internal coherence will happen.

Likewise, it fulfills the quality criteria enumerated in the article 12, paragraph 1, of the Regulation (CE) n º 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Advice, namely: relevancy, precision, current importance, punctuality, accessibility, clarity, comparability and coherence.

The statistical operation of the Services Sector Activity Indicators (SSAI) covers the needs of statistical information of different user groups:

The INE itself, which to compile the national accounts uses this statistics of base.

Departments and other public organisms that use the results of this statistical operation to made economic analysis or predictions, to elaborate synthetic indicators of activity, etc.

Territorial administrations like the autonomous communities. To all the Institutes of statistics of the autonomous communities, by virtue of the agreements established between the INE and these institutions, they receive monthly the information (microdata or regional already compiled indexes) correspondent to enterprises of the sample who belong its region. With this information there can disseminate the Services Sector Activity Indicators (SSAI) to a major level of detail for his Community, it's useful for the measurement of the economic cycle and as instrument of economic regional analysis.

Investigators and academic world, enterprises and institutions without ends of profit (services of study of enterprises, foundations, associations, etc.), unions and employer organizations, press and specialized media, as well as of foreign users, so much institutional as individuals. Between the first ones of the latter they stand out, Eurostat, the European Central Bank and the OECD.

The INE has made general surveys of users' satisfaction the year 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 and plans to continue making them every 3 years. Their purpose is to know the perception of the users of the statistics regarding to the quality of the information that they use, and in what degree they find his needs covered. In addition, other special surveys are realized to know certain themes: diffusion of the information, quality of certain publications, etc.

Besides the surveys experts are in constant contact with main users, in order to meet any specific information need.

In the last survey of users satisfaction realized in the year 2019, the sector " Short-term of the sectorial and labor activity " in which this operation is fitted, obtained a valuation for the users of 3.80 on 5.

The national user surveys' results is available in the link.

The survey responds to all requests for information, both national and international regulations.

Available statistical results rate is R1= 100%.

The sample design attempts to minimize sampling errors. Also, errors are reduced as far as possible during the process survey: in data collection (monitoring and control response rate of editing) and later in non response imputation phase and calculation of aggregate indices. This allows a high degree of reliability of the statistical operation.

Random stratified sampling has been used. In order to set out a measurement of the quality from the indices, an approximate relative sampling error is calculated for the interannual variation rates.

  CV Annual  Average 2022: 3.25%

Non sampling errors are small too: over-coverage, multiple listings, non-response, imputation… can be considered as minor.

Our data are final after five periods from first release and the different between first and last release is small.

Random stratified sampling has been used. The distribution of the sample among the different strata is carried out by Neyman allocation. A random sample is obtained in each strata except in enterprises with 200 or more employees, in which all are part of the sample. In certain branches and communities the strata is smaller due to a small population. In these cases, the strata are also exhaustive.

The enterprise framework is stratified taking the following variables into account: branch of activity, Autonomous Community and size, measured by number of employees.

In order to set out a measurement of the quality from the indices, an approximate relative sampling error is calculated for the interannual variation rates of the variable “number of employees and self_employed persons”. The general expression of the estimated relative error, a supposedly negligible bias, is given by:

CV*(R*)=100×(V(R*))^1/2/R^* , being R^*=Y^*_t/Y*_t-1

R^* is the ratio estimator, given by the result of the estimation of the total of variable Y (number of employees and self_employed persons) in month m of the year t.

Y^*_t , and the estimation of Y obtained in the same month m of the year t-1, Y*_t-1.

The method used for calculating the estimator of variance is linearization via Taylor series. The expression for the estimator of variance is:

V*(R*)=(1/Y^*2_t-1) × [(V^*(Y*_t) + R^*2 × V^*(Y*_t-1) - 2R*Cov^*(Y*_t,Y*_t-1) ]

Where V^*(Y*_t) shows the estimator of variance of Y*_t, V^*(Y*_t-1) shows the estimator of variance of Y*_t-1 and Cov^*(Y*_t,Y*_t-1) shows the estimator of the covariance between Y*_t and Y*_t-1.

Impact of over-coverage and multiple listings of the frame

 We have studied impact of over-coverage and multiple listings of the frame through new units are selected to enter our sample.

In September of each year, we select units for an annual renovation: 20-25% of sampling units are rotated in non-exhaustive strata and we select new big enterprises who belong exhaustive strata. In January of each year, part of the sample is renovated.

These results have been calculated with new units selected in September 2022:

Over-coverage

-       Units don’t belong target population: 2.65%

-       Units are closed: 9.07%

-       Units without any data: 13.81%

Multiple listings

-      Units are present more than once in the frame

% Impact of multiple listings: 0%

Under-coverage

We don’t have information about it.

Impact of survey instrument, respondent and interviewer

Our survey use simple questionnaires where it appears a contact person who could solve any doubts respondents could have. These contact persons have been working in INE during a long time and they are prepared to answer any question.

Besides, most of the questionnaires are collected via web. We use selective editing in web questionnaires, for it most of them have passed several editing controls and respondents should correct them or give us an explanation about their data.

When we receive all data, these are revised using selective editing too. If an important error is detected we recontact with respondent again and we correct it.

Impact of unit and non-response item

In 2022, we have 27385 units in our sample. We have an small average rate of non_response in it.

First release:

Average rate, A4. Year 2022 (January-December): 7.36%

Last release:

Average rate, A4. Year 2022 (January-October): 4.53%

Weighted average rate, A4. Year 2022: 4.29% in first release.

Weighted average rate, A4. Year 2022(January-October): 1.46% in last release.

Impact of data editing, coding and imputation

Data editing: a first editing phase, at micro-data level takes place when the respondent fills in the e-questionnaire, we use selective editing in them. Data collected by others channels (paper, telephone, fax) are editing by selective editing too when they are recorded. During the data collection another micro-data level editing phase occurs including all data collection methods questionnaires. After that the selective editing is carried out. Finally the macro-data editing phase takes place.

Imputation: monthly and annual rates of units filling in the questionnaire in each elementary aggregates are imputed to those units of the same elementary aggregate that did not answer in the reference period. Elementary aggregates are the most detailed levels for which indices are calculated.

% data editing, coding and imputation (October 2022):

-       editing: 0.97%

-       imputation: 8.95%

Impact of specific models used in estimation

In order to ensure the quality of the data adjusted, INE validates the data using the INE Standard quality measures (chapter 4): verification of the appropriateness of the decomposition (specification) through the diagnoses provided by the SEATS program and verification of the absence of auto-correlation, absence of residual seasonality in the de-seasonalised series and absence of residual calendar effects of the de-seasonalised series.

Our questionnaire could be found in Annex of this document.

The publication is disseminated around 50 days after the end of the reference period.

The results are published punctually in agreement by the calendar of availability of statistical relating to the moment publications elaborated and spread by the INE.

The above mentioned calendar is fulfilled by total punctuality.

The survey is designed of homogeneous form in the whole geographical area, regarding his methodology, design, the process of collecting information, and data editing.

Comparability among EU countries is ensured by the EBS-Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics) and its General Implementing Act (Commission Implementing Regulation 2020/1197 laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistic). They provide these statistics with homogeneity regarding the rest of European Union countries, which disseminate the same information.

All the historical series published of the Services Sector Activity Indicators (SSAI) are homogeneous and, therefore, comparable in the time.

Since the implantation of the survey there have been base changes of the indexes and changes of the economic activities classification, but to guarantee the comparability of the information over time the INE always has published the retrospective series of the Services Sector Activity Indicators (SSAI) in the new base and in the new classification.

The number of comparable data, CC2, from January 2000 to December 2022 is: 276.

In the data validation we take into account data of other statistics to ensure consistency between them, such as:

Structural Business Statistics: Services Sector (SBS) of INE

SBS and STS use the same Population framework. Our sampling frame is the Statistical Business Register. The sampling design is also quite similar. Both apply stratified sampling with optimum sample allocation. Strata are formed using the following variables: Main economic activity, number of employee and region (NUTS2).

In SBS, businesses with 50 or more employees belong to take-all stratum. In STS, for retail trade, the take-all stratum is similar to SBS and for the rest of services, businesses with 200 or more employees belong to take-all stratum.

Both use Horvitz-Thompson estimators but there are some differences in the estimation process. SBS estimators are adjusted by stratum changes and the total population, N, is estimated using their own data. In STS, N comes from updated sampling frame.

Besides, SBS is designed to obtain level turnover and STS is designed to study increasing or decreasing of turnover.

Quarterly Spanish National Accounts of INE

STS Services is used as input of Quarterly Spanish National Accounts (QSNA). Nowadays, both of them are in base year 2015.

STS Services index is use in Aggregates:

Household final consumption expenditure

Gross Value Added on Services activities:

-       Wholesale and Retail trade, Transports and Hotels;

-       Information and communication;

-       Professional activities.

Gross Fixed Capital Formation Intellectual Property Products

Although in these aggregates there are more indicators. We should have into account that QSNA uses more than 250 short term indicators from different institutions.

Sales of the Big enterprises of the Tax Authority

Monthly Tax Authority elaborate a publication about turnover of Large enterprises from VAT data. Large enterprises are natural or legal persons whose volume of operations exceeded the figure of 6.01 million euros during the immediately preceding calendar year, this definition is different that European legislation use.

Large enterprises operate in all branches of activity, in some the representation is practically exhaustive while in others dominated by small enterprises don’t weight so much. Number of large enterprises change every year. They use a Unit Value Index

STS include all units, large and small, our sample has a rotation around 20-25%, we use a Laspeyres Chain Index.

The coherence is a fundamental question both in the exposition of the methodology of the survey and in all his process of production. The coherence between the variables is confirmed in all the phases of the statistical process and they do not find incoherences.

With the intention of reducing significantly the burden of the units informants, there has been tried that the questionnaire contains all the necessary information and at the same time his design is as simplified as possible to facilitate the answer of respondents, in order to reduce as far as possible the burden of certain reporting units informants that have to fill in of multiple surveys in the same year.

To avoid the fatigue of the informants and the aging of the sample, allowing the selection of enterprises of new creation, there is realized an annual rotation of 25%.

With regard to the cost associated with the collection and production of the statistical products, in case of the SSAI the budgetary Forecasts in the annual Program 2022 reach an amount of 3,770.34 (thousands of Euros). This budget includes turnover and employment.

Burden (respondents) hours per year: 9,797 h

Cost (NSI) hours per year: 51,650 h

Revised data are used both for the National dissemination and to obtain the STS data transmitted to Eurostat, so the same policy is applied to the STS data released nationally and sent to Eurostat.

The revision policy adopted for the raw data at INE Spain encompasses several types of revisions:

- Regular revisions are carried out on a monthly basis. These revisions consist on checking the new available information for the data of the reference month plus the late data of previous months that have already been released.

Annually, an overhaul of the seasonal adjustment models takes place in order to update the models.

- Major revisions are performed on the occasion of rebasing our methodological changes like changes in definitions and classifications as well as legal changes like those due to new Regulations or updates in the already existing.

- Non-scheduled revisions take place rarely in the case of detecting an error in the statistical process.

The revision policy regarding seasonally adjusted data comprises two types of revisions:

- Concurrent adjustment: partially concurrent adjustment is carried out monthly. With the new data received:

• Both the parameters of the ARIMA model and the parameters of the regressors for the correction of calendar effects and of the intervention variables of the outliers are re-estimated.
• The filters to obtain the seasonally adjusted series are re-calculated.

- Current adjustment: annually the model (including the intervention variables of the outliers and the regressors for the correction of calendar effects) is identified, the parameters of ARIMA, of the regressors for the correction of calendar effects and of the intervention variables of the outliers) are estimated and the filters are calculated and set.

The link to the revision policy for raw data adopted at INE Spain is the following:

Revision policy

Regarding the revision for seasonally adjusted data is available in the following link:

INE Standard for the Adjustment of Seasonal Effects and Calendar Effects in Short-term Series

There in no official revision calendar, each indicator has its own revision calendar.

The first time the index of a given month is published, it provides provisional data, which are not final until four months later. Meanwhile the index is revised using the same data modifications that have occurred since the date of the first publication, due for instance to the replacement of the estimated data (for management issues) by the updated data completed by the enterprise.

However, the series corrected for calendar effects and seasonal effects are reviewed in full every month.

A6 indicator, average size of revisions, where revision is defined as the difference between final and preliminary estimators, is used for data revision practice. Estimators are calculated on a number of reference periods: MAR (size of revisions) and RMAR (size of each revision as compared to the last estimate).

Original series:

A6_MAR (December 2022) =0.0713973052

A6_RMAR (December 2022) = 0.0036244648%

A6_MR (December 2022)= 0.071397

A6_MaxARt = 0.203053 ( Annual variation rate  March 2019_ March 2020)

Series adjusted for calendar effects:

A6_MAR (December 2022) = 0.1376621387

A6_RMAR (December 2022) = 0.0069948603%

A6_MR (December 2022)=0.137662

A6_MaxARt = 1.255844 (Annual variation rate  March 2020_ March 2021)

MAR, RMAR, MR and MaxARt values were obtained with the information of its last 36 final months being December 2022 the last one.

The benchmarking isn't carried out. Revisions aren’t carried out either in a business account quarterly/annual business or on national accounts and on structural business statistics either.

Major revisions are informed in advance in the press release the same day of dissemination, although main users are informed in advance. Besides, from 2015 we will communicate main updates in our website.

Type of source

Statistical survey.

Frame on which the source is based

The source is the DIRCE (INE's business register).

The DIRCE has been used as the framework for the survey, which contains information on the main economic activity and on the number of employees in enterprises, enabling their stratification according to these concepts. Also featured in this directory is other data on the identification and location of the statistical units, which are necessary for collecting the information correctly.

The data contained in the DIRCE is obtained using administrative sources, mainly coming from the Tax Agency and Social Security, and is completed with information from the statistical operations of the INE.

Sample or census

Some strata are investigated exhaustively (strata with enterprises with 200 or more employees) and in the remaining strata, a systematic selection with a random start is carried out, having previously ordered enterprises by size.

Criteria for stratification

A stratified one-stage sampling is used, where, as a general rule, the enterprise population has been stratified according to the cross of three variables: principal activity at 4-digit level of NACE Rev 2, the number of employees and region. Information from the Structural Business Survey has been used in order to obtain the sample sizes taking into account the weight of the different strata in the total turnover for each activity and information of variance of the variable number of employees by stratum from the Business Register.

Frequency of updating the sample

A fixed sample is used every year. At the end of the year the new enterprises belonging to the exhaustive strata are included. One quarter (25%) of the rest of the sample is substituted including enterprises that died during the year. With the change of base year a complete update is carried out.

Data is collected monthly.

The questionnaire used is a specific monthly questionnaire named “Indicadores de Actividad del Sector Servicios”.

The questionnaire is sent by post and there are also telephone and fax contacts and the enterprises can fill the questionnaire out on the Internet.

At the stage of completion of the questionnaire, a system that detects inconsistencies is used so that the respondent is advised and is required to confirm or modify the information provided.
When this information is recorded by INE's own staff, there is a control system of recording which warns about possible inconsistencies that may arise. In this process, for data where there are discrepancies, the staff responsible for the collection of information is brought into contact with the informant to confirm or modify the information provided.
Once all the information is compiled, it performs a coverage control of information, in order to ensure the completeness of the recorded data and detect duplicates and coverage errors, non-response, etc.

The questionnaires are collected by INE data collection staff and there is a first cleansing of errors according to a set of edits. Microediting consists on validating data from each local unit, attending to its historical values. The analysis establishes monthly and annual comparisons so that the data is validated without contacting the informants when the evolution is repeated periodically.

Next, at centralized level, the selective editing phase, imputation (non-response is imputed using the data of the previous month of the non-respondent units and the variation rate of the units in the same stratum) and the macroediting process take place. In some cases, manual editing is required, for example non responding large units.

Finally estimators are calculated by aggregating the elementary indices taking into account the weightings. In the last phase, the dissemination files together with the press release are prepared according to the dissemination  breakdowns.

The indexes are obtained using a chaining-linking. The elementary indices are calculated from the respondents (imputed in case of non-response) common to the reference month and the previous december.

The weighting variable is calculated with turnover from SBS 2015, and these weights are updated by Services indexes in base 2015 for have weights in December (t-1) in order to calculate chain linking index.

Calendar effects: the impact that takes place in the time series of a variable due to the different structure of the months different years (both in length and composition) will remain constant if other factors influence this variable. The SSAI is a very sensitive indicator of calendar effects since a holiday in a particular month represents a decrease in the proportional turnover of such month.

To overcome this problem and obtain a number that compares the production over time evenly, the series are corrected taking into account the following schedule: trading days, Easter and leap year.

After editing the calendar effects, seasonal effects are removed. Seasonal fluctuations are movements that occur with similar intensity in each month and are expected to continue to occur.

The seasonally adjusted series, i.e. adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects, provide an estimate of the "new" factors in a series (changes in trend, cycle and irregular component).

The method is based on regression models with the intervention of variables of the three effects previously mentioned. We use JDEMETRA program.

The adjusted series are published jointly with the uncorrected series, to complete the analysis of the situation.

For the effect of the COVID crisis in 2020 we've had to analyse outliers monthly.

None.