National Statistics Office

Directorate B: Business Statistics

Short-term Business Statistics

National Statistics Office, Lascaris Valletta, VLT 2000, Malta

The index describes the development of turnover in the services industries. 

The classifications used in STS is NACE rev.2

Services turnover covers the following level of detail according to NACE Rev 2 classification: H49, H50, H51, H52, H53, H55, H56, J58, J59, J60, J61, J62, J63, L68, sum of (M69 and M702)(= M69_M702), M71, M73, M74, N77, N78, N79, N80, N81, N82. 

Turnover includes total sales and other income and is expressed net of VAT. Turnover is presented in current prices.

Kind of Activity (KAU) Unit

The statistical population is around 6000 units and includes all those falling under NACE Sections H-N except K. The population is maintained by the Business Registers unit.

The indicator covers the national territory of the Maltese Islands. Activities carried out outside the national territory of the Maltese Islands are excluded.

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 provided 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

Data Sharing matters are governed by the Malta Statistics Authority Act XXIV of 2000. The indices are sent to Eurostat.

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.

All 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/

National statistical releases are issued according to the release calendar and are made available to all users simultaneously. All releases are posted on the organisation's website, www.nso.gov.mt.

Eurostat transmissions for these indices are carried out on a quarterly basis and 60 days after the end of the reference period. National news releases for the index are carried out on a quarterly basis and according to the national news release calendar.

The main dissemination channel for official statistics is the NSO website (http://www.nso.gov.mt).

A quarterly local news release is published on the turnover index.

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. Currently, this indicator is not available in this format.

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 transmitted to Eurostat on a quarterly basis.

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

European Business Statistics Manual, 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 - http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/quality/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 reliable.

The main users are the following:

- Eurostat,

- Central Bank of Malta,

- Other international organisations.

Not available.

Data are compliant with relevant European and local regulations.

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

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

Coefficient of variation is calculated to be around 3.18%.

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

Non-sampling errors are mainly due to non-response. Hence, the Short-term Business Statistics unit make use of administrative data (VAT) whenever possible and the use of the donor imputation technique using Euclidean distance to fill non-response.

The weighted response rate is 75% overall with various NACE Sections registering over 80% response. Turnover is the weighting variable used to compile such response rate.

The index is disseminated 60 days after the end of the reference period.

The NSO is committed to adhere to the timelines established by the STS Regulations 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. Minor methodological deviations may exist due to specific conditions that apply to each member state.

The data series has been compiled since the year 2000. The first set of indicators was based on NACE Rev 1. Following 2009, the indicator was published according to the new NACE Rev 2 classification. Furthermore, for every year ending in 0 or 5, new fixed aggregation weights are introduced.

Data are compared to administrative data.

Aggregates are consistent with the other components.

Data burden is considered high.

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 and that sent to Eurostat.

Revision analysis is carried out before every news release published locally or 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 due to non-response. 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 imputations are replaced with these data.

The Mean Aboslute Revision (MAR) and Mean Revision (MR) are similiar to those exhibited in the trade domain. Figures are found below:

MAR = 0.03

MR = 0.03

Data are based on a sample survey of around 700 units which is refreshed every 5 years.

Turnover and employment are the main variables used to design the sample.

The frequency of data collection is quarterly.

Data is collected by means of a statistical questionnaire. Questionnaires are sent by post and their collection is done via post, fax, e-mail or online systems.

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. 

A Laspeyres type index is used for compilation and the weights are updated every 5 years from the Structural Business Statistics survey.

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

Unadjusted data are transformed into working day and seasonally adjusted data using the JDemetra+ 2.2.2 software.

Automatic filter is used and models and parameters are re-estimated every year. There are no seasonal breaks and the direct adjustment is used. Filter length is chosen automatically and residual seasonality is checked.

See attachment for moe details.

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