Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO)

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Swiss Federal Statistical Office
Short-Term Inquiries
Espace de l'Europe 10
CH-2010 Neuchâtel

The Retail Trade Turnover Statistics (DHU) is a monthly economic statistic describing the turnover evolution of the retail trade at the national level. It also aims at estimating the evolution of monthly private consumption.

NACE Rev. 2

Activities covered: Division 47

Size classes covered: enterprises with more than 2 employees

Monthly turnover in retail trade by class of goods. Turnover is valued including VAT, but excluding discounts/rebates.

Qualitative assessment of the economic situation of the enterprise.

Reporting unit: Enterprise

Observation unit: Enterprise

All active enterprises in division 47 of NACE Rev. 2. with more than 2 employees.

Switzerland

From January 2000

2015=100

Indices

Month

Legal basis:

Federal Law on Statistics of 9 October 1992
Bundesstatistikgesetz (BstatG) vom 9. Oktober 1992
Loi fédérale du 9 octobre 1992 sur la statistique fédérale (LSF)
Ordinance of 30 June 1993 on the Implementation of Statistical Surveys
Verordnung vom 30. Juni 1993 über die Durchführung von statistischen Erhebungen des Bundes
Ordonnance du 30 juin 1993 concernant l'exécution des relevés statistiques fédéraux

Bilateral agreement with the European Union

Eurostat, Swiss National Bank (SNB), State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO)

The compilation and publication of the data are governed by the Federal Law on Statistics (10/9/92), the Ordinance on the Execution of Statistical Surveys (06/30/93) and the Federal Law on Data Protection (06/19/92). The Federal Law on Data Protection specifies that the Swiss Federal Statistical Office cannot publish, or otherwise make available to any individual or organisation, statistics that would enable the identification of data for any individual person or entity.

All individual data are treated as confidential and rendered anonymous. Tabular data should not permit the disclosure of individual enterprises. Data are only published down to an activity level at which it is not confidential.

An advance release calendar with the precise date is disseminated on the FSO Website under the page (https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/news/agenda.html).

https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/news/agenda.html

The data are released simultaneously to all interested parties.

Internal government access to the data prior (5 days) to their release to the public is limited to the Ministry of Economy and the Swiss National Bank.

Data are transmitted to Eurostat under embargo

Monthly

Standardised monthly news release by the FSO covering turnover in retail trade

no publication available

Monthly turnover and volume index at the 3-digit NACE level and above; gross, calendar and seasonally adjusted data.

https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/industry-services/production-orders-turnover/tertiary-sector.html

https://www.pxweb.bfs.admin.ch/

No microdata access in conformity with the Federal Law on Data Protection (06/19/92).

Data sent to Eurostat

not available

not available

Code of Practice: https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/fso/quality-commitment.html

Fulfilled according to international regulations.

The data is used by the Swiss National Bank, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs and many other users

not available

all required time series are available

The sampling and non-sampling errors in the data are small, the first estimates are not biased. Revisions from the first to the final estimate are less than 1 percentage point, results are considered final after 5 months. The most significant sources of error are coverage errors, classification changes and data processing errors.

The sample method is stratified random sampling. The coefficient of variance is less than 5%.

The Retail trade turnover survey includes enterprises that have their main activity in Division 47 (NACE Rev. 2). But the frame is constructed using a "frozen" version of the business register, so enterprises entering into the business register after this freezing moment or enterprises wrongly classified outside of retail trade represent undercoverage. Enterprises exiting the frame (closures, wrongly classified) after this moment are excluded from the survey, so overcoverage should be minimal.

Unit nonresponse (September 2022): 45%, representing less than 10% of target variable (turnover) of the sample frame.

Item nonresponse: 0%

Timeliness: First estimate at t+1 month, final results at t+5 months

Timetable of data collection: The questionnaires are sent out during the last week of the reference month. The deadline for replies is 2 weeks after the end of the reference period. A reminder is sent after the deadline. Selective phone reminders are used by necessity.

Deadlines are respected and data are published on time.

In line with ESS/international concepts and definitions.

Comparable monthly time series since january 2000.

SBS and STS data are coherent to a limited extent only. The reason is, among others, different methods of compiling the respective statistics due to different purposes of SBS and STS statistics. However, these limitations have no impact on the validity of the statistics themselves. Basically, the monthly statistics present the economic development in trade whereas the annual survey delivers information on the structure of the enterprises, their economic situation and their earnings.

The internal coherence is assured.

Global cost estimation for the FSO is about 3.5 full-time equivalent. Burden estimates for respondents is on average 30 minutes per form.

First estimate at t+1 month, revisions at t+2 months and t+3 months, final estimate at t+5 months.

Change of base year and weights every 5 years, in the years X0 and X5.

Major methodological changes and revisions are announced in advance.

The same revision policy is applied to STS data released nationally and transmitted to Eurostat.

According to Eurostat guidlines on Quality Indicators MAR (Mean Absolute Revision) and MR (Mean Revision) are calculated for the last 36 months (Jan 2020 - Dec 2022):

Growth rates for real calendar adjusted data (YoY):
MR: 0.50
MAR: 0.90

Growth rates for real seasonally adjusted data (MoM):
MR: 0.22
MAR: 0.81

Type of source: statistical survey

Frame on which the source is based: Swiss Business register of enterprises and establishments (REE)

Sample or census: stratified sample

Criteria for stratification: turnover and activity

Threshold values and percentages: small: 10%; medium: 100%; large: 100%

Frequency of updating the sample: 5 years

Small and medium enterprises: quarterly collection of monthly data

Big enterprises: monthly collection

Monthly questionnaire for big, quarterly questionnaire for small and medium enterprises, postal and online survey.

Data are checked across months and against the samling frame

Data compilation process:

Treatment of non-response: non-response is treated by weighting

Method for grossing-up: turnover is grossed-up to the 3-digit level of the Nace to calculate a rate of change compared to the same period of the previous year.

Type of index: Laspeyres. The existing index is extended one period at a time by calculating the rate of change in the latest period compared to the same period of the previous year.

Method of weighting and chaining: The index is weighted by the monthly values of the underlying strata.

The turnover index is deflated using the consumer price index (Landesindex der Konsumentenpreise, LIK).

For seasonal and calendar adjustment X13-ARIMA is used. NACE aggregates are calculated by using the direct method. The calendar adjustment is based on a country-specific calendar and is performed within the RegARIMA part of the program, including regressors for easter effects and leap year.
Models/Filters are selected automatically, if the automatic choice is not considered adequate it is corrected manually; models are fixed for at least one year, parameters are estimated every time a new value becomes available; the whole series is revised every time a new value becomes available.

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