Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
[RO1] National Institute of Statistics (NIS) (Romania)
1.2. Contact organisation unit
Department of Agriculture and Environmental Statistics
1.3. Contact name
Restricted from publication
1.4. Contact person function
Restricted from publication
1.5. Contact mail address
Libertatii No.16, Zip code 050706, Bucharest-Romania
1.6. Contact email address
Restricted from publication
1.7. Contact phone number
Restricted from publication
1.8. Contact fax number
Restricted from publication
2.1. Metadata last certified
24 August 2026
2.2. Metadata last posted
24 August 2026
2.3. Metadata last update
14 August 2026
3.1. Data description
The Economic Accounts for Agriculture (EAA) provide an overview of the agricultural activities in a systematic and comparable way to serve as basis for analyses, forecasts and political measures. The methodology is laid down in Annex I of the Regulation (EC) 138/2004 with amendments of the European Parliament and of the Council. Regulation (EU) 2022/590 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 April 2022 amending Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 with amendments as regards regional economic accounts for agriculture. The EAA methodological manual provides further details and clarifications (website).
3.2. Classification system
The EAA are a satellite account of the European System of Accounts (ESA), therefore EAA constitute an integral part of the ESA. As such, they are compiled based on NACE Rev. 2, the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community. The list of activities, which defines the agricultural industry corresponds, in principle, to Division 01 of that classification: Crop and animal production, hunting and related service activities. However, some differences exist that are detailed in Annex I of Regulation (EC) 138/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council with amendments.
3.3. Coverage - sector
The sector covers all units involved in agricultural production, even if some of those units have other more important economic activities even if the purpose of these activities is not commercial. However, kitchen gardens (producing for own-consumption only) are not included. The list of agricultural activities covered by EAA corresponds to the seven groups of Division 01 of NACE Rev 2 activities, with the following differences:
inclusion of the production of wine and olive oil (exclusively using grapes and olives grown by the same holding),
exclusion of certain activities which, in NACE Rev. 2, are considered as agricultural services (e.g. the operation of irrigation systems - only agricultural contract work is taken into account here).
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
The EAA are a satellite account of the ESA providing complementary information and concepts adapted to the particular nature of the agricultural industry.
The EAA are shown as a sequence of inter-related accounts. As the EAA are based on the industry concept, the sequence of accounts is limited to the first accounts of the current accounts:
the production account (its balancing item: value added)
the generation-of-income account (its balancing item: operating surplus).
Nevertheless EAA contains other accounts (of the ESA) at least partly:
the entrepreneurial income account (one of the current accounts) and
the capital account (one of the accumulation accounts).
The EAA provide a wide range of indicators on the economic activities of the agricultural sector: these include output, intermediate consumption, gross and net value added, gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), both at current prices and at reference year prices, as well as compensation of employees, other taxes and subsidies on production, net operating surplus or net mixed income, property income and net entrepreneurial income at current prices. (see for more details points 1.40-1.48 in Annex I of Regulation (EC) 138/2004 with amendments.)
Three income indicators are defined in the EAA:
Index of the real income of factors in agriculture per annual work unit (indicator A).
Index of real net agricultural entrepreneurial income per unpaid annual work unit (indicator B).
Net entrepreneurial income of agriculture (indicator C).
See for more details chapter 5 in Annex I of Regulation (EC) 138/2004 with amendments.
3.4.1. Components of the Production account : Output
Agricultural output is the total of the agricultural products and the goods and services produced in inseparable non-agricultural secondary activities during the accounting period. It is recorded as a resource in the production account and it is valued and recorded at the time it is generated, i.e. when produced and not when paid by the purchaser.
In the compilation of the EAA, output is progressively broken down in quantity terms (see point 2.037 of Regulation (EC) 138/2004 with amendments). Output is valued at the basic price. The basic price is the price receivable by the producers from the purchaser for a unit of a good or service produced, minus any tax (i.e. taxes on products) payable on that unit plus any subsidy (i.e. subsidies on products) receivable on that unit. The basic price excludes any transport charges invoiced separately by the producer. It also excludes holding gains and losses on financial and non-financial assets.
The valuation of output at the basic price makes it necessary to distinguish between taxes (other than VAT) on products and subsidies on products, on the one hand, and other taxes and subsidies on production, on the other.
The components of output in the production account are detailed in ANNEX II of the Regulation (EC) 138/2004 with amendments. The other categories are wider, defined by the countries according to their special characteristics. The table below covers the list of products included under ‘other’ categories.
List of 'Other products'
Items
Other cereals except wheat and spelt, rye and meslin, barley, oats and summer cereals mixture, grain maize, rice
sorghum, triticale, millet
Other oleaginous products except Rape and turnip rape seed, Sunflower, Soya
lin seed for oil, castor oil seeds, mustard seeds, poppy, safflower
Other industrial crops: others than Oil seeds and oleaginous fruits (including seeds), Protein crops (including seeds), Raw tobacco, Sugarbeet,
perennial and annual forage plants pastures, hayfields, fodder pumpkins
Other fresh vegetables except Cauliflower, Tomatoes
onion, other edible roots, white cabbage, water melons, mushrooms
Other fresh fruit, except apples, pears, peaches
plums, cherries, sour cherries
Fiber plants
cotton, fibre hemp
Other crop products: Others: not elsewhere classified
medicinal and aromatics plants
Other animals Other than cattle, pigs, equines, sheep and goats, poultry
farm rabbits
Other animal products: others than milk, eggs, raw wool, silkworm cocoons
natural honey, insect wax, rabbit/mink/nutria/farm, fox furskins, karakul skins, manure
Processing of agricultural products:
Items
Other animal products other than milk
no data
Other inseparable non-agricultural secondary activities (goods and services) Other than Processing of agricultural products
no data
3.4.2. Components of the Production account : Intermediate consumption
Intermediate consumption represents the value of all goods and services used as inputs in the production process, excluding fixed assets, the consumption of which is recorded as fixed capital consumption.
The inputs used for intermediate consumption should be valued at the purchaser prices for similar goods and services applicable at the time of their insertion in the production process. The purchaser price includes taxes less subsidies on products (but excludes deductible taxes like VAT on the products). It also includes any transport charges paid separately by the purchaser to take delivery at the required time and place.
The components of intermediate consumption in the production account are detailed in ANNEX II of the Regulation (EC) 138/2004 with amendments. The other categories are wider, defined by the countries according to their special characteristics. The table below only covers the list of products included under ‘other’ categories.
List of 'Other products'
Items
Energy; lubricants other than electricity, gas, other fuels and propellants
thermal power consumption of the agricultural holdings with legal status.
Other goods and services other than listed under 2.108 in the Reg.
3.4.3. Components of the Generation of income account
In the generation of income account, the distributive transactions relate to other taxes on production, other subsidies on production and the compensation of employees.
The components of the generation of income account are detailed in ANNEX II of the Regulation (EC) 138/2004 with amendments.
3.4.4. Components of the Entrepreneurial income account
The entrepreneurial income account records certain types of property income (mainly land rents, interest and property income attributed to insurance policy holders).
The components of the entrepreneurial income account are detailed in ANNEX II of the Regulation (EC) 138/2004 with amendments.
3.4.5. Elements of the Capital account
In addition to gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), the capital account records distributive transactions corresponding to aid for investment and other capital transfers.
The elements of the capital account are detailed in ANNEX II of the Regulation (EC) 138/2004 with amendments.
3.5. Statistical unit
The statistical unit is the local kind of activity unit.
In order to provide more detailed information and to analyse flows generated by the production process and the use of goods and services, it is necessary to select units which emphasise relationships of a technical-economic kind. This means that, institutional units are broken-down into smaller and more homogeneous units with regard to the kind of production (local kind-of-activity units/local KAUs) (ESA 2010, 2.147). The local KAU is defined as the part of a KAU which corresponds to a local unit. The institutional unit's information system is capable of indicating or calculating for each local KAU at least the value of output, intermediate consumption, compensation of employees, the operating surplus and employment and gross fixed capital formation (ESA 2010, 2.148).
The agricultural holding is the local KAU most appropriate to the agricultural industry. However, the variety of agricultural activities that can be performed on agricultural holdings makes them a special type of local KAU. The strict application of the ESA rule to units and their group should in fact result in a division of the agricultural holding into several separate local KAUs in cases where several activities of the NACE Rev. 2 four-digit class are performed on the same holding and the information required according to the explanations above is available. The adoption of the agricultural holding as the local KAU of the agricultural industry in the national accounts (NA) and EAA is based on a statistical approach. The speciality and the aim of EAA is to cover all agricultural activity carried out by an agricultural holding or any other local KAU not having agriculture as its main activity.
The use of the local KAU as the basic unit for the agricultural industry entails recording non-agricultural secondary activities where they cannot be distinguished from the main agricultural activity (inseparable non-agricultural secondary activities of local agricultural KAUs). The selection criterion for inseparable non-agricultural secondary activities is rather the type of activity than the nature of the product. For example, agro-tourism services provided by a farm are only included if they cannot be separated from its agricultural activities.
3.6. Statistical population
The agricultural industry includes all local KAUs at local level which perform the economic activities, as principal or secondary activity corresponds to Division 01 in NACE Rev. 2 (cf. 1.60 to 1.66 of EAA Reg.)
3.7. Reference area
The entire territory of the country.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Coverage period starting from 1998.
3.9. Base period
Accounts for year n are calculated of the base period is year n-1. Data are derived by chain linking at prices of year 2015 (and at any other reference year prices).
EAA data at current prices and at prices for the preceding year are given in millions of units of national currency.
Agricultural labour input data are given in thousand annual work units (AWU).
2023 calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
EU legislation:
Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 December 2003 on the economic accounts for agriculture in the Community as amended by Commission delegated Regulation (EU) No 2019/280 of 3 December 2018. Transmission of data for the regional EAA (REAA) at NUTS 2 level became obligatory in September 2023. Before September 2023, Eurostat collected REAA data on a voluntary basis.
There is no national legislation for EAA.
6.1.1. Responsible institution for compilation of EAA
National Institute of Statistics.
6.1.2. Responsible institution for compilation of Agricultural Income Index
National Institute of Statistics.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
The EAA data obtained are sent to Eurostat; internally we disseminate data through the online database TEMPO.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society. The European Statistics Code of Practice provides conditions that have to be respected by statistical offices in regard to statistical confidentiality (Principle 5).
According to the law on the organization and functioning of official statistics in Romania - No. 226/2009, with subsequent amendments and additions, the individual data are confidential and could be used only for statistical purposes. Keeping the data confidentiality is mandatory for permanent and temporary staff; both categories sign a commitment to confidentiality when they are hired.In addition, norms of statistical data confidentiality are published in the Official Journal of Romania.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Not applicable.
7.2.1. Confidentiality rules applied to microdata
Not applicable.
7.2.2. Comments on the amount of data affected by embargo
Not applicable.
8.1. Release calendar
According to the Annual National Statistical Program.
8.2. Release calendar access
The calendar is publicly accessible, being included in Annual National Statistical Program, approved by Government decision.
According to the Annual National Statistical Program, NIS disseminates national statistics on its website respecting professional independence and, in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably.
The NIS's official statistics calendar provides exact release dates and times, is flexible, offers topic searches, and is regularly updated.
There is no privileged access to statistical releases in their final form, before they are made available in the public domain.
Annual.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Annually, according to the Annual National Statistical Program.
Data are also disseminated by data base TEMPO online.
10.3.1. Data tables - consultations
Not applicable.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Not applicable.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Not applicable.
10.5.1. Metadata - consultations
Not applicable.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
National Methodology.
Order 558 of 01 November 2002, regarding the Methodology of the “Agricultural Production Account”
The President of the National Institute of Statistics, pursuant to the provisions of Government Ordinance no. 9/1992 regarding the organization of official statistics, republished, with subsequent amendments and completions, Government Decision no. 488/2001 regarding the organization and functioning of the National Institute of Statistics, taking into account the Agreement between the Member States of 1999 regarding the Economic Accounts in Agriculture and Forestry, the Agricultural Income Index and Unit Value Statistics, considering the CAM decision no. 9/18 September 2002, issues the following Order:
Art. 1. The purpose of this order is to establish the methodological framework for the elaboration of the agricultural production account, aligned with the European Union methodology.
Art. 2. The methodology of the “Agricultural Production Account” is presented in the annex which is an integral part of this order.
Art.3. The National Institute of Statistics will ensure the updating of the methodology according to the European legislation, EU decisions and directives that will enter into force later.
Art.4.
(1) This order will be implemented by the Directorate of Agricultural and Environmental Statistics.
(2) The provisions of this order become mandatory for official statistics in Romania.
Art.5. Starting with the date of this order, any contrary provision ceases.
The quality indicator for metadata completeness: 1.000
(The indicator shows the ratio of metadata replies provided by country per metadata required.)
10.6.2. Further methodological guidelines available at national level
Not applicable.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
Through its activities, the NIS aimed at ensuring the development of mechanisms and instruments adapted to the performance of statistical activities according to priorities, to consolidate the structure and functionality of the National Statistical System, goodness its ability to meet the needs of users' statistical data and information.
Quality of National Statistical System; Quality Guidelines for Official Statistics.
11.1. Quality assurance
NIS is guided by the provisions of Law No. 226/2009. Statistical activities are performed in accordance with the Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM), according to which the final phase of statistical activities is an overall evaluation using information gathered in each phase or sub-process.
The statistical process is monitored for relevance, accuracy, timeliness, punctuality, coherence and comparability. Documentation on quality management is available on the NIS website.
The main users of economic accounts for agricultural data are: National Accounts, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Universities and researchers, Journalists and the media, Other governmental institutions and agencies
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Data user satisfaction measures: accuracy, punctuality, clarity, comparability and accessibility.
The NIS conducts a user satisfaction survey every three years. The most recent one was in 2024. The publication can be found at the following link.
This publication presents how the statistical data produced and the methodological information of the NIS meet the information needs of different categories of users. It includes a presentation of the main results of the statistical survey on "Satisfaction of users of statistical data", namely the profile of users of statistical data produced by the NIS, trust in the NIS and the statistical data produced by the NIS, assessment of the quality of data produced by the NIS.
12.3. Completeness
All statistics that we needed are available.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
The quality indicator for data completeness shows the following for the reference year 2023 in the detailed EAA: 1.000
[The indicator shows the ratio of data provided per data required, excluding derogations]
13.1. Accuracy - overall
To describe accuracy, the country uses the quality and performance indicator called ‘data revision – average absolute size’ under point 17.2.1 of this document.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3.1. Coverage error
Not applicable.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not applicable.
13.3.2. Measurement error
Not applicable.
13.3.3. Non response error
Not applicable.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.4. Processing error
Not applicable.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
EAA presents data for year n at 1st Estimates and for year n-1 at 2nd Estimates and at transmission of definitive data. Definitive dates are used.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
See 14.1
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Not applicable.
14.2. Punctuality
Data transmission meets dates given by Reg. 138/2004 with amendments.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
The quality indicator of punctuality delivered and publication, shows the following for the reference year 2023:
[The indicator shows the time lag of data delivery to Eurostat and the deadline of the transmission.In case data delivered earlier the indicator shows negative value.]
First estimates: -1
Second estimates: -5
Detailed EAA: 1
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The results of EAA are comparable between regions and countries.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
The time series are comparable.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
The length of the comparable time series extends from 1998 to the present, ensuring consistency in measurement and methodology.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
See information in the following sub-concepts.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
The agricultural branch production is evaluated for all products based on the quantity and price statistics, except for the agricultural services for which we have value data.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
There is interdependency between EAA and National Accounts (NA).
15.4. Coherence - internal
The statistics data set are consistent according to Annual National Statistical Program (ANSP).
Not applicable.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Revision policy aimed at ensuring the transparency of disseminated data. Chapter 8 of the EAA manual provides guidelines for a harmonised revision policy for EAA, including the ALI data.
17.2. Data revision - practice
The National Institute of Statistics (INS) of Romania has aligned its data revision policy with the Harmonized European Revision Policy (HERP) starting from 2024.
The Revision Policy of INS and the schedule of statistical data revisions are components of the National Annual Statistical Programme.
NIS periodically organises consultation meetings with statistical data users in order to achieve a point of view on the revision processes (practices);
NIS is regularly undertaking revision processes, applying the best statistical practices recognised at European and/or international level, depending on the statistical product. The revisions effect upon the statistical results, seen by INS as priorities, are subject to monitoring, in view to improve the quality of final results disseminated towards all user categories.
18.2.1. Time of the year where the updates of the EAA are carried out
Not applicable.
18.2.2. Years covered by each of these updates (i.e. update in September of year n for the years n-1, n-2, n-3 )
Not applicable.
18.3. Data collection
According to Annual National Statistical Program (ANSP).
Data synthesis work is taken from internal statistical works/research from the same department and other departments within the NIS and from external suppliers, e.g. Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, based on the collaboration agreement.
The Economic Accounts for Agriculture (EAA) provide an overview of the agricultural activities in a systematic and comparable way to serve as basis for analyses, forecasts and political measures. The methodology is laid down in Annex I of the Regulation (EC) 138/2004 with amendments of the European Parliament and of the Council. Regulation (EU) 2022/590 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 April 2022 amending Regulation (EC) No 138/2004 with amendments as regards regional economic accounts for agriculture. The EAA methodological manual provides further details and clarifications (website).
14 August 2026
The EAA are a satellite account of the ESA providing complementary information and concepts adapted to the particular nature of the agricultural industry.
The EAA are shown as a sequence of inter-related accounts. As the EAA are based on the industry concept, the sequence of accounts is limited to the first accounts of the current accounts:
the production account (its balancing item: value added)
the generation-of-income account (its balancing item: operating surplus).
Nevertheless EAA contains other accounts (of the ESA) at least partly:
the entrepreneurial income account (one of the current accounts) and
the capital account (one of the accumulation accounts).
The EAA provide a wide range of indicators on the economic activities of the agricultural sector: these include output, intermediate consumption, gross and net value added, gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), both at current prices and at reference year prices, as well as compensation of employees, other taxes and subsidies on production, net operating surplus or net mixed income, property income and net entrepreneurial income at current prices. (see for more details points 1.40-1.48 in Annex I of Regulation (EC) 138/2004 with amendments.)
Three income indicators are defined in the EAA:
Index of the real income of factors in agriculture per annual work unit (indicator A).
Index of real net agricultural entrepreneurial income per unpaid annual work unit (indicator B).
Net entrepreneurial income of agriculture (indicator C).
See for more details chapter 5 in Annex I of Regulation (EC) 138/2004 with amendments.
The statistical unit is the local kind of activity unit.
In order to provide more detailed information and to analyse flows generated by the production process and the use of goods and services, it is necessary to select units which emphasise relationships of a technical-economic kind. This means that, institutional units are broken-down into smaller and more homogeneous units with regard to the kind of production (local kind-of-activity units/local KAUs) (ESA 2010, 2.147). The local KAU is defined as the part of a KAU which corresponds to a local unit. The institutional unit's information system is capable of indicating or calculating for each local KAU at least the value of output, intermediate consumption, compensation of employees, the operating surplus and employment and gross fixed capital formation (ESA 2010, 2.148).
The agricultural holding is the local KAU most appropriate to the agricultural industry. However, the variety of agricultural activities that can be performed on agricultural holdings makes them a special type of local KAU. The strict application of the ESA rule to units and their group should in fact result in a division of the agricultural holding into several separate local KAUs in cases where several activities of the NACE Rev. 2 four-digit class are performed on the same holding and the information required according to the explanations above is available. The adoption of the agricultural holding as the local KAU of the agricultural industry in the national accounts (NA) and EAA is based on a statistical approach. The speciality and the aim of EAA is to cover all agricultural activity carried out by an agricultural holding or any other local KAU not having agriculture as its main activity.
The use of the local KAU as the basic unit for the agricultural industry entails recording non-agricultural secondary activities where they cannot be distinguished from the main agricultural activity (inseparable non-agricultural secondary activities of local agricultural KAUs). The selection criterion for inseparable non-agricultural secondary activities is rather the type of activity than the nature of the product. For example, agro-tourism services provided by a farm are only included if they cannot be separated from its agricultural activities.
The agricultural industry includes all local KAUs at local level which perform the economic activities, as principal or secondary activity corresponds to Division 01 in NACE Rev. 2 (cf. 1.60 to 1.66 of EAA Reg.)
The entire territory of the country.
2023 calendar year.
To describe accuracy, the country uses the quality and performance indicator called ‘data revision – average absolute size’ under point 17.2.1 of this document.
EAA data at current prices and at prices for the preceding year are given in millions of units of national currency.
Agricultural labour input data are given in thousand annual work units (AWU).
