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For any question on data and metadata, please contact: Eurostat user support |
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1.1. Contact organisation | Statistics Estonia |
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1.2. Contact organisation unit | Economic and Environmental Statistics Department |
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1.5. Contact mail address | Statistics Estonia Tatari 51, 10134 Tallinn |
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2.1. Metadata last certified | 02/01/2023 | ||
2.2. Metadata last posted | 02/01/2023 | ||
2.3. Metadata last update | 02/01/2023 |
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3.1. Data description | |||
The main objective of the trade in goods statistics by enterprise characteristics (TEC) is to bridge two major statistical domains which have traditionally been compiled and used separately, business statistics and international trade in goods statistics (ITGS). Specifically, this new domain was created to answer questions such as:
For this purpose, the trade in goods between countries is broken down by economic activity, size-class of enterprises, trade concentration, geographical diversification and products traded. The new information is used to carry out more sophisticated kinds of analysis, e.g. to evaluate the role of European companies in the context of globalisation or to assess the impact of international trade in goods on employment, production and value added, essential in a globalised world where economies are increasingly interconnected.
Available datasets TEC data are grouped into ten datasets, each one focusing on a specific aspect: 1. Trade by activity sector and enterprise size class — Trade by activity sector and employment size class shows the contributions of economic activities and size classes (measured in terms of number of employees) to total trade. This allows the impact of international trade on employment to be analysed and the importance of small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) to be estimated. 2. Concentration of trade by activity — International trade being typically dominated by a few businesses, this indicator shows the share of the total trade accounted for by the top 5, 10, 20, etc. companies. 3. Trade by partner country and activity — Trade by partner country shows how many companies were trading with certain partner countries or country zones, and the value they accounted for. This indicator enables the most typical export or import markets to be identified. 4. Trade by number of partner countries and activity — Trade by number of partner countries shows how geographically diversified the export markets are. For imports, it shows the number of countries from which goods are imported. 5. Trade by commodity and activity — Trade by commodity and activity sector allocates the trade of each commodity to the activity of the trading enterprise. This indicator shows which sectors were involved in the trading of each product group. 6. Trade by type of trader — This indicator provides information on how traders are involved in international trade. It shows the number of companies trading within only one flow or in both flows and the trade value these companies account for. 7. Trade by type of ownership — The type of ownership is referring to the concept of control and to affiliation of an enterprise. It indicates whether an enterprise is domestically or foreign controlled and, if domestically controlled, whether it has affiliates abroad or not. This indicator can be used to analyse the impact of globalisation on international trade and to estimate the importance of multinational companies for trade. 8. Trade by export intensity — Export intensity categorises enterprises according to the importance of foreign markets in their sales. It refers to the share of exports in total turnover. 9. Trade by activity sector — In comparison with trade by activity and enterprise size class (first dataset), this indicator provides more details on the activity sector (2- or 3-digit level) but does not contain information about the enterprise size. 10. Trade by partner country and size class — This indicator aims to give insights into the internationalisation of small- and medium sized enterprises. It complements indicator 3 on trade by partner country and activity by applying the same detailed breakdown of partner countries but categorising enterprises by size class instead of activity sector. For Estonia, only compulsory datasets are available (missing Datasets 7, 8, 9 and 10).
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3.2. Classification system | |||
Classification of economic activities Economic activities are classified according to the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE Rev. 2). NACE Rev. 2 is based on the fourth revision of the United Nations International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC Rev. 4). Within the international trade in goods statistics, the NACE classification refers to the economic activity of enterprises that are active in international trade in goods.
Product classification As the TEC domain aims to categorise trade flows according to economic activities, product classifications which are based on the industrial origin of the goods are more suitable for analysis than classifications based on material of goods. For this reason, the Classification of Products by Activity (CPA) is used as the product classification in TEC. CPA is a European version of the United Nations Central Product Classification (CPC), but arranged so that each product heading is assignable to a single heading of the European activity classification, the NACE Rev. 2. CPA version 2008 is used for TEC data relating to the reference years 2012-2015. CPA version 2.1 is used since 2016 as reference year.
Country classification Except for the cases listed below, the reporting and partner countries are classified according to the Nomenclature of countries and territories for the external trade statistics of the Community and statistics of trade between Member States, known as the Geonomenclature. An alpha-2 coding applies, which means that each country is identified with a two-letter alphabetical code. See the publication Geonomenclature applicable to European statistics on international trade in goods for more information. Exceptions: code CN_X_HK instead of CN for China (except Hong Kong); code UK instead of GB for United Kingdom; code EL instead of GR for Greece.
All classifications and correspondence tables are available on Eurostats metadata server RAMON. |
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3.3. Coverage - sector | |||
TEC data cover all activity sectors, from sections A to U of the NACE Rev. 2 classification. |
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3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions | |||
Trade value The value of traded goods is calculated at the national frontier, on a FOB basis (free on board) for exports and a CIF (cost, insurance, freight) basis for imports. Hence, only incidental expenses (freight, insurance) are included and they are incurred for:
Number of enterprises The number of enterprises consists of a count of the number of enterprises involved in trade during at least a part of the reference period. For intra-EU trade, VAT data are used to identify the smallest traders (and to estimate their trade value), which are exempted from Intrastat reporting. These traders account for a limited share of the trade value. In line with the legal requirements, this share should not exceed 3 % of the total value of the intra-EU exports and 7 % of the total value of the intra-EU imports. However in terms of number of enterprises the smallest enterprises below threshold trade make the majority.
Partner country Trade flows are broken down by partner country.
Product The product is the outcome of economic activity and the generic term used for goods and services. Product classifications are designed to categorise goods and services that have common characteristics. They provide the basis for preparing statistics on the production, consumption, international trade and distributive trade. However, the scope of TEC is limited to the trade in goods.
Economic activity The economic activity consists in offering goods and services on a given market. An activity is characterised by an input of products, a production process and an output of products. In other words, an economic activity is said to take place when resources such as equipment, labour, manufacturing techniques, information networks or products are combined, leading to the creation of specific goods or services. Classifications of economic activities are designed to categorise data that can be related to the unit of activity. They provide the basis for preparing statistics of output, the various inputs to the production process, capital formation and the financial transactions of such units. Economic activities are classified according to NACE, the classification used to classify economic entities (enterprises, local units and similar statistical units). Within the international trade statistics, the NACE classification refers to the economic activity of traders, i.e. enterprises that are active in international trade.
Number of employees The number of employees refers to the number of those persons who work for an employer and who have a contract of employment and receive compensation in the form of wages, salaries, fees, gratuities, piecework pay or remuneration in kind. A worker is considered to be a wage or salary earner of a particular unit if he receives a wage or salary from the unit regardless of where the work is done (in or outside the production unit). The number of employees is a mandatory variable to be recorded in the business registers for each enterprise and local unit. According to the Business Register Regulation, the intention is to use the situation at the end of the year. However, as the end date approach is not harmonised the annual average can also be used as reference.
Type of traders In the context of the TEC data, the type of trader specifies the type of trade activity of the enterprise. It indicates whether the enterprise is involved only in exports or only imports or trade in both flows. The type of trader aims to describe the heterogeneity of enterprises according to their involvement in trade.
Type of ownership In the context of the TEC data, the type of ownership refers to the concept of control and to the affiliation of an enterprise. It indicates whether an enterprise is domestically or foreign controlled and if it is domestically controlled, whether it has affiliates abroad or not. In other words, the type of ownership refers to the delineation of enterprise groups and categorising them. In this context, the concept of control prevails as referred in article 3 (4) of the Business Register Regulation (EC) No 177/2008. This Regulation applies the European System of Accounts (ESA) definition for the control as set out in point 2.26 of Annex A to Regulation (EC) no 2223/96. The concept of control prevails also in the FATS Regulation and is defined as follows: "control shall mean the ability to determine the general policy of an enterprise by choosing appropriate directors, if necessary. In this context, enterprise A is deemed to be controlled by an institutional unit B when B controls, whether directly or indirectly, more than half of the shareholders voting power or more than half of the shares". This definition is consistent with the ESA definition. The type of ownership aims to describe the heterogeneity of enterprises according to their global status. A distinction of enterprises into domestically and foreign controlled enterprises has specific interest because of the important role of foreign affiliates. Furthermore, if domestically controlled enterprises with own affiliates abroad are further distinguished from all domestically controlled enterprises, the population all of multinational enterprises can be identified.
Exports intensity The exports intensity refers to the share of exports of turnover (ratio between exports and turnover). Exports intensity categorises enterprises according to the importance of foreign markets in their sales. The recent developments in the area of global value chains have raised a question on the heterogeneity of enterprises. It has been traditionally assumed that enterprises in the same activity sector are homogenous in terms of their productivity as well as in generating value-added and employment. However, this may not be a valid assumption any more in the globalised economy as productivity, value-added and employment may depend on the international orientation of enterprises, i.e. their involvement and position in the global value chains. Enterprises with high exports intensity are often also large-scale importers. |
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3.5. Statistical unit | |||
Legal unit |
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3.6. Statistical population | |||
The statistical population should comprise all the enterprises involved in intra- and extra-EU trade flows. However, in practice, the linkage between the Trade Register and the Business Register is not systematically straightforward as there may be more complicated linkages or the linkage may not always provide expected outcomes. This relates in particular to the following cases:
The reference population used in the compilation of TEC datasets relates to traders who have reported trade transactions under a valid ID number and were successfully matched with the Business Register. This means that the enterprise characteristics reported in the TEC datasets refer only to a part of total trade. Are out of scope:
Companies represented in the datasets 1 to 6 are in the register except when the given companies have not been assigned to a field of activity. |
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3.7. Reference area | |||
Estonia
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3.8. Coverage - Time | |||
From 2012 as reference year |
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3.9. Base period | |||
Not applicable. |
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The reference period is the same as for monthly trade in goods statistics. It should be the calendar month of export respectively that of import of the goods. However, in practice the reference period is in general:
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6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements | |||
General statistical legislation Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European statistics
Intra-EU trade legislation (or Intrastat)
Extra-EU trade legislation (or Extrastat)
Business Registers legislation
All regulations relevant for the European statistics on international trade in goods can be found in the publication Legislation on European statistics on international trade in goods or consulted from the ‘Legislation’ page of the ‘International trade in goods’ section on Eurostat website. All legal texts are also accessible online on Eur-Lex. |
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6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing | |||
Not applicable. |
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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. |
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7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment | |||
To ensure that no confidential data is disseminated, confidential data is clearly flagged, when transmitting it to Eurostat. Before transmitting the data confidentiallity procedures are performed to ensure that the data comply with the confidentiality policy. If there are less than three (one or two) enterprises then the corresponding trade value is set as confidential. Secondary confidentiality is also applied with minimum loss of information. Inter-table checks are performed to make sure no confidential cells can be deduced between tables. |
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8.1. Release calendar | |||
TEC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 8.1 ‘Release calendar’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’ for more details. |
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8.2. Release calendar access | |||
Not applicable. |
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8.3. Release policy - user access | |||
TEC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 8.3 ‘Release policy - user access’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’ for more details. |
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Statistics by enterprise characteristics are updated once a year with a new reference year. Historical data are exceptionally revised. |
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10.1. Dissemination format - News release | |||
TEC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 10.1 ‘Dissemination format - News release’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’ for more details. |
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10.2. Dissemination format - Publications | |||
TEC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 10.2 ‘Dissemination format - Publications’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’ for more details. |
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10.3. Dissemination format - online database | |||
TEC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 10.3 ‘Dissemination format - online database’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’ for more details. |
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10.3.1. Data tables - consultations | |||
Not available. |
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10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access | |||
Not applicable |
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10.5. Dissemination format - other | |||
Not applicable |
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10.5.1. Metadata - consultations | |||
Not available. |
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10.6. Documentation on methodology | |||
TEC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 10.6 ‘Documentation on methodology’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’ for more details. |
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10.6.1. Metadata completeness - rate | |||
100% |
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10.7. Quality management - documentation | |||
TEC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 10.7 ‘Quality management - documentation’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’ for more details. |
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11.1. Quality assurance | |||
See item 11.1 ‘Quality assurance’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’. |
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11.2. Quality management - assessment | |||
See item 11.2 ‘Quality management - assessment’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’. |
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12.1. Relevance - User Needs | |||
TEC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 12.1 ‘Relevance - User Needs’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’ for more details. |
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12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction | |||
TEC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 12.2 ‘Relevance - User Satisfaction’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’ for more details. |
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12.3. Completeness | |||
See item 12.3 ‘Completeness’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’. |
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12.3.1. Data completeness - rate | |||
See document TEC Quality indicators |
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13.1. Accuracy - overall | |||
See item 13.1 ‘Accuracy - overall’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’. |
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13.2. Sampling error | |||
Not applicable. Neither the international trade in goods statistics, nor the business registers are affected by errors related to sample surveys. |
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13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators | |||
Not applicable. |
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13.3. Non-sampling error | |||
See item 13.3 ‘Non-sampling error’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’. |
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13.3.1. Coverage error | |||
Not applicable. |
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13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate | |||
Not applicable. |
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13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion | |||
Not applicable. |
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13.3.2. Measurement error | |||
Not applicable. |
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13.3.3. Non response error | |||
See item 13.3.3 of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’ |
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13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate | |||
See document TEC Quality indicators |
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13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate | |||
See document TEC Quality indicators |
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13.3.4. Processing error | |||
Not applicable. |
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13.3.5. Model assumption error | |||
Not applicable. |
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14.1. Timeliness | |||
See item 14.1 ‘Timeliness’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’. |
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14.1.1. Time lag - first result | |||
See document TEC Quality indicators |
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14.1.2. Time lag - final result | |||
Not applicable. |
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14.2. Punctuality | |||
See item 14.2 ‘Punctuality’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’. |
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14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication | |||
See document TEC Quality indicators |
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15.1. Comparability - geographical | |||
See item 15.1 ‘Comparability - geographical’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’. |
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15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient | |||
Not applicable. |
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15.2. Comparability - over time | |||
Since reference year 2020, intra-EU estimates are allocated on enterprise level for trade below threshold and non-response. Estimates are compiled on HS2 and partner country level using value reported in VAT data and statistical models. This means that the share of "unknown" enterprises has decreased compared to previous reference years and this has caused break in time-series. |
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15.2.1. Length of comparable time series | |||
Data are comparable since 2012. |
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15.3. Coherence - cross domain | |||
See item 15.3 ‘Coherence - cross domain’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’. |
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15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics | |||
Not applicable. |
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15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts | |||
Not applicable. |
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15.4. Coherence - internal | |||
See item 15.4 ‘Coherence - internal’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tec_sims - International trade in goods – trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)’. |
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For the production of the TEC statistical data, we value our time consuming at approximately 150 hours (in round figures). Most of it goes to data linking and to determining the confidentiality of the data. It is very difficult to assess the burden on respondents because TEC data consist of different source data (Intrastat, Business Register data, etc.). |
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17.1. Data revision - policy | |||
No revision policy has been implemented regarding the TEC data transmitted to Eurostat. |
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17.2. Data revision - practice | |||
So far, there have not been any revisions regarding the TEC data transmitted to Eurostat. |
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17.2.1. Data revision - average size | |||
Not applicable. |
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18.1. Source data | |||
International trade in goods statistics by enterprise characteristics are derived from :
Note that missing data (exempted intra-EU traders, missing Intrastat declarations) are estimated by the NSI in order to disseminate trade in goods data covering 100% of the trade but those estimates are not part of TEC data. The national business registers serve as the sources for the enterprise characteristics. No samples are drawn from the registers, but the full registers are processed. Some differences in the coverage among the countries can occur. Different administrative sources depending on national law, as well as surveys, are used to update the business registers, and in some countries VAT thresholds for registration apply.
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18.2. Frequency of data collection | |||
Intra-EU trade and Extra-EU trade The source data (Intrastat survey and also Extrastat) are collected on a monthly basis.
Business Register Updated following the national updating policy.
TEC data Annual |
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18.3. Data collection | |||
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18.4. Data validation | |||
The numbers in the table T0 (‘Reference populations’) are checked to match with the rest of the corresponding TEC tables numbers and in addition to that, a comparison is made withtotal trade value that is sent by Eurostat. TEC data disseminated by Eurostat have passed the following quality checks:
See the section ‘Data validation’ of the European business statistics compilers’ manual for international trade in goods statistics – trade by enterprise characteristics for information on the main validation rules implemented. |
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18.5. Data compilation | |||
If there is a complex enterprise in the data (and we have one) and the owner of the company (company registry code) is different from the head of the company (parent company, headquarter), then the one and the same owner company (company registry code) is determined. |
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18.5.1. Imputation - rate | |||
No imputation made by Eurostat |
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18.6. Adjustment | |||
So far there have not been any adjustments to the compiled TEC data. Only the source data (foreign trade data) are adjusted. |
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18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment | |||
Not applicable. |
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All reference documents and relevant information on TEC data can be found on the ‘Focus on enterprise characteristics (TEC)’ page of the ‘International trade in goods’ section on Eurostat website. |
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