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For any question on data and metadata, please contact: Eurostat user support |
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1.1. Contact organisation | INE - Instituto Nacional de Estatística, Statistics Portugal |
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1.2. Contact organisation unit | EE – Serviço de Estatísticas da Economia Externa - External Economy Statistics Unit |
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1.5. Contact mail address | Instituto Nacional de Estatística Av. António José de Almeida 1000-043 LISBOA Portugal
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2.1. Metadata last certified | 11/08/2021 | ||
2.2. Metadata last posted | 06/07/2022 | ||
2.3. Metadata last update | 06/07/2022 |
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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. |
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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. In Portugal the enterprise concept is not implemented for TEC compilation, therefore the number of traders, i.e. legal units is used instead.
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 | |||
The statistical unit is the legal unit.The Business Register Regulation defines the link between the legal unit and the enterprise. The same regulation also establishes a link between the business registers and the registers of intra- and extra- EU trade operators through a common unit of reference, namely the legal unit. The enterprise is the statistical unit to be used, which means that trade data must be linked to characteristics available in the Business Register for the enterprise through the legal unit. In this way, trade data are connected with the characteristics of an enterprise and they can be reported in terms of the economic activity and number of employees of the whole enterprise concerned. In Portugal however, the statistical unit is a trader, i.e. the legal unit, therefore business characteristics, such as economic activity, number of employees and others reflect characteristics of the legal unit. |
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3.6. Statistical population | |||
The statistical population comprises all the traders involved in intra- and extra-EU trade flows. The data for Portugal contains the population defined in the “European business statistics compilers' manual for trade by enterprise characteristics” ( BR, PI, NRT, NCL , U and BRM). There is a small number of trade carried out by non-resident traders which cannot be identified or linked with the Business register. Data disseminated by Eurostat only refers 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:
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3.7. Reference area | |||
Portugal |
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3.8. Coverage - Time | |||
TEC data disseminated by Eurostat From 2012 as reference year The procedures concerning the construction of the TEC population changed significantly in 2018 (reference year of the data).
TEC data disseminated at national level At national level Portugal produces TEC data sets starting from the reference year 2006 (2008 for dataset 6). |
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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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Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European statistics |
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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 | |||
Confidential data is defined as ‘data which allow statistical units to be identified, either directly or indirectly, thereby disclosing individual information. To determine whether a statistical unit is identifiable, account shall be taken of all relevant means that might reasonably be used by a third party to identify the statistical unit’. For TEC data, the principle of active confidentiality applies, which means that the National Statistical Authorities (NSAs) take the initiative to suppress the data whose dissemination by Eurostat would make it possible to identify an enterprise or a trader. The legal provisions (articles 13a (8) of Regulation (EC) No 1982/2004 and 15(9) of Regulation (EU) No 113/2010, respectively relating to the compilation of statistics on trade by enterprise characteristics for intra- and extra-EU) define only the principle to be applied. The only confidentiality rule applied is related with the number of observations: in case a value relates to less than 3 (three) enterprises/traders, it should be considered as confidential and flagged with (‘C’). Additionally, secondary confidentiality is also applied, whenever there is only one confidential flag in a dataset and the related cell is under an aggregate. In this case, the cell marked as confidential could be revealed by simply subtracting the aggregate of the rest of the cells from the total. There is also an overall analysis of confidentiality by cross checking the links between the several TEC datasets. This means that a record referring to an activity sector which is marked as confidential in one dataset, e.g. Dataset 2 should also be marked as confidential in any related dataset, e.g. Dataset 6. |
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8.1. Release calendar | |||
TEC data disseminated at national level At national level, the dissemination of the main results of TEC data (datasets 1 to 5) is made in the Portuguese Official Statistics Portal, as statistical indicators, corresponding to the definitive results of intenational trade in goods statistics (ITGS) and Business Statistics (BS) once they are provided to Eurostat (with regard to year Y the deadline is 30 June of year Y+2) and have passed all the Eurostat quality checks;
TEC data 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)’. |
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8.2. Release calendar access | |||
Not applicable. |
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8.3. Release policy - user access | |||
TEC data disseminated at national level The main results of TEC data (datasets 1 to 5) are available as statistical indicators on the Portuguese Official Statistics Portal and so these statistical data are disseminated to all users at the same time. Users are informed that these indicators are updated through an indication of update and also by the respective date of update.
TEC data 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)’.
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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 disseminated at national level No news release. TEC data is only disseminated as statistical indicators on the Portuguese Official Statistics Portal.
TEC data disseminated by Eurostat No news release |
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10.2. Dissemination format - Publications | |||
TEC data disseminated at national level The main results of TEC data are disseminated in the specific publication “Statistical Yearbook of Portugal”, in July of year Y+2
TEC data 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)’. |
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10.3. Dissemination format - online database | |||
TEC data disseminated at national level At national level, the main statistical data of TEC data (datasets 1 to 5) are available as statistical indicators on the Portuguese Official Statistics Portal (https://www.ine.pt/xportal/xmain?xpid=INE&xpgid=ine_base_dados in the theme International Trade), namely:
TEC data 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)’. |
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10.3.1. Data tables - consultations | |||
Not available. |
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10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access | |||
The TEC data is not available as micro-data access, however the sources used for the TEC compilation (ITGS and BS) have both micro-databases available for researchers, so they are able to link both databases (both databases have a specific ID to allow this linkage ). |
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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 disseminated at national level The methodology is available in the Metadata System, a specific area on the Portuguese Official Statistics Portal. An explanation on the TEC methodology is included in the ITGS methodological document: https://smi.ine.pt/DocumentacaoMetodologica/Detalhes/1092 Also specific statistical indicators with TEC results are available at the Portuguese Official Statistics Portal, with specific metadata available in the notes (see the folowing link for an example): TEC data 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)’. |
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10.6.1. Metadata completeness - rate | |||
100% |
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10.7. Quality management - documentation | |||
TEC data disseminated at national level Not available.
TEC data 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)’. |
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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 | |||
Direct feedback from main users, such as journalists, indicates a special interest in the concentration of trade (to analyse the trade accounted for by the top 5, 10, 20, etc. enterprises) and the trade by number of partner countries (to analyse the diversification of export markets). |
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12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction | |||
No user satisfaction survey specific on TEC data was carried out so far. |
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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 | |||
The major methodological change in recent years relates to the harmonisation among Member States of the treatment of non-resident traders. Since the reference year 2018 the non-resident traders should be systematically allocated to a specific population and excluded from TEC data sets. In Portugal this change has affected the comparability of 2018 data with the previous years as concerns the total number and the structure of traders. It has to be noted that the data published on the Portuguese national website includes non-resident traders in TEC population, therefore the results are different and not comparable.
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15.2.1. Length of comparable time series | |||
2012-2017 |
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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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TEC data are derived from information made available by two major statistical domains: the international trade in goods statistics and the business statistics. No specific data collection is then necessary, which means that the burden is null for the respondents, i.e. for the traders and businesses. The cost of TEC data only relates to the compilation step carried out by the National Statistical Authorities. |
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17.1. Data revision - policy | |||
At European level TEC data is based on definitive results of ITGS and BS, therefore only if an extraordinary revision occurs in ITGS will be transmitted revised TEC data to Eurostat. To avoid revisions in dataset 7 (‘Trade by activity sector and type of ownership’), since the deadlines for the compilation and transmission to Eurostat of data on Inward and Outward FATS is only in August, the current practice is to provide these data to Eurostat only after the final compilation of FATS data (in late August/September).
At national level TEC data disseminated as statistical indicators on the Portuguese Official Statistics Portal concerns the definitive results of ITGS and BS. |
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17.2. Data revision - practice | |||
Revised TEC data will be transmitted to Eurostat only if an extraordinary revision occurs in ITGS |
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17.2.1. Data revision - average size | |||
Not applicable. |
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18.1. Source data | |||
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18.2. Frequency of data collection | |||
Annually for the collection of TEC data. Monthly for the collection of ITGS. Annually for the collection of SBS. |
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18.3. Data collection | |||
Collection of international trade in goods data
Collection of data for the Business Statistics
Collection of data SBS results from a process of statistical data integration that covers enterprises and is based on administrative data, with an emphasis on Simplified Business Information (IES). This data is complemented with information collected from sole proprietors and independent workers from the Ministry of Finance and from Statistics Portugal’s Business Register.
The maintenance of business registers is normally based on the effective use of various administrative and statistical data sources. The frequency of updating the business registers depends on the kind of unit, the variable considered, the size of the unit and the source generally used for the update. As a general rule, key characteristics such as economic/stratification variables should be updated annually. Characteristics which are considered to evolve rapidly or are regarded as key units by users should be updated more frequently. Examples include large and complex units and units classified to economic activities which are known to change frequently. |
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18.4. Data validation | |||
TEC data transmitted to 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 | |||
TEC data is compiled by linking, by enterprise, international trade in goods statistics (ITGS) and business statistics (BS), following the concepts, reference population, classifications and breakdowns defined by Eurostat. In intra-EU trade, TEC data includes adjustments for non-response by enterprise and trade below thresholds by enterprise (procedure only implemented for the TEC compilation). |
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18.5.1. Imputation - rate | |||
No imputation made by Eurostat |
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18.6. Adjustment | |||
Not applicable |
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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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