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.
Macroeconomic Statistics Division Research and Statistics Department
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
Na Prikope 28, 115 03, Prague 1
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
13 October 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
13 October 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
13 October 2025
3.1. Data description
Foreign Affiliates Statistics (FATS) measure the commercial presence through affiliates in foreign markets.
In country-level business statisticsoutward foreign affiliates statistics (OFATS) describe the activity of domestic affiliates of every resident ultimate controlling institutional unit which has at least one foreign affiliate and the activity of foreign-controlling enterprises resident in the compiling country (Table 15 of the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197).
In statistics on international activities outward foreign affiliates statistics (OFATS) describe the activity of foreign affiliates abroad ultimately controlled by an institutional unit resident in the compiling country (Table 33 of the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197).
Variables on country-level business activities in the OFATS data category:
Number of foreign-controlling enterprises (UCI concept) and domestic affiliates
Number of employees and self-employed persons in foreign-controlling enterprises (UCI concept) and domestic affiliates
Net turnover of foreign-controlling enterprises (UCI concept) and domestic affiliates
Variables on the international activities in the OFATS data category:
Number of enterprises abroad ultimately controlled by institutional units of the reporting country
Number of employees and self-employed persons in enterprises abroad ultimately controlled by institutional units of the reporting country
Employee benefits expense in enterprises abroad ultimately controlled by institutional units of the reporting country
Gross investment in tangible non-current assets of enterprises abroad ultimately controlled by institutional units of the reporting country
Net turnover of enterprises abroad ultimately controlled by institutional units of the reporting country
3.2. Classification system
Classification systems used in the FATS are as follows:
Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE Rev. 2);
List of 2-digit country codes (ISO 3166-1);
Currency codes (ISO 4217).
3.3. Coverage - sector
Market producers of NACE Sections B to N and P to S.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
In country-level business statisticsOutward Foreign Affiliates Statistics (OFATS) describe the activity of domestic affiliates of every resident ultimate controlling institutional unit which has at least one foreign affiliate and the activity of foreign-controlling enterprises resident in the compiling country (Table 15 of the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197).
In statistics on international activities Outward Foreign Affiliates Statistics (OFATS) describe the activity of foreign affiliates abroad ultimately controlled by an institutional unit resident in the compiling country (Table 33 of the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197).
Foreign affiliate in the framework of outward FATS is an enterprise or branch not resident in the compiling country over which an institutional unit resident in the compiling country has ultimate (direct or indirect) control.
Domestic affiliate shall mean an enterprise resident in the compiling country over which a UCI resident in the same compiling country has control.
Ultimate Controlling Institutional of a foreign affiliate (UCI) shall mean the institutional unit, proceeding up a foreign affiliate’s chain of control, which is not controlled by another institutional unit.
Control is the ability to determine the general policy of the affiliate 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.
Indirect control means that an institutional unit may have control through another affiliate which has control over enterprise A.
Active enterprise is a statistical units which at any time during the reference period was ‘enterprise’, as defined in Regulation (EEC) No 696/93, and also active during the same reference period. A statistical unit is considered to have been active during the reference period if, in said period, it either realized positive net turnover or produced outputs or had employees or performed investments.
Employees and self-employed persons are persons who work for an observation unit on the basis of a contract of employment and receives compensation in the form of wages, salaries, fees, gratuities, piecework pay or remuneration in kind; and persons who are the sole owners or joint owners of the statistical unit in which they work. Family workers and outworkers, whose income is a function of the value of the outputs of the statistical unit, are also included.
Employee benefits expense contains all expenses arising in relation with employee benefits, recognized by the statistical unit during the reference period. Those are are all forms of consideration given by the statistical unit in exchange for service rendered by employees or for the termination of employment.
Gross investment in tangible non-current assets includes all additions to tangible non-current assets, recognized as such by the statistical unit during the reference period, except any increases from revaluations or reversals of previously recognized impairment losses and from reclassifications (transfers) of other tangible non-current assets.
Net turnover consists of all income arising during the reference period in the course of ordinary activities of the statistical unit, and is presented net of all price reductions, discounts and rebates granted by it.
Coverage of Special Purpose Entities (SPE): No info on SPE's available yet.
Treatment of equally shared control: Equally shared control treated as recommended in the EBS compilers' guide for FATS.
Treatment of multiple minority ownership: Multiple minority ownership treated as recommended in the EBS compilers' guide for FATS.
3.5. Statistical unit
The statistical unit of OFATS is the enterprise as defined in line with the Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community.
3.6. Statistical population
Market producers of NACE Sections B to N and P to S (for the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 table 15) and market producers of NACE Sections B to N and P to S abroad (should cover the foreign affiliates of all ultimate controlling institutional units of the reporting country) (for the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 table 33).
3.7. Reference area
Czechia (CZ)
3.8. Coverage - Time
2004-2023
3.9. Base period
Not applicable. Indexing is not applied.
Number of enterprises and employment variables are recorded in absolute figures.
Monetary data of enterprises are recorded in thousands Czech crowns.
31 December 2023
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Act No. 6/1993 Coll., on the Czech National Bank, as amended.
Decree No. 235/2013 Coll. pertaining to the submission of statements to the Czech National Bank by statistically significant reporting entities, for the purposes of preparing international balance of payments, investment position and debt service statistics
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Consultations with the Czech Statistical Office regarding the population of UCI.
All non-confidential data are made available by Eurostat on its dissemination website.
In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice, Czech National Bank disseminates national OFATS statistics on FDI website respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably.
Annual
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
No press release concerning the results of OFATS data is issued.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
No publications concerning the results of OFATS data is issued.
No general quality management system based on EFQM or ISO 9000 series is applied. Procedures are based on CNB strategical documents, internal norms and international manuals. Results and outputs are assessed regularly.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
One employee for data collection, one employee for compilation. All inputs are double checked and in case it is necessary consulted with the respondents. Possible corrections are demanded. Two supervisors regularly control the data outputs, compare it with time series, with other statistical indicators and provide feedback in form of questions and indication of possible problems.
EuroGroups register is one of the data sources used for identification of UCI.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Internal Users Needs: additional data on foreign controlled enterprises
External Users: journalists, researchers, students
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Opinions of users are not collected.
12.3. Completeness
Data provided to Eurostat are complete.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
Please see Table 12.3.1 in the Annex at the bottom.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
There are no sampling methods in our compilation. We aim to have statistically significant coverage of relevant reporting units. There might be some businesses which we have not covered but we estimate this amount to be negligible.
13.1.1. Use of residual geographic codes (Extra EU-27 not allocated, etc.)
Please see Table 13.1.in the Annex at the bottom.
13.1.2. Use of residual activity codes (NACE activity “not allocated”)
Please see Table 13.1.in the Annex at the bottom.
13.1.3. Comments on the Extra EU-27 not allocated and on the Activity “not allocated”
no "not allocated" codes
13.1.4. UCI Approach applied to identify the relevant population of reporting units
UCI approach is applied.
Source: EGR 79 %; Survey 21%
13.1.5. Update date (or frequency of updates) of the information regarding the country of the UCI by the “source administration”
Annual frequency of updates.
13.2. Sampling error
No sampling method is applied. The error caused by smallest units is considered to be negligible.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
< 1 %
13.3. Non-sampling error
Explained in 13.3.1-13.3.5
13.3.1. Coverage error
Not applicable.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Probability survey is not applied.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
No administrative data are used.
13.3.1.3. Misclassification errors
Some respondents could provide e.g. wrong NACE of the subsidiary. Double-checked and consulted.
13.3.1.4. Under- and over-coverage problems
Not applicable.
13.3.2. Measurement error
Some units respond in different units (e.g. EUR vs thousands of EUR). This is checked and identified cases are consulted with respondents.
13.3.3. Non response error
Unit non-response occurs when not all the reporting units in the sample participate in the survey.
Item non-response occurs when a respondent provides some, but not all, of the information requested or if the information reported is unusable (note that entirely unusable questionnaires are already counted in the unit non-response).
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Non-response rate is negligible. Data on non-responding units are estimated on the basis of previous year.
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
Non-response rate is negligible. Data on item non-response are estimated on the basis of previous year.
13.3.4. Processing error
No processing errors were identified.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
No models applied.
14.1. Timeliness
OFATS statistics are calculated annually for reference year T.
Data collection takes place until t+13 months after the end of the reference period.
Data transmission to Eurostat takes place at t+20 months.
Data dissemination at national level takes place at t+15 months.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
T+9
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
T+15
14.2. Punctuality
-3 days
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
-3 days
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Data are geographically comparable.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not calculated.
15.2. Comparability - over time
as stated in 15.2.1 and 15.2.2
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Length of time series: 2004-2023
Length of comparable time series: 2004-2006, 2006-2007, 2008-2020 2021 - onwards
15.2.2. Reasons and differences in concepts and measurement methods for breaks in time series
There is a break in time series in 2007 due to the inclusion of the UCI principle.
Starting from 2008 NACE Rev. 2 was implemented.
In reference year 2021 a new Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 (EBS Regulation) replaced the old FATS regulation introducing some changes such as: - extension in coverage (NACE) - change in coverage of the basic statistics (national SBS: inclusion of micro enterprises) - changes in definition of characteristics
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Coherence is discussed in 15.3.1-15.3.3
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
We have no sub-annual OFATS statistics.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
There is no direct comparison of NA data and OFATS, however, there will be differences, e.g. NA usually use modelling to estimate the non-observed economy. No such estimation is applied. Regarding observed units, differences would be marginal.
15.3.3. Coherence – Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
There is no incoherence with the FDI statistics.
15.3.4. Coherence – EuroGroups Register (EGR)
As EGR data is updated according to IFATS and with significant delay. Asymmetries between states are evident (e.g. NACE classification). OFATS data aren't fully coherent with the EGR data.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Data are internally consistent.
The effectiveness of processes and calculations is regularly evaluated and discussed. Surveys contain only questions on necessary data. Each time the survey is extended, the burden is considered.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Compiled data on OFATS are final data. No revisions.
17.2. Data revision - practice
No revisions of OFATS statistics.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
No revisions of OFATS statistics.
18.1. Source data
Foreign Direct Investment data,
survey data,
publicly available sources,
18.1.1. Methodological approach
There are no sampling methods in our compilation. We aim to have statistically significant coverage of relevant reporting units. There might be some businesses which we have not covered but we estimate this amount to be negligible.
Population frame is created using the annual FDI register. We use population frame from Direct investment of Czech residents abroad and we ask the reporting subject to fill in the OFATS information only in case it fulfills the criteria for UCI. We also cross-check this information against the "Foreign direct investment in the Czech Republic report" it means that if the reporting unit reports inward FDI data and the ownership is greater than 50 % that means it is foreign-controlled and we correct the data.
18.1.2. Use of cut-off thresholds
No thresholds are used.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annual
18.3. Data collection
Foreign Direct Investment data,
survey data,
publicly available sources,
18.4. Data validation
The annual reports are used to check the correctness of data.
Checks on the inclusion of UCI - e.g. units considering themselves as UCI nevertheless being controlled from abroad (FDI in the reporting economy questionnaire information).
One employee for data collection, one employee for compilation. All inputs are double checked and in case it is necessary consulted with the respondents. Possible corrections are demanded. Two supervisors regularly control the data outputs, compare it with time series, with other statistical indicators and provide feedback in form of questions and indication of possible problems.
18.5. Data compilation
see 18.5.1-18.5.3
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
< 1 %
18.5.2. Use of a method to deal with non-response (both unit and item non-response)
There are non-responses cases in the collection phase (mainly due to non-communication of the reporting agents either being contacted by mail or by post). The aggregated amount of these cases is negligible. In case they do not reply repeatedly and they have responded the year before, we estimate them. All statistically relevant units report OFATS data.
Foreign Affiliates Statistics (FATS) measure the commercial presence through affiliates in foreign markets.
In country-level business statisticsoutward foreign affiliates statistics (OFATS) describe the activity of domestic affiliates of every resident ultimate controlling institutional unit which has at least one foreign affiliate and the activity of foreign-controlling enterprises resident in the compiling country (Table 15 of the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197).
In statistics on international activities outward foreign affiliates statistics (OFATS) describe the activity of foreign affiliates abroad ultimately controlled by an institutional unit resident in the compiling country (Table 33 of the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197).
Variables on country-level business activities in the OFATS data category:
Number of foreign-controlling enterprises (UCI concept) and domestic affiliates
Number of employees and self-employed persons in foreign-controlling enterprises (UCI concept) and domestic affiliates
Net turnover of foreign-controlling enterprises (UCI concept) and domestic affiliates
Variables on the international activities in the OFATS data category:
Number of enterprises abroad ultimately controlled by institutional units of the reporting country
Number of employees and self-employed persons in enterprises abroad ultimately controlled by institutional units of the reporting country
Employee benefits expense in enterprises abroad ultimately controlled by institutional units of the reporting country
Gross investment in tangible non-current assets of enterprises abroad ultimately controlled by institutional units of the reporting country
Net turnover of enterprises abroad ultimately controlled by institutional units of the reporting country
13 October 2025
In country-level business statisticsOutward Foreign Affiliates Statistics (OFATS) describe the activity of domestic affiliates of every resident ultimate controlling institutional unit which has at least one foreign affiliate and the activity of foreign-controlling enterprises resident in the compiling country (Table 15 of the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197).
In statistics on international activities Outward Foreign Affiliates Statistics (OFATS) describe the activity of foreign affiliates abroad ultimately controlled by an institutional unit resident in the compiling country (Table 33 of the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197).
Foreign affiliate in the framework of outward FATS is an enterprise or branch not resident in the compiling country over which an institutional unit resident in the compiling country has ultimate (direct or indirect) control.
Domestic affiliate shall mean an enterprise resident in the compiling country over which a UCI resident in the same compiling country has control.
Ultimate Controlling Institutional of a foreign affiliate (UCI) shall mean the institutional unit, proceeding up a foreign affiliate’s chain of control, which is not controlled by another institutional unit.
Control is the ability to determine the general policy of the affiliate 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.
Indirect control means that an institutional unit may have control through another affiliate which has control over enterprise A.
Active enterprise is a statistical units which at any time during the reference period was ‘enterprise’, as defined in Regulation (EEC) No 696/93, and also active during the same reference period. A statistical unit is considered to have been active during the reference period if, in said period, it either realized positive net turnover or produced outputs or had employees or performed investments.
Employees and self-employed persons are persons who work for an observation unit on the basis of a contract of employment and receives compensation in the form of wages, salaries, fees, gratuities, piecework pay or remuneration in kind; and persons who are the sole owners or joint owners of the statistical unit in which they work. Family workers and outworkers, whose income is a function of the value of the outputs of the statistical unit, are also included.
Employee benefits expense contains all expenses arising in relation with employee benefits, recognized by the statistical unit during the reference period. Those are are all forms of consideration given by the statistical unit in exchange for service rendered by employees or for the termination of employment.
Gross investment in tangible non-current assets includes all additions to tangible non-current assets, recognized as such by the statistical unit during the reference period, except any increases from revaluations or reversals of previously recognized impairment losses and from reclassifications (transfers) of other tangible non-current assets.
Net turnover consists of all income arising during the reference period in the course of ordinary activities of the statistical unit, and is presented net of all price reductions, discounts and rebates granted by it.
Coverage of Special Purpose Entities (SPE): No info on SPE's available yet.
Treatment of equally shared control: Equally shared control treated as recommended in the EBS compilers' guide for FATS.
Treatment of multiple minority ownership: Multiple minority ownership treated as recommended in the EBS compilers' guide for FATS.
The statistical unit of OFATS is the enterprise as defined in line with the Regulation (EEC) No 696/93 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community.
Market producers of NACE Sections B to N and P to S (for the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 table 15) and market producers of NACE Sections B to N and P to S abroad (should cover the foreign affiliates of all ultimate controlling institutional units of the reporting country) (for the EBS Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 table 33).
Czechia (CZ)
31 December 2023
There are no sampling methods in our compilation. We aim to have statistically significant coverage of relevant reporting units. There might be some businesses which we have not covered but we estimate this amount to be negligible.
Number of enterprises and employment variables are recorded in absolute figures.
Monetary data of enterprises are recorded in thousands Czech crowns.
see 18.5.1-18.5.3
Foreign Direct Investment data,
survey data,
publicly available sources,
Annual
OFATS statistics are calculated annually for reference year T.
Data collection takes place until t+13 months after the end of the reference period.
Data transmission to Eurostat takes place at t+20 months.
Data dissemination at national level takes place at t+15 months.
