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.
The PRODCOM survey is conducted by National Institute of Statistics. This is an annual survey of the value and volume of products produced by industrial enterprises in Romania and sold production during the reference year. It is carried out in compliance with European Parliament and Council Regulation on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics (No 2019/2152) and Commision Implementing Regulation (EU) (No 2020/1197) laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152.
The PRODCOM survey provides information on production of the European Community and is compiled from data received from Romania manufacturers.
The survey sample is approximately 13900 entreprises, covering 228 NACE 4-digits clases industries, derived from sub-sectors of the total manufacturing sector. There are 5108 products for total survey (B, C and D section of NACE rev.2) of which 4915 products for manufacturing sector.
3.2. Classification system
Since 2001, NIS Romania developed a national product classification, named PRODROM which detailed the european classification PRODCOM; this national classification contains 5108 codes out of which 174 have no link with PRODCOM codes.
The link between PRODCOM and PRODROM is 1-to-N at each product level.
Our national classification covers NACE Rev.2 classes from 0510 to 3530.
PRODROM uses 9-characters product code of the form XX.XX.XX.YY.N:
The first four digits of the code correspond to the 4-digit classes of NACE Rev. 2.
The first six digits are the Community Classification of Products by Activity (CPA) codes. The CPA provides a detailed listing of the characteristic products for each 6-digit NACE Rev. 2 economic activity.
The next two digits provide a more detailed breakdown of the CPA classes into PRODCOM product headings.
The last digit is specified to Romanian products classification; if there are national products codes, without link to PRODCOM classification, the last digit is 'N'.
For the Romanian product code with no link to PRODCOM classification the code is composed by CPA code 6-digits, followed by '00' and 'N'.
The link between PRODROM and the EU foreign trade is realised by PRODCOM codes. There is a direct link between the PRODCOM classification and the EU foreign trade Combined Nomenclature (CN). Each PRODCOM 8-digit heading covers one or more CN 8-digit headings.
3.3. Coverage - sector
The survey covers:
all enterprises with 20 and more employees, which are carring the main activity in NACE Rev.2 sections: B, C, D and E 38.32
all enterprises with non-industrial main activity, but with KAU and 50 employees in NACE Rev.2 sections: B, C, D and E 38.32
In order to reach 90% representativeness we include in survey, for some industrial NACE classes, all enterprises with significant turnover in the respective domain.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
The purpose of the statistics is to report, for each product in the Prodrom List, how much has been produced in the reporting country during the reference period. This means that Prodcom statistics relate to products (not to activities) and are therefore not strictly comparable with activity-based statistics such as Structural Business Statistics. The NACE codes on which Prodcom codes are based merely serve to identify the enterprises that should be surveyed in order to determine the amount of production of the product.
The products:the Prodrom List defines the products to be included in the survey. There are approximately 5108 headings representing manufactured products and some industrial services.
In Romania, the PRODROM survey collects information on the following variables:
Sold production (value and volume): the sold production is defined as the production carried out at any time and within the national economic territory, which has been sold (invoiced) during the reference period, that has been invoiced and shipped by the company, according to the destinations provided in contracts or orders
The value is expressed in national currency and the volume is expressed in a specific unit for each product
Sold production under subcontracted operations (value and volume): the production under sub-contracting operations refers to the production carried out by a sub-contractor in the national economic territory, which has been sold (invoiced) during the reference period to customers, under the conditions of the sub-contracted operations.
Two enterprises are linked by a subcontracting relationship whenever the conditions below are met together:
1. the customer enterprise participates in the conception of the product providing (even partially) technical specifications to the supplier enterprise (sub-contractor) and / or provides it with the materials to be processed;
2. the customer enterprise sells the sub-product (as such or as part of a more complex product) and takes on after-sales liability for the product.
The distinction between customer and sub-contractor is based on the principle of main material input. The value of the material inputs provided by the customer to sub-contractor will be used as a criterion for identifying the main material input. When the value of the input material held by the customer is difficult to identify it is recommended to use the contractual relationship between the two parties and to consider who owns the final product.
Actual production (volume): the actual production includes any production, carried out during the reference period and within the national economic territory, which is incorporated into the manufacture of other products. It includes those products which: are intended for sale, are processed into another product, are fitted into another product or are put into stock.
The observation unit and the reporting unit is kind of activity unit (KAUs)
3.6. Statistical population
The survey target population consisted of all industrial establishments belonging to companies with twenty or more employed persons,regardless of whether or not the main activity of the company to which it belonged was industrial (sections B, C, D and E 38.32- NACE Rev.2). In specific sectors in which the production of establishments of companies with twenty or more employed persons was not representative of the total, establishments of companies with fewer than 20 employed persons were also included.
3.7. Reference area
All the Romanian territory is covered.
No regional breakdown
3.8. Coverage - Time
The period observed is one calendar year.
Romanian industrial production statistics according to PRODCOM List date back to 2003.
There are historical data, at agregate level according to the old Romanian classification, starting from 1994.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
The volume is expressed in a unit of measure specific to each product. The value of sales is collected and stored in the national currency (RON), transmitted to Eurostat in thousands of RON, and released in EURO in the Eurostat's database.
Year 2024.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
This survey is carried out in compliance with following regulations:
At EU level:
Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics (EBS-Regulation)
Commission Implementing Regulation 2020/1197 laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistic (General Implementing Act)
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 Statistical law of Romania stipulates that the following data is confidential:
individual statistical data;
statistical data which can be matched in a way that enables the identification of a specific statistical unit;
statistical information which aggregates data about less than three statistical units or about a population in which the relative share of the value of a surveyed parameter of a single unit exceeds 80 percent of the total value of such parameter for all units in the population.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Romania is applying the principle of the active confidentiality.
The policy of Statistics of Romania on confidentiality of Prodcom data it stipulates that a specific code is flagged as confidential only if at least one of the following two criteria are met:
the largest reporting company has a share over 80 pct. of total sales of the commodity
there are less than 3 companies reporting production of the commodity
In 2024 about 22.1% of the Romanian data for PRODCOM were confidential.
8.1. Release calendar
For more details on related releases, the Calendar of Statistical Publications is available online at the begining of each year.
In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice, the European statistics are disseminated on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.
For more details on related releases, the Calendar of Statistical Publications is available online at the begining of each year (See link at item 8.2.)
If there are any changes to the pre-announced release schedule, public attention will be drawn to the change and the reasons for the change will be explained fully at the same time, as set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
PRODCOM data are collected and disseminated annualy.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Data from PRODROM annualy survey are disseminated on CD (in Romanian language at PRODROM level). The CDs contain data agregated at PRODCOM/PRODROM level: measure unit, product's name; initial stock, actual production, internal consumption, sold production, final stock, value of sold production in RON.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
The data are available on CDs which is available on NIS website.
The main instrument for quality monitoring and assurance for Statistics of Romania are the Quality Declarations.
Punctuality and any errors in published data are systematically monitored.
The main quality assurance activity for Prodcom is the data validation (see 18.4 concept)
Prodcom is published with a high level of detail, its accuracy therefore depends on data being checked in several ways.
Prodcom is produced in close cooperation with the STS manufacturing indices, enabling data reported to the two surveys to be checked against each other.
Prodcom data are also checked with SBS data at unit level.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
The Information System provides a number of arithmetic and logical controls, both mandatory and optional between the items in each form and between the forms in the whole annual report. There is a number of arithmetic and logical controls inside the PRODCOM form. The System calculates both the totals and the unit price. The suplied PRODCOM data is crosschecked against SBS data, PRODCOM data of the previous year and monthly PRODROM survey. If there are interlinked errors, they are displayed after the validation of the whole set of reports.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The main users of PRODCOM data can be presented in different groups, namely:
EXTERNAL/ INTERNATIONAL (OUTSIDE NSI), like:
Institutions at European level:Eurostat
Multi-national organizations:United Nations
EXTERNAL/ NATIONAL (OUTSIDE NSI), like:
Institutions at national level - governmental
GOVERN
Ministry for Economy
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
We conduct a user satisfaction survey every three years. The most recent “User Satisfaction Analysis” was conducted in 2024.
This publication presents the way in which the statistical data produced and the methodological information of the INS meet the information needs of the various user categories. It includes a presentation of the main results of the statistical survey on the "Satisfaction of statistical data users”, respectively the profile of INS statistical data users, the confidence in the INS and the statistical data produced by INS, the assessment of the quality of the data produced by INS.
Views from the main expert users are collected from bilateral meetings with representatives from the main industry organisations and ministries.
12.3. Completeness
All requested data are transmitted to Eurostat.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
In 2024, the response rate to the PRODCOM Survey was of 84.92% out of all enterprises surveyed.
There is no data available for item nonresponse.
Data for non-response units that provided data to the monthly statistical survey were imputed from this survey.
13.2. Sampling error
The survey is done as a cut-off sample, all units above a threshold are included. There is no grossing up for units below the threshold. It is therefore not relevant / possible to calculate sampling error.
13.3. Non-sampling error
The errors occur due to the human factor and can be grouped in:
errors in data compilation (like wrong codification of product, provide data in different units than the requested ones, ....)
data entry errors in survey databases (like errors from shifting columns and rows from questionnaire, introduction of incomplete data, ...)
Imputation rates (2024): unweighted imputation rate (number of items)
Sold production
Production under sub-contracted operations
Total sold production
Actual production
Value
17.1
22.9
17.6
-
Quantity
17.6
22.9
18.0
13.6
Undercoverage
Undercoverage occurs if there are target population units that are not covered by the survey (e.g. enterprises having industrial production but not surveyed). All units that fulfil the criteria of participation in the PRODCOM survey (primary or secondary activities related to industrial production) are requested to respond. In this sense, there is no under-coverage.
Overcoverage
Overcoverage is if units existing in the frame which do not belong to the target population. All units that formally fulfil the criteria of participation in the survey are requested to respond. Units having the primary or at least one secondary activity related to industrial production are required to participate. A certain number of them, however do not conduct industrial production. In this case activity classification errors exist.
Multiple listings
No units are present more than once. Each unit is characterized by an unique identity number. In case of formal changes in structure of units, the data are treated to ensure that one production is not multiplied.
14.1. Timeliness
Preliminary data are sent to Eurostat at 6 months after the end of reference year and final data are available and sent to Eurostat 11 months after the end of reference year.
The data from anually PRODCOM survey is published by NIS Romania on CD within T+11 months.
14.2. Punctuality
The statistics are mostly published without delay, in relation to the scheduled date. For at least the last 22 years, there have been no delays in releases.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Statistics are comparable across the EU.
15.2. Comparability - over time
An extensive revision of NACE in 2007 has resulted in changes to PRODCOM estimates for the 2008 survey onwards.
The time series for PRODCOM start with 2003; in 2008 is a break in time series due to the revision of NACE classification.
Starting with the year 2021, a break down of series is recorded as a result of the fact that the production under sub-contracted operations has been collected separately from the own account production (as a result of the implementation of the EBS Regulation).
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Consistency checks are done at micro and macro level with STS, SBS and external trade. These checks involve the examination of the aggregated returns for PRODCOM, ensuring that these are consistent; where there are differences, the cases are further scrutinised and corrected, if necessary.
15.4. Coherence - internal
There are no internal incoherencies in PRODCOM data for Romania. The same concepts and methods are used to collect, process and validate all PRODCOM data over time. The Romanian survey nomenclature PRODROM is compatible with the PRODCOM List.
Detail micro table exist to check each respondent on product level (total production, quantity and value of production sold) to find possible discrepancies. Data are corrected always on micro level after obtaining corrected data from enterprise (whether via direct telephone contact or by email).
For 2024, the burden on respondents has been calculated as a total duration of 24718 hours. The estimated number of hours worked spent by one respondent to fill in the questionnaire is 2.10 hrs.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Revision are in conformity with standards and as is described in the NIS Revision Policy.
The general Calendar of Revision is available on the NIS Website.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Data are transmitted to Eurostat at the end of June were preliminary and revisions were sent in November.
When submitting for a new year's Prodcom data to Eurostat, Statistics of Romania will also submit revised versions of previous years when relevant.
18.1. Source data
The survey sample is selected from Romanian Business Register. PRODCOM estimates cover enterprises classified to NACE divisions 05 through to 35. Enterprises are selected by employment size and NACE class.
The sample covers:
all enterprises with 20 and more employees, which are carring the main activity in NACE Rev2.Sections: B, C, D and E 38.32
all enterprises with non-industrial main activity, but with KAU and 50 employees in NACE Rev2.Sections: B, C, D and E 38.32
In order to reach 90% representativeness we include in survey, for some industrial NACE classes, all enterprises with significant turnover in this field.
The sample is updating once a year.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annualy.
18.3. Data collection
PRODCOM data collection is decentralized, organized through the County Statistical Offices (42 counties). Data validation is carried out separately at regional and national levels.
The National Institute of Statistics of Romania uses personalised electronic questionnaires, filled with the products reported by the units in the previous year. The list of industrial products and services is available at the County Directorates of Statistics.
18.4. Data validation
In Statistics of Romania the data are validated through a number of controls that check against last period as well as against other companies reporting under the same codes.
Data are also checked against other sources: monthly PRODROM survey, SBS survey, external trade data. These checks are especially useful to spot the underreporting or the errors in codification of the products.
In order to have a consistent products coding, NIS Romania established a team of experts in charge with this issue. All responsibles from Counties Statistical Offices who have questions in this matter are adressing their requests to the mentioned team, in order to provide a homogenous coding of products.
18.5. Data compilation
The following steps can take place at level of the County Statistical Offices:
receive of the personalised questionnaires;
data entry in a local database;
running of the IT tools for detecting the errors; data are corrected where necessary.
checks against SBS data are done and data are corrected where necessary, after a disscusion with the enterprise.
At Central Statisticaly Office, the folowing actions are taking place:
checks made against previous years data, and where necessary the enterprises are contacted through the Regional Statistical Offices
for all enterprises data from Monthly Industrial Production is compared to ensure consistency between the sources.
For unit non-response cases there are done imputations from Monthly Industrial Production survey.
18.6. Adjustment
The data are not adjusted.
No comment.
The PRODCOM survey is conducted by National Institute of Statistics. This is an annual survey of the value and volume of products produced by industrial enterprises in Romania and sold production during the reference year. It is carried out in compliance with European Parliament and Council Regulation on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics (No 2019/2152) and Commision Implementing Regulation (EU) (No 2020/1197) laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152.
The PRODCOM survey provides information on production of the European Community and is compiled from data received from Romania manufacturers.
The survey sample is approximately 13900 entreprises, covering 228 NACE 4-digits clases industries, derived from sub-sectors of the total manufacturing sector. There are 5108 products for total survey (B, C and D section of NACE rev.2) of which 4915 products for manufacturing sector.
28 August 2025
The purpose of the statistics is to report, for each product in the Prodrom List, how much has been produced in the reporting country during the reference period. This means that Prodcom statistics relate to products (not to activities) and are therefore not strictly comparable with activity-based statistics such as Structural Business Statistics. The NACE codes on which Prodcom codes are based merely serve to identify the enterprises that should be surveyed in order to determine the amount of production of the product.
The products:the Prodrom List defines the products to be included in the survey. There are approximately 5108 headings representing manufactured products and some industrial services.
In Romania, the PRODROM survey collects information on the following variables:
Sold production (value and volume): the sold production is defined as the production carried out at any time and within the national economic territory, which has been sold (invoiced) during the reference period, that has been invoiced and shipped by the company, according to the destinations provided in contracts or orders
The value is expressed in national currency and the volume is expressed in a specific unit for each product
Sold production under subcontracted operations (value and volume): the production under sub-contracting operations refers to the production carried out by a sub-contractor in the national economic territory, which has been sold (invoiced) during the reference period to customers, under the conditions of the sub-contracted operations.
Two enterprises are linked by a subcontracting relationship whenever the conditions below are met together:
1. the customer enterprise participates in the conception of the product providing (even partially) technical specifications to the supplier enterprise (sub-contractor) and / or provides it with the materials to be processed;
2. the customer enterprise sells the sub-product (as such or as part of a more complex product) and takes on after-sales liability for the product.
The distinction between customer and sub-contractor is based on the principle of main material input. The value of the material inputs provided by the customer to sub-contractor will be used as a criterion for identifying the main material input. When the value of the input material held by the customer is difficult to identify it is recommended to use the contractual relationship between the two parties and to consider who owns the final product.
Actual production (volume): the actual production includes any production, carried out during the reference period and within the national economic territory, which is incorporated into the manufacture of other products. It includes those products which: are intended for sale, are processed into another product, are fitted into another product or are put into stock.
The observation unit and the reporting unit is kind of activity unit (KAUs)
The survey target population consisted of all industrial establishments belonging to companies with twenty or more employed persons,regardless of whether or not the main activity of the company to which it belonged was industrial (sections B, C, D and E 38.32- NACE Rev.2). In specific sectors in which the production of establishments of companies with twenty or more employed persons was not representative of the total, establishments of companies with fewer than 20 employed persons were also included.
All the Romanian territory is covered.
No regional breakdown
Year 2024.
In 2024, the response rate to the PRODCOM Survey was of 84.92% out of all enterprises surveyed.
There is no data available for item nonresponse.
Data for non-response units that provided data to the monthly statistical survey were imputed from this survey.
The volume is expressed in a unit of measure specific to each product. The value of sales is collected and stored in the national currency (RON), transmitted to Eurostat in thousands of RON, and released in EURO in the Eurostat's database.
The following steps can take place at level of the County Statistical Offices:
receive of the personalised questionnaires;
data entry in a local database;
running of the IT tools for detecting the errors; data are corrected where necessary.
checks against SBS data are done and data are corrected where necessary, after a disscusion with the enterprise.
At Central Statisticaly Office, the folowing actions are taking place:
checks made against previous years data, and where necessary the enterprises are contacted through the Regional Statistical Offices
for all enterprises data from Monthly Industrial Production is compared to ensure consistency between the sources.
For unit non-response cases there are done imputations from Monthly Industrial Production survey.
The survey sample is selected from Romanian Business Register. PRODCOM estimates cover enterprises classified to NACE divisions 05 through to 35. Enterprises are selected by employment size and NACE class.
The sample covers:
all enterprises with 20 and more employees, which are carring the main activity in NACE Rev2.Sections: B, C, D and E 38.32
all enterprises with non-industrial main activity, but with KAU and 50 employees in NACE Rev2.Sections: B, C, D and E 38.32
In order to reach 90% representativeness we include in survey, for some industrial NACE classes, all enterprises with significant turnover in this field.
The sample is updating once a year.
PRODCOM data are collected and disseminated annualy.
Preliminary data are sent to Eurostat at 6 months after the end of reference year and final data are available and sent to Eurostat 11 months after the end of reference year.
The data from anually PRODCOM survey is published by NIS Romania on CD within T+11 months.
Statistics are comparable across the EU.
An extensive revision of NACE in 2007 has resulted in changes to PRODCOM estimates for the 2008 survey onwards.
The time series for PRODCOM start with 2003; in 2008 is a break in time series due to the revision of NACE classification.
Starting with the year 2021, a break down of series is recorded as a result of the fact that the production under sub-contracted operations has been collected separately from the own account production (as a result of the implementation of the EBS Regulation).
