STATISTICAL SERVICE OF CYPRUS

ENVIRONMENT STATISTICS UNIT

Statistical Service of Cyprus

CY-1444

Nicosia

Cyprus

Economy-wide material flow accounts (EW-MFA) provide an aggregate overview, in thousand tonnes per year, of the material flows into and out of an economy. EW-MFA cover solid, gaseous, and liquid materials, except for bulk flows of water and air. Like the system of national accounts, EW-MFA constitute a multi-purpose information system. The detailed material flows provide a rich empirical database for numerous analytical purposes. Further, EW-MFA are used to derive various material flow indicators.

The National Statistical Institute (NSI) sent to Eurostat on yearly basis the EW-MFA. The accounts comprise the following reporting tables:

• Table A 'Domestic extraction (DE)': records material flows from the environment into the economy in a detailed breakdown by type of material
• Table B 'Imports - total imports (intra- and extra-EU) and Table D 'Exports – total exports (intra- and extra-EU)': These physical trade tables record the imports and exports of products in thousand tonnes and grouped by materials.
• Table F 'Domestic processed output (DPO)': records material flows from the economy to the domestic environment (e.g. emissions to air, water and soil)
• Table G 'Balancing items': reports some memorandum items which are necessary to have the full material balance related to a national economy
• Table H 'Indicators': presents the EW-MFA derived indicators which are automatically calculated from Table A to G

Table I 'Material flow accounts in raw material equivalents (RME)': records material flow accounts in raw material equivalents (MFA-RME). Some items are calculated automatically based on data reported in Table A and Table I

EW-MFA record physical flows of materials broken down by type of flow and by type of material.

The type of flow dimension corresponds to the EW-MFA questionnaire reporting tables and derived indicators, namely:

• domestic extraction (Table A)
• physical imports (Table B)
• physical exports (Table D)
• domestic processed output (Table F)
• balancing items (Table G)
• direct material input (indicator)
• domestic material consumption (indicator)
• physical trade balance (indicator)

The breakdown by type of material employs a classification of materials. This EW-MFA classification of materials is hierarchical with main material flow categories (1-digit level). Each main category is further broken down, maximal down to 4-digit-level:

    1-digit: material category;

    2-digit: material class;

    3-digit: material group;

    4-digit: material sub-group.

The data refer to national economies as defined in the system of national accounts.

Conceptually economy-wide material flow accounts (EW-MFA) belong to the international system of environmental economic accounting (SEEA-Central Framework). Furthermore, EW-MFA is one of several physical modules of Eurostat's programme on European environmental economic accounts. It is covered by Regulation (EU) No. 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts.

EW-MFA are closely related to concepts and definitions of national accounts. Most notably they follow the residence principle, i.e. they record material flows related to resident unit's activities, regardless where those occur geographically.

Further methodological guidelines are provided in various publications by Eurostat (see Eurostat website > Environment > Methodology, heading: 'Material flows and resource productivity').

For more detailed information please see also 3.1.

Statistical units change according to the different data sources (e.g. agriculture, forestry and fishery statistics, production statistics, geological surveys, energy statistics, foreign trade statistics etc.) which EW-MFA are based on.

EW-MFA refer to the entire national economy of the reporting country (see also 3.3 'Coverage - sector')).

EW-MFA include all materials (excluding water and air) crossing the system boundary (between the environment and the economy) on the input side or on the output side. The economy is demarcated by the conventions of the national accounting system (resident units).

Material inputs to the economy cover extractions of natural resources (excluding water and air) from the natural environment and imports of material products (goods) from the rest of the world economy (ROW).

Material outputs are disposals of materials to the natural environment and exports of material products and waste to the ROW. Information on natural resources extracted and traded products is provided by different statistical units.

Data cover the Government controlled area of Cyprus.

Please see the table in 3.8.1.

Not applicable because EW-MFA are not reported as indices.

The unit of measure is thousand tonnes.

The data refer to the calendar years.

Article 3 of the national Official Statistics Law, No. 25(I) of 2021 defines the functions of the Statistical Service of Cyprus regarding the development, production and dissemination of official statistics. Moreover, Article 13, explicitly stipulates the mandate for data collection and introduces a mandatory response to statistical enquiries by stipulating the obligation of respondents to reply to surveys and provide the data required. This relates not only to national but also to European statistics which, by virtue of Article 8 of the said Law, are incorporated in the annual and multiannual programmes of work without any further procedure. 

Economy-wide material flow accounts (EW-MFA) are legally covered by Regulation (EU) 691/2011 on European Environmental Economic Accounts.

Not applicable at national level; this information is required at European level only.

The treatment of confidential data is regulated by article 16 of the Official Statistics Law of 2021 and by CYSTAT's Guidelines for the Protection of Confidential Data.

Official statistics are released in accordance with the confidentiality provisions laid down in the following:

• National Official Statistics Law No. 25(I) of 2021 (especially Article 16 on statistical confidentiality).
• Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics and its later amendments (especially Chapter 5 on statistical confidentiality).
• European Statistics Code of Practice (especially Principle 5 on statistical confidentiality).
• CYSTAT's Guidelines for the Protection of Confidential Data.

No data is considered confidential at the level published.

There is no schedule of release dates related to MFA data on the national website. Nevertheless, national data are disseminated annually by Eurostat on its database.Please see concept 10.3.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Yearly.

Information and data at the national level can be found on Eurostat's website.

There are no news releases on the national website.

No publications are available at national level yet.

There are no national databases related to MFA available yet. 

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Not applicable.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

See Article 11 of the Official Statistics Law of 2021 (Law No. 25(I)/2021).
See Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics.

The quality of statistics in CYSTAT is managed in the framework of the European Statistics Code of Practice which sets the standards for developing, producing and disseminating European Statistics as well as the ESS Quality Assurance Framework (QAF). CYSTAT endorses the Quality Declaration of the European Statistical System. In addition, CYSTAT is guided by the requirements provided for in Article 11 of the Official Statistics Law No. 25(I) of 2021 as well as Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics, which sets out the quality criteria to be applied in the development, production and dissemination of European statistics. 

CYSTAT follows the guidelines provided by Eurostat relating to the production of Economy-wide Material Flow Accounting.

The quality of statistics is assessed according to five quality criteria: relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, coherence and comparability. CYSTAT endorses the Quality Declaration of the European Statistical System. In addition, CYSTAT is guided by the requirements provided for in Article 11 of the Official Statistics Law of 2021 as well as Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics, which sets out the quality criteria to be applied in the development, production and dissemination of European statistics.

Apart from the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, which has expressed interest in the EW-MFA indicator on domestic material consumption (DMC), there have so far been no other clear indications to us of any other policy need for this data at national level.

Not applicable.

All data for mandatory variables are reported.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Please use Annex 3 for providing an assessment of the overall quality of the reported data. 

Not applicable because data are not based on a sample survey.

Not applicable because data are not based on a sample survey.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The first estimates for reference year N can be provided at n+16 months. These estimates might be revised during the next data collection round. General, methodological and compilation improvements may also be applied later on that could affect the data of any of the years of the time series.

See 14.1

See 14.1

Eurostat deadlines for disseminating the data are respected. MFA data are disseminated to Eurostat by the end of April each year.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

No discontinuities are observed due to changes in methodology.

Data on EW-MFA are compiled according to harmonised guidelines provided by Eurostat and hence are comparable across European countries reporting EW-MFA data to Eurostat.

Not applicable because physical imports and exports as recorded in EW-MFA are not specified by origin and/or destination.

Please see the table in 15.2.1.1.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Please use below table for explaining b)-flags (breaks in time series):

No coherence issues are reported.

Not applicable; reported EW-MFA data are only annual.

No coherence issues are reported.

No coherence issues are reported.

The cost and burden for the whole process of compiling the MFA  each year is about 450 person/hours.
Specifically, it's about 3 months of work for one person who is also attending to other work tasks.

A data revision policy is in place at CYSTAT. It is published on CYSTAT’s website.

Data if necessary is revised every year when the last reference year data are transmitted.

 The main revision observed in the 2024 reporting are:

1. Revision of MFA categories MF7.4.1 & MF7.4.2 in Table F for reference years 2019-2021. 

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Data sources used to produce economy-wide material flow accounts are described in the sub-concepts 18.1.1 (and Annex) and 18.1.2.

Please use Annex 1 to report the detailed data sources for questionnaire tables A, B, D, F and G.

 The RME tool was used.

Data are collected annually.

Data are collected from the Statistical Service, other Government bodies and enterprises for specific variables. For more information, see Annex 1.

Data are carefully examined after collection and compared to previous years' data collections. If the quality of data is unsatisfactory, the providers of the data are contacted and revised data are submitted, if possible. Otherwise, the part of the data which is of doubtful quality is identified and estimations are made to replace them, based on the rest of the data, on previous years' figures or other auxiliary sources.

Information about data compilation is described in 18.5 subcategories and annex 2. 

Not applicable.

Please use Annex 2 to describe estimation approaches for specific items.

Eurostat’s correspondence table, provided with the EW-MFA questionnaire, is used to assign traded goods to material categories.

The conversion factors from Eurostat´s EW-MFA compilation guide were applied to convert traded goods into tonnes. However, from 2011 onwards, the factors used to convert traded goods into tonnes for intra-EU trade, for CN codes 89020010, 89040010, 89071000, and 89079000 were estimated using information from the extra-EU trade since no factors are any longer given for intra-EU trade for these CN codes. Extra EU-trade has the information for both mass and the supplementary unit, giving us the possibility to produce factors for converting intra-EU traded goods for those codes into tonnes.

Exports: The fuels that are bunkered on the domestic territory by non–resident economic units (air and maritime transport) in Cyprus are already included as exports in foreign trade statistics; hence, the appropriate adjustments based on the residence principle have already been made. For land transport, adjustments for fuel purchased by non-resident units have been made, using several auxiliary data from energy statistics, the household budget survey and national accounts.

Imports: Adjustments for the fuels that are bunkered by resident units abroad (air and maritime transport) have been made. Fuel quantities for air transport from 2008-2014 were reported by only one of the two resident airlines, Cyprus Airways. The other one, Eurocypria, filed for bankruptcy and ceased all flights in November 2010, thus we did not have any contact point for reporting their fuels bunkered abroad. These missing amounts were estimated on the basis of the corresponding fuel quantities reported by Cyprus Airways, combined with energy statistics. In January 2015 Cyprus Airways also ceased operations, leaving Cyprus with no other national airlines for this year. After the dissolution of Cyprus Airways, two new local airlines were established and started operating during 2016 and another one in 2017. Several challenges were also encountered while making adjustments for fuel bunkered by resident maritime transport units. The main difficulty was in defining the population of resident shipping companies and finding relevant data. This is a complicated issue which needs to be further examined. The adjustment was based on the population of shipping resident companies answering to the annual structural survey of transport enterprises carried out by CYSTAT; these companies were requested to report the fuels bunkered. For fuels purchased by resident units abroad for land transport, no adjustments were made; this figure is considered negligible for a country like Cyprus which is an island, let alone the fact that no reliable information is available.

Several challenges were encountered while adapting basic statistics to the concepts of the accounts. Regarding the domestic extraction, the net mass of some specific crops like flowers, Christmas trees, ornamental and nurseries plants as well as seeds, seedlings and forest products was missing and appropriate factors needed to be established to convert these quantities into tonnes.  In addition, no data was available for grazed biomass in national agricultural statistics. 

Concerning trade, problems were encountered while making adjustments for the residence principle. The quantity of fuels bunkered by non-resident units on the national territory (for land transport) was not available. Furthermore, data regarding the amount of fuels bunkered by one of the two national air carriers abroad (for air transport) was missing since it filed for bankruptcy in 2010. The main difficulty while making adjustments for fuel bunkered by resident water transport units, was defining the population of resident shipping companies and finding relevant data. Moreover, the conversion factors for traded goods with CN codes 89040010, 89071000, 89079000 and 89020010 were not available from 2011 onwards.

Not applicable; i.e. in EW-MFA no time series adjustment necessary.

Not applicable.