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.
[IT1] National Institute of Statistics (Istat) (Italy)
1.2. Contact organisation unit
Business Statistics Directorate (DCSE)
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
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
17 April 2026
2.2. Metadata last posted
17 April 2026
2.3. Metadata last update
17 April 2026
3.1. Data description
Statistics on international supply of services (ISS) by modes of supply (MoS) show how and where services are supplied internationally, namely by answering the question of 'how' services are exchanged across countries and 'where' services are supplied to foreign customers. Detailed information on international supply of services statistics by services category, mode of supply and partner country help policymakers carry out the ongoing and future trade negotiating agenda with facts and strong, evidence-based arguments and they allow to monitor the impact of services trade agreements.
The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the first multilateral agreement to cover trade in services, defines trade in services as the supply of a service through any of four modes of supply, outlined in the bullet points below.
Mode 1 - cross-border supply: from the territory of one country into the territory of another country;
Mode 2 - consumption abroad: in the territory of one country to the service consumer of another country;
Mode 3 - commercial presence: by a service supplier of one country, through a commercial presence in the territory of another country. The FATS framework is designed to provide information on the activities of enterprises located in foreign markets;
Mode 4 - presence of natural persons: by a service supplier of one country, through the presence of natural persons of that country in the territory of any other country.
Total international supply of services (total of modes 1, 2, 3 and 4)
Mode 1 (‘cross border transactions’),
Mode 2 (‘consumption abroad’),
Mode 3 (‘commercial presence’), and
Mode 4 (‘presence of natural persons’).
3.5. Statistical unit
Not applicable.
3.6. Statistical population
Total international supply of services by all four modes of supply.
3.7. Reference area
Italy
3.8. Coverage - Time
2023 as first reference year
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Data are reported in national currency (thousands).
Eurostat disseminates data in million euro.
Calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics sets the data requirements in the field of international supply of services by modes for the EU Member States and EFTA countries. The exact technical specifications are listed in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197. The requirements concerning the MoS domain are defined in table 38 "Statistics on international activities – International Supply of Services by Mode of Supply – annual data" of the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197. The variable must be reported annually with first reference year 2023.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
At the national level, coordination between the Bank of Italy and Istat is established to manage the exchange of statistical data while respecting confidentiality
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.
In compiling MoS data, quality dimensions in terms of relevance, accuracy and timeliness, are taken into account
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Not applicable for the first reference year.
In general, according to the information available from the quality reports, the data providers have applied the recommendations available in the Regulation (EU) 2019/2152.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Policy makers (Ministry for Economic Development, Italian Trade Agency, etc.) and Enterprises.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not applicable
12.3. Completeness
Statistics on international trade in services by Modes of Supply are based on EU legislation which defines the list of all MOS mandatory data sets to be provided by Member States to Eurostat
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
100% for mandatory MOS dataset. This indicator represents to the ratio of the number of mandatory points provided to the total number of mandatory points required in a complete dataset.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The accuracy of the MOS data depends on the quality of data sources used
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable
13.3.1. Coverage error
Not applicable
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not applicable
13.3.2. Measurement error
Not applicable
13.3.3. Non response error
Not applicable.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.4. Processing error
Not applicable
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable
14.1. Timeliness
Annual MOS data are transmitted within 10 months after the reference period for MoS1, MoS2 and MoS4 and 22 months after the reference period for Mos3.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Not applicable.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
10 months and 22 months after the end of the reference period.
14.2. Punctuality
On time
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Not applicable.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Not applicable
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
For the time being not applicable.
MoS data is available from ref.year 2023.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Length of comparable time series (CC2) = 2.
MoS data is available from ref.year 2023.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Consistency with the annual International Trade in Services (ITSS) figures was ensured in the implementation of the MOS production process
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
100%
No additional burden on enterprises, since other statistical data are used.
17.1. Data revision - policy
MoS revisions are planned in the event of benchmark revisions or revisions due to conceptual and/or methodological changes.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Not applicable
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
Mods of Supply statistics are derived from two data sources: the annual International Trade in Services (ITSS) data, which are compiled from the transactions recorded in a country's Balance of Payments (BoP) and data from Foreign Affiliates Statistics (FATS)
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annual.
18.3. Data collection
In Italy, the ITSS is produced by the Bank of Italy and provided to Istat for the compilation of MoS tables. The collection and compilation of ITSS data used is a multi-source system. Most of the ITSS data are collected through business surveys and administrative records for the main items of EBOPS 2010. In addition, statistical models or accounting adjustments are used for some service items (e.g., manufacturing services using physical inputs owned by others, transport, insurance and pension services, and FISIM). For travel, an extensive frontier survey is carried out and integrated with mobile phone data.
Foreign AffiliaTes Statistics (FATS) is produced by Italian National Statistics Institute (Istat).
Inward FATS‘Inward statistics on foreign affiliates’ shall mean statistics describing the activity of foreign affiliates resident in the compiling economy. The statistical units are the enterprises and all branches, which are under foreign control. The target population as defined in the FATS-R comprises all enterprises and all branches under foreign control. It is a subset of the target population of Structural Business Statistics (SBS). Target populations of statistical and reporting units are equal in inward FATS, as data are collected directly from enterprises and branches on which information is needed.
Outward FATS ‘Outward statistics on foreign affiliates’ shall mean statistics describing the activity of foreign affiliates abroad controlled by the compiling economy. The statistical units are the enterprises and all branches abroad that are controlled by an institutional unit resident in the compiling economy. The target population of statistical units is composed of all foreign affiliates that are controlled by an institutional unit resident in the compiling country. The target population of reporting units contains all resident institutional units that control affiliates abroad.
18.4. Data validation
The main validation rules applied at national level are:
Intra-dataset checks: completeness of each dataset and uniqueness of records, validity of codes, validity of code combinations in the different dimensions;
Inter-dataset checks: consistency checks between datasets;
Intra-domain checks: check of the coherence between trade values from MOS datasets and values coming from International Trade in Services data.
18.5. Data compilation
The ITSS source is used to estimate the methods 1,2 and 4. The starting data base was taken from the Italian Balance of Payments (BoP) data on credit/debit disseminated by the Bank of Italy. Services trade flows by modes of supply, are estimated using the Eurostat Mos Model based on the MoS simplified allocation methodology from the UN Manual of Statistics of International Trade in Services (MSITS).
Relating the exclusion of goods from Travel under Mode 2, Italian Mode 2 data include only distribution services and exclude the value of goods.
Italian approach to remove the goods part from travel is based on Italian Tourism Satellite Accounts: the same distribution services share is applied per GEO5 and for Import and Export.
In the case of Mos 3 the main source is FATS data, the Inward data for imports and Outward data for exports, referring in both cases to the value of the output produced by the affiliates and sold on the territory where they are allocated. In the case of Outward data, the variable Turnover sold on the territory on which the company is located was used. In the case of Inward data it was necessary to estimate the Turnover/Output sold on Italian territory since in this case there is no such detail. The estimate was obtained using the information on the SBS questionnaire regarding the value of services exports to UE and Extra-UE countries. This operation was done at the micro level by identifying the companies present in Inward and SBS data. Once we have obtained in percentage terms how much of the turnover is sold in Italy, we then apply it at the maximum level of Nace detail.
To pass Inward/Outward data from Nace classification to Ebops codes, Supply Matrix (at basic prices) of Italian Nationa Accounts was used. This matrix, in addition to the conversion, also allows us to identify the secondary production of all activities that perform services product. In this way it was possible to find the quota for the SA/SB Ebops item.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
Not applicable
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
Not applicable.
Statistics on international supply of services (ISS) by modes of supply (MoS) show how and where services are supplied internationally, namely by answering the question of 'how' services are exchanged across countries and 'where' services are supplied to foreign customers. Detailed information on international supply of services statistics by services category, mode of supply and partner country help policymakers carry out the ongoing and future trade negotiating agenda with facts and strong, evidence-based arguments and they allow to monitor the impact of services trade agreements.
The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the first multilateral agreement to cover trade in services, defines trade in services as the supply of a service through any of four modes of supply, outlined in the bullet points below.
Mode 1 - cross-border supply: from the territory of one country into the territory of another country;
Mode 2 - consumption abroad: in the territory of one country to the service consumer of another country;
Mode 3 - commercial presence: by a service supplier of one country, through a commercial presence in the territory of another country. The FATS framework is designed to provide information on the activities of enterprises located in foreign markets;
Mode 4 - presence of natural persons: by a service supplier of one country, through the presence of natural persons of that country in the territory of any other country.
Total international supply of services (total of modes 1, 2, 3 and 4)
Mode 1 (‘cross border transactions’),
Mode 2 (‘consumption abroad’),
Mode 3 (‘commercial presence’), and
Mode 4 (‘presence of natural persons’).
Not applicable.
Total international supply of services by all four modes of supply.
Italy
Calendar year.
The accuracy of the MOS data depends on the quality of data sources used
Data are reported in national currency (thousands).
Eurostat disseminates data in million euro.
The ITSS source is used to estimate the methods 1,2 and 4. The starting data base was taken from the Italian Balance of Payments (BoP) data on credit/debit disseminated by the Bank of Italy. Services trade flows by modes of supply, are estimated using the Eurostat Mos Model based on the MoS simplified allocation methodology from the UN Manual of Statistics of International Trade in Services (MSITS).
Relating the exclusion of goods from Travel under Mode 2, Italian Mode 2 data include only distribution services and exclude the value of goods.
Italian approach to remove the goods part from travel is based on Italian Tourism Satellite Accounts: the same distribution services share is applied per GEO5 and for Import and Export.
In the case of Mos 3 the main source is FATS data, the Inward data for imports and Outward data for exports, referring in both cases to the value of the output produced by the affiliates and sold on the territory where they are allocated. In the case of Outward data, the variable Turnover sold on the territory on which the company is located was used. In the case of Inward data it was necessary to estimate the Turnover/Output sold on Italian territory since in this case there is no such detail. The estimate was obtained using the information on the SBS questionnaire regarding the value of services exports to UE and Extra-UE countries. This operation was done at the micro level by identifying the companies present in Inward and SBS data. Once we have obtained in percentage terms how much of the turnover is sold in Italy, we then apply it at the maximum level of Nace detail.
To pass Inward/Outward data from Nace classification to Ebops codes, Supply Matrix (at basic prices) of Italian Nationa Accounts was used. This matrix, in addition to the conversion, also allows us to identify the secondary production of all activities that perform services product. In this way it was possible to find the quota for the SA/SB Ebops item.
Mods of Supply statistics are derived from two data sources: the annual International Trade in Services (ITSS) data, which are compiled from the transactions recorded in a country's Balance of Payments (BoP) and data from Foreign Affiliates Statistics (FATS)
Annual.
Annual MOS data are transmitted within 10 months after the reference period for MoS1, MoS2 and MoS4 and 22 months after the reference period for Mos3.
