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.
DS 50 data compilation and dissemination of external statistics
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
Wilhelm-Epstein-Str. 14
60431 Frankfurt
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
26 August 2024
2.2. Metadata last posted
26 August 2024
2.3. Metadata last update
26 August 2024
3.1. Data description
Services Trade by Enterprise Characteristics (STEC) statistics provide information on the types of enterprises engaged in international trade in services and show how enterprises in different industries supply services and how this relates to their primary activity. STEC disclose additional insights into trade statistics, by allowing the profiling of the enterprises according to selected characteristics such as number of employees, type of ownership and economic activity.
A+B - Agriculture, forestry, and fishing; mining and quarrying,
D+E - Electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply; water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities,
I+L+O+P+Q+R+S+T+U - Accommodation and food service activities; real estate activities; public administration, defence; compulsory social security; education; human health and social work activities; other services.
NACE Sections:
C - Manufacturing,
F - Construction,
G - Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles,
H - Transportation and storage,
J - Information and communication,
K - Financial and insurance activities,
M - Professional, scientific, and technical activities,
N - Administrative and support service activities.
1. Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others
2. Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.
3. Transport
4. Travel
5. Construction
6. Insurance and pension services
7. Financial services
8. Charges for the use of intellectual property n.i.e.
9. Telecommunications, computer, and information services
10. Other business services
10.1. Research and development services
10.2. Professional and management consulting services
10.3. Technical, trade-related, and other business services
11. Personal, cultural and recreational services
12. Government goods and services, n.i.e.
3.5. Statistical unit
Enterprise.
3.6. Statistical population
The activity breakdown covers NACE sections from A to U.
The product breakdown covers EBOPS 2010 main items.
3.7. Reference area
Germany
3.8. Coverage - Time
From 2022 onwards.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
The data are presented in thousands of 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 services trade by enterprise characteristics for the EU Member States and EFTA countries. The exact technical specifications are listed in the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197, table 17 "Country-level business statistics on trade in services by enterprise characteristics (STEC) – annual data".
The variable must be reported annually with first reference year 2022.
The importance of the quality of statistical data is emphasised and promoted throughout the Bundesbank. A commitment to compiling and disseminating high-quality statistics, considered fundamental to well-founded economic decision-making as sound forecasting, is communicated to the public through relevant publications, the Bundesbank’s website, as well as in public speeches or statements.
As a member of the ESCB, the Bundesbank shares the mission, strategic intent, and organisational principles of the ESCB, which are laid down in the public commitment statements on European statistics. In short, and in line with the Eurosystem Mission Statement, ESCB Statistics are governed by a set of principles referring to the ESCB´s institutional environment, statistical processes and statistical output. Amongst other things, these principles highlight the importance that the ESCB attaches to credibility, trust, transparency, and accountability in fulfilling its tasks. The mission statement, strategic intent, and organisational principles of the Eurosystem are distributed to all staff and are published by all ESCB members.
Staff training in statistics, both through formal courses and on-the-job training, highlights the importance of data quality.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Eurostat assessed the completeness and accessibility of the 2023 dataset by evaluating the proportion of mandatory cells reported and the extent of confidentiality.
All mandatory cells across all tables were fully reported (100%), while approximately 26% of the dataset was flagged as confidential.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Not applicable
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not applicable
12.3. Completeness
Statistics on international trade in services by enterprise characteristics are based on EU legislation which defines the list of all STEC mandatory data sets to be provided by Member States to Eurostat.
The data sets are complete.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
100% for mandatory STEC datasets. This indicator corresponds to the ratio of the number of datasets provided to the number of datasets required.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Codes are used where base data for ITSS involve accounting items. They cannot be allocated to companies and therefore the “not allocated” code is used.
13.2. Sampling error
Basedata are not collected with a survey, therefore no sampling error
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Collection system covers all transactions above 12,500 €, estimations for transactions below the threshold are applied where necessary.
13.3.1. Coverage error
Collection system covers all transactions above 12,500 €, estimations for transactions below the threshold are applied where necessary.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not applicable
13.3.2. Measurement error
Not available
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 available
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not available
14.1. Timeliness
STEC statistics are calculated annually for reference year T-2.
Data collection takes place monthly at t+2 weeks after the end of the month
Data transmission to Eurostat takes place at t+18 months.
Data are published nationally end of July
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
t+20 months
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
t+20 months
14.2. Punctuality
Data was delivered on time.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Not applicable.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
STEC data are compiled in accordance with the methodology set out in Regulation (EU) 2019/2152, ensuring a high degree of geographical comparability across reporting countries.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
2022 to the current period
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Starting with 2022
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Data are coherent to BoP services but with a data vintage.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
All STEC tables (STEC01, STEC02, STEC03) are internally consistent.
STEC only uses existing data. Costs are only internal.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Data are not revised.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Data are not revised.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
Services collected due to EU-Regulation 184/2005 and business register of the Federal Statistical Office.
International trade in service statistics
Germany’s statistics on international trade in services are collected by the Deutsche Bundesbank in order to compile Germany’s balance of payments statistics. Service transactions between German residents and non-residents that exceed euro 12,500 or its equivalent in another currency must be reported to the Deutsche Bundesbank. The reporting requirement applies to German firms including banks, as well as to individuals and public authorities.
STEC data is based on the annual international trade in service statistics of the reference year.
Business Register
Statistical purposes of the BR:
The detection and construction of statistical units.
Tool for the preparation and coordination of surveys and for grossing-up survey results.
Source for statistics and analysis of business population and its demography.
Mobilisation of administrative data.
Integration and dissemination tool.
The BR contains information on:
identification characteristics (identity number, name, address, value added tax etc.);
demographic characteristics (date of commencing and cessation of activities);
economic/stratification characteristics (economic activity, number of employees, number of persons employed, turnover etc.);
characteristics associated with the control and ownership relations between units (identity number of resident legal unit, country of registration, etc.);
links with other registers (reference to the register of intra-Community operators, etc.).
STEC data is based on the annual BR of the reference year.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Source data BOP: monthly
Source data Business Register: annual
compilation of STEC data: annual
18.3. Data collection
STEC only uses existing data.
International trade in service statistics
Information is collected directly from the trader including estimations for specific service items like travel and transactions below the reporting threshold and non-responses.
Business Register
Based on the use of administrative data.
18.4. Data validation
International trade in service statistics
External sector reporting data are assessed by the Primary Datacollection Division in the Central Office (for large reporting subjects) and by the Service Center for External Statistics (for small and medium-sized reporting subjects). Several validation procedures and plausibility checks are in place both at the individual data level and at the aggregated level.
lnitially, all incoming electronic reports are checked for comprehensiveness and formal consistency. Non response is assessed by comparing expectation value derived from the reporting history of single respondents. Reporting gaps are traced by monitoring available information about large. There are procedures installed to identify double reports and systematic errors as well as to verify cancellation-reports.
For each reporting subject an identification code is assigned
The reports are then stored on an individual respondent basis in the primary database
Business register
Business register data is validated by the Federal Statistical Office
STEC
An important component is the validation of the matching process, ensuring, among other things, that no duplicates of matching units have occurred. Additionally, sum checks are carried out to ensure that the international trade in service data has not been altered.
18.5. Data compilation
The following steps are carried out:
Compilation of International trade in service data by adjusting also for trade below the threshold and including estimations for certain service items. The reporting unit is the legal unit
Selecting the active legal units from the business register.
Linking of both data sources. As there is no common identifier a deterministic linking procedure is used using the information of the name, address and the details of the commercial register. In order to improve the matching rate, the matching variables are prepared and cleaned.
Linking the legal units to the enterprise unit as provided by the Business Register
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
0
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
Not applicable.
No comments.
Services Trade by Enterprise Characteristics (STEC) statistics provide information on the types of enterprises engaged in international trade in services and show how enterprises in different industries supply services and how this relates to their primary activity. STEC disclose additional insights into trade statistics, by allowing the profiling of the enterprises according to selected characteristics such as number of employees, type of ownership and economic activity.
A+B - Agriculture, forestry, and fishing; mining and quarrying,
D+E - Electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply; water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities,
I+L+O+P+Q+R+S+T+U - Accommodation and food service activities; real estate activities; public administration, defence; compulsory social security; education; human health and social work activities; other services.
NACE Sections:
C - Manufacturing,
F - Construction,
G - Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles,
H - Transportation and storage,
J - Information and communication,
K - Financial and insurance activities,
M - Professional, scientific, and technical activities,
N - Administrative and support service activities.
1. Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others
2. Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.
3. Transport
4. Travel
5. Construction
6. Insurance and pension services
7. Financial services
8. Charges for the use of intellectual property n.i.e.
9. Telecommunications, computer, and information services
10. Other business services
10.1. Research and development services
10.2. Professional and management consulting services
10.3. Technical, trade-related, and other business services
11. Personal, cultural and recreational services
12. Government goods and services, n.i.e.
Enterprise.
The activity breakdown covers NACE sections from A to U.
The product breakdown covers EBOPS 2010 main items.
Germany
Calendar year.
Codes are used where base data for ITSS involve accounting items. They cannot be allocated to companies and therefore the “not allocated” code is used.
The data are presented in thousands of Euro.
The following steps are carried out:
Compilation of International trade in service data by adjusting also for trade below the threshold and including estimations for certain service items. The reporting unit is the legal unit
Selecting the active legal units from the business register.
Linking of both data sources. As there is no common identifier a deterministic linking procedure is used using the information of the name, address and the details of the commercial register. In order to improve the matching rate, the matching variables are prepared and cleaned.
Linking the legal units to the enterprise unit as provided by the Business Register
Services collected due to EU-Regulation 184/2005 and business register of the Federal Statistical Office.
International trade in service statistics
Germany’s statistics on international trade in services are collected by the Deutsche Bundesbank in order to compile Germany’s balance of payments statistics. Service transactions between German residents and non-residents that exceed euro 12,500 or its equivalent in another currency must be reported to the Deutsche Bundesbank. The reporting requirement applies to German firms including banks, as well as to individuals and public authorities.
STEC data is based on the annual international trade in service statistics of the reference year.
Business Register
Statistical purposes of the BR:
The detection and construction of statistical units.
Tool for the preparation and coordination of surveys and for grossing-up survey results.
Source for statistics and analysis of business population and its demography.
Mobilisation of administrative data.
Integration and dissemination tool.
The BR contains information on:
identification characteristics (identity number, name, address, value added tax etc.);
demographic characteristics (date of commencing and cessation of activities);
economic/stratification characteristics (economic activity, number of employees, number of persons employed, turnover etc.);
characteristics associated with the control and ownership relations between units (identity number of resident legal unit, country of registration, etc.);
links with other registers (reference to the register of intra-Community operators, etc.).
STEC data is based on the annual BR of the reference year.
Annual.
STEC statistics are calculated annually for reference year T-2.
Data collection takes place monthly at t+2 weeks after the end of the month
Data transmission to Eurostat takes place at t+18 months.
Data are published nationally end of July
STEC data are compiled in accordance with the methodology set out in Regulation (EU) 2019/2152, ensuring a high degree of geographical comparability across reporting countries.
