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.
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
Estonia
3.8. Coverage - Time
From reference year 2022. Experimental STEC datasets for Estonia are available for reference period 2013-2019.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Trade value in thousands of euros.
Number of enterprises.
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.
Chapter 6 of the Official Statistics Act describes national confidentiality policy and guarantees confidentiality to anyone who supplies data to the Statistics Estonia.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
To ensure that no confidential data is disseminated, confidential data is clearly flagged, when transmitting it to Eurostat. Before transmitting the data confidentiallity procedures are performed to ensure that the data comply with the confidentiality policy. If there are less than three (one or two) enterprises then the corresponding trade value is set as confidential. Secondary confidentiality is also applied with minimum loss of information. Inter-table checks are performed to make sure no confidential cells can be deduced between tables.
8.1. Release calendar
STEC data disseminated at national level
STEC data are disseminated at the national level in the public database of the Statistics Estonia. The data are disseminated on the annual basis 9 months after the end of the reference year.
8.2. Release calendar access
STEC data disseminated at national level
Release calendar for national dissemination can be accessed on the webpage of Statistics Estonia.
8.3. Release policy - user access
STEC data disseminated at national level
Users can access disseminated STEC data in public database free of charge. The time of publication can be found in the release calendar
Annual.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
STEC data disseminated at national level
No news release on national level.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
STEC data disseminated at national level
No publications on national level.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
STEC data disseminated at national level
STEC data are disseminated at the national level in the public database of the Statistics Estonia. STEC datasets can be found in database navigation tree: Economy - Foreign trade - Foreign trade in services
Statistics Estonia ensures completeness and accuracy of STEC data. Quality assurance principles are described in Quality Policy of Statistics Estonia.
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 12% of the dataset was flagged as confidential.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
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. At the national level the most important users of STEC data in the public sector in Estonia are Eesti Pank, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, Ministry of Rural Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Finance.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Feedback from main users of STEC data at the national level indicates a good level of satisfaction as regards the data coverage and indicators available
12.3. Completeness
International trade in services statistics by enterprise characteristics are based on the EU legislation which is directly applicable in the EU Member States. Regulations include a clear and precise list of all the STEC mandatory datasets to be provided by the Member States to Eurostat.
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
The accuracy is tackled at national and European levels, by eliminating as much as possible the non-sampling errors. It should be noted that the accuracy of STEC data depends not only on the accuracy of trade in services statistics but also on the quality of the trade and business registers.
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
From reference period 2022:
Annual data by enterprise characteristics shall be provided by the reporting countries to Eurostat no later than 18 months after the end of the reference year.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Not applicable.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Not applicable.
14.2. Punctuality
Estonia has transmitted STEC data to Eurostat according to the legal transmission deadline.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Data are comparable since reference year 2022.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Not applicable.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Information on trade flows can be found in the aggregated and detailed trade in services statistics (ITSS). Enterprise characteristcs are also available for Trade in Goods by Enterprise Characteristics (TEC) domain.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
The internal coherence of the STEC datasets is ensured by the intra- and inter-dataset checks carried out by Statistics Estonia before any STEC data dissemination to Eurostat.
For the compilation of STEC data, we estimate our time consuming at approximately 250 hours (in round figures). Most of it goes to data linking and to determining the confidentiality of the data.
It is very difficult to assess the burden on respondents because no data is collected exclusively for STEC purposes. Source data (ITSS survey, Business Register data, etc.) can be considered administrative data from the STEC point of view.
17.1. Data revision - policy
No revision policy has been implemented regarding the STEC data transmitted to Eurostat.
17.2. Data revision - practice
So far, there have not been any revisions regarding the STEC data transmitted to Eurostat.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
International trade in services statistics by enterprise characteristics are derived from :
International trade in services data collected with ITSS survey as the main source.
The Business Register data that is linked with the foreign trade of services data.
Note that missing data are estimated by the Statistics Estonia in order to disseminate trade in services data covering 100% of the trade. Estimations are made on enterprise level and are part of STEC data.
The national Business Register serve as the sources for the enterprise characteristics. No samples are drawn from the register, but the full register are processed.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
ITSS data
The source data are collected on a quarterly basis.
Business Register
Updated following the national updating policy.
STEC data
Annual
18.3. Data collection
ITSS data are collected by Statistics Estonia with ITSS survey on a quarterly basis.
18.4. Data validation
ITSS data is validated and corrected by Statistics Estonia.
STEC datasets are validated by varios intra- and inter datasets checks before data transmission to Eurostat.
18.5. Data compilation
Statistics Estonia matches trade in services data from ITSS survey to the Business Register data using Estonian Business Registration code, and then aggregates the data to enterprise level in order to produce the relevant STEC tables.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
Not applicable
18.6. Adjustment
So far there have not been any adjustments to the compiled STEC data.
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
Not applicable.
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.
Estonia
Calendar year.
The accuracy is tackled at national and European levels, by eliminating as much as possible the non-sampling errors. It should be noted that the accuracy of STEC data depends not only on the accuracy of trade in services statistics but also on the quality of the trade and business registers.
Trade value in thousands of euros.
Number of enterprises.
Statistics Estonia matches trade in services data from ITSS survey to the Business Register data using Estonian Business Registration code, and then aggregates the data to enterprise level in order to produce the relevant STEC tables.
International trade in services statistics by enterprise characteristics are derived from :
International trade in services data collected with ITSS survey as the main source.
The Business Register data that is linked with the foreign trade of services data.
Note that missing data are estimated by the Statistics Estonia in order to disseminate trade in services data covering 100% of the trade. Estimations are made on enterprise level and are part of STEC data.
The national Business Register serve as the sources for the enterprise characteristics. No samples are drawn from the register, but the full register are processed.
Annual.
From reference period 2022:
Annual data by enterprise characteristics shall be provided by the reporting countries to Eurostat no later than 18 months after the end of the reference year.
