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.
Statistics on Production and Foreign Trade Division (SEB)
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
Via Tuscolana, 1788 00173 Rome Italy
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
11 August 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
11 August 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
11 August 2025
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 various industries supply and purchase 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.
STEC data are grouped into three tables, each one focusing on a specific aspect:
1. Services trade by activity sector and enterprise size class shows the contributions of economic activities and size classes (measured by the number of employees and self-employed) to total trade. This makes it possible to analyze the impact of international trade in services on employment and the importance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
2. Services trade by activity sector and type of product shows which enterprises in different industries buy and supply the different types of services and how this relates to their primary activity, which may also be the production of goods.
3. Services trade by activity sector and type of ownership shows how foreign or domestic enterprises are involved in trade in services and thus the role of multinational companies in shaping globalization.
For more details on the concepts and definitions, please see section "3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions".
3.3. Coverage - sector
Total exports or imports of services, traded between residents and non-residents.
NACE Rev.2 sections A to U.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
The statistical concepts used in STEC are defined in the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197.
Services are the outcome of production activities that alter the conditions of the consuming units or facilitate the exchange of products or financial assets. Unlike tangible goods, services cannot typically be separated from their production process, nor can ownership rights be established over them. Exports and imports of services refer to the exchange of services between residents and non-residents, with their value determined at market prices.
In the STEC datasets the exports and imports of services are broken down by:
Geographical breakdown, which is the country or area where the counterpart unit is resident.
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.
Size class, which is the size class (in terms of number of employees and self-employed persons) to which the resident trading enterprise belongs;
The number of employees and self-employed persons is the sum of the Number of employees and Number of self- employed persons.
The number of employees refers to the number of those persons who were, at some time during the reference period, employees of the statistical unit and who have a contract of employment and receive compensation in the form of wages, salaries, fees, gratuities, piecework pay or remuneration in kind. A worker is considered to be a wage or salary earner of a particular unit if he receives a wage or salary from the unit regardless of where the work is done (in or outside the production unit). The number of self-employed persons is the average number of persons who were at some time during the reference period the sole owners or joint owners of the statistical unit in which they work (one that has not been incorporated i.e. formed into a legal corporation). Family workers and outworkers whose income is a function of the value of the outputs of the statistical unit are also included.
Type of ownership. In the context of STEC data, the type of ownership refers to control and enterprise affiliation. 'Control' means the capacity to determine the general policy of an enterprise, including the ability to appoint the most appropriate directors. An institutional unit A is considered to be controlled by another institutional unit B when the latter holds, directly or indirectly, more than half of the voting rights or more than half of the equity shares. The type of control is relevant for delineating and categorising enterprise groups. The categorisation required for STEC is as follows:
Domestically-controlled enterprises, which are ultimately controlled by a resident unit and are further subdivided into: “nationally controlled enterprises without foreign affiliates” and “nationally controlled enterprises with foreign affiliates”.
Foreign-controlled enterprises are those resident in the compiling country over which an ultimate controlling institutional unit not resident in the compiling country has control.
3.5. Statistical unit
The basic unit is the legal unit. This is linked to the business register using the VAT/Fiscal ID as a unique identifier in order to produce STEC data.
3.6. Statistical population
Total exports or imports of services, traded between residents and non-residents
The activity breakdown covers NACE sections from A to U.
The product breakdown covers EBOPS 2010 main items.
3.7. Reference area
Italy
3.8. Coverage - Time
2023
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) 2019/2152on 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 first reference year for data reporting under the above regulations is 2022.
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.
Moreover, according to the article n. 9 of the Legislative Decree n. 322 of 6 September 1989 data collected by statistical offices within the statistical surveys included in the National Statistical Programme may not be disclosed other than in aggregated form such that no reference to identifiable people can be extracted. Furthermore, they may be used only for statistical purposes. Data may not be communicated or disseminated neither to any external subject, public or private, nor to any department of the public administration other than in aggregate form and using modalities which prevent the identification of the people involved. In any case, data cannot be used to identify again the people involved. The Code of Conduct annexed to the Legislative Decree no. 196 of 30 June 2003 (Personal Data Protection Code) and Legislative Decree no. 101 of 19 September 2018 (General Data Protection Regulation) provide special rules concerning the processing of personal data for statistical purposes within Sistan.
In order to make statistical confidentiality and protection of personal data effective, Istat is currently taking appropriate organisational, logistical, methodological and statistical measures in accordance with internationally established standards.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
The Italian National Statistical System applies the active criteria for all business statistics.
For STEC statistics, the threshold rule (i.e. the criterion of the number of enterprises for which the dissemination cells with less than a pre-specified threshold enterprises are suppressed) is systematically used to determine the confidentiality cells.
The same criterion is applied for each data set.
Secondary confidentiality is applied. The solution is to maintain the higher level aggregates, if possible, by treating another cell as secondary confidential.
In compiling STEC data, quality dimensions in terms of relevance, accuracy and timeliness, are taken into account.
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 4% of the dataset was flagged as confidential.
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 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.
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 of the STEC data depends on the accuracy of the linkage between trade in services microdata and business registers and on the quality of these data sources.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Problems with the accuracy of STEC data may arise from issues related to the collection and compilation of detailed trade in services statistics and the management of business registers.
Data linkage problems need to be carefully addressed (e.g. invalid ID number, demographic changes of enterprises, missing or estimated data).
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 STEC data are released 18 months after the reference period.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Not applicable.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Not applicable.
14.2. Punctuality
On time
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Not applicable.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
From a methodological point of view, the comparability across countries is ensured by the implementation of the concepts and definitions set up by the EU legislation and by the application of the complementary guidelines provided by the European business statistics compilers’ manual for international trade in services statistics – trade by enterprise characteristics (STEC).
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
From 2023 onwards, the sample design used to calculate the ITSS changed to provide a more accurate estimate of STEC statistics. This had an impact on the distribution of the 2023 STEC data, which partly explains the difference in distribution compared to the 2022 data.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
For the time being not applicable
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
The implementation of the STEC production process was designed to be consistent with the annual ITSS figures.
For the 2023 reference year and the 2022 revision, the ITSS vintage used for the STEC calculations is September 2024. The STEC and annual ITSS data are fully consistent.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
The 2022 STEC statistics were updated based on the September 2024 version of the ITSS, which included the impact of the National Accounts benchmark.
15.4. Coherence - internal
100%
No additional burden on enterprises, since other statistical and administrative data are used.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Data is revised for the previous reference year and, in exceptional cases, up to two previous reference years, due to significant revisions in the ITSS domain.
17.2. Data revision - practice
According to the revision's policy, the 2022 STEC statistics were revised based on the September 2024 version of the annual ITSS. The 2023 STEC statistics will be revised in line with the annual ITSS revision.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
Trade in services by enterprise characteristics is 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 business registers.
The system of national business registers is used as source for enterprise characteristics. Samples are not taken from the registers, but the complete registers are processed.
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 STEC 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.
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 STEC datasets and values coming from trade in services data.
18.5. Data compilation
STEC is compiled by linking micro data on international trade in services with the national system of business registers (BRs) in order to derive the structural characteristics of the enterprises involved (not all trade in services can be directly linked, this is particularly the case for: travel services; financial services (FISIM) and transport services).
The information available at the enterprise level is linked to the BRs to derive three enterprise dimensions: activity of the enterprise, size class of employment and type of ownership.
The use of a common identifier in the BRs makes it possible to link the different sources.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
Not applicable
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable
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 various industries supply and purchase 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.
STEC data are grouped into three tables, each one focusing on a specific aspect:
1. Services trade by activity sector and enterprise size class shows the contributions of economic activities and size classes (measured by the number of employees and self-employed) to total trade. This makes it possible to analyze the impact of international trade in services on employment and the importance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
2. Services trade by activity sector and type of product shows which enterprises in different industries buy and supply the different types of services and how this relates to their primary activity, which may also be the production of goods.
3. Services trade by activity sector and type of ownership shows how foreign or domestic enterprises are involved in trade in services and thus the role of multinational companies in shaping globalization.
11 August 2025
The statistical concepts used in STEC are defined in the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197.
Services are the outcome of production activities that alter the conditions of the consuming units or facilitate the exchange of products or financial assets. Unlike tangible goods, services cannot typically be separated from their production process, nor can ownership rights be established over them. Exports and imports of services refer to the exchange of services between residents and non-residents, with their value determined at market prices.
In the STEC datasets the exports and imports of services are broken down by:
Geographical breakdown, which is the country or area where the counterpart unit is resident.
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.
Size class, which is the size class (in terms of number of employees and self-employed persons) to which the resident trading enterprise belongs;
The number of employees and self-employed persons is the sum of the Number of employees and Number of self- employed persons.
The number of employees refers to the number of those persons who were, at some time during the reference period, employees of the statistical unit and who have a contract of employment and receive compensation in the form of wages, salaries, fees, gratuities, piecework pay or remuneration in kind. A worker is considered to be a wage or salary earner of a particular unit if he receives a wage or salary from the unit regardless of where the work is done (in or outside the production unit). The number of self-employed persons is the average number of persons who were at some time during the reference period the sole owners or joint owners of the statistical unit in which they work (one that has not been incorporated i.e. formed into a legal corporation). Family workers and outworkers whose income is a function of the value of the outputs of the statistical unit are also included.
Type of ownership. In the context of STEC data, the type of ownership refers to control and enterprise affiliation. 'Control' means the capacity to determine the general policy of an enterprise, including the ability to appoint the most appropriate directors. An institutional unit A is considered to be controlled by another institutional unit B when the latter holds, directly or indirectly, more than half of the voting rights or more than half of the equity shares. The type of control is relevant for delineating and categorising enterprise groups. The categorisation required for STEC is as follows:
Domestically-controlled enterprises, which are ultimately controlled by a resident unit and are further subdivided into: “nationally controlled enterprises without foreign affiliates” and “nationally controlled enterprises with foreign affiliates”.
Foreign-controlled enterprises are those resident in the compiling country over which an ultimate controlling institutional unit not resident in the compiling country has control.
The basic unit is the legal unit. This is linked to the business register using the VAT/Fiscal ID as a unique identifier in order to produce STEC data.
Total exports or imports of services, traded between residents and non-residents
The activity breakdown covers NACE sections from A to U.
The product breakdown covers EBOPS 2010 main items.
Italy
Calendar year.
The accuracy of the STEC data depends on the accuracy of the linkage between trade in services microdata and business registers and on the quality of these data sources.
The data are presented in thousands of Euro.
STEC is compiled by linking micro data on international trade in services with the national system of business registers (BRs) in order to derive the structural characteristics of the enterprises involved (not all trade in services can be directly linked, this is particularly the case for: travel services; financial services (FISIM) and transport services).
The information available at the enterprise level is linked to the BRs to derive three enterprise dimensions: activity of the enterprise, size class of employment and type of ownership.
The use of a common identifier in the BRs makes it possible to link the different sources.
Trade in services by enterprise characteristics is 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 business registers.
The system of national business registers is used as source for enterprise characteristics. Samples are not taken from the registers, but the complete registers are processed.
Annual.
Annual STEC data are released 18 months after the reference period.
From a methodological point of view, the comparability across countries is ensured by the implementation of the concepts and definitions set up by the EU legislation and by the application of the complementary guidelines provided by the European business statistics compilers’ manual for international trade in services statistics – trade by enterprise characteristics (STEC).
From 2023 onwards, the sample design used to calculate the ITSS changed to provide a more accurate estimate of STEC statistics. This had an impact on the distribution of the 2023 STEC data, which partly explains the difference in distribution compared to the 2022 data.
