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.
Business Statistics Data Analysis and Dissemination Section,
Business Statistics Data Processing Section
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
Lāčplēša iela 1, Rīga, LV-1010
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
29 August 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
29 August 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
29 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 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
Latvia
3.8. Coverage - Time
Data are available since 2020
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 reported annually with first reference year 2020.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Confidentiality of individual data is protected by Statistics Law:
Section 7. Competence of the Statistical Institution in Production of Official Statistics
(2) The statistical institution shall:
8) ensure statistical confidentiality in accordance with the procedures laid down in this Law;
Section 17. Data Processing and Statistical Confidentiality
Section 19. Dissemination of Official Statistics
(1) The statistical institution shall disseminate official statistics in a way that does not allow either directly or indirectly identify a private individual or a State institution in cases other than those laid down in Section 25 of this Law.
(2) The statistical institution shall publish the official statistics which have been produced within the framework of the Official Statistics Programme in a publicly available form and by a predetermined deadline on the portal of official statistics. Until the moment of publication of official statistics this statistics shall not be published.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
The primary confidentiality rules:
indicator of the aggregates is obtained from one, two or three statistical units;
proportion of one statistical unit in the respective indicator accounts for 80% and more;
total proportion of two statistical units accounts for 90% or more.
Secondary confidentiality
To ensure protection of aggregated data, secondary confidentiality is applied to supress additional cells, thus protecting primary confidential cells. We select secondary confidential cells to provide adequate protection while minimizing information loss.
In order to encourage deeper analysis of statistical information and its use in research, the CSB provides access to anonymized individual statistical information for scientific purposes, in the meantime strictly observing the principles of confidentiality.
CSB has introduced Quality Management System (QMS). The system is directed towards providing high user satisfaction and ensuring compliance with regulatory enactments. Based on the structure of Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM), QMS defines and at the level of procedures describes processes of statistical production as well as sets the persons responsible for the monitoring of processes at all stages of the statistical production. QMS defines the sequence how processes are implemented (i.e., activities to be performed (incl. verifications of processes and statistics, sequence and implementation requirements thereof, as well as persons responsible for the implementation)), procedures used in the evaluation of processes and statistics, as well as any improvements needed.
Since 2018, QMS of the CSB has been certified by the standard ISO 9001:2015 “Quality Management Systems. Requirements” (certified scope: Production of official statistics – planning, development, data acquisition, processing, analysis and dissemination).
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Quality of statistics is assessed in accordance with the existing requirements of external and internal regulatory enactments and in accordance with the established quality criteria.
Regulation (EC) no 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European statistics states that European Statistics shall be developed, produced and disseminated on the basis of uniform standards and of harmonised methods. In this respect, the following quality criteria shall apply: relevance, accuracy, timeliness, punctuality, accessibility, clarity, comparability and coherence.
CSB, as the governing body of the national statistical system, has determined common general (institutional level) quality requirements for statistical institutions of Latvia, applying European Statistics Code of Practice. The 16 principles of the European Statistics Code of Practice.
Overall assessment of data quality is good.
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 21% of the dataset was flagged as confidential.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
External users:
Ministry of Economics – STEC export and import breakdowns (NACE, size classes)
Investment and Development Agency of Latvia - STEC export breakdowns (NACE, size classes)
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
The mission of the CSB is to provide users of statistical information with independent high-quality official statistics for decision-making, research and discussions.
Users can provide the opinion on data quality to e-mail: pasts@csp.gov.lv. This option is public and displayed in each metadata description of specific indicators.
A survey related to the user's satisfaction regarding the availability and the quality of the data used was not organised.
An indicator of the usefulness of STEC is the number of downloads of STEC tables from the website Official Statistics of Latvia.
Number of downloads of STEC tables in 2024
SPT010
Services trade by enterprise characteristics (STEC) and by size class according to the number of employees (thousand euro)2020 - 2023
141
SPT020
Services trade by enterprise characteristics (STEC) and by product (thousand euro)2020 - 2023
219
SPT030
Services trade by enterprise characteristics (STEC) by type of ownership (thousand euro)2020 - 2023
24
12.3. Completeness
The data are available in accordance with the requirements of the legal acts.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
Not applicable.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Not applicable.
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 STEC data are reported 18 months after the end of the reference period.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Not applicable.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Annual STEC data are reported 18 months after the end of the reference period.
Final STEC data are nationally disseminated in July every year.
14.2. Punctuality
The data is prepared, transmitted and published according to the plan.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Not applicable.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The data are comparable with the data of other European Union countries.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Not applicable.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Data are available since 2020.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
The data is consisting with the Structural Business Statistics (SBS) and Foreign Affiliates Statistics (FATS).
The attribution of foreign ownership within STEC is fully consistent with FATS.
In STEC tables, the same concept of UCI is applied to the control of enterprises. If UCI is domestic, then the enterprise is domestic. If the UCI is foreign, then the enterprise is foreign-controlled.
The data in the database have been published based on the detailed records of annual services statistics (ITS) published by the Bank of Latvia (based on EBOPS 2010).
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 consistency of the data (links between variables, coherence between data series) are checked before data are sending to Eurostat.
In line with the strategic directions of the European Statistics System and latest trends in statistical production, continuous use of information acquired in regular CSB surveys and proportionate reduction of the response burden are among the key CSB priorities.
In cooperation with holders of administrative data and in line with the competences provided for in the Statistics Law, CSB is striving to solve the issues related to the use of administrative data sources, thus aiming to acquire as comprehensive and high-quality administrative data allowing to reduce response burden on enterprises and households as possible.
CSB measures to improve use of administrative data and reduce response burden taken in 2024 (in Latvian only).
For the STEC data compilation the existing national statistical data sources are used without increasing the burden to the respondents.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Revision Policy is an important component of good governance practice addressed more and more often in the international statistical society. The objective of the Revision Policy is to lay down the order of review or revision of the prepared and published data. The first chapter of the present document explains the terms applied in the Revision Policy, the second chapter shortly characterises the CSB Revision Policy, whereas the third chapter stipulates the revision cycle of the statistical data produced by the CSB.
STEC data for the period before 2022 are final and will not be changed.
The annual STEC data are validated and published, together with revisions for previous year.
Updats/re-transmission of the 2023 STEC data will be reported in June 2026.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
Latvijas Banka (The Bank of Latvia) collects data about the international trade of services for balance of payments purposes. Latvijas Banka is responsible for the compilation and dissemination of international trade of services statistics (ITSS). The ITSS detailed data on enterprise level is transmitted to Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia for the compilation of STEC data.
The trade of services data contains the following indicators:
Reference year
Registration code (ID)
Trade flow (Export, Import)
Balance of payments code
Balance of payments description
Country code (Partner country)
Currency code
Value
2. The Statistical Business Register (SBR) maintained by Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia and contains various indicators about enterprises.
Following variables for STEC are included in SBR:
Unique Identification Number
Economic activity (NACE code)
Size of enterprise (Number of employees and self-employed persons)
Type of ownership (Code of the ownership and legal form)
3. The FATS statistics is the main source for information on type of ownership, but if those data are not available, the Business Register is the alternative source.
4. Structural Business Statistics (SBS) data contain size class, that are also used applied when STEC data are compiled.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annual.
18.3. Data collection
Data on the exports and imports of services are received from the Latvijas Banka are received via an FTP-server.
18.4. Data validation
The following validation rules are applied before the data transmission to Eurostat:
completeness checks (data integrity rules);
validity checks (internal consistency). On an aggregated level, STEC and ITSS sum up to the same totals.
Before data transmission to Eurostat, the data are checked using Eurostat provided validation service.
18.5. Data compilation
Statistics is compiled by types of activity according to NACE Rev. 2, by size classes according to the number of persons employed, products (EBOPS 2010) and type of control.
Direct linking to statistical business register is done by the unique identification numbers of the enterprises.
STEC datasets were compiled following the EBOPS classification. Therefore it was necessary to convert source data based on BPM classification to EBOPS categories. Correspondence table was used to convert data.
However, for some reason not all enterprises in the ITS can be successfully linked with the SBR and the FATS. This is partly because the ITS is drawn at a certain point in time, which means that some of the enterprises in the ITS could have expired and are therefore not in the SBR anymore. For the FATS, the main reason for non-linking is the threshold in the SBR, that defines enterprises in the ITS as non-active enterprises, which means that they will not be in the FATS.
Micro linking of services traders with the SBR provided some challenges. It was not possible to link directly entities like tourists and private individuals, non-residents, some government institutions, financial mediation and investment funds with the SBR.
Another problem occurred when the linking of trader was successful but some indicators were missing from the SBR for the reference year. If the economic activity not available the current value was used.
Allocation of trade of services between intra-EU and extra-EU data created some problems because source data contained trade with international organizations that were lacking country code. Such trade was recorded case by case.
If linking was not possible, the indicators were marked as “unknown”.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
Missing data are not imputed.
18.6. Adjustment
The data are not subject to adjustment.
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.
Latvia
Calendar year.
Not applicable.
The data are presented in thousands of Euro.
Statistics is compiled by types of activity according to NACE Rev. 2, by size classes according to the number of persons employed, products (EBOPS 2010) and type of control.
Direct linking to statistical business register is done by the unique identification numbers of the enterprises.
STEC datasets were compiled following the EBOPS classification. Therefore it was necessary to convert source data based on BPM classification to EBOPS categories. Correspondence table was used to convert data.
However, for some reason not all enterprises in the ITS can be successfully linked with the SBR and the FATS. This is partly because the ITS is drawn at a certain point in time, which means that some of the enterprises in the ITS could have expired and are therefore not in the SBR anymore. For the FATS, the main reason for non-linking is the threshold in the SBR, that defines enterprises in the ITS as non-active enterprises, which means that they will not be in the FATS.
Micro linking of services traders with the SBR provided some challenges. It was not possible to link directly entities like tourists and private individuals, non-residents, some government institutions, financial mediation and investment funds with the SBR.
Another problem occurred when the linking of trader was successful but some indicators were missing from the SBR for the reference year. If the economic activity not available the current value was used.
Allocation of trade of services between intra-EU and extra-EU data created some problems because source data contained trade with international organizations that were lacking country code. Such trade was recorded case by case.
If linking was not possible, the indicators were marked as “unknown”.
Latvijas Banka (The Bank of Latvia) collects data about the international trade of services for balance of payments purposes. Latvijas Banka is responsible for the compilation and dissemination of international trade of services statistics (ITSS). The ITSS detailed data on enterprise level is transmitted to Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia for the compilation of STEC data.
The trade of services data contains the following indicators:
Reference year
Registration code (ID)
Trade flow (Export, Import)
Balance of payments code
Balance of payments description
Country code (Partner country)
Currency code
Value
2. The Statistical Business Register (SBR) maintained by Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia and contains various indicators about enterprises.
Following variables for STEC are included in SBR:
Unique Identification Number
Economic activity (NACE code)
Size of enterprise (Number of employees and self-employed persons)
Type of ownership (Code of the ownership and legal form)
3. The FATS statistics is the main source for information on type of ownership, but if those data are not available, the Business Register is the alternative source.
4. Structural Business Statistics (SBS) data contain size class, that are also used applied when STEC data are compiled.
Annual.
Annual STEC data are reported 18 months after the end of the reference period.
The data are comparable with the data of other European Union countries.
