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
Slovakia
3.8. Coverage - Time
STEC data disseminated at European level From 2022 as reference year.
At national level Slovak STEC data are available from the reference year 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) 2019/2152on 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 variable must be reported annually with first reference year 2022.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Following the Statistical Act No 540/2001 Coll., as amended, confidential statistical data shall notbe published or disclosed to anybody. As STEC data contain confidential data, they are protected in order to comply with the Statistical Act and other legislation.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
τ-ARGUS in combination with the manual procedures is used, with linked tables option, so as to guarantee that no confidential data can be disclosed from the tables, even if they are linked.
8.1. Release calendar
STEC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 8.1 ‘Release calendar’ of the related metadata for more details.
8.2. Release calendar access
Not applicable.
8.3. Release policy - user access
STEC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 8.3 ‘Release policy - user access’ of the related metadata for more details.
Annual.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
No news release
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Statistics Explained is an official Eurostat website presenting all statistical topics in an easily understandable way. Together, the articles make up an encyclopaedia of European statistics, completed by a statistical glossary clarifying all terms used and numerous links to further information and the very latest data and metadata. One of the Statistics Explained articles relating to international trade in services statistics is dedicated to STEC data.
The Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic follows the Quality Policy based on requests of users of statistics, on rules, principles, recommendations and conclusions of the ISO 9001 standard for Quality Management Systems. The Certificate of quality management system according to ISO 9001:2008 was handed over to the SOSR by the certification body Bureau Veritas Certification Slovakia spol. s r.o. based on the result of recertification audit conducted by this body in September 2021. The certificate confirms that the SOSR meets requirements of the international standard ISO 9001:2008 in organising, obtaining, processing and providing official statistics according to the current standards. At the same time it provides the evidence that the quality management system implemented in the SOSR creates appropriate conditions for further improvement of quality of services provided to users and for development of the Office towards higher effectiveness.
The Statistical Office cooperates closely with the National Bank as a provider of microdata on international trade in services and consults with it potential ambiguities during the process of the compilation of STEC data.
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 14% of the dataset was flagged as confidential.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
STEC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 12.1 ‘Relevance - User Needs’ of the related metadata for more details.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
STEC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 12.2 ‘Relevance - User Satisfaction’ of the related metadata for more details.
12.3. Completeness
STEC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 12.3 ‘Completeness’ of the related metadatafor more details.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
STEC data are only disseminated by Eurostat.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
ITSS data transmitted by the Member States are checked by Eurostat for their consistency and plausibility. If any problems (e.g. inconsistencies or omissions) are detected, Eurostat contacts the relevant Member State to check the figures and/or confirm correction/updates implemented by Eurostat.
While data on goods are generally based on Foreign Trade Statistics, data on services come from a variety of surveys where the data can be reported either by the banks or directly by the enterprises or the households.
Mirror flows comparison and asymmetries analysis are another ways for assessing the accuracy of statistics on flows, where, values of trade services reported by European countries are compared with that of their partners within the EU.
In order to match STEC data with the ITSS data, adjustments on trade with Unknown activity had to be made.
Adjustments on data with Unknown activity was made in order to balance some minor discrepancies between ITSS data and STEC data. Also preliminary information from Business Register on enterprise characteristics may be cause of errors in the STEC data.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable. Neither the international trade on services trade statistics, nor the business registers are affectedby errors related to sample surveys.
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
According to the Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics, data transmission of STEC datasets to Eurostat takes place 18 months after the end of the reference period (T+18).
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Not applicable.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Not applicable.
14.2. Punctuality
All data were delivered within the official deadline.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Not applicable.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
See item 15.1 ‘Comparability - geographical’ of the related metadata.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Slovak STEC data are comparable over time.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Slovak STEC data are comparable since 2022.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
See item 15.3 ‘Coherence - cross domain’ of the related metadata.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
STEC data are derived from the information made available by the international trade in services statistics and the business statistics. No specific data collection is then necessary, which means that the burden is null for the respondents. The cost of STEC data only relates to the compilation carried out by the Statistical Office of theSR. No additional costs associated with the collection of STEC data nor burden on respondents incur.
17.1. Data revision - policy
STEC data are based on the preliminary ITSS data and Business Register data. When the revision of ITSS is carried out then the STEC data will be revised as well.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Revision of STEC data is planned in 2026 when final ITSS and BR data is available.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
Data for BOP item Services are based on a variety of surveys. The main survey is the Quarterly report on services received from abroad and services provided abroad. Currently the central bank obtains data from 1 500 respondents (financial and non-financial enterprises) to the quarterly survey on services. The register on enterprises surveyed is updated every year. No threshold is applied. Respondents report transactions according to the BPM6 classification, and full geographical breakdown are available.
Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others - This item is compiled based on data from foreign trade statistics, which is available from the National statistical office. The main approach is using the nature of transaction codes specific to inward and outward processing. All information is available on monthly basis. The next step is comparing this data to our own services survey (SLUZ 1-04) and once a year to business statistical survey on big enterprises (ROC 1-04) from National statistical office.
Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.- Data from quarterly survey
Transport - Data from quarterly survey, CIF/FOB adjustment is based on data from foreign trade statistics and is allocated between transport and insurance services.
Construction - Data from quarterly survey
Insurance and pension services - Data from quarterly survey. Insurance scheme is calculated from balance sheets of insurance companies for different types of insurance (life, non-life reinsurance), adjusted for claim volatility.
Financial services - Data from quarterly survey. The NBS also collects data on financial services provided by resident financial institutions including the calculation of margins charged for trading in securities The calculation of exports and imports of FISIM considers a calculated external reference interest rate as a ratio of interest received and paid by domestic commercial banks vis-à-vis foreign banks related to relevant stocks of deposits and loans. The territorial allocation of exports and imports of FISIM reflects the geographical structure of the underlying assets/liabilities.
Charges for the use of intellectual property n.i.e. - Data from quarterly survey
Telecommunications, computer, and information services - Data from quarterly survey
Other business services - Data from quarterly survey
Operational lease - Data from quarterly survey
Personal, cultural, and recreational services - Data from quarterly survey
Government goods and services n.i.e. - The information on government services is received from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Finance. This item includes costs associated with the collection of traditional own resources, mainly from customs duties on imports from outside the EU and sugar levies.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annual (based on quarterly survey)
18.3. Data collection
Time of recording: in line with the BPM6, recording is on a transaction basis ("accruals principle"), meaning that transactions must be recorded when economic value is created, transformed, transferred, or extinguished. The main criterion is change of ownership. The change may be legal or economic. Principle of market prices are used.
18.4. Data validation
All balance of payments components are initially checked automatically via the statistical collection portal for internal consistency and consistency over time. In addition, data are analysed, reconciled with those obtained through other sources and statistical frameworks. Entities that did not deliver data by the deadline are automatically notified with a request for data delivery. Initial data are verified and corrected after achieving an agreement with respondents.
STEC data disseminated by Eurostat have passed the following quality checks:
Intra-dataset checks: completeness of each dataset and uniqueness of the records, validity of the codes, validity of code combinations across the different dimensions, inter-record consistency checks;
Inter-dataset checks: consistency of trade values and numbers of enterprises related to similar combinations across the datasets;
Intra-domain check: check of the coherence between trade values published in STEC datasets and trade values coming from ITSS data.
18.5. Data compilation
Transactions are compiled according to EBOPS 2010 and performed according to the center of predominant economic interest (residence) of units. EBOPS 2010 transactions are compiled break down by partner country, full geographical breakdown is available. Transactions are based on market prices and data are disseminated in national currency (EUR). The market exchange rate prevailing on the transaction dates is used for conversion.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
For the quarterly data of Services item, there are missing data for undelivered entities imputed individually based on time series of data. Imputed values represent about 2% of the total value.
18.6. Adjustment
No adjustments are being made.
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.
Slovakia
Calendar year.
ITSS data transmitted by the Member States are checked by Eurostat for their consistency and plausibility. If any problems (e.g. inconsistencies or omissions) are detected, Eurostat contacts the relevant Member State to check the figures and/or confirm correction/updates implemented by Eurostat.
While data on goods are generally based on Foreign Trade Statistics, data on services come from a variety of surveys where the data can be reported either by the banks or directly by the enterprises or the households.
Mirror flows comparison and asymmetries analysis are another ways for assessing the accuracy of statistics on flows, where, values of trade services reported by European countries are compared with that of their partners within the EU.
In order to match STEC data with the ITSS data, adjustments on trade with Unknown activity had to be made.
Adjustments on data with Unknown activity was made in order to balance some minor discrepancies between ITSS data and STEC data. Also preliminary information from Business Register on enterprise characteristics may be cause of errors in the STEC data.
The data are presented in thousands of Euro.
Transactions are compiled according to EBOPS 2010 and performed according to the center of predominant economic interest (residence) of units. EBOPS 2010 transactions are compiled break down by partner country, full geographical breakdown is available. Transactions are based on market prices and data are disseminated in national currency (EUR). The market exchange rate prevailing on the transaction dates is used for conversion.
Data for BOP item Services are based on a variety of surveys. The main survey is the Quarterly report on services received from abroad and services provided abroad. Currently the central bank obtains data from 1 500 respondents (financial and non-financial enterprises) to the quarterly survey on services. The register on enterprises surveyed is updated every year. No threshold is applied. Respondents report transactions according to the BPM6 classification, and full geographical breakdown are available.
Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others - This item is compiled based on data from foreign trade statistics, which is available from the National statistical office. The main approach is using the nature of transaction codes specific to inward and outward processing. All information is available on monthly basis. The next step is comparing this data to our own services survey (SLUZ 1-04) and once a year to business statistical survey on big enterprises (ROC 1-04) from National statistical office.
Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.- Data from quarterly survey
Transport - Data from quarterly survey, CIF/FOB adjustment is based on data from foreign trade statistics and is allocated between transport and insurance services.
Construction - Data from quarterly survey
Insurance and pension services - Data from quarterly survey. Insurance scheme is calculated from balance sheets of insurance companies for different types of insurance (life, non-life reinsurance), adjusted for claim volatility.
Financial services - Data from quarterly survey. The NBS also collects data on financial services provided by resident financial institutions including the calculation of margins charged for trading in securities The calculation of exports and imports of FISIM considers a calculated external reference interest rate as a ratio of interest received and paid by domestic commercial banks vis-à-vis foreign banks related to relevant stocks of deposits and loans. The territorial allocation of exports and imports of FISIM reflects the geographical structure of the underlying assets/liabilities.
Charges for the use of intellectual property n.i.e. - Data from quarterly survey
Telecommunications, computer, and information services - Data from quarterly survey
Other business services - Data from quarterly survey
Operational lease - Data from quarterly survey
Personal, cultural, and recreational services - Data from quarterly survey
Government goods and services n.i.e. - The information on government services is received from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Finance. This item includes costs associated with the collection of traditional own resources, mainly from customs duties on imports from outside the EU and sugar levies.
Annual.
According to the Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics, data transmission of STEC datasets to Eurostat takes place 18 months after the end of the reference period (T+18).
See item 15.1 ‘Comparability - geographical’ of the related metadata.
