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.
Structural Statistics Sector, Business Statistics Department
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
St. Vllazën Huta, Building 35, Entrance 1, Tirana, ZIP Code 1017
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
27 August 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
27 August 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
27 August 2025
3.1. Data description
The PRODCOM survey provides information on industrial goods and services PRODuction of the European COMmunity in compliance with Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics.
PRODCOM data are collected via an annual survey Industrial Production Survey.
3.2. Classification system
The PRODCOM survey is based on the Prodcom List, consisting of about 4000 products.
The PRODCOM list is divided into “Classes” corresponding to the classes of NACE rev 2. Within the individual classes, the headings of the list are set out in ascending order of their PRODCOM codes. PRODCOM uses an eight-digit product code of the form XX.XX.XX.YY. The first four digits of the code correspond to the 4-digit classes of NACE Rev. 2. The first six digits are the Community Classification of Products by Activity (CPA) codes. The CPA provides a detailed listing of the characteristic products for each 4-digit NACE Rev. 2 economic activity. The last two digits provide a more detailed breakdown of the CPA classes into PRODCOM product headings. There is a direct link between the PRODCOM classification and the EU foreign trade Combined Nomenclature (CN). Each PRODCOM 8-digit heading covers one or more CN 8-digit headings.
3.3. Coverage - sector
PRODCOM survey covers all active enterprises in Albania which operate in Mining and quarrying, Manufacturing and Materials recovery, sections B, C and E of the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Union (NACE Rev. 2).
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
The purpose of the statistics is to report, for each product in the PRODCOM List, how much industrial products and services has been produced in the reporting country during the reference period. This means that PRODCOM statistics relate to products (not to activities) and are therefore not strictly comparable with activity-based statistics such as Structural Business Statistics. The NACE codes on which PRODCOM codes are based merely serve to identify the enterprises that should be surveyed in order to determine the amount of production of the product.
The products: the PRODCOM List defines the products to be included in the survey. There are approximately 4.000 headings representing manufactured products and some industrial services.
The value and the volume of production: the value is expressed in national currency (ALL). The volume is expressed in a unit specified for each product.
The volume/quantity unit: the measurement unit, such as kilograms, square metres etc. used to indicate the volume of goods produced.
Variables:
Actual production represents all production that was produced by the enterprise during the reference period, regardless of whether it was sold, stored in stocks, used for further processing or it was production under sub-contracted operations. Actual production is presented as quantity.
Total production sold is the production that was sold (invoiced) by the enterprise during the reference period. It does not matter whether this production was actually produced during the reference period (it could have been, for example, the sale of stock). It includes the production of own industrial products, industrial services, as well as production under sub-contracted operations. Production sold is presented as quantity and value.
Production sold includes production on own account and production of industrial services. Own production represents "traditional" industrial production. The enterprise is the owner of the input material, really produces the final product and sells it to the customer. Industrial service is an industrial production that does not create a new finished product defined in PRODCOM. These are only services leading to complete final products and ensuring its function: repairs and maintenance, installation and assembly, modifications and others. Production sold is presented as quantity and value.
Production under sub-contracted operations is a specific supplier-customer relationship, where the production company (processor) is not the owner of the input material or the completed finished product, but really produces it with its own employees and its own means of production. Value of the this production is equal to service provided, fee paid for the service, not to the value of the finished product. is presented as quantity and value (= fee paid).
3.5. Statistical unit
All enterprises that made production of industrial products in territory of Albania, as identified by national business register.
3.6. Statistical population
The survey covers all enterprises with 20 or more employees or with significant annual turnover, which are engaged in industrial production and industrial services and in industrial activities. Enterprises with less than 20 employees are surveyed by selecting a representative sample.
3.7. Reference area
PRODCOM survey comprises all territory of Albania
3.8. Coverage - Time
The observed period is 1 calendar year. PRODCOM is a new survey and its data have been collected only for internal use for 2018-2021 reference years. For 2022 reference year data were transmitted for the first time to Eurostat.
3.9. Base period
Not Applicable.
Volumes: units of measure are specific for each product in PRODCOM List.
Values: data are collected and stored in thousands of Albanian Lek, excluding VAT
The data are from the calendar year 2024.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
This survey is carried out in compliance with following regulations:
At national level: National Statistics Low No.17/2018 on Official Statistics; Official Statistics National Program for the period 2022-2026; Decision of the Council of Statistics. Given that, according to the e official statistics, the role of this body is to oversee, support and make decisions to help INSTAT statistical and other agencies to ensure the development and implementation of the Programme of Official Statistics, acts adopted by this body are important for the progress of implementation of activities and monitoring the performance of the national statistical system component institutions.
At EU level: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council (EU) No. 2019/2152 of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics (the EBS Regulation) (2019/2152).
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
PRODCOM Statistics have started to be transmitted to EUROSTAT for reference year 2022.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
The data collected are considered strictly confidential and used only for statistical purposes and scientific research in accordance with the national Statistical Law No.17/2018 “On Official Statistics”, date 10.March.2018 and Law no. 9887, dated 10.March.2008 "Personal Data Protection", Article 31 of the Law on Official Statistics clearly define that all statistical information collected by INSTAT is confidential and may only be used or published in such summary tables that do not identify the information of the unit. Direct identification is called when a statistical unit is directly identified by its name, address, or any officially recognized identification number. When data processing is performed in such a way as to enable the data subject to be identified, the data must be coded immediately so that the entities are no longer recognized.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Albanian Institute of Statistics protects and does not disseminate data it has obtained or it has access to, which enables the direct or indirect identification of the statistical units. Albania Institute of Statistics takes all appropriate preventive measures so as to render impossible the identification of individual statistical units by technical or other means that might reasonably be used by a third party. Statistical data that could potentially enable the identification of the statistical unit is disseminated by the Albanian Institute of Statistics if and only if: a) these data have been treated, as it is specifically set out in the Regulation, in such a way that their dissemination does not prejudice statistical confidentiality or b) the statistical unit has given its consent, without any reservations, for the disclosure of data. The confidential data that are transmitted to the Albanian Institute of Statistics are used exclusively for statistical purposes and the only persons who have the right to have access to these data are the personnel engaged in this task. Issues referring to the observance of statistical confidentiality are examined by the staff working at the Albanian Institute of Statistics. The responsibilities of this staff are to recommend on: which detailed level the statistical data can be disseminated, so as the identification, either directly or indirectly, of the surveyed statistical unit is not possible; the anonymization criteria for the microdata provided to users; the access granting to researchers on confidential data for scientific purposes.
8.1. Release calendar
Announcements about the dissemination of statistics are published in the release calendar, which is available on the website. The announcements and delays are pre-announced in this calendar. In the case of delays, the date of the next publication and the explanation of the reasons for the delays are specified.
In line with the article 34 of Law No.17/2018 “On Official Statistics” as amended, the INSTAT disseminates statistics on INSTAT website and other media for simultaneous access, respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The following dissemination channels are used to release the results:
Website – online release,
Written requests, (by mail or email);
Data request, session available for external users.
The dissemination of PRODCOM data are done on annual basis, starting from 28th of September 2023.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Press release for 2024 reference year will be published online on 26th of September at INSTATs website.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Press release for 2024 reference year will be published online on 26th of September at INSTATs website.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
Online databases are still not published for PRODCOM.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Data bases at micro level are still not published for PRODCOM.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Users can submit specific requests for data through the INSTAT website.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
A short explanation related to the definitions of the main concepts and methodological explanations will be provided to users in the end of press releases.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
The unit responsible for PRODCOM statistics has document the work process and procedure for internal purposes.
11.1. Quality assurance
INSTAT is committed to ensure the highest quality with respect to the compilation of statistical information. In accordance with the Statistics Law, INSTAT use statistical methods and processes in compliance with internationally recognized scientific principles and standards conduct ongoing analyses of the statistics with a view to quality improvements and ensure that statistics are as up-to-date.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
PRODCOM data is compared with previous year's data and checked for any large changes in the data, especially due to large deviations in the main variables concerned. When available the data is checked with an administrative source for confirmation.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
PRODCOM data have been used for internal use only. The first PRODCOM release was published on 28th of September 2023.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
No users satisfaction surveys are carried out exclusively for Industrial Products Statistics
12.3. Completeness
Starting from 2022 reference year, INSTAT provides to Eurostat all the data requested by the EBS Regulation.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Overall, the data is checked with previous years to identify any significant changes in the data. When these are not available, INSTAT corrects or confirms the data using emails or by calling the respondents. Measures taken by INSTAT each year, to increase response rates or to reduce the impact of non-response by imputing them are as follow:
Data are collected directly from the enterprise
The information is collected by face-to-face interview from enumerators based on the instructions prepared for this purpose.
The enumerators staff is trained how to handle difficult respondents.
In Albania, it is not established a system of postal address, so for reducing the number enterprises which are unable to be located, INSTAT stuff and enumerators calls the enterprises to fix a date of interview and to better explain the location of the enterprises. Priority is given to larger businesses. When these enterprises refuses to respond to interviewer, an official request in particular is directed for the president of enterprises and signed by INSTAT director general; it is also done for enterprises that require only this way to give the information.
The enterprises are invited to contact the Statistical Office in case of questions and always qualified staffs are available to answer the enterprises calls.
13.2. Sampling error
The error due to probability sampling is estimated for more important indicators. All indicator values are weighted to represent the population
13.3. Non-sampling error
Unit non-response takes in consideration enterprises that are unable or unwilling to give the answers, when interviewers are unable to find the enterprises address, when other barriers exist to complete the interview, or when it is not possible to obtain information from other administrative sources about the enterprise.
The unit non-response rate for PRODCOM 2023 is 18.6%.
Item non-response indicator is irrelevant for the Prodcom questionary; the statistical questionary is designed so that the case of item non-response is classified as unit non response.
Imputation rate for PRODCOM 2023 is 8.0%.
14.1. Timeliness
PRODCOM data for 2024 reference year are transmitted to Eurostat in June.
Industrial Products Statistics for 2024 reference will be published on our website on 26th of September
14.2. Punctuality
The statistics are transmitted without delay in relation to the scheduled date.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
The information is comparable over the years.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Cross-checks are made between SBS and external trade at micro level. The cases with spotted differences are further analysed and, if necessary, corrected as well.
15.4. Coherence - internal
The internal consistency of the data is checked before it is finalised.
Persons working for SBS are:
1 subject matter from Structural Business Statistics Sector;
Supported by : Regional staff for data collection, IT staff responsible for application development, methodological staff for sample design and weighting procedure.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Revision policy of PRODCOM is done in accordance with general revision policy and errors treatment policy introduced by INSTAT.
The accuracy of the published data may increase as a result of the changes made possible by the provision of more complete and qualitative new data, which contribute to the improvement of the results, published according to the deadlines set in the publication calendar.
17.2. Data revision - practice
PRODCOM does general revisions on the data due to:
Changes in methodology
Revision of weights (new and/or improved data sources, corrections of errors)
PRODCOM tries to follow the standard guidelines and principles in the revisions done in collaboration with technical assistance. All the revisions are made transparent to the users and are part of each publication
18.1. Source data
Survey is the only source of data collection. The basis of the selection is the updated register of enterprises, which were active during the reference year and operate in Mining and quarrying, Manufacturing and Materials recovery, sections B, C and E of the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Union (NACE Rev. 2). The enterprises less than 20 employees are surveyed by selecting a representative sample while with 20 or more employees are all surveyed
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annually
18.3. Data collection
PRODCOM has been collected by face to face interview by printed questionnaires for 2018-2021 reference years. The necessary software and procedures for manual entry were prepared already when preparing for data collection. All data are integrated in a single database after data entry and controls done. For 2022 reference year and ongoing PRODCOM will be collected by face to face interview by electronic questionnaires (by laptop-s). After the data collection the IT staff made the dataset available to the sector in Excel format.
18.4. Data validation
The data validation contains:
Validity of each attribute collected within the questionnaire
Logical checks between indicators inside the questionnaire
Comparison over time (previous year)
Cross-survey checks (SBS, International Trade)
Comparison between enterprises belonging to the same category
Comparison with administrative sources such as the Income Tax and VAT database.
18.5. Data compilation
For the data compilation there are three basic procedures:
1. Quality of data There are applied some rules for analysing quality of data:
Mathematic control of the questionnaire
Logic control of the questionnaire
Comparison with previous year data
Comparison of data with balance sheet file
Analyse of huge deviations from average.
2. Estimates for non-response
Not responding units are imputed. Estimation for non-response is based on the results of the unit responded in previous period(s) or related enterprises. The estimate is based on SBS data or Income Tax database.
3. Re-weighting procedure For the untreated part the re-weighing method is used.
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable. No seasonal adjustments are made to the PRODCOM data
PRODCOM data are transmitted for the first time to Eurostat for 2022 reference year.
The PRODCOM survey provides information on industrial goods and services PRODuction of the European COMmunity in compliance with Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics.
PRODCOM data are collected via an annual survey Industrial Production Survey.
27 August 2025
The purpose of the statistics is to report, for each product in the PRODCOM List, how much industrial products and services has been produced in the reporting country during the reference period. This means that PRODCOM statistics relate to products (not to activities) and are therefore not strictly comparable with activity-based statistics such as Structural Business Statistics. The NACE codes on which PRODCOM codes are based merely serve to identify the enterprises that should be surveyed in order to determine the amount of production of the product.
The products: the PRODCOM List defines the products to be included in the survey. There are approximately 4.000 headings representing manufactured products and some industrial services.
The value and the volume of production: the value is expressed in national currency (ALL). The volume is expressed in a unit specified for each product.
The volume/quantity unit: the measurement unit, such as kilograms, square metres etc. used to indicate the volume of goods produced.
Variables:
Actual production represents all production that was produced by the enterprise during the reference period, regardless of whether it was sold, stored in stocks, used for further processing or it was production under sub-contracted operations. Actual production is presented as quantity.
Total production sold is the production that was sold (invoiced) by the enterprise during the reference period. It does not matter whether this production was actually produced during the reference period (it could have been, for example, the sale of stock). It includes the production of own industrial products, industrial services, as well as production under sub-contracted operations. Production sold is presented as quantity and value.
Production sold includes production on own account and production of industrial services. Own production represents "traditional" industrial production. The enterprise is the owner of the input material, really produces the final product and sells it to the customer. Industrial service is an industrial production that does not create a new finished product defined in PRODCOM. These are only services leading to complete final products and ensuring its function: repairs and maintenance, installation and assembly, modifications and others. Production sold is presented as quantity and value.
Production under sub-contracted operations is a specific supplier-customer relationship, where the production company (processor) is not the owner of the input material or the completed finished product, but really produces it with its own employees and its own means of production. Value of the this production is equal to service provided, fee paid for the service, not to the value of the finished product. is presented as quantity and value (= fee paid).
All enterprises that made production of industrial products in territory of Albania, as identified by national business register.
The survey covers all enterprises with 20 or more employees or with significant annual turnover, which are engaged in industrial production and industrial services and in industrial activities. Enterprises with less than 20 employees are surveyed by selecting a representative sample.
PRODCOM survey comprises all territory of Albania
The data are from the calendar year 2024.
Overall, the data is checked with previous years to identify any significant changes in the data. When these are not available, INSTAT corrects or confirms the data using emails or by calling the respondents. Measures taken by INSTAT each year, to increase response rates or to reduce the impact of non-response by imputing them are as follow:
Data are collected directly from the enterprise
The information is collected by face-to-face interview from enumerators based on the instructions prepared for this purpose.
The enumerators staff is trained how to handle difficult respondents.
In Albania, it is not established a system of postal address, so for reducing the number enterprises which are unable to be located, INSTAT stuff and enumerators calls the enterprises to fix a date of interview and to better explain the location of the enterprises. Priority is given to larger businesses. When these enterprises refuses to respond to interviewer, an official request in particular is directed for the president of enterprises and signed by INSTAT director general; it is also done for enterprises that require only this way to give the information.
The enterprises are invited to contact the Statistical Office in case of questions and always qualified staffs are available to answer the enterprises calls.
Volumes: units of measure are specific for each product in PRODCOM List.
Values: data are collected and stored in thousands of Albanian Lek, excluding VAT
For the data compilation there are three basic procedures:
1. Quality of data There are applied some rules for analysing quality of data:
Mathematic control of the questionnaire
Logic control of the questionnaire
Comparison with previous year data
Comparison of data with balance sheet file
Analyse of huge deviations from average.
2. Estimates for non-response
Not responding units are imputed. Estimation for non-response is based on the results of the unit responded in previous period(s) or related enterprises. The estimate is based on SBS data or Income Tax database.
3. Re-weighting procedure For the untreated part the re-weighing method is used.
Survey is the only source of data collection. The basis of the selection is the updated register of enterprises, which were active during the reference year and operate in Mining and quarrying, Manufacturing and Materials recovery, sections B, C and E of the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Union (NACE Rev. 2). The enterprises less than 20 employees are surveyed by selecting a representative sample while with 20 or more employees are all surveyed
The dissemination of PRODCOM data are done on annual basis, starting from 28th of September 2023.
PRODCOM data for 2024 reference year are transmitted to Eurostat in June.
Industrial Products Statistics for 2024 reference will be published on our website on 26th of September
