National Statistics Office

Directorate B: Business Statistics

Short-term Business Statistics

National Statistics Office, Lascaris Valletta, VLT 2000, Malta

The Index of Production in Construction (IPC) measures the changes in the volume of output in the construction sector.

The relevant construction activities are included in Section F of the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE Rev. 2).  In particular, these activities include the complete construction of buildings, the complete construction of civil engineering works, as well as specialised construction activities, if carried out only as a part of the construction process.

The classifications used in STS is NACE rev.2

The following NACE divisions are covered:

NACE 41 - Construction of buildings

NACE 42 - Civil engineering

NACE 43 - Specialised construction activities

The main indicator is production in construction.

This indicator corresponds to the industrial production index but instead of covering the industrial sector, it covers the construction sector, namely Section F of NACE Rev. 2.

Kind of Activity Unit (KAU)

Around 200 units.

The indicator covers the national territory of the Maltese Islands.

Data are compiled since 2000.

Base year (year on which weights are based): 2015

Reference year (year when the index equals 100): 2015

The same base and reference years are used for data published locally and that transmitted to Eurostat.

The data are compiled in index form.

The data are compiled on a quarterly basis.

The NSO was established by virtue of the Malta Statistics Authority Act XXIV of 2000 and replaced the Central Office of Statistics as from 1 March 2001

https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/422/eng/pdf

Data Sharing matters are governed by the Malta Statistics Authority Act XXIV of 2000. Data are transmitted to Eurostat.

Apart from the established legislative framework, the NSO is also guided by an internal general confidentiality policy. Data tagged as confidential are not available for publication.

Confidentiality matters are regulated by the Malta Statistics Authority Act XXIV of 2000. Such data are marked as such.

An advance release calendar is published on the NSOs website.

All releases are published and disseminated at 1100 hrs as scheduled in the Advance Release Calendar. The calendar is published on the NSO website and includes a 3 month advance notice (the current month and the next two months).

https://nso.gov.mt/calendars/

No news release is issued for this indicator.

National statistical releases are issued according to the release calendar and are made available to all users simultaneously. All releases are posted on the organisation's website, www.nso.gov.mt.

Eurostat transmissions for the index of construction production are carried out on a quarterly basis and 60 days after the end of the reference period. No national news releases are carried out.

No local release is published for this variable.

The short-term statistics only publishes its figures in an annual compendium named Malta in Figures or Trends in Malta. These can be accessed from the NSO website: www.nso.gov.mt .

The NSO website offers an online statistical database (StatDB) that provides a more in-depth analysis for the more expert statistical user or researcher. The StatDB requires registration as only registered users can extract data from the database. Registration is free-of-charge. Currently, the Index of Construction Production is not available in this format.

In general, index results made available to Eurostat ensure a sufficient degree of representativeness of data. More detailed data than that published locally and internationally are available on request but are subject to the confidentiality clauses.

In such cases, data are provided in index form. Micro data are not provided to users.

Data are transmitted to Eurostat on a quarterly basis.

The main document used for the production of this index are the following:

Methodology of short-term business statistics, 2006

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-BG-06-001?inheritRedirect=true

Not available.

The NSO quality assurance principles are developed according to the ESS Handbook for Quality Reports (2014). 

Aspects of quality are divided into several steps. These are specifying needs, designing and building data instruments and collecting, processing, analysing, disseminating, archiving and evaluating data. The main guiding principles in quality management are found in the:

European Statistics Code of Practice - https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/quality/european-quality-standards/european-statistics-code-of-practice

Quality Assurance Framework of the ESS - http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/64157/4392716/ESS-QAF-V1-2final.pdf/bbf5970c-1adf-46c8-afc3-58ce177a0646

Overall the quality of the index is good, however it suffers from data revisions.

Eurostat is the main user of this index.

Not available.

Data are compliant with relevant European and local regulations and requirements are fully fulfilled.

The overall accuracy is considered to be fair. Significant revisions occur in this indicator and a review of the current methodology is planned in the near future.

Data comes from administrative registers.

Revisions are considered to be significant.

The index is disseminated 60 days after the end of the reference period.

The NSO is committed to adhere to the timelines established by the STS Regulations and also issues news releases according to its pre-published calendar.

All deadlines were respected during the course of the year.

To ensure geographical comparability across member states the index is compiled according to the STS Regulations and STS Methodological Guidelines. Minor methodological deviations may exist due to specific conditions that apply to each member state. For this indicator, several member states have compilation issues which are being addressed by Eurostat and member states themselves.

In 2010 there was an update of the sample and of the population used, due to the change in methodology used by the National Accounts section.

Currently, data are not compared with any other source.

Only Total Construction is transmitted.

There is no particular burden for the compilation of this indicator. Data are provided by the National Accounts unit. 

Revisions are carried according to the European Business Statistics Regulation. Internal procedures are also established.

The same revision policy is applied to both data released nationally and that sent to Eurostat.

Generally, this index will have routine minor revisions due to actual data replacing estimates. Major revisions may also be done but this will be on an exceptional basis.

A revision calendar does not exist.

In practice, routine revisions are done when actual data are received and estimates are replaced.

The below Quality Performance Indicators (QPIs) were obtained using annual growth rates for Q4 2018 as the latest release. To calculate the revisions, the previous 15 quarterly periods were used. 

Unadjusted annual growth rates:

Mean Revision (MR): -0.92

Mean Absolute Revision (MAR): 1.28

Relative Mean Absolute Revision (RMAR): 0.68

Data are provided by the National Accounts section. A sample of about 200 units are observed for output in value terms. Then, the data are grossed up with weights provided by the SBS unit.

Quarterly.

Data are provided by the National Accounts unit to the STS unit on a quarterly basis in electronic format.

Validations of format and file structure checks and intra-dataset checks are checked with the use of in-house excel sheets and access databases.

Revisions analysis is also carried out for every data transmission sent to Eurostat using in-house access queries. When data revisions are significantly large, a short explanation is also given to Eurostat.

Data are provided by the National Accounts unit.

There are no adjustments done to the index. The same unadjusted index is replicated in the working day and seasonal adjusted fields.

No more comments to make.