National Statistics Office, Malta

Directorate B: Business Statistics

Short-term Business Statistics

National Statistics Office, Lascaris Valletta, VLT 2000, Malta

For short-term statistics, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is the reference indicator for economic development in the industrial sector and is particularly used to identify changes in trends at an early stage. The IIP is a volume indicator and measures the changes in the volumes of industrial output on a monthly basis.

The classifications used in STS is NACE rev.2.

The following NACE divisions are covered:

0800 - Quarrying

1000 - Manufacture of food products

1100 - Manufacture of beverages

1300 - Manufacture of textiles

1400 - Manufacture of wearing apparel

1600 - Manufacture of wood and of wood products

1700 - Manufacture of paper and paper products

1800 - Printing and reproduction of recorded media

2000 - Manufacture of chemical and chemical products

2100 - Manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products and preparations

2200 - Manufacture of rubber and plastic products

2300 - Manufacture of other non-metallic products

2500 - Manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment

2600 - Manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products

2700 - Manufacture of electrical equipment

2800 - Manufacture of machinery and equipment 

2900 - Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers.

3100 - Manufacture of furniture

3200 - Other manufacturing

3300 - Repair and installation of machinery and equipment

3500 - Electricity and gas

3600 - Water collection, treatment and supply (this is included in the local Total Industrial Production but excluded from the Total Industrial Production sent to Eurostat )

The main indicator is industrial production. This is observed through 3 different type of variables:

Direct physical quantities - quantities in litres / kg's etc.;

Deflated Turnover  - industrial turnover deflated by the Producer Price Indices;

Hours Worked - the number of hours worked in the industrial sector.

Kind of Activity Unit (KAU).

The statistical population includes units falling under NACE Divisions 8 - 36. The population is maintained by the Business Registers unit.

The indicator covers the national territory of the Maltese Islands.

The data on the Index of Industrial Production are available from the year 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 provided in index form.

The data are collected and published on a monthly 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. Industrial production data also falls under the SDDS, UN and Eurostat requirements.

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/

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 industrial production are carried out on a monthly basis and one month after the end of the reference period. National news releases for the index are also carried out on a monthly basis and according to the national news release calendar.

The main dissemination channel for official statistics is the NSO website (http://www.nso.gov.mt).

A monthly local news release is published on the industrial production index.

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 Industrial 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 monthly basis.

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

European Business Statistics Regulation, 2021

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/ks-gq-21-001

International Recommendations for the Index of Industrial Production, 2010

https://unstats.un.org/unsd/statcom/doc10/BG-IndustrialStats.pdf

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 of Industrial Production is of good quality and very reliable.

The main users of the Index of Industrial Production are the following:

- Eurostat;

- Central Bank of Malta;

- Ministry of Finance, Malta;

- United Nations;

- Malta Enterprise;

- Other International Organisations.

Not available.

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

The overall accuracy of this variable is considered to be of good quality. 

Sampling error is negligible, non-sampling error is small and the first estimates are not biased.

Sampling error is considered as negligible since the sample is based on the 80% turnover cut off method.

Non-sampling errors relate to problems such as under or over coverage, non-response, data-processing and estimation. 

Non-sampling errors in the index of industrial production are mainly due to non-response error. Hence, the Short-term Statistics unit make use of administrative data and good estimation techniques where needed.

The average weighted response rate just before data are published is 84%. After one data collection exercise (one month after), the weighted response rate climbs to 94%.

The Industrial Production Index is disseminated 40 days after 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 European Business Statistics Regulations 2019/2152 and 2020/1197 and the STS Methodological Guidelines. Minor methodological deviations may exist due to specific conditions that apply to each member state.

The data series has been compiled since the year 2000. The first set of indicators was based on NACE Rev 1. Following 2009, the indicator was published according to the new NACE Rev 2 classification. Furthermore, for every year ending in 0 or 5, new fixed aggregation weights are introduced.

There is no break in series in the industrial production index.

Data are not compared with any other source.

Aggregates are not always consistent with all sub-aggregates.

Data burden is considered high but no data are available.

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.

Revision analysis is carried out before every news release published locally or sent to Eurostat and clear explanations are also sought. Detailed explanations at micro data level are also analysed  but only used internally for quality information purposes. Generally, this index will have routine minor revisions due to actual data replacing estimates due to non-response. 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 December 2018 as the latest release. To calculate the revisions, the previous 36 monthly periods were used.

Unadjusted annual growth rates:

Mean Revision (MR): -0.21

Mean Absolute Revision (MAR): 0.8

Relative Mean Absolute Revision (RMAR): 0.55

Working-day annual growth rates:

Mean Revision (MR): -0.28

Mean Absolute Revision (MAR): 0.74

Relative Mean Absolute Revision (RMAR): 0.52

Data on industrial production are collected with three methods: deflated turnover, hours worked and physical quantities. The survey is based on a sample of around 180 units which is refreshed every 5 years.

Deflated turnover are gathered from two other STS surveys, namely the industrial turnover and producer price indices.

Hours worked are gathered from the industrial hours worked survey.

Physical quantities are gathered from a survey specifically asking for quantities in litres, kg's and the like.

Turnover is the main variable used to stratify the sample into three size classes. 

Monthly.

Data is collected by means of  a monthly statistical questionnaire. Questionnaires are sent by post and their collection is done via post, fax, e-mail or online systems.

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.

Non-response is treated by micro-estimation to ensure a full response for all surveyed units. 

A Laspeyres type index is used for compilation and the weights are updated every 5 years from the Structural Business Statistics survey.

The current file conversion is GESMES/TS and the plan is to use the SDMX-ML tool in the future.

Unadjusted data are transformed into working day and seasonally adjusted data using the JDemetra+ 2.2.2 software.

Automatic filter is used and models and parameters are re-estimated every year. There are no seasonal breaks and the direct adjustment is used. Filter length is chosen automatically and residual seasonality is checked.

Further information on seasonal adjustment methods are found in the annex.

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