National Statistics Office.

Directorate B: Business Statistics

Unit B2: Short-term Statistics

National Statistics Office, Lascaris Valletta, VLT 2000, Malta

The NACE sections to be compiled are G45, G46, Section H, Section I, Section J, sum of (M69, M702, M71, M73 andM74)(= M_STS), sum of (N78, N79, N80, N812 and N82)(=N_STS)

The classifications used in STS is NACE rev.2

Variable D-220 (howk) represents hours worked in Annex D also refered to as "Other Services." The definition used are the STS definitions (CR 1503/2006).

For this survey the Kind of activity is observed.

 This is the business register population from which the sample was derived.

The Maltese Islands

The data on this variable is available from 2000.

2010

The data is presented in index form.

The data is collected and transmitted 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. http://www.nso.gov.mt/docs/MaltaStatisticsAuthorityAct.pdf. The hours worked variable is regulated by the STS Regulation.

Data Sharing matters are governed by the Malta Statistics Authority Act XXIV of 2000. However, data is only transmitted to Eurostat.

Apart from the established legislative framework the NSO is also guided by the internal policy procedures noted in the document; The National Statistics Office Confidentiality of personal and commercial data policy. This document is published on the organisations website: http://nso.gov.mt/en/nso/About_NSO/Documents/NSO_Policies/Confidentiality_of_personal_and_commercial_data.pdf

Confidentiality matters are regulated by the Malta Statistics Authority Act XXIV of 2000. When data is confidential it is marked as such and it is not free to public.

All releases are published and disseminated at 1100 hrs as scheduled in the Advance Release Calendar. The calendar is published on the NSO website (http://www.nso.gov.mt/statdoc/news_release_calendar.aspx) and includes a 3 month advance notice (the current month and the forthcoming two months).

An advance release calendar is published on the NSOs website: http://www.nso.gov.mt/statdoc/news_release_calendar.aspx

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

Transmissions to Eurostat for this varibale occurs 2 months after the end of the reference period. National news release are published according to the the news release calendar. Transmissions and news releases are published on a quarterly basis.

The main dissemination channel for official statistics is the NSO website (http://www.nso.gov.mt). A quarterly news release is published on a quarterly basis.

The short-term statistics only publishes its figures in an annual compendum named Malta in Figures.  The publication can also be accessed from NSOs website by making use of the following link http://nso.gov.mt/site/page.aspx?pageid=142

The NSO website also offers an online statistical database (StatDB) that provides a more in-depth analysis for the more expert statistical user or researcher. The StatDB requires a registration as only registered users can extract data from the database. Registration is free-of-charge and is required to  allow the NSO to receive important feedback from the more expert users of official statistics. Each data set has a ‘last updated’ date clearly indicated andsimilar data published in other statistical products may not add up due to revisions/updates.

In general, index results made available to Eurostat  ensure a sufficient degree of representativeness of data. In limited cases, when confidentiality clauses are not within the remit of the Malta Statistical Authority Act (2000) or Article 20 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009, data is flagged confidential.

No micro data is provided.

Data is transmitted only to Eurostat.

Other services indicators were developed by making use of the following document, Methodology of Short-term business statistics, Interpretaion and guidelines, 2006 Edition. The index was also developed according to Regulation EC No 1165/98, as amended by Regulation EC No 1158/2005 and the regulations implementing and amending these two instruments. In addition, Furthermore, with every release methodological notes are disseminated. 

Not available.

The NSO quality assurance principles are developed according to the ESS Handbook for Quality Reports (2008) and an internal document, Policy on the Documentation of Data Quality and Methodology. The latter is published on the NSOs website, http://nso.gov.mt/docs/Documentation_of_data_quality_and_methodology.pdf

Each unit within the NSO is responsible to produce data of the highest quality. Each unit is responsible to produce statistics which is relevant, accurate, coherent and accessable. The handbook, Policy on the Documentation of Data Quality and Methodology, provides insights to both compilers of data and users on the various quality measures embedded within the NSO. Furthermore, the NSOs Methodology and Research Unit has multiple roles such as providing assistance regarding methodolological issues apart from carrying out statistical checks and balances. The data collected and published is considered of good quality.

The spectrum of users of short-term statistics is widespread and therefore it is difficult to identify them in order of importance. Amongst the various one finds the government with particular reference made to the Ministry of Finance, other governmental departments such as the Economic Policy Division. Other institutions such as the Central Bank of Malta make frequent reference to the data this unit publishes. The general business community and educational institutions also make use our statistical indicators.

Not available.

Data are compliant with relevant Europan and local regulations

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

Coefficient of variation (2.3%) NACE rev.2 services aggregate.

The data is collected by a sample survey and non respondents are estimated.

Data for variable D-220 is published according to EU regulations. The reference period is quarterly and is submitted to Eurostat every 2 months

The NSO is comitted to adhere to the timelines established by the STS regulations and also issues news information releases according to its pre-published calandar.

To ensure geographical comparability across member states the index is compiled according to the STS regulation and STS methodological guidelines. Minor methodological deviations may exist due to specific conditions that apply to each member state.

All Maltese Islands are equally covered.

The data has been compiled for the first time in 2013.

Data is not compared with other sources.

The aggregates are coherent with sub aggregates.

In hours terms the collection and analysis of the hours worked variable is around 86hours per month. From the respondent point of view we do not have data available.

Revisions are carried according to regulation No1165/98. Internal procedures are also established and are published in the  document, Revisions of official Statistics published on the NSO website: http://www.nso.gov.mt/site/page.aspx?pageid=582

Revisions are carried according to regulation No1165/98. Internal procedures are also established and arepublished in the  document, Revisions of official Statistics published on the NSO website: http://www.nso.gov.mt/site/page.aspx?pageid=582. After six months data is considered stable.

Sample survey of around 840 units.

The frequency of data collection is quarterly with monthly references.

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

Data is validated through regular checks throughout the system lifecycle being during data input stage, data processing and analysis stage. Various analytical checks are executed by our statisticians while other validations are in-built in our data systems.

Before transmission file formats, code lists and consisrency are checked with the use of excel and access databases.

The short term indicies for other services are fixed-base indices (2010=100.0) calculated using a variation of the Laspeyres formula. A nominal index is produced with reference year 2010.

Unadjusted, trend, calendar adjusted and seasonally adjusted

Not available