National Statistics Office

Directorate B: Business Statistics

Short-term Business Statistics

National Statistics Office

Lascaris Valletta, VLT 2000, Malta

The indices of the turnover and volume of retail trade describe the development of sales and volume of sales respectively in the wholesale and retail trade sector (NACE Section G).

The classifications used in STS is NACE rev.2.

The following NACE divisions are covered:

NACE 45 - Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles;

NACE 46 - Wholesale trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles;

NACE 47 - Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles.

For these indicators, 3 NACE divisions are covered, namely G45, G46 and G47. Additionally, NACE 47 is further broken down into sum of (G4711 and G472) (=G47_Food), sum of (G4719, G474 to G479) (=G47_Nfood_X_G473), Division G47,  G473, Division G47 without G473 (=G47_X_G473).

The main indicator is turnover. The use of HICP data are used to deflate the turnover. Turnover exlcudes VAT.

Kind of Activity (KAU) Unit.

The statistical population is around 800 business units and includes all those falling under NACE Divisions 45-47. The population is maintained by the Business Registers unit.

The indicator covers the national territory of the Maltese Islands. Activities carried out outside the national territory of the Maltese Islands are excluded.

The data for these indices 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 provided on a monthly basis.

Maltese Legislation  and European Business Statistics Regulation N^o 2019/2152 and N^o 2020/1197.

Data Sharing matters are governed by the Malta Statistics Authority Act XXIV of 2000. The indices are sent 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/

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 these indices are carried out on a monthly basis and 30 days after the end of the reference period. National news releases for the index are carried out on a quarterly 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 quarterly local news release is published on the turnover 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, this index 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 document used for the production of this index is the following:

European Business Statistics Manual, 2021

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

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

Quality Assurance Framework of the ESS 

Overall, the quality of the indices is of good quality and reliable.

The main users are the following:

- Eurostat;

- Central Bank of Malta;

- Other international organisations.

Not available.

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

The overall accuracy of the indicators is considered to be of good quality. 

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

The number of observations for this indicator is around 600 business units. NACE Division 47- retail trade, constitute the bulk of these observations - around 500, while the other two NACE divisions (45 and 46) constitute the remaining 200 observation units. Altogether, these business units represent around 80% of the population turnover.

The majority of the NACE categories (including the detailed breakdowns for NACE 47) are sampled using non probability sampling methods such as the 80% cut off method or the 1% method (all business units that have at least 1% of total turnover).

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

Non-sampling errors are mainly due to non-response. Hence, the Short-term Business Statistics Unit use the donor technique using Euclidean distance as the main imputation technique.

Weighted Response Rate every month exceeds 70%. The weighting variable to calculate the response rate is turnover.

The index is disseminated 30 days after the end of the reference period.

The NSO is committed to adhere to the timeliness established by the European Business Statistics Regulation (EBS) and also issues news releases according to its pre-published calendar.

All deadlines are respected during the course of the year.

To ensure geographical comparability across member states the index is compiled according to the EBS (European Business Statistics) Regulations. 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.

Data are compared to administrative data.

Aggregates are consistent with the other components.

Data burden is considered high. 120 hours/month are approximately used for the compilation of these indices. From the respondent point of view, about 15mins/month are used to compile the questionnaire.

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.

Data marked as provisional are revised when actual data are received and imputations are replaced with such data.

The calendar adjusted Mean Absolute Revision (MAR) and Mean Revision (MR) are the below:

MAR = 0.029

MR = 0.026

Data are based on a sample survey of around 600 units which is refreshed every 5 years.

Turnover and employment are the main variables used for sample design.

The frequency of data collection is on a monthly basis. 

Data is collected by means of a 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.

No additional comments.