Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament concerning short-term statistics as required by Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 May 1998
Date: 2008-06-09
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU statistics, economic statistics, report, statistical method, statistics

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COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 9.6.2008 
COM(2008) 340 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND 
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

concerning Short-Term Statistics as required by Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 of the 
European Parliament and of the Council of 19 May 1998 

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REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND 
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

concerning Short-Term Statistics as required by Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 of the 
European Parliament and of the Council of 19 May 1998 

Regulation 1158/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning short-term 
statistics  amending  the  Regulation  1165/98  introduces  in  article  14  that  "the  Commission 
shall,  by  11  August  2008  and  again  every  three  years  thereafter,  submit  a  report  to  the 
European  Parliament  and  the  Council  on  the  statistics  compiled  pursuant  to  this  Regulation 
and in particular on their relevance and quality and the revision of indicators. The report shall 
also specifically address the cost of the statistical system and the burden on business arising 
from this Regulation in relation to its benefits. It shall report on best practices for lessening 
the burden of business and shall indicate ways to reduce the burden and costs". 

The main conclusions of this report can be summarised as follows: the first section recalls that 
the  statistics  produced  pursuant  to  this  regulation  are  the  key  short-term  economic  statistics 
indispensable for the conduct of European economic and monetary policy. Their availability, 
coverage,  comparability  and  timeliness  have  increased  substantially  as  a  result  of  the 
regulation; the ambitious targets set in the EMU action plan in 2002 have been achieved. The 
second  and  third  sections  show  that  the  quality  of  the  indicators  is  generally  good  for  the 
purposes  for  which  they  are  intended  and  revisions  are  kept  within  reasonable  bounds. 
Finally,  the  last  section  demonstrates  that  the  cost  of  these  statistics  and  the  burden  on 
enterprises are modest and describes best practices that have been implemented to minimise 
the  burden.  To  comply  with  Article  14,  the  Commission  (Eurostat)  set  up  a  Task  Force  of 
national  statistical  offices  with  the  mandate  to  develop  a  tool  to  measure  the  burden  on 
businesses  and  the  cost  to  the  statistical  system  arising  from  the  STS  Regulation.  This  tool 
was  developed  in  consistency  with  the  EU  net  cost  model  and  in  collaboration  with  the 
Member States and referred to the Commission commitment to reducing burden1.  

In 2007, the task force drafted a text assessing the benefits of the STS Regulation, covering 
several  items  related  to  the  EU  and  euro  area  economy:  the  increasing  amount  of  statistical 
information,  the  timeliness,  the  scope  of  statistics,  the  quality  of  statistics,  the  revision  of 
statistics,  the  punctuality  of  statistics,  the  possibilities  to  compare  it  with  e.g.  the  US  and 
Japan. The text was submitted to the STS main users at European level and country level in 
spring 2007. 

The  draft  report  was  discussed  and  agreed  in  broad  terms  with  the  experts  in  the  Working 
Group on Short-Term Statistics and in the Statistical Programme Committee. 

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COM(2005) 97 "Better Regulation for Growth and Jobs in the European Union" 

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1. 

SECTION  1:  RELEVANCE  OF  SHORT-TERM  STATISTICS  AND  THE  BENEFITS  ARISING 
FROM THE STS REGULATION 

The  European  short-term  statistics  Regulation  (STS-R)  (adopted  in  1998  and  substantially 
amended in 20052) introduced a common set of indicators and definitions for the EU Member 
States  in  order  to  better  analyse  the  business  cycle  at  EU  and  national  level,  partly  as  a 
precondition  for  the  establishment  of  the  euro  area  with  its  common  monetary  policy.  The 
statistical requirements for the formulation and monitoring of the euro area monetary policy 
were expressed by the ECB and the Commission on many occasions3. The European Central 
Bank  (ECB),  the  National  Central  Banks  as  well  as  the  Commission  and  national 
governments in the EU have high user needs as regards short-term statistics. The successful 
implementation of the STS-Regulation has been a milestone for the provision of high-quality 
short-term economic indicators for the euro area as a whole. The structured requirements of 
the STS-R allowed Eurostat systematically to produce European aggregates. 

In November 2002, the Commission submitted to the European Parliament and the Council a 
comprehensive  report  on  euro  area  statistics  supporting  the  development  of  the  Principal 
European Economic Indicators (PEEIs) and their full implementation. The PEEIs cover a list 
of nineteen infra-annual macro economic indicators for the euro area and the EU, for which 
challenging  improvement  objectives  were  set.  STS  provides  eight4  out  of  nineteen  of  the 
PEEIs  (see  table  1).  Not  only  the  seven  available  Principal  European  Economic  Indicators 
(PEEIs) but all the 395 indicators monitored through the STS Regulation provide on a timely 
basis an accurate and summarized picture of the EU and euro area economy. 

The  STS  indicators  constitute  40%  of  all  regular  News  Releases  by  Eurostat  and  are 
systematically among the most consulted on the web site. Eurostat produces 60 monthly News 
Releases per year on short-term indicators (industrial production index, industrial output price 
index, industrial new orders index, production in construction, turnover index for retail trade). 

1.1. 

Increasing amount of statistical information on the EU and euro area economy 

The improved data supply has allowed a significant increase in the use of STS for economic 
analysis. Whereas in 1999, the launch of Stage Three of EMU, industrial production was the 
only regularly available monthly European STS indicator, in 2007 intensive use is made of a 
range of monthly and quarterly indicators on output, demand, prices, wages and employment, 
for  industry,  construction,  retail  trade  and  market  services.  The  data  are  used  for  current 
economic analysis at EU and euro area level, for country analysis and country comparisons, 
for  forecasting,  economic  research  and  for  economic  and  monetary  policy  decisions.  For 
economic  analyses  and  policy  users  the  STS  data  provides  a  unique  dataset,  supplementing 
other  statistical  source  like  quarterly  national  accounts  or  qualitative  (opinion)  surveys. 
Finally the STS dataset has been recently extended to the services sector. It helps to meet an 
important policy need as the importance of services in the economy continues to increase but 
the benefits of this implementation will be fully operational only in 2009 due to derogations 
introduced with the 2005 amending Regulation (see footnote 4).  

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Regulation (EC) n° 1158/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2005 amending 
Council Regulation (EC) n° 1165/98 concerning short-term statistics. 
For example, “Statistical requirements of the European Central Bank in the field of General Economic 
Statistics”, ECB, August 2000. 
Services  output  prices  indicators  are  not  yet  available  at  the  European  level  because  of  lengthy 
derogation requested by most Member States up to August 2008. 
List in annex. 

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The volume of data also increased considerably due to the recently acceding Member States 
and the transmission of more data from the EU15 Member States. With data transmitted by 31 
countries (27 Member States, Turkey and Croatia, Norway and Switzerland), the number of 
series is now four times bigger than 5 years ago.  

1.2. 

Timeliness of statistics on the EU and euro area economy 

To  satisfy  greater  needs  for  timely  data  and  analysis  of  the  European  Monetary  Union,  the 
1998 STS Regulation introduced deadlines for transmission. The 2005 amending Regulation 
went  further  by  introducing  significantly  shorter  deadlines.  As  Table  1  shows,  the  new 
deadlines  are  almost  systematically  in  line  with  the  "EU  target  deadlines"  set  by  the 
Communication  of  the  Commission  to  the  European  Council  and  Parliament  on  euro  area 
statistics  (COM(2002)661).  The  timeliness  in  STS  improved  in  the  last  years  and  has  been 
achieved  with  systematic  and  gradual  development  work  in  the  Member  States  in  order  to 
maintain a high level of data quality. However some EU indicators' releases are still behind 
the US and Japan dissemination dates.  

The  2005  amending  Regulation  introduced  some  European  sampling,  which  is  particularly 
suitable  for  first  and  timely  estimates  at  European  level  and,  therefore,  fulfil  major 
requirements of users while minimising the cost and burden in each Member State. 

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Table  1:  timeliness  in  days  after  the  reference  period  of  the  Principal  European  Economic 
Indicators related to STS 

List  of  PEEIs 
indicators 

for  business 

Periodicity 

in 2002 

Target 

current delivery6 

for 2008 

(as of May 2007) 

3.1. Industrial production index 

Monthly 

3.2.  Industrial  output  price  index 
for domestic markets 

Monthly 

48 

35 

40 

35 

40 

33 

3.3. Industrial new orders index 

Monthly 

Did not  

40/50 

50 

exist 

3.4. Industrial import price index  Monthly 

Did not exist 

45 

45  

3.5. Production in construction 

Monthly 

75  

and quarterly 

3.6. Turnover index for retail trade 
and repair 

Monthly 

60 

3.7.  Turnover  index  for  “Other 
services” 

Quarterly 

partial 

(planned for 2007) 

45  

(since Jan 2007) 

30 first estimate  

/ 60 details 

60 

45 

30 

60 

3.8.  Output  prices 
services 

index 

for 

Quarterly 

Did not  

60(*) 

90 partial data 

exist 

in 2008 

(*) The original target was superseded by the 2005 Regulation which stipulates the mandatory deadline for 
transmission of the output prices for services at 90 days.  

1.3. 

Scope and quality of statistics on the EU and euro area economy 

European data are available earlier. At the same time the country coverage at the moment of 
their first release has improved. This is an important quality feature as it reduces the risk of 
subsequent  revisions  of  first  releases.  Many  users  judged  the  actual  timeliness  good  and 
recommended not to go for further acceleration to the detriment of the accuracy: stable first 
estimates provide more benefits to users than quicker but less stable results. 
The  MEETS  program7  may  help  Member  States  and  the  Commission  (Eurostat)  identifying 
new needs concerning the scope of the STS Regulation. 

The  quality  of  short  term  statistics  has  been  assessed  by  users  as  generally  good  or 
satisfactory. The short-term statistics are assessed as unbiased and accurate. 

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The 2005 amended Regulation granted an extra 15 days delay for smaller Member States. 
The  Modernisation  of  European  Enterprise  and  Trade  Statistics  (MEETS)  program  is  a  six-year 
program (2008-2013). Its first objective is to develop target sets of indicators and to review priorities. 

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1.4. 

Revision of statistics on the EU and euro area economy  

Revisions  of  STS  have  been  generally  limited,  in  particular  at  euro  area  and  EU  level; 
however, for some of the indicators (e.g. retail trade turnover) further work is needed in order 
to improve the reliability of first estimates. 

National and European users assessed the revisions to be of appropriate size, underlining that 
the  size  may  not  be  the  most  important  factor  compared  to  the  frequency  of  revisions  and 
should not be the outcome of speeding up collection and estimation processes. 

1.5. 

Punctuality of statistics on the EU and euro area economy 

Like most EU countries, Eurostat has established an advance release calendar for many of the 
indicators, which is important for users of the data. The release dates pre-announced on the 
Eurostat  website  for  the  whole  year  are  respected.  The  punctuality  of  STS  statistics  is 
unanimously  assessed  as  optimal,  very  good  or  satisfactory.  The  respect  of  advance  release 
calendars is very important regarding the integrity of statistical practices. 

1.6. 

Comparison between the EU and euro area economy and e.g. the US and Japan. 

The  Council  Regulation,  the  ensuing  Commission  Regulation  on  definitions  and  the 
methodological  guidelines  are  all  applied  by  the  countries  transmitting  STS  data.  This 
regulatory  and  methodological  framework  (including  common  tools  like  classifications, 
harmonised  adjustment  techniques  to  remove  calendar  and  seasonal  effects)  ensures  a  good 
comparability between national data as well as good-quality European aggregates. 

However  compilation  processes  and  methodological  choices  are  not  compelled  to  be  100% 
equal  from  one  country  to  another  in  order  to  allow  countries  to  make  best  use  of  the  data 
available  to  them.  In  the  most  cost-effective  way,  countries  may  apply  different  collection 
methods (surveys, use of administrative sources) and different calculation modes for the data. 

The  correspondence  in  terms  of  definitions,  methods  and  quality  between  the  EU  and  euro 
area  economies  and  other  major  economies  is  very  good  and  permits  better  economic 
analysis.  Eurostat  works  closely  with  OECD  and  other  international  institutions  to  ensure 
comparable methodologies and data and the use of common tools. 

Comparing  the  timeliness  of  some  statistics,  the  US  and  Japan  remain  faster  than  European 
data  (employment,  labour  force  and  wages  were  mentioned).  However,  the  right  balance 
between quality and timeliness should be ensured. 

2. 

SECTION 2: QUALITY OF THE DATA 

Five principles of the European statistics code of practice, adopted in 2005, are devoted to the 
quality  of  statistical  output:  relevance,  accuracy  and  reliability,  timeliness  and  punctuality8, 
coherence and comparability9, accessibility and clarity. 

Through the consultation of national and European users during spring 2007 the relevance of 
short-term statistics data has been assessed as good by the users: the short-term statistics meet 
their needs (see section 1). Most of the STS indicators are available for more than 10 years at 
European level, allowing business cycle analysis. The compliance of Member States in terms 
of  reliability,  timeliness,  coherence  and  comparability  is  monitored  by  Eurostat  every  six 
months and shows a continuous improvement: the EU27 average score was 9.0 (out of 10) as 

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Cf. 1.2 and 1.5 
Cf. 1.6 

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of  1st  April  2007,  8.5  (1st  April  2005)  and  6.6  (1st  January  2004).  Most  Member  States  are 
close to full compliance with the STS Regulation. 

The  accuracy  of  the  statistical  output  is  tackled  at  national  and  Community  levels,  by 
eliminating  as  much  as  possible  non-sampling  errors  (bias  due  to  definitions,  processing 
errors, measurement errors, coverage errors), by calculating sampling errors and studying and 
analysing revisions (see section 3 on revisions).. More detailed technical information is given 
in  publications  for  the  Industrial  Production  Index,  the  retail  trade  turnover  index  and  the 
domestic output price index. 

All  the  short-term  statistics  data  are  accessible  on  the  Eurostat  website.  Since  2006  a 
dedicated section on the Eurostat website relates to short-term business statistics10 providing 
the latest publications, access to data, background information (legal and methodological) and 
answers  to  frequently  asked  questions.  Every  month  short-term  statistics  news  releases  are 
among  the  top  10  downloads  and  hits  of  the  Eurostat  website.  Clarity  is  ensured  by  a 
comprehensive  and  coherent  set  of  metadata,  tables  and  graphs  related  to  published  series. 
The  metadata  is  publicly  accessible.  Since  2000,  Eurostat  created  a  database  names  "STS 
sources  &  methods"  gathering  meta  information  from  all  Member  States  and  all  indicators. 
The  STS  sources  and  methods  (last  updated  in  2007)  provide  information  on  coverage, 
periodicity,  timeliness,  publication,  legal  basis  and  confidentiality  rules,  quality,  and 
methodology. 

3. 

SECTION 3: REVISIONS 

Revisions  of  STS  have  been  generally  limited,  in  particular  at  euro  area  and  EU  level; 
however, for some of the indicators further work is needed in order to improve the reliability 
of  first  estimates.  A  group  of  experts  from  OECD,  ECB,  Eurostat  and  Member  States  is 
working within a Task Force to unify the revision policies between indicators and countries. 

There  are  different  sources  of  revisions  in  short-term  statistics.  STS  indices  are  based 
predominantly  on  survey  data.  Therefore  one  source  of  revision  at  national  level  is  the  late 
responses to surveys from some companies. First estimates could be derived from judgmental 
or statistical techniques and may have to be revised when more data become available or as a 
result of benchmarking.  

A  second  source  of  revision  is  methodological  changes  (changes  in  statistical  methods, 
changes  in  concepts,  definitions  or  classifications)  which  can  take  many  forms:  the  data 
sources have been improved (a new survey or administrative data have been developed), some 
existing  practices  coming  from  European  or 
international  requirements  have  been 
implemented.  

A third source of revision is the statistical adjustments done at national level and at European 
level to take account of the seasonality and the calendar effects affecting time series. 

Finally,  revisions  could  occasionally  be  due  to  accidents  such  as  errors  in  source  data  or 
computation processes.  

Table 2 gives the sizes of revision in growth rates between the first published index and the 
second  release  (one  month  later)  for  European  aggregates  of  the  five  indicators  subject  to 
news  releases.  Among  those  five  indicators,  the  industrial  new  orders  and  the  construction 
production  have  the  largest  revision  measured  by  the  average  over  two  years  period  of  the 
absolute revision. The industrial domestic output price index has the smallest revision. 

10 

Under the theme Industry, trade and services 

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Table 2: Size of Revision for five short-term indicators - EU level 

Mean 
absolute 
revision11 

Average 
later 

Mean 
revision 

growth rate 

Relative mean 

absolute 
revision12 

Industrial production SA13 

Industrial new orders SA 

Industrial  domestic  output 
prices  

0.1 

0.4 

0.1 

Construction 
SA14 

production 

0.2 

Retail 
turnover SA 

trade 

deflated 

0.1 

0.3 

0.8 

0.3 

0.4 

0.2 

0.0 

0.2 

0.0 

0.18 

0.23 

0.27 

-0.2 

0.43 

0.0 

0.27 

The  revision  policy  may  depend  on  the  source.  For  example,  in  some  countries  the  labour 
input indicator (number of persons employed) comes from the Labour Force Survey which is 
a household based survey and the estimates are generally not revised.  

In the industrial sector, the output price index is often not revised. The production index is an 
indicator with the largest gap between the first published estimate and the final data: from 3 
months to 2 or 3 years because of benchmarks with structural or National accounts data.  

In  the  retail  trade  and  services  sector  the  employment  indicator  is  more  subject  to  a  long 
revision period than turnover. In some countries short-term employment indicators based on 
business survey data are finalised after 14 months to 2-3 years after the reference quarter for 
consistency with structural data. 

Hence,  revision  policies  vary  from  one  short-term  indicator  to  another  and  from  country  to 
country.  However  the  implementation  of  STS  Regulation  and  especially  its  amendment  in 
2005, by setting up demanding deadlines for transmission from the Member States, has driven 
the Member States to strengthen the whole process of compiling short-term statistics and to 
minimise the revisions.  

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14 

The revision is the difference between the first published index and second estimate one month later. 
The  data  covers  the  period  from  November  2005  to  May  2007.  For  example,  the  growth  rate  of 
industrial  production  for  the  month  of  February  2007  for  €area  compared  to  January  2007  was 
estimated at 0.6 in the first release. One month later, the value of the growth rate was estimated to 0.5, 
corresponding to a revision of -0.1 and an absolute revision of 0.1 to the growth rate. 
The relative mean absolute revision is the ratio between the sum of the absolute revision and the sum of 
the absolute later estimates. 
SA stands for seasonally adjusted; Gross corresponds to gross data. 
The  construction  production  index  is  monthly  since  November  2006.  Revisions  are  calculated  on 
quarterly data from 1st quarter 2005 to 3rd quarter 2006 and then on monthly data from November 2006 
to June 2007. 

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4. 

SECTION  4:  COST  AND  BURDEN;  BEST  PRACTICES  TO  LESSEN  THE  BURDEN  ON 
BUSINESSES 

4.1. 

Cost and burden 

In  2005  a  task  force  was  set  up  among  short-term  statistics  specialists  to  develop  a  tool  to 
measure  the  statistical  burden15  on  businesses  and  the  cost  to  the  statistical  system  arising 
from  the  STS  Regulation  according  to  a  common  European  methodology.  The  tool  was 
developed  in  consistency  with  the  EU  net  cost  model.  However  the  measures  are  only 
expressed in hours worked per year and not translated into euros.  

The  measure  of  burden  is  defined  as  the  time  the  business  needs  to  compile  all  the  data  to 
answer  the  statistical  request.  The  measure  of  cost  is  defined  as  the  time  needed  at  the 
competent national statistical authority for all activities to comply with the STS Regulation. 

The  measures  have  been  finalised  during  the  first  quarter  of  2007.  Based  on  twenty-six 
countries, a good overall picture for the European Union is obtained.  

In a typical year, around 930,000 European businesses responded to a statistical survey related 
to the 39 short-term statistics indicators. On average each business responding spent 4 hours 
20  minutes  per  year  (21min  per  month)  to  fill  in  the  statistical  surveys  related  to  the  STS 
Regulation and the 39 indicators. Respondents are mainly larger enterprises because small and 
medium  sized  businesses  are  generally  exempted  (see  section  4.2).  Overall  (for  the  39 
indicators over one year of data collection and calculation) the cost for the statistical system is 
about the same size as the burden on businesses. Because of the predominance of the industry 
sector  (21  indicators  among  the  39)  in  the  STS  Regulation  itself  and  in  the  data  collection 
system,  the  number  of  businesses  involved  in  the  compilation  of  industrial  data  represents 
44% of the total number (respectively 38% in the retail trade and services sector and 18% in 
the construction sector). 

Monthly indicators contribute a significant share (80%) to the total statistical cost and burden 
but  provide  at  the  same  time  high  benefits  for  the  users:  monthly  indicators  are  released  to 
ensure timely economic analysis.  

It  should  be  stressed  that  the  costs  described  above  are  the  total  costs  of  compiling  these 
statistics, not the extra costs of the existence of the EU Regulation. The STS Regulation came 
into force in 1998 at a time when already many short-term statistics were implemented in the 
EU countries. Moreover more than two-thirds of the short-term indicators covered by the STS 
Regulation  are  input  for  other  EU  Regulations  (National  Accounts,  Labour  Cost  Index)  or 
output from other EU Regulations (Labour Force Survey). 

4.2. 

Best practices to lessen the burden 

In fulfilling the STS requirements, Member States strive to minimise the statistical burden on 
business  while  producing  data  of  sufficient  timeliness  and  reliability  for  economic  analysis. 
Practices and procedures have been implemented to this end in many countries and are being 
developed in others. Some examples are given below.  

Some  20  countries  introduced  electronic  data  collection  as  an  option  offered  to  businesses 
instead  of  the  post  or  fax  for  returning  the  questionnaires.  Electronic  data  collection  gives 
flexibility to the companies for answering within certain delays with a first data validation at 

15 

Only  the  burden  on  businesses  coming  from  statistical  surveys  is  evaluated.  When  administrative 
sources are used to compile short-term statistics, the burden was not considered in this exercise as it is 
incurred anyway for administrative purpose. 

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the company's level. Some National Statistical Offices (NSOs) implemented an interface with 
standard software for company accounts widely used by businesses. 

Administrative  data  sources  are  part  of  input  used  by  the  NSOs  to  compile  the  STS 
indicators. The obvious advantage is that there is no additional statistical burden imposed on 
companies, even though the administrative burden remains. 

The VAT or other fiscal or administrative data are a very broadly-based source of information 
on  the  business  system.  Their  use  for  statistical  purposes  implies  multiple  advantages,  in 
particular the reduction of the statistical burden on companies Conversely there can be some 
loss of data quality if the concepts are too different from statistical needs or change over time. 
There have been several cases where an administrative source suddenly disappeared leaving 
the statisticians with no option but to recreate a statistical survey. 

Where  administrative  data  are  used  to  compile  the  STS  indicators,  the  VAT  register  or 
declarations  account  for  roughly  50%  and  an  employment  register  for  the  other  half. 
Administrative data sources are more often used for quarterly data since they are generally not 
as timely as purpose-designed monthly statistical surveys. 

Frequently,  administrative  data  sources  are  used  to  supplement  the  survey  data,  providing 
information relating to small or medium-sized businesses.  

All  Member  States  avoid  burden  on  small  businesses  by  including  thresholds  or 
implementing sample strategies. Regarding indicators under the STS Regulation, the countries 
apply  thresholds  in  the  data  collection  for  many  indicators  –  a  vast  majority  of  small 
businesses  are  for  this  reason  excluded  from  the  sample,  which  is  drawn  anyhow  to  be 
representative  of  the  total  population  and  ensure  a  very  good  coverage  of  the  variable  of 
interest16. Low sampling rates are applied mainly in retail activities for small business (below 
10  persons  employed)  and  may  result  in  less  accuracy  of  the  final  estimates.  To  reduce  the 
burden  on  small  businesses  some  estimation  procedures  may  be  used  such  as  forecast  of  a 
monthly  pattern  from  a  quarterly  inquiry,  or  using  information  from  administrative  sources 
(such as VAT).  

Technical sampling solutions like rotation samples (for example, 20% of the businesses are 
replaced  every  year)  are  applied  quite  often  by  larger  Member  States.  The  sample  sizes  are 
optimised using advanced statistical allocation procedures. Sample strategies have to be put in 
relation  to  the  demand:  sometimes  on  top  of  a  national  indicator  required  by  the  EU 
Regulation  may  be  added  regional  or  local  indicators  to  satisfy  national  user  needs, 
necessitating much larger samples.  

The coordination of surveys  among  the  STS  indicators  as well  as  between  them  and  other 
surveys is given an important role inside the National Statistical Offices to reduce the overlap 
of statistics and so the burden on companies by not asking the same question several times. 

Some  National  Statistical  Offices  have  experimented  successfully  with  a  "one  entry  data 
point"  especially  for  big  companies:  the  large  business  profiler  programme.  This  holistic 
strategy creates very good long-term relationships between businesses and statistical offices, 
rationalizes the data requirements of the statistical office and creates conditions to manage the 
response burden. 

16 

In the industrial sector, thresholds for exclusion of small business from the survey may be applied (less 
than 10 persons employed very often) but the coverage is  maintained at a very high level (above 70-
80%). When activities are less concentrated like in construction, retail trade or restaurants, thresholds of 
total  exclusion  are  not  applied.  The  burden  on  small  business  is  lessened  by  implementing  different 
sampling rates according to turnover or employment data. 

EN 

10 

   EN 

 
                                                 
The  STS  Regulation  itself  permits  a  substantial  reduction  of  the  burden  by  introducing  the 
concept  of  European  Sample  Schemes  for  some  variables.  For  these  cases,  countries  may 
opt  to  compile  data  exclusively  for  those  industries  or  products  that  are  very  important  and 
make  a  significant  contribution  to  the  aggregates  at  European  level.  The  2005  amending 
Regulation introduced as well thresholds for small Member States. Both of these techniques 
reduce the burden on enterprises while still allowing the Commission (Eurostat) to calculate 
reliable EU aggregates. 

Other  European  initiatives  include  methodological  guidelines  or  specific  workshops  to 
create synergy among the European statistical community and promote the exchange of best 
practices  and  discussions.  In  the  framework  of  the  2005  amending  Regulation,  Eurostat 
provided,  in  coordination  with  OECD,  methodological  guidelines  for  the  implementation  of 
services output prices indices and organized several workshops on specific services activities. 

EN 

11 

   EN 

 
Annex: list of short-term statistics indicators (PEEIs in bold) 

Sector 

Indicator 

Periodicity 

Regulation deadline17 

Industry 

Construction 

Retail trade 

Production 
turnover,  domestic  turnover,  non 
domestic  turnover  (split  euro  area 
– non euro area) 
new  orders  received,  domestic 
new  orders  ,  non  domestic  new 
orders  (split  euro  area  –  non  euro 
area) 
number of persons employed  
hours worked  
gross wages and salaries  
output prices,  
domestic  output  prices,  non 
domestic  output  prices  (split  euro 
area – non euro area) 
import  prices  (split  euro  area  – 
non euro area) 
Production, production of 
building construction, production 
of civil engineering 
number of persons employed  
hours worked  
gross wages and salaries 
construction 
costs,labour costs 
building  permits:  number  of 
dwellings;  building  permits:  m² 
useful floor area 
turnover  
number of persons employed  
deflated turnover 

material 

costs, 

Other services  Turnover 

number of persons employed 
output prices 

M: Monthly 

Q: Quarterly 

M 
M 

M 

Q 
Q 
Q 
M 

1 month 10 days 
2 months 

1 month 20 days 

2 months 
3 months 
3 months 
1 month 5 days 

M 

1 month 15 days 

M / Q18 

Q 
Q 
Q 
Q 

Q 

M 
Q 
M 
Q 
Q 
Q 

2 months 
3 months 
3 months 
3 months 

3 months 

1 month19 / 2 months 
2 months 
1 month / 2 months 
2 months 
2 months 
3 months 

17 
18 
19 

The deadline may be up to 15 calendar days longer for the smaller Member State. 
Depends on the size of the Member State. 
One month for aggregates, two months for details. 

EN 

12 

   EN