REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL concerning short term statistics as required by Article 14(2) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1165/1998
Date: 2017-08-02
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU statistics, data collection, data transmission, economic cycle, economic statistics, industrial statistics, statistical method, trade statistics

EN 

   EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 2.8.2017  COM(2017) 411 final   REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL concerning short term statistics as required by Article 14(2) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1165/1998  
 
 
1. 

INTRODUCTION 

European short-term business statistics (STS) provide a comprehensive set of indicators such 
as  production,  turnover, output  prices  (often  also  referred to  as  producer  prices),  number  of 
persons  employed,  hours  worked,  gross  wages  and  some  others  for  four  major  economic 
areas:  industry,  construction,  retail  trade  and  services  (excluding  financial  and  public 
services). Table 1 provides an overview of the STS indicators. 

Table 1: Short-term statistics indicators 

Retail trade 
- 

Other services 
- 

Turnover in retail 
trade 

Turnover in (other) 
services 

- 

- 

Number of persons 
employed 
Hours worked 
Gross wages and 
salaries 
Volume of retail 
trade 

Number of persons 
employed 
Hours worked 
Gross wages and 
salaries 
Output prices of 
(other) services 

Industry 
Construction 
Industrial production  Production in 
construction 
- Building 
construction 
- Civil engineering 
- 

Industrial turnover, 
domestic and non-
domestic (euro area 
and non-euro area) 
- 

Building permits 
- Number of 
dwellings 
- m2 of useful floor 
area 
Number of persons 
employed 
Hours worked 
Gross wages and 
salaries 
Construction output 
prices / construction 
costs 

Number of persons 
employed 
Hours worked 
Gross wages and 
salaries 
Industrial output 
prices, domestic and 
non-domestic (euro 
area and non-euro 
area) 
Industrial import 
prices (euro area and 
non-euro area) 

- 

- 

- 

The legal basis of short-term business statistics is Council Regulation (EC) No 1165/19981, as 
amended  by  subsequent  regulations  (hereinafter  ‘STS  Regulation’).  According  to  Article 
14(2) of the Regulation:  

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 

1 

OJ L 162, 5.6.1998, p. 1. 

2 

 
 
 
 
                                                 
practices for lessening the burden on business and shall indicate ways of reducing the burden 
and costs. 

The  present  report  follows  up  on  the  reports  submitted  in  June  2008,  June  2011,  and  June 
2014 pursuant to the above Article2. 

Section  2  outlines  the  uses  of  short-term  statistics  and  their  relevance  for  key  European 
policies and the steering of European monetary policy. It also indicates major developments 
in short-term statistics since the last report in June 2014. 

Section 3 describes in greater detail the different quality aspects of short-term statistics.  

Section  4  presents  some  facts  regarding  the  cost  and  burden  involved  in  the  collection  and 
processing of data for short-term statistics. 

The  last  section  provides  an  outlook  on  future  developments  in  short-term  statistics,  in 
particular in relation with the Framework Regulation Integrating Business Statistics (FRIBS) 
the proposal of which was adopted by the Commission on 6 March 2017.  

2 

COM(2008)  340  final,  9.6.2008;  COM(2011)  329  final,  8.6.2011;  and  COM(2014)  381  final, 
26.6.2014. There was also a  report in 2003: COM(2003) 36 final, 29.1.2003. 

3 

 
 
                                                 
OVERVIEW OF SHORT-TERM STATISTICS AND MOST IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS 

2. 
Short-term statistics provide eight of the 22 principal European economic indicators (PEEIs)3 
which were developed to monitor the economic development (business cycle) of the European 
Union and its Member States and in particular to conduct monetary policy in the euro area. 
These  indicators  are:  industrial  production,  industrial  output  prices  on  the  domestic  market, 
industrial  import  prices,  production  in  construction,  volume  of  retail  trade,  turnover  in 
services (excluding retail trade services), service output prices and building permits. 

The most prominent users of short-term statistics are the European Central Bank and national 
central banks but the data are also of high importance for the European Commission, national 
governments,  research  institutes,  as  well  as  for  businesses  and  business  organisations.  It  is 
also  important  to  note  that  short-term  statistics  provide  key  input  for  other  statistical  areas 
such as national accounts.  

Short-term  statistics  are  most  commonly  used  for  economic  trend  analysis,  forecasting  and 
modelling, they  are  also  required  for  the  preparation  of  policy  decisions,  research  purposes, 
checking and validating data from other sources and as a basis for business decisions (e.g. in 
market  research).  Results  from  short-term  statistics  may  also  be  used  by  businesses  for 
various other purposes (e.g. use of output price indices for indexing contracts).  

In order to ensure the relevance of short-term statistics for their users and to further enhance 
the quality of the data Eurostat has undertaken a number of initiatives since the last report on 
short-term statistics was adopted in June 2014. 

In  order  to  complement  the  existing  regular  data  compliance  assessment  a  more  extensive 
quality  monitoring  of  short-term  statistics  data  was  introduced.  In  addition  to  the 
completeness  and  timeliness  of  the  data  transmissions  of  National  Statistical  Institutes  to 
Eurostat the extended quality monitoring will also focus on the accuracy (i.e. reliability and 
source data) of short-term statistics; in particular, the initiative will look at the size and timing 
of revisions and the availability of source data at the time of the first data. 

During the last three years, national reference metadata of short-term business statistics have 
been created and updated using Eurostat's metadata standards. At least one national metadata 
file has been created for each Principal European Economic Indicator (PEEI) and additional 
files  for  other  indicators.  Most  reporting  countries  completed  their  STS  metadata  files  by 
2014, enriched the concepts on revisions and adjustment in 2015 and improved their metadata 
further on accuracy in 2016. National reference metadata of the reporting countries are also 
released online via the annexes at the end of Eurostat's STS metadata file.4 

In March 2016, a new seasonal adjustment software was introduced for European short-term 
business statistics. Starting with the reference year 2016 the new software JDemetra+ is used. 
With this change short-term statistics follow recommendations by Eurostat and the ECB for 
seasonal and calendar adjustment of official statistics in the EU.5 The new software improves 
the quality and transparency of the calendar and seasonal adjustment in short-term statistics. 
The switch to the new seasonal adjustment software has not caused changes in the headline 

3 

4 
5 

The original list of PEEIs was established in 2002 (Communication of the Commission to the European 
Parliament and the Council on Eurozone Statistics, 27.11.2002, COM(2002) 661 final). 
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/metadata/en/sts_esms.htm#annex. 
Moreover,  the  ESS  guidelines  on  seasonal  adjustment  recommend  the  use  of  JDemetra+  by  Eurostat 
context: 
and  by 
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-GQ-15-001 

the  European  Statistical  System 

the  Members  of 

a  broader 

in 

4 

 
 
                                                 
time  series,  their  interpretation  or  use.  The  previous  seasonal  adjustment  specifications  are 
also  used  in  JDemetra+.  This  ensures  stability  of  the  seasonal  adjustment  process  and 
minimises revisions. 

3. 

SCOPE AND COMPLIANCE WITH THE STS REGULATION 

Eurostat monitors Member States’ compliance with the STS Regulation in terms of timeliness 
and  completeness.  On  the  basis  of  the  various  quality  aspects  outlined  in  the  European 
Statistics  Code  of  Practice6,  twice  per  year  a  comprehensive  compliance  score  covering  all 
indicators is calculated for each country. Generally, the results of the monitoring show a high 
level of compliance with the regulation. As of 1 April 2016, the EU-28 average score was 9.5 
(out of 10) with a large majority of Member States fully compliant. 

Accuracy, reliability, coherence and comparability 

3.1. 
With  Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  1503/20067  common  definitions  for  short-term 
statistics were introduced in order to ensure the coherence and comparability of data. Eurostat 
and  the  national  statistical  offices  work  closely  together  to  maintain  and  improve  high 
accuracy, reliability and coherence of the short-term statistics indicators. The methodological 
framework  established by the STS  Regulation is continuously improved by consultations of 
technical experts and of special thematic task forces.  

Despite  uniform  definitions,  statistical  data  compilation  approaches  do  not  have  to  be 
identical across Member States. In keeping with the principle of subsidiarity and in order to 
take account of national differences, e.g. as regards size, economic structure and availability 
of administrative data, the STS Regulation leaves it to Member States to decide on the most 
efficient and effective ways of collecting and processing the data. 

Eurostat also works together with other international organisations, especially the OECD, to 
increase the comparability of data and methodology beyond the European Union. 

3.2. 

Timeliness and punctuality 

Short-term  statistics  are  among  the  first  official  data  to  provide  an  indication  of  the  recent 
economic  development.  The  STS  Regulation  sets  very  short  deadlines  for  the  delivery  of 
national  data  to  Eurostat8.  Table  2  shows  the  current  deadlines  for  data  transmission  to 
Eurostat  (third  column)  and  the  target  dates  set  by  the  Economic  and  Financial  Committee 
(EFC) in its most recent report on information requirements in the European Monetary Union. 
The  last  column  indicates  the  current  deadlines  for  dissemination  (e.g.  via  special  news 
releases and general online releases). 

In general, the timeliness of short-term statistics can be considered very good. Delays usually 
only occur if the target delivery day falls on a weekend or on a public holiday. 

Users  are  informed  about  news  release  publication  dates  well  in  advance  by  means  of  the 
news  release  calendar  on  the  Eurostat  website9.  In  past  years,  all  dates  announced  in  the 
calendar have been met. 

6 

7 
8 

9 

Code 

Statistics 

European 

The 
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/quality/european-statistics-code-of-practice. 
OJ L 281 of 12.10.2006, p. 15. 
The original deadlines in Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 were further shortened by Regulation (EC) No 
1158/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2005 (OJ L 191, 22.7.2005, p. 1). 
The calendar is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/short-term-business-statistics/overview. 

available 

Practice 

at: 

of 

is 

5 

 
 
                                                 
 
Table  2:  Timeliness  –  days  between  end  of  reference  period  and  delivery  deadline,  STS 
Regulation, EFC target and actual dissemination of EA aggregates (November 2016) 

Indicator 

Periodicity 

STS 
Regulation 
deadlines a) 

EFC targets 
for 2016 b) 

Dissemination 
of EA totals c) 

Industrial production  

Monthly 

Industrial output prices of the 
domestic market 

Monthly 

Industrial import prices 

Monthly 

Production in construction 

Monthly 

Building permits 

Quarterly 

Turnover in retail trade  

Monthly 

Turnover in (other) services 

Quarterly 

Service output prices 

Quarterly 

40 

35 

45 

45 

90 

30 

60 

90 

40 

35 

45 

45 

90 

30 

60 

90 

42 

33 

40 

49 

91 

34 

63 

91 

a)   Deadlines  for  the  transmission  of  data  to  Eurostat  under  the  short-term  statistics  Regulation;  for  smaller 

countries, longer deadlines may apply. 

b)  Targets set in the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) 2016 Status Report on information requirements 

on EMU. 

c)   Days between the end of reference period and dissemination (e.g. news release, data release). 

3.3. 

Revisions of short-term statistics indicators 

The  results  of  short-term  indicators  have  to  be  based,  to  some  extent,  on  preliminary, 
estimated  and  incomplete  data.  Following  the  first  data  release,  survey  results  are  revised 
when late respondents’ input has been added. But data can also be revised for a whole range 
of  other  reasons,  including  seasonal  adjustment,  benchmarking,  new  and/or  improved  data 
sources,  and  corrections  of  errors  or  methodological  changes.  The  revisions  are  generally 
rather limited in scale, especially at the aggregated EU level and for the euro area. 

In  order  to  assess  the  quality  of  the  first  results  of  the  four  short-term  statistics  indicators 
published  monthly  in  a  news  release,  changes  between  first  and  second  publications  of 
monthly growth rates were analysed for 2014-16. 

Table  3  shows,  for  the  euro-area  aggregates  of  the  four  STS  indicators  subject  to  a  news 
release,  the  average  scale  of  revisions  of  growth  rates  between  the  first  and  the  second 
publication one month later (second column). This is zero or close to zero, which means that 
upwards and downwards revisions of the growth rates cancel each other out, i.e. there appears 
to be no systematic bias to over- or under-estimating results. 

6 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Table 3: Scale of revision for the four principal short-term statistics indicators, 2014-16 a) 

1 

Industrial production 
Industrial output prices (domestic market) 
Production in construction 
Volume of retail trade 

2 

Average 
revision 
b) 

0.1 
0.0 
0.0 
0.0 

3 
Average 
absolute 
revision 
c) 
0.2 
0.0 
0.4 
0.2 

4 
Average 
absolute 
growth 
rate 
0.7 
0.4 
0.7 
0.4 

5 
Relative 
average 
revision 
d) 
0.2 
0.1 
0.5 
0.5 

a)   Seasonally adjusted growth rates of indicators for the euro area. 

b)  Differences between growth rates at second and first publication, 2014-16 average. 

c)   Absolute differences between growth rates at second and first publication, 2014-16 average. 

d)  Ratio between absolute revision (3rd column) and absolute growth rate at second publication (4th column), 

2014-16 average. Differences are due to rounding errors. 

In  absolute  terms  (third  column),  the  average  revisions  vary  between  almost  zero  for 
industrial  output  prices  and  0.4  percentage  points  for  production  in  construction.  The 
differences  across  indicators  are  explained  mainly  by  different  compilation  and  revision 
methods.  While  industrial  output  prices  are  often  not  revised  at  all,  production  indicators 
might even be revised several years after their first publication. 

Average growth rates (in absolute terms at second publication) are indicated in column 4. The 
last column shows the relationship between the revision of the growth rate and the growth rate 
itself  (at  the  time  of  the  second  publication).  This  number  describes  more  accurately  the 
magnitude  of  the  revisions,  since  it  makes  a  difference  whether  a  revision  of  x percentage 
points is applied to a relatively high or a relatively low growth rate. 

3.4. 

Accessibility, clarity and availability of metadata 

In  the  area  of  short-term  statistics,  Eurostat  publishes  48  news  releases  a  year,  i.e.  monthly 
releases  for  four  principal  indicators  (industrial  production,  industrial  output  prices, 
production in construction and volume of  retail trade). In  past years, all news releases  have 
been published according to schedule. 

All European short-term statistics data are accessible via the Eurostat website; they are free of 
charge. The section dedicated to short-term statistics10 provides access to the complete short-
term statistics database but also to a number of pre-defined statistical tables. In addition the 
dedicated section provides information on the legal basis of short-term statistics and contains 
numerous  methodological  publications.  Metadata  for  the  EU  aggregates  as  well  as  national 
metadata on the various short-term statistics indicators can also be accessed via the dedicated 
section. 

Concise  articles  on  all  short-term  statistics  indicators  as  well  as  numerous  methodological 
background articles are published in Statistics Explained, a wiki-style online platform.11 In the 
past  a  large  number  of  articles  on  short-term  statistics  had  been  published  in  the  format  of 
Statistics in focus. 

10 
11 

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/short-term-business-statistics/overview 
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Short-term_business_statistics.  

7 

 
 
  
                                                 
4. 

CURRENT COSTS TO THE STATISTICAL SYSTEM AND BURDEN ON BUSINESSES 

The  measurement  of  the  costs  (for  statistical  systems,  related  to  collecting,  processing  and 
disseminating data) and the burden (on the enterprises providing the data) arising from short-
term  statistics  has  proven  to  be  extremely  difficult.  In  line  with  the  subsidiarity  principle 
statistical  institutes  apply  different  methods  for  the  data  collection  and  data  production.  For 
example  data  sources  vary:  some  countries  use  survey  data,  others  rely  on  secondary 
administrative  sources  and  others  even  combine  surveys  with  administrative  data.  Survey 
methods and data collection tools also differ. Consequently, any comparison between Member 
States  of  cost  and  burden  estimations  requires  greatest  caution.  Moreover,  when  assessing 
cost and burden related to short-term statistics the benefit side also needs to be considered, as 
these data provide an important input to other statistics (especially national accounts). 

The burden data collected from Member States in the past indicated that an average business 
has  to  spend  around  20  minutes  per  month  to  comply  with  statistical  requests  for  the 
collection  of  production  data  (industry  and  construction),  while  turnover  data  are  easier  to 
provide  (5  to  10  minutes  per  month),  and  the  provision  of  price  data  requires  around  15 
minutes  per  month.  These  figures  are  however  only  rough  indications  since  differences 
between Member States are quite large. 

Available  evidence  suggests  that  the  statistical  burden  has  slightly  decreased  during  past 
years. More and more statistical offices facilitate the provision of data by enterprises, e.g. by 
an  electronic  collection  instead  of  paper  surveys.  Statistical  offices  also  attempt  to  reduce 
sample sizes and rely, whenever possible, on administrative data. 

5. 

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS IN SHORT-TERM STATISTICS 

Since 2000 the share of industry and construction in the value added of all economic activity 
has  dropped  from  34.0 %  to  30.5 %.  Over  the  same  period,  the  share  of  market  services 
(excluding  banking  and  insurance)  has  increased  from  41.0 %  to  45.6 %12.  In  order  to 
adequately  represent  this  increased  importance  of  the  service  sector  in  short-term  statistics, 
Eurostat,  in  co-operation  with  Member  States  and  after  thorough  consultation  of  key  users, 
has prepared a proposal for a comprehensive enlargement and improvement of the legislative 
basis for short-term statistics, aiming at better covering the services sectors.  

This so-called "STS-package" is part of the proposal for a Framework Regulation Integrating 
Business  Statistics  (FRIBS),  which  the  European  Commission  adopted  on  6  March  201713 
together with an extensive impact assessment.14 

In particular, according to the FRIBS proposal a production (volume) indicator for the service 
industries  (including  financial  and  public  services)  will  be  included  in  the  set  of  short-term 
statistics indicators. Moreover, the scope of service industries covered by the different short-
term statistics indicators will be consolidated. The new indicator of services production (ISP) 
will  have  a  monthly  reference  period  and  should  be  available  60  days  after  the  reference 
period. In addition to the improved coverage of the service industries short-term statistics will 
be  streamlined  and  consolidated  in  several  other  respects,  e.g.  concerning  transmission 
deadlines, the use of statistical units, and the definition of size classes of countries. 

12 
13 
14 

Gross added value chain linked volumes, Eurostat, National Accounts, own calculations. 
https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/rep/1/2017/EN/COM-2017-114-F1-EN-MAIN-PART-1.PDF.  
https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/rep/10102/2017/EN/SWD-2017-98-F1-EN-MAIN-PART-
1.PDF. 

8 

 
 
                                                 
 
The proposed changes will guarantee that short-term statistics continue to fulfil their task of 
correctly  and  adequately  measuring  business  cycle  developments  in  a  rapidly  changing 
economic environment. The additional service data will also enable Eurostat to publish a new 
total production indicator. 

9