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 1165/98
Date: 2021-03-18
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU statistics, data collection, data transmission, economic cycle, economic statistics, industrial statistics, production statistics, statistical method, trade statistics

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 18.3.2021  COM(2021) 126 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 1165/98  
 
 
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 1165/98 

1. 

INTRODUCTION 

European short-term business statistics (STS) provide a comprehensive set of indicators that 
cover,  among  other  things,  production,  turnover,  output  prices  (often  also  referred  to  as 
producer  prices),  number  of  persons  employed,  hours  worked  and  gross  wages.  These  STS 
indicators  fall  within  four  major  economic  areas:  industry,  construction,  retail  trade  and 
services (excluding financial and public services). Table 1 provides an overview of them. 

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 

Construction 
Industry 
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 for short-term business statistics is Council Regulation (EC) No 1165/981 (the 
‘STS Regulation’). In accordance with Article 14(2) of that Regulation, the Commission has 

1 

OJ L 162, 5.6.1998, p. 1. 

2 

 
 
 
 
                                                 
to  submit  a  report  to  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  on  the  statistics  compiled 
pursuant to the Regulation and in particular on their relevance and quality and on the revision 
of  indicators.  The  report  also  addresses  the  cost  of  the  statistical  system  and  the  burden  on 
business arising from the STS Regulation in relation to its benefits.  

The  present  report  follows  up  on  the  reports  submitted  in  January  2003,  June  2008,  June 
2011, June 2014 and August 20172. 

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 previous report in August 2017. 

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

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

The  final  section  provides  an  outlook  on  future  developments  in  short-term  statistics,  in 
particular in relation to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics (EBS)3.  

2. 

OVERVIEW OF SHORT-TERM STATISTICS AND MOST IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS 

Short-term  statistics  provide  a  large  number  of  the  principal  European  economic  indicators 
(PEEIs)4  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,  and  volume  of  retail  trade,  turnover  in 
services (excluding retail trade services), building permits and services producer price indices 
(SPPIs). 

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. 
Moreover,  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. Results 
from  short-term  statistics  may  also  be  used  by  businesses  for  various  other  purposes  (e.g. 
output price indices are used to index contracts).  

In order to ensure the relevance of short-term statistics for their users and to further improve 
the  quality  of  the  data,  Eurostat  has  undertaken  a  number  of  initiatives  since  the  previous 
report on short-term statistics, which was adopted in August 2017. 

Restructuring  operations  and  changes  in  business  models  in  some  multinational  businesses 
lead  to  unexpected  sizeable  revisions  in  some  short-term  statistics  indicators  as  well  as  in 

2 

3  

4 

COM  (2003)  36  final  of  29.1.2003;  COM  (2008)  340  final  of  9.6.2008;  COM  (2011)  329  final  of 
8.6.2011; COM (2014) 381 final of 26.6.2014; and COM (2017) 411 final of 2.8.2017. 
Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the  Council of 27  November 2019 on 
European  business  statistics,  repealing  10  legal  acts  in  the  field  of  business  statistics  (OJ  L  327, 
17.12.2019, p. 1). 
The original list of PEEIs was established in 2002 (Communication of the Commission to the European 
Parliament and the Council on Eurozone Statistics, COM (2002) 661 final of 27.11.2002). 

3 

 
 
                                                 
national accounts data. In collaboration with national statistical institutes, Eurostat established 
an ‘Early Warning System (EWS)’. The role of this mechanism is to ensure that Eurostat is 
informed  in  time  about  expected  changes  in  business  statistics  and  national  accounts  which 
result  from  such  globalisation  events  in  multinational  businesses  and  that  the  adaptation  in 
statistics  is  done  in  a  coherent  and  coordinated  way  by  the  national  statistical  authorities 
concerned.  The  participation  of  statistical  authorities  in  the  EWS  is  voluntary,  and  the 
confidentiality of business data is ensured5. 

In order to  improve the  quality of the indicators  on production in  construction and building 
permits, Eurostat established an e-Task Force which met regularly to exchange good practices 
and  improve  the  available  methodological  guidance  on  these  indicators.  Moreover,  the 
improvements  of  construction  data  was  supported  by  Eurostat  grants  to  national  statistical 
authorities. 

In  response  to  the  global  financial  crisis,  the  European  Systemic  Risk  Board  (ESRB)  was 
established in 2010 to oversee the EU financial system and prevent systemic risks6. In pursuit 
of its mandate, the ESRB issues warnings and recommendations. Based on recommendations 
ESRB/2016/14  and  ESRB/2019/3,  Eurostat  worked  on  the  development  of  commercial  real 
estate  indicators  (CREI);  in  this  context,  short-term  statistics  focused  on  indicators  for 
construction  starts,  works  completions  and  vacancy  rates.  Task  forces  with  experts  from 
Member States and grants to support the methodological work are used to develop these new 
statistical indicators. 

Pursuant  to  Article  11  of  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  1165/98,  Eurostat  and  the  national 
statistical  authorities  introduced  new  weights  for  the  aggregation  of  short-term  statistics 
indices in 2018 with the base year 2015.  

3. 

SCOPE AND COMPLIANCE WITH THE STS REGULATION 

Eurostat monitors Member States’ compliance with the STS Regulation in terms of timeliness 
and completeness. Twice per year, a comprehensive compliance score covering all indicators 
is calculated for each country7. Generally, the results of the monitoring show a high degree of 
compliance with the Regulation. As of 1 April 2020, the EU-27 average score was 9.7 (out of 
10)  with  a  large  number  of  Member  States  fully  compliant.  The  quality  of  the  STS  data  is 
developed on the basis of the various quality aspects outlined in the European Statistics Code 
of Practice8. 

Accuracy, reliability, coherence and comparability 

3.1. 
With  Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  1503/20069,  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 

5  

6  
7  

8 

9 

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/economic-globalisation/early-warning-system  (Available  in  English, 
French and German). 
https://www.esrb.europa.eu/home/html/index.en.html 
The  compliance assessment  focuses on the  completeness and timeliness of national data deliveries. A 
score is calculated depending on  whether data  are  fully compliant,  almost  fully compliant  with  minor 
elements missing, partly compliant or whether data are largely incomplete. 
The 
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/quality/european-statistics-code-of-practice. 
Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No 1503/2006  of  28 September 2006  implementing  and  amending 
Council  Regulation  (EC)  No 1165/98  concerning  short-term  statistics  as  regards  definitions  of 
variables, list of variables and frequency of data compilation (OJ L 281, 12.10.2006, p. 15). 

European 

Statistics 

available 

Practice 

Code 

at: 

of 

is 

4 

 
 
                                                 
accuracy, reliability and coherence of the short-term statistics indicators. The methodological 
framework established by the STS Regulation is continuously improved through consultation 
with technical experts and special thematic task forces.  

Despite uniform definitions, approaches do not have to be identical across Member States for 
compiling  statistical  data.  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  with  other  international  organisations  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  most 
recent economic developments. The STS Regulation sets very short deadlines for the delivery 
of national data to Eurostat10. Table 2 shows the deadlines for data transmission to Eurostat 
(third column) and the target dates set by the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) in its 
report  on  information  requirements  in  the  European  Monetary  Union.  The  last  column 
indicates the current deadlines for dissemination (e.g. via thematic news releases  and online 
database 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  website11.  In  past  years,  all  dates  announced  in  the 
calendar have been met. 
Table  2:  Timeliness  –  days  between  end  of  reference  period  a)  and  delivery  deadline,  STS 
Regulation, EFC target and actual dissemination of EA aggregates (2020) 

Indicator 

Periodicity 

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 

STS 
Regulation 
deadlines b) 

EFC targets 
for 2020 c) 

Dissemination 
of EA totals d) 

40 

35 

45 

45 

90 

30 

40 

35 

45 

45 

90 

30 

47 

33 

37 

50 

92 

34 

10 

11 

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 amending Council Regulation 
(EC) No 1165/98 concerning short-term statistics (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 only in English, French and German). 

5 

 
 
                                                 
 
Turnover in (other) services 

Quarterly 

Service output prices 

Quarterly 

60 

90 

60 

90 

64 

92 

a)  The reference period is the time period for which statistical results are collected or calculated and to which, 

as a result, these values refer. For the STS it is either the month or the quarter. 

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

countries, longer deadlines may apply. 

c)   Targets set in the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) 2020 Status Report on information requirements 

in EMU. 

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

3.3. 

Revisions of short-term statistics indicators 

To  meet  the  short  publication  deadlines  the  first  results  of  short-term  indicators  have  to  be 
based on preliminary, estimated and incomplete data. Following the first data release, survey 
results  are  revised  when  late  respondents’  input  has  been  added.  However  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 2017, 2018, and 2019.  

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  1  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 significant systematic bias to over or underestimating results. 

In absolute terms (third column), the average revisions vary between 0.1 for industrial output 
prices  and  0.4  percentage  points  for  production  in  construction.  The  differences  across 
indicators  are  explained  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. 
Table 3: Scale of revision for the four principal short-term statistics indicators, 2017-19 a) 

1 

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

6 

2 

Average 
revision 
b) 

0.0 
0.0 
0.2 
0.1 

3 
Average 
absolute 
revision 
c) 
0.2 
0.1 
0.4 
0.2 

4 
Average 
absolute 
growth 
rate 
0.7 
0.3 
0.9 
0.6 

5 
Relative 
average 
revision 
d) 
0.2 
0.2 
0.4 
0.4 

 
 
  
a)   Seasonally adjusted growth rates of indicators for the euro area. 
b)  Differences between growth rates at second and first publication, 2017-2019 average. 
c)   Absolute differences between growth rates at second and first publication, 2017-2019 average. 
d)  Ratio between absolute revision (3rd column) and absolute growth rate at second publication (4th column), 

2017-2019 average. Differences are due to rounding errors. 

In  the  first  half  of  2020,  the  COVID-19  pandemic  posed  severe  challenges  to  short-term 
statistics. As a result of lockdown and other measures, businesses could often not be reached 
for collecting data. The unprecedented falls and rises in economic activities made estimations 
more difficult. Extension of tax reporting delays and similar measures to alleviate the burden 
on businesses reduced the availability of administrative data for statistics. In order to support 
national statistical authorities, Eurostat organised an online meeting to discuss problems and 
solutions and provide methodological guidance on issues such as estimations and dealing with 
missing data. Despite the difficulties, the publication of short-term data was not significantly 
disrupted and all publication deadlines were met.  

Table 4 gives an overview of the revisions of data for the data between March 2020 and June 
2020. As can be seen, revisions increased in  absolute terms,  and a general  bias – indicating 
conservative  first  estimates  when  the  STS  indicators  went  strongly  downwards  during  the 
COVID-19  pandemic  –  can  be  observed  in  the  first  releases,  compared  to  the  second  one. 
Relative  to  the  increased  absolute  rates  of  changes  in  indicators,  the  revision  performance 
even improved during this period. 

Table 4: Scale of revision for the four principal short-term statistics indicators March 2020 – 
June 2020 a) 

1 

2 

Average 
revision 
b) 

3 
Average 
absolute 
revision 
c) 
0.4 
0.2 
2.4 
1.8 

4 
Average 
absolute 
growth 
rate 
10.6 
1.2 
16.0 
11.0 

5 
Relative 
average 
revision 
d) 
0.0 
0.1 
0.1 
0.2 

-0.4 
Industrial production 
-0.2 
Industrial output prices (domestic market) 
-1.4 
Production in construction 
Volume of retail trade 
-0.8 
a)   Seasonally adjusted growth rates of indicators for the euro area. 
b)  Differences between growth rates at second and first publication, March 2020 – June 2020 average. 
c)   Absolute differences between growth rates at second and first publication, March 2020 – June 2020 average. 
d)  Ratio between absolute revision (3rd column) and absolute growth rate at second publication (4th column), 

March 2020 – June 2020 average. Differences are due to rounding errors. 

3.4. 

Accessibility, clarity and availability of metadata 

In  the  case  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 were 
published according to schedule. 

All European short-term statistics data are accessible on the Eurostat website; they are free of 
charge. The section dedicated to short-term statistics12 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 for short-term statistics and contains 

12 

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/short-term-business-statistics/overview  (Available  only  in  English, 
French and German). 

7 

 
 
  
                                                 
numerous  methodological  publications.  Metadata  for  the  EU  aggregates  as  well  as  national 
metadata on the various short-term statistics indicators have been recently enriched for quality 
and performance indicators and 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 platform13. 

4. 

CURRENT COSTS TO THE STATISTICAL SYSTEM AND BURDEN ON BUSINESSES 

It  has  proven  to  be  extremely  difficult  to  measure  the  costs  (for  statistical  systems  of 
collecting,  processing  and  disseminating  data)  and  the  burden  (on  the  enterprises  providing 
the data) that arise from short-term statistics. In line with the subsidiarity principle, statistical 
institutes  apply  different  methods  for  collecting  and  producing  data.  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 should be made with the greatest caution. Moreover, when assessing 
cost and burden for short-term statistics, the benefits also need to be considered, as these data 
provide important input for other statistics (especially national accounts). 

The  data  from  Member  States  on  the  burden  of  collecting  these  statistics  indicates  that  on 
average  businesses  have  to  spend  around  20  minutes  per  month  to  comply  with  statistical 
requests  for  production  data  (industry  and  construction),  while  turnover  data  are  easier  to 
provide (5 to 10 minutes per month), and price data require around 15 minutes per month to 
provide.  These  figures  are,  however,  only  rough  indications,  since  differences  between 
Member States can vary widely. 

5. 

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS IN SHORT-TERM STATISTICS 

Over  the  last  20  years,  the  share  of  market  services  (excluding  banking  and  insurance)  has 
increased from 43.0 % to 47.6 %14. 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,  prepared  a  proposal  for  a  comprehensive 
enlargement and improvement of the legislative basis for short-term statistics, with the aim of 
better covering the services sectors.  

The  new  requirements  for  short-term  business  statistics  are  part  of  Regulation  (EU) 
2019/2152 and its Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/119715.  

In  particular,  according  to  Regulation  (EU)  2019/2152,  a  production  (volume)  indicator  for 
the service industries (excluding financial and public services) will be included in the set of 
short-term  statistics  indicators  as  from  January  2021.  Moreover,  the  scope  of  service 
industries covered by the different short-term statistics indicators will be extended. 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 

13 

14 
15 

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Short-term_business_statistics 
only in English). 
EU-27, gross added value chain linked volumes, Eurostat, National Accounts, own calculations. 
Commission  Implementing  Regulation  (EU)  2020/1197  of  30  July  2020  laying  down  technical 
specifications  and  arrangements  pursuant  to  Regulation  (EU)  2019/2152  of  the  European  Parliament 
and  of  the  Council  on  European  business  statistics  repealing  10  legal  acts  in  the  field  of  business 
statistics (OJ L 271, 18.8.2020).  

(Available 

8 

 
 
                                                 
service  industries,  short-term  statistics  will  be  streamlined  and  more  harmonised  in  several 
other  respects,  e.g.  concerning  transmission  deadlines,  the  use  of  statistical  units,  and  the 
definition  of size classes of countries. All  changes will apply starting from  reference period 
January 2021 or first quarter 2021. 

The 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. 

Acording to  Article 25 of Regulation  (EU) 2019/2152, the STS Regulation  will be repealed 
with effect from 1 January 2024. 

9