Linkages of Structural Business and Trade Statistics: Eurostat’s experiences, first results and next steps Karo Nuortila European Commission/Eurostat F/2- International Trade

Structural Business Statistics and Statistics on Trading of Goods in European Statistical System Structural Business Statistics (SBS) describe the structure and evolution of activities of businesses Annual statistics with a great number of variables No data on external trade Statistics on trading of goods describe trade flows between countries with a breakdown of products Monthly statistics with detailed breakdowns of products and partner countries No data on traders

How combined trade and business statistics can be compiled? Implicit trade statistics by activities can be provided by converting traded products to manufacturing industries A link between CN and CPA (NACE) Problem: based on the assumption that manufacturer and trader are the same => all trade allocated to manufacturing sector A better solution: link trade registers with business register Benefits: The link exists already (required by Business Register Regulation) No need for data collection; uses the data already collected Detailed level of trade data can be maintained The most important economic variables available (activity, number of employees, turnover) Drawback: The method focuses on trade variables and basic enterprise characteristics; more in-depth analysis from the viewpoint of SBS is limited unless a further linkage is made to SBS micro data

Links between trade operators and statistical units in Business Registers Legal unit Enterprise Local unit Enterprise Group Business RegisterTrade Register Trade operator

Standardisation Exercise A common pilot study in the frame of Edicom II program Objectives: To test the feasibility of matching business and trade registers To reconcile trade flows according to enterprise characteristics coherently First exercise Member States participated Results published in 2004 Second exercise 2005 Data collection just finished Minor changes to methodology and tables 15 Member States participated Results expected to publish late 2005

Standardisation Exercise Enterprise in Business Register - Number of enterprises - Characteristics: Activity sector (NACE Rev.1) Size-class (10 size-classes according to number of employees) Trade Operator in Trade Register and in trade data - Value of trade broken down by Intra/Extra EU trade Flow Product (CPA 2-digit level) Partner country Predefined tables Size-class x activity sector Activity sector x product Level of trade x product Activity sector x partner zone Etc.

Analysis Trade by activity What is the contribution of each activity sector to total trade? Trade by activity and products Does an enterprise trade typical products of that industry? Which industries are involved in trade of each product (manufacturers, service sector)? Trade by size-class What is the contribution of small, medium-sized and big enterprises to trade? Trade by size-class and activity Are small/big enterprises more typical in trade flows of certain activity sectors? Trade by products or by partners How concentrated is the trade in particular products or with particular partner countries?

Results: Trade by activities (NACE) compared to products (CPA), aggregate of 8 Member States (% share of total trade). ExportsImports Nace Rev. 1 / CPA NACECPANACECPA Agriculture and fishingA-B Manufacturing IndustriesC-F Mining and quarryingC ManufacturingD Electricity & gasE ConstructionF ServicesG-O Distributive tradeG TransportI FinanceJ Real estate and business servicesK Other servicesL-O

Results: Trade by size-class of enterprises, average of intra-EU trade of 9 Member States (% share of total trade)

Way forward Legal basis Discussion on new Regulation Globalisation indicators in trade statistics Trade of multinational enterprise groups Business Registers: new Regulation foreseen An obligatory recording of enterprise groups Possible to identify enterprises which belong to multinational enterprise groups (both domestically and foreign controlled) New statistics to be developed in co-operation with FATS statistics Intra-firm trade Requires information on individual transactions => additional data collection