Eurostat/C1/FISIM 03 EN
Orig: EN

FISIM Workshop
30 June 2004
Luxembourg, BECH Building
Room Quetelet

State of Play on FISIM

Point 3 on the agenda

Introduction

A Council Regulation of 16 February 1998 defined basic principles of calculating sector allocating FISIM in national accounts, and introduced four-year trial calculations. After the trial-calculations excise, the Member States (MSs) agreed on methods to calculate the sector allocation of FISIM, and these were legislated for in Commission Regulation 1889/2002. This Regulation specified the following methods to be applied from1 January 2005:

  • Calculation and allocation of FISIM among domestic user sectors using the reference rate;
  • Internal Reference Rate for allocating domestic FISIM to be determined as the ratio of interest receivable on loans between S122 and S123 to stocks of loans between S122 and S123;
  • External Reference Rateto be used to calculate import and export of the new FISIM is the average interbank rate weighted by the ratios of loans and deposits between S122 and S123 on the one hand, and non-resident Financial Intermediaries on the other hand, which are included in the balance sheet of financial intermediaries;
  • Calculation of FISIM at constant prices by applying the FISIM margins of the base period to the current stocks of loans and deposits;
  • Allocation of FISIM among industries’intermediate consumption based on the stocks of loans and deposits for each industry, or, if this information is not reliable, on the output for each industry;

To measure the progress made in calculating of sector allocation of FISIM Eurostat sent a questionnaire to all EU Member States (EU-25) to gather information on the methodologies currently used to calculate the sector allocation of FISIM, and the degree of readiness to implement it from 1 January 2005.

This paper presents a summary of the degree of technical readiness by country, based on the results from the FISIM questionnaires returned by 23 MSs.

The table 1 summarises the state of play of FISIM calculations sent by Member States to Eurostat, and shows whether or not Member States are technically ready to implement sector allocation of FISIM as from 1 January 2005.

Table 1 from excel (filename: Table 1.xls)
Summary of the main results by MemberState

Tables 1 summarises the degree of technical readiness to implement the sector allocation of FISIM as from 1 January 2005based on the information from the questionnaires received from 23 Member States and from the NAWG meeting in May 2004.

Belgium (BE)

Technically ready to implement allocation of FISIM as from 1 January 2005. Belgian delegate stated at the NAWG in May 2004 that Belgium will introduce major revision in summer 2005 to its annual data, and therefore prefers to provide annual data of FISIM in September 2005.

Czech Republic (CZ)

Although there are certain problems (described below) CzechRepublic should be technically ready with the implementation of FISIM on time.

  • Data problems for S.123 in1999,
  • Calculation problems of external reference rate, and export and import of FISIM - but these problems will be overcome,
  • FISIM at constant prices has not been calculated yet,
  • FISIM by industries has not been calculated yet - but there are data available from banking statistics on stocks of loans and deposits.

Denmark (DK)

Technically ready to implement allocation of FISIM as from 1 January 2005.

Germany (DE)

Technically ready to implement allocation of FISIM as from 1 January 2005.On 19 May at the NAWG, the German delegate confirmed that Germany’s FISIM allocation will be provided starting from 2005 quarter 1.

Estonia (EE)

Estonia has made trial exercise for the first two quarters of 2003.

  • For import data, the main source (BoP) is not sufficient to provide reliable import estimates of FISIM,
  • FISIM at constant prices has not been calculated.

Greece (EL)

General data availability problems, and therefore Greece is not technically ready to implement allocation of FISIM as from 1 January 2005.

Spain (ES)

Technically ready to implement allocation of FISIM as from 1 January 2005.

The only weakness is the FISIM by industries - but it will be calculated based on output of each industry.

France (FR)

Technically ready to implement allocation of FISIM as from 1 January 2005.

On 19 May at the NAWG, the French delegate confirmed that France will be ready with FISIM allocation with the annual data, but that there are difficulties with quarterly data.

Ireland (IE)

No questionnaire received. Ireland - did not participate in the trial calculations.

Italy (IT)

Technically ready to implement allocation of FISIM as from 1 January 2005.

It stated during the NAWG in May 2004 that Italy will introduce major revision in summer 2005 to its annual data, and therefore it prefers to provide annual data with FISIM allocated in September 2005.

Cyprus (CY)

Cyprus should be technically ready to implement allocation of FISIM on time. Calculation of sector allocation of FISIM is in progress and at its final stage.

On 19 May at the NAWG the Cypriot delegate confirmed that Cyprus will be ready with FISIM allocation on time.

Latvia (LV)

Although there are certain problems (described below) Latvia should be technically ready with the implementation of FISIM on time.

  • FISIM at constant prices has not been calculated yet,
  • FISIM by industries has not been calculated yet.

Lithuania (LT)

Although there are certain problems (described below) Lithuania should be technically ready with the implementation of FISIM on time.

  • FISIM at constant prices has not been calculated yet,
  • FISIM by industries has not been calculated yet.

Luxembourg (LU)

Although source data of stock and interest on FISIM imports are not yet available, Luxembourg should technically be ready to implement the FISIM allocation on time.

FISIM at constant prices is calculated, but must be corrected for the fluctuation of exchange rates, due to the fact that a large proportion of deposits is hold in foreign currencies (mainly USD). Large intermediate consumption of FISIM is recorded by UCIs (and holding) nearly exclusively held by non-residents.

Hungary (HU)

Although there are certain problems (described below) Hungary should be technically ready with the implementation of FISIM allocation on time.

  • Import of FISIM has not been calculated yet –but will be done before 2005,
  • FISIM by industries has not been calculated yet - but will be done based on output of each industry.

Malta (MT)

MT will not be technically ready to implement allocation of FISIM as from 1January 2005 - allocation of FISIM has not been calculated yet.

Malta is working under pressure to implement quarterly GDP according to ESA95.

The Netherlands (NL)

Technically ready to implement allocation of FISIM as from 1 January 2005. At the NAWG, they said that implementation of FISIM will be done in autumn 2004, so they will be ready on time with FISIM implementation on time.

Austria (AT)

Austria will be technically ready to implement allocation of FISIM as from 1January 2005. Data will be available in July 2004.

Poland (PL)

Polandhas data availability problem on import of FISIM.

FISIM at constant prices and by industries will be calculated, the latter based on output of each industry.

Poland will have some difficulties to fulfil the obligation of backwards calculation from 1995 onwards. For years 1999-2002 data are comparable and detailed enough. For years 1996-1998 data are not complete and it will be necessary to use some estimations. Data for 1995 are probably inadequate for making a reliable calculation of FISIM.

Portugal (PT)

Technically ready to implement allocation of FISIM as from 1 January 2005. Although there are no direct data for calculating FISIM by industry, it will be calculated based on output of each industry.Portugalstated that the calculations ware not done for quarterly data and therefore it is preferred to provide annual data with FISIM allocated in September 2005.

Slovenia (SI)

It is possible that Slovenia will be technically ready to implement allocation of FISIM as from 1 January 2005.

Data on FISIM by domestic user sectors were only provided due to changes in the reporting system by the Central Bank Slovenia - but data for the implementation of FISIM should be completed by the beginning of 2005.

Slovakia (SK)

No questionnaire received. Slovakia provided information for the trial calculations.

Finland (FI)

Finland is only partly technically ready to implement allocation of FISIM as from 1 January 2005.There are no data on import of FISIM due to problems with interest flows of imported FISIM.

Finland stated in the questionnaire that it will make major revisions concerning volume methods and volume calculations according to the price and volume decision of the Commission. This revision will be finalised by the end of 2005. However, it will be able to provide required data by February 2005, if this is absolutely necessary.

Finland also mentioned that it has problem with quarterly FISIM data.

Sweden (SE)

Swedenis only partly technically ready to implement allocation of FISIM as from 1 January 2005. This is due to data availability problems on interest flows of import.Sweden calculated the S.2 breakdown using model assumptions.

Sweden stated in the questionnaire that implementation of allocated FISIM in March 2005 would be most inconvenient. National accounts, including production accounts by industry, for the years 1995-2004 published in January/February 2005 would be obsolete. They strongly suggest postponing implementation of allocated FISIM until autumn 2005.

United Kingdom (UK)

The UK should be technically ready to implement allocation of FISIM as from 1January 2005.

Conclusions

10 countries are technically ready to implement FISIM allocation as from 1January 2005 - Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, and the UK.

2 countries are technically not ready to implement FISIM allocation on time - Greece and Malta.

11 countries, are technically partly ready to implement FISIM allocation - namely CzechRepublic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Poland, Finland, Sweden. In most countries the work in calculating allocation of FISIM is in progress. Estonia, Luxembourg, Poland and Sweden have data problems on import of FISIM. Finland has not provided import of FISIM, due to problems with interest of import data.

The Netherlandsand Cyprus said at the NAWG meeting that they will be ready to implement allocation FISIM as from 1 January 2005.Hungaryrecently confirmed that it will also be ready with the implementationon time.

Germany said at the NAWG meeting that it will send the first data with FISIM allocated for 2005 Quarter 1.

France said at the NAWG meeting that it will be ready in 2005 to provide the annual data with FISIM allocated - but they have problems with quarterly data.

Belgium and Italy said at the meeting that they would prefer to introduce the FISIM allocation with their major revisions (re-benchmarking) in September 2005, but starting with annual data. Belgium has also difficulties in calculating quarterly FISIM allocation.

Portugal stated that the exercise was not done for quarterly data and therefore it is preferred to provide annual data with FISIM allocated in September 2005.

Finland stated in their questionnaires that they will make major revisions concerning volume methods and volume calculations according to the price and volume decision of the Commission. This revision will be finalised by the end of 2005 only. However, it will be able to provide required data by February 2005, if this is absolutely necessary. Finland also mentioned that has problem with quarterly FISIM data.

Sweden stated in the questionnaire that implementation of allocated FISIM in March 2005 would be inconvenient. National accounts, including production accounts by industry, for the years 1995-2004 published in January/February 2005 would be obsolete. They strongly suggested postponing implementation of allocated FISIM until autumn 2005.

Poland will have some difficulties to fulfil the obligation of backwards calculation from 1995 onwards. For years 1999-2002 data are comparable and detailed enough. For years 1996-1998 obtained data are not complete and will necessitate using some estimations. Data for 1995 probably do not enable the making of reliable calculation of FISIM.

1