Progress report on PRODCOM statistics in Estonia
I. Introduction
The production data by PRODCOM classification in Estonia has been collected 3 years, since 2001. The basis for collecting production data is the PRODCOM List, which is updated every year according to the changes of PRODCOM List. There is no official publication of the list. However classifications to be used in official statistics are laid down in a decree by the government. A catalogue of all classifications falling under this decree (CN, CPA, PRODCOM etc) is published.
The list is available on the Internet both in Estonian and in English.
At present the production data are collected annualy. There have been done preparations for collecting production data in 2003 quarterly in NACE classes 18, 24.
II. Activities have been done since November 2002
– improved the survey population
The Prodcom survey covers enterprises activities in sections C, D and E of the classification of economic activities in the European Community NACE Rev 1.
Also Local Kind of Activity Units outside sections C, D and E are included if these have industrial activity. The list of LKAU we receive from statistical profile (the active part of Business Register for statistical purposes).
The PRODCOM survey includes active enterprises in most NACE classes with 10 and more employees and some NACE classes 22, 23, 28 (where the coverage was below 90%) with 5 and more employees. It covers 95% in average of national production per NACE classes C and D in Estonia.
Coverage ratio (94,4% of NACE class)
NACE / Production (10 EEK) / Share in % / NACE / Production (10 EEK) / Share in %Total / 10 employ / Total / 10 employ
10 / 419892 / 404909 / 96,4 / 26 / 2395270 / 2312961 / 96,6
14 / 191475 / 178319 / 93,1 / 27 / 169337 / 161715 / 95,5
15 / 11047333 / 10790474 / 97,7 / 28 / 4026482 / 3400503 / 84,5
17 / 3553625 / 3489991 / 98,2 / 29 / 1614519 / 1480850 / 91,7
18 / 2341522 / 2184340 / 93,3 / 30 / 251356 / 241372 / 96
19 / 671531 / 650780 / 96,9 / 31 / 1140072 / 1099198 / 96,4
20 / 7291014 / 6734584 / 92,4 / 32 / 1380119 / 1340203 / 97,1
21 / 1244842 / 1207412 / 97 / 33 / 820410 / 744487 / 90,7
22 / 2610972 / 2237770 / 85,7 / 34 / 1145065 / 1145065 / 100
23 / 530159 / 527331 / 99,5 / 35 / 932901 / 907930 / 97,3
24 / 2651135 / 2603689 / 98,2 / 36 / 4130098 / 3862955 / 93,5
25 / 1940440 / 1814563 / 93,5 / 37 / 130235 / 110607 / 84,9
NACE 40 (electrical energy, gas, steam and water) is covered via annexes to an annual questionnaire on energy balance and it covers practically all enterprises.
The annual production survey in 2001 included 1929 survey units, in 2002 -2243 survey units.
– simplified questionnaires and improved timeliness
The annual survey on industrial products uses pre- printed questionnaires and there are 40 different ones. The questionnaires are divided into subsections by NACE groups and are much more simplified compared with the previous years. The data produced under subcontracting has been specified by products. The fulfilling of questionnaires has been improved significantly.
The questionnaires for the annual survey are sent to the respondents one month after the reference year. They have to be returned before the 1st of April. Non-responding enterprises are reminded by post twice. Enterprises still failing to reply are contacted by telephone.
The percentage of response is around 50% after the deadline, which has been increased a lot, compared with previous years, which was 30-35%. It increases to about 78% after the postal reminds. The final respondents rate has been increased by each year. The final respondents rate is on an average 97% (in 2000 it was 95%). The timely high respondents rate makes possible to send the data to Eurostat as required in the Prodcom Regulation.
Non-response will be treated on an individual basis. As much as possible efforts will be done to obtain information by contacting the enterprises. Other sources to estimate missing data can be the SBS and the previous year data.
– data conversion to GESMES and transmission to Eurostat
Estonia has been dealt with the installation and application of available software for GESMES from the end of November 2002. The GENEDI tool has been chosen to transmit the PRODCOM data. The software has been created, which converts the data from databases in “input” file, which is needed by GENEDI to make the final GESMES/PRODCOM file. The successful installation of GENEDI tool for PRODCOM was done in December 2002. In the end of December the test-file were sent to EUROSTAT.
In the beginning of January the first real data about reference year 2000 in GESMES format via STADIUM were sent and the positive feedback were got in January 09, 2003 from EUROSTAT.
The second transmission was done in the end of April production data about reference year 2001.
In Estonia at present time there is no possibility for Statistical Office to use DSP PRODCOM validation tool because the usage requires SAS license for modules SAS Base and SAS FSP, but Statistical Office of Estonia has license only for the module Base. But in general most of the controls available in the DPS PRODCOM validation tool are included to our own software of data validation.
Preliminary data about reference year 2002 will be transmitted in the beginning of July 2003 in accordance Prodcom Regulation. The final data will be transmitted in November after checking data with the SBS data.
– activities have been done for decreasing confidentiality
The statistical Act of Estonia defines the protection of primary data. The collected data are confidential if there are less than 3 respondents or if one respondents has a share 50% or more. In the law it is indicated that data are confidential according to the rules above can be published with a written permission of the respondents. For that purpose there has been sent to all respondents a request for permission of data dissemination together with the annual production survey questionnaire.
The number of permissions has increased since the year 2001 (about 50% of sampled enterprises have been answered). For lowering the confidentiality contacts with enterprises will continue in future more seriously.
The data of the most important products are published in the Statistical Yearbook and are available on the web site. There have been supplemented new products, but in many cases in aggregated level due to the high confidentiality.