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International Trade in Services by Company Characteristics (STEC)

• 1Contact
  • 1.1Contact organisation
    National Statistics Institute of Spain
    
  • 1.5Contact mail address

    Avenida de Manoteras 50-52 - 28050 Madrid

    
    
• 2Metadata update
  • 2.1Metadata last certified
    21/02/2025
  • 2.2Metadata last posted
    20/02/2025
  • 2.3Metadata last update
    21/02/2025
• 3Statistical presentation
  • 3.1Data description

    The International Services Trade by Enterprise Characteristics (STEC) provides information on the types of companies engaged in international trade in services and shows how companies from different economic sectors supply services and how those services are linked to their main economic activity. In short, STEC provides additional information within trade statistics according to the profile of companies in terms of certain selected characteristics, such as the number of employees (size), type of ownership (control), and economic activity.

  • 3.2Classification system
    • Clasificaciones utilizadas

      The methodological framework followed in the compilation of STEC statistics is defined by Regulation (EU) 2019/2152and its Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197.

      
      
      

      The breakdown by main economic activity follows the National Classification of Economic Activities (CNAE 2009) and covers Sections A to U.

      
      
      

      The breakdown by product follows the Extended Balance of Payments Services Classification (EBOPS 2010) and only covers its main components, as defined in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197, Annex VI, Section 2, Table 1.

      
      
      

      For more details on concepts and definitions, see section "3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions".

  • 3.3Sector coverage

    Total exports and imports of services (trade between residents and non-residents).

    CNAE 2009 sections A to U.

  • 3.4Statistical concepts and definitions
    • Bienes y servicios de las administraciones públicas
      Comprende las transacciones de las administraciones públicas (incluidas las de organizaciones internacionales) de bienes y servicios que no se pueden clasificar en otras partidas. Se incluyen todas las transacciones (tanto de bienes como de servicios) realizadas por enclaves como embajadas, consulados, bases militares y organizaciones internacionales con residentes de las economías en las que se sitúan tales órganos. Se excluyen las transacciones de los enclaves con residentes de las economías domésticas. En función de la administración pública que realiza la transacción, esta partida puede desglosarse en bienes y servicios prestados por embajadas y consulados, unidades y organismos militares y otros bienes y servicios de las administraciones públicas no incluidos en otras partidas.
    • Cargos por el uso de propiedad intelectual no incluidos en otras partidas
      Los cargos por el uso de propiedad intelectual comprenden:
      a) los cargos por uso de derechos de propiedad (como las patentes, las marcas registradas, los derechos de autor, los procesos y diseños industriales, incluidos los secretos comerciales, y las concesiones); estos derechos pueden derivarse de la investigación y el desarrollo, así como de la mercadotecnia; y
      b) cargos por licencias para reproducir o distribuir propiedad intelectual incorporada en originales o prototipos producidos (como los derechos de autor por libros y manuscritos, programas informáticos, trabajos cinematográficos y grabaciones de sonido) y derechos conexos (por ejemplo, los correspondientes a las representaciones en directo y emisiones por televisión, cable o satélite).
    • Construcción
      La construcción comprende la creación, reforma, reparación o ampliación de activos fijos en forma de edificios, mejora de terrenos de naturaleza ingenieril y otras obras de ingeniería (incluidos carreteras, puentes, presas, etc.). Incluye los trabajos de montaje e instalación relacionados, la preparación del emplazamiento y la construcción general, los servicios especializados como pintura, fontanería o demoliciones, y la dirección de proyectos de construcción. Los contratos de construcción comprendidos en el comercio internacional de servicios son por lo general a corto plazo. Un proyecto de construcción a gran escala contratado por una empresa no residente que tenga un plazo de ejecución de un año o más normalmente dará lugar a una sucursal residente.
    • International trade service operations
      These are services export (sales) or import (purchasing) operations, including exports and imports of intracommunity services. Exports of services comprise services rendered by companies or other institutions to non-resident units. Also included as exports are services that may be provided by a resident company to non-residents via subcontracting of other companies, regardless of whether or not the latter are resident. Resident companies subcontracted by other resident companies to render a service to a non-resident, should not include this operation as a service export. Service imports comprise all services rendered non-resident units to companies or other institutions resident in Spain. Also included as imports are services that a resident company may receive from non-resident units when the latter subcontract the provision of said services to other companies, regardless of whether or not the latter are resident.
    • Servicios de consultoría profesional y de gestión
      Los servicios de consultoría profesional y de gestión incluyen: 1) servicios jurídicos, contables, de consultoría empresarial y de gestión y de relaciones públicas; y 2) servicios de publicidad, investigación de mercado y encuestas de opinión pública.
    • Servicios de investigación y desarrollo
      Los servicios de investigación y desarrollo comprenden los servicios relacionados con la investigación básica, la investigación aplicada y el desarrollo experimental de nuevos productos y procesos. En principio, también comprende las actividades en el campo de las ciencias físicas, ciencias sociales y humanidades, incluido el desarrollo de sistemas operativos que representan adelantos tecnológicos. También incluye las investigaciones que hacen las empresas en electrónica, farmacología y biotecnología.
    • Servicios de mantenimiento y reparación
      Los servicios de mantenimiento y reparación comprenden los trabajos de mantenimiento y reparación realizados por residentes en bienes propiedad de no residentes (y viceversa). Las reparaciones pueden realizarse en las instalaciones del reparador o en otra parte. El valor del mantenimiento y las reparaciones incluye las piezas o materiales facilitados por el reparador e incluidos en el precio. Las piezas y materiales cobrados por separado deben incluirse en mercancías en general.
    • Servicios de seguros y pensiones
      Los servicios de seguros y pensiones comprenden los seguros directos, los reaseguros, los servicios de seguros complementarios y los servicios de pensiones y de garantías normalizadas. Los seguros directos se desglosan en seguros de vida, seguros de transporte de mercancías y otros seguros directos. Los servicios de pensiones y de garantías normalizadas se desglosan en servicios de pensiones y servicios de garantías normalizadas. Estos servicios se calculan o valoran en virtud de los gastos incluidos en el total de las primas, más que por el valor total de las primas.
    • Servicios de telecomunicaciones, de informática y de información
      Los servicios de informática y telecomunicaciones se definen en términos de la naturaleza del servicio, no de la forma de entrega.
    • Servicios empresariales
      Los servicios empresariales incluyen los servicios de investigación y desarrollo, servicios de consultoría prefesional y de gestión y servicios técnicos o relacionados con el comercio y otros servicios empresariales.
    • Servicios financieros
      Los servicios financieros comprenden servicios de intermediación y auxiliares, excepto los servicios de seguros y fondos de pensiones, que normalmente ofrecen los bancos y otras sociedades financieras.
    • Servicios personales, culturales y recreativos
      Incluyen los servicios audiovisuales y conexos, así como otros servicios personales, culturales y recreativos.
    • Servicios técnicos o relacionados con el comercio y otros servicios empresariales
      Estos servicios incluyen: 1) servicios de arquitectura, ingeniería y científicos y otros servicios técnicos, 2) tratamiento de residuos y descontaminación, y servicios agrícolas y mineros, 3) servicios de arrendamiento operativo, 4) servicios relacionados con el comercio, y 5) otros servicios empresariales no incluidos en otras partidas.
    • Transformación de bienes sin traspaso de la propiedad
      Son los servicios de manufactura en insumos físicos que son propiedad de otros, comprenden el procesamiento, montaje, etiquetado, empaquetado y demás actividades llevadas a cabo por empresas que no son propietarias de los bienes afectados. La manufactura es realizada por una entidad que recibe una remuneración del propietario. Dado que la propiedad de los bienes no cambia, no se registra ninguna operación de mercancías en general entre el fabricante y el propietario. El valor de las remuneraciones cobradas por la manufactura en insumos físicos que sean propiedad de otros no equivale necesariamente a la diferencia entre el valor de los bienes enviados para su procesamiento y el valor de esos bienes una vez procesados. Queda excluido el montaje de construcciones prefabricadas, así como el etiquetado y el empaquetado accesorios al transporte.
    • Transporte
      El transporte comprende el proceso de llevar personas y objetos de un lugar a otro, así como los servicios de apoyo y auxiliares relacionados. El transporte también incluye los servicios postales y de mensajería. Los servicios de transporte se registran en la balanza de pagos cuando son prestados por residentes de una economía en beneficio de los residentes de otra.
  • 3.5Statistical unit

    Company

  • 3.6Statistical population

    The breakdown by economic activity covers Sections A to U of CNAE 2009.

    The breakdown by product of services covers the main components of EBOPS 2010.

  • 3.7Reference area

    Spain

  • 3.8Time coverage

    2022

  • 3.9Base period

    Not applicable

• 4Unit of measure
  • 4.1Unit of measure

    The data are presented in millions of euros with one decimal point.

• 5Reference period
  • 5.1Reference period

    Data referring to the period: Annual A: 2022

• 6Institutional mandate
  • 6.1Legal acts and other agreements

    The compilation and dissemination of the data are governed by the Statistical Law No. 12/1989 "Public Statistical Function" of May 9, 1989, and Law No. 4/1990 of June 29 on “National Budget of State for the year 1990" amended by Law No. 13/1996 "Fiscal, administrative and social measures" of December 30, 1996, makes compulsory all statistics included in the National Statistics Plan. The National Statistical Plan 2009-2012 was approved by the Royal Decree 1663/2008. It contains the statistics that must be developed in the four year period by the State General Administration's services or any other entity dependent on it. All statistics included in the National Statistics Plan are statistics for state purposes and are obligatory. The National Statistics Plan 2025-2028, approved by Royal Decree 1525/2024, of  3 December, is the Plan currently implemented. This statistical operation has governmental purposes, and it is included in the National Statistics Plan 2021-2024. (Statistics of the State Administration).

    
    

    Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics establishes data requirements in the field of international services trade by enterprise characteristics for EU Member States and EFTA countries. The precise technical specifications are included in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197. The requirements concerning the STEC domain are defined in ‘Table 17: National business statistics on services trade by enterprise characteristics. Annual data’ of the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197. The variables must be reported annually, with 2022 being the first reference year.

  • 6.2Data sharing
    The exchanges of information needed to elaborate statistics between the INE and the rest of the State statistical offices (Ministerial Departments, independent bodies and administrative bodies depending on the State General Administration), or between these offices and the Autonomic statistical offices, are regulated in the LFEP (Law of the Public Statistic Function). This law also regulates the mechanisms of statistical coordination, and concludes cooperation agreements between the different offices when necessary.
    

    The INE is the institution responsible for the development of STEC in Spain.

    The baseline statistics for STEC are:

    1) International Trade in Services (BoP-ITSS). These are data produced annually by the Bank of Spain under the domain of balance of payments (BoP) statistics.

    2) Survey on International Trade in Services and Other International Operations (ITSS). Prepared by the INE on a quarterly basis, mostly by direct declaration of a sample of companies via questionnaire. It is one of the most important inputs in the "Other Services" category of the BoP- ITSS.

    3) Central Business Register (CBR). Prepared and updated by the INE, it contains highly relevant information about the characteristics of companies for STEC. On the other hand, through the CBR's "Profiling", legal units can be linked to their corresponding statistical company.

    The INE and the Bank of Spain maintain a bilateral agreement for data exchange in both directions for the production of "Other services" in BoP and STEC.

     

• 7Confidentiality
  • 7.1Confidentiality - policy

    The Statistical Law No. 12/1989 specifies that the INE cannot publish, or make otherwise available, individual data or statistics that would enable the identification of data for any individual person or entity. Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society

    
    
  • 7.2Confidentiality - data treatment
    INE provides information on the protection of confidentiality at all stages of the statistical process: INE questionnaires for the operations in the national statistical plan include a legal clause protecting data under statistical confidentiality. Notices prior to data collection announcing a statistical operation notify respondents that data are subject to statistical confidentiality at all stages. For data processing, INE employees have available the INE data protection handbook, which specifies the steps that should be taken at each stage of processing to ensure reporting units' individual data are protected. The microdata files provided to users are anonymised.
    
• 8Release policy
  • 8.1Release calendar

    The advance release calendar that shows the precise release dates for the coming year is disseminated in the last quarter of each year.

    
    
  • 8.2Release calendar access

    The calendar is disseminated on the INEs Internet website (Publications Calendar)

    
    
  • 8.3User access

    The data are released simultaneously according to the advance release calendar to all interested parties by issuing the press release. At the same time, the data are posted on the INE's Internet website (www.ine.es/en) almost immediately after the press release is issued. Also some predefined tailor-made requests are sent to registered users. Some users could receive partial information under embargo as it is publicly described in the European Statistics Code of Practice

    
    
• 9Frequency of dissemination
  • 9.1Frequency of dissemination

    Annual.

• 10Accessibility and clarity
  • 10.1News release

    The results of the statistical operations are normally disseminated by using press releases that can be accessed via both the corresponding menu and the Press Releases Section in the web

    
    
  • 10.2Publications

    The STEC results are disseminated annually through the INE website (INEbase).

  • 10.3On-line database

    INEbase is the system the INE uses to store statistical information on the Internet. It contains all the information the INE produces in electronic formats. The primary organisation of the information follows the theme-based classification of the Inventory of Statistical Operations of the State General Administration . The basic unit of INEbase is the statistical operation, defined as the set of activities that lead to obtaining statistical results on a determined sector or subject based on the individually collected data. Also included in the scope of this definition are synthesis preparation.

    
    

    STEC on INEbase.

    As STEC 2022 is published for the first time:

    • Nº of queries to the data tables AC1=0%
    • Nº of queries to the metadata AC2=0%
  • 10.4Micro-data access
    A lot of statistical operations disseminate public domain anonymized files, available free of charge for downloading in the INE website Microdata Section
    

    There is no direct access to STEC microdata on the INE website.

  • 10.5Other

    Not applicable

  • 10.6Documentation on methodology

    STEC Methodology

    AC3: Completeness rate of the metadata. AC3=100%

    At the international level, the methodology followed for the compilation of STEC data is the one defined in the Compilation Guide for Statistics on Services by Enterprise Characteristics (STEC 2017 edition)

  • 10.7Quality documentation

    This standardised methodological report contains all the elements (points 10.6 to 17) of what is considered as a "User-Oriented Quality Report" for this operation.

    At Eurostat level: Documents and references - Quality - Eurostat (europa.eu).

• 11Quality management
  • 11.1Quality assurance

    Quality assurance framework for the INE statistics is based on the ESSCoP, the European Statistics Code of Practice made by EUROSTAT. The ESSCoP is made up of 16 principles, gathered in three areas: Institutional Environment, Processes and Products. Each principle is associated with some indicators which make possible to measure it. In order to evaluate quality, EUROSTAT provides different tools: the indicators mentioned above, Self-assessment based on the DESAP model, peer review, user satisfaction surveys and other proceedings for evaluation.

    
    

    STEC follows EESCoP. All phases of the STEC statistical process (and its main base statistics BoP- ITSS, ITSS, and CBR) undergo quality assurance controls. The debugging phases are exhaustive, running algorithms for the detection of consistency and completeness errors in all collection and recording tools. The imputation and escalation phases of the ITSS sample information are carried out following the scientific principles of sampling theory in finite populations.

  • 11.2Quality assessment

    The quality of STEC is measured by the quality of its base statistics, all of which come from institutions with proven statistical competence, such as the Bank of Spain and the INE, in terms of the quality of their statistical products.

    Moreover, STEC is compiled from the base statistics of these institutions, following international methodological recommendations in the field of statistics on services by enterprise characteristics, in order to ensure its quality and international comparability. On the other hand, Eurostat only accepts the STEC data sent by each Member State after it has gone through its computer applications, designed to assess the structure, completeness, consistency, and coherence of the data.

    On the other hand, in 2019, the INE carried out a new Satisfaction Survey (2019 USS) that collects the opinions and needs of users on the statistics produced by the INE. The survey follows the same lines as previous surveys (2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016): it is based on the experience of Eurostat and other Statistical Offices in these studies, targets a sample of qualified users, and aligns with the principles established in the European Statistics Code of Practice, revised in 2017.

    The results https://www.ine.es/ine/codigobp/InformeEncuesta2019.pdf

    Additionally, there are external Peer Review evaluations: general evaluation systems external to the INE. Peer reviews are exercises in assessing a country's situation or practices in a particular area. These are discussions between peers, generally based on a self-assessment questionnaire, and not audits by a higher body. The aim of this exercise is to help the country under review to improve its formulation, in this case statistical, to adopt best practices and to comply with established principles and standards. The final report of the Third Round of the Peer Review of the European Statistical System (2021-2023) can be found at: https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/documents-register/detail?ref=SWD(2024)136&lang=en

    For now, STEC has not been evaluated either by users or externally (Peer Review) as the 2022 reference year is the first exercise.

• 12Relevance
  • 12.1User needs

    The main STEC users by order of importance are:

    -Eurostat. STEC is a regulated statistic under the European Regulation on Business Statistics, with the aim of providing a statistic that is comparable at the EU country level and also allows the estimation of European aggregates for service exports/imports based on the main characteristics of the European companies involved.

    - Ministry of Economy, Commerce, and Business. The Secretary of State for Commerce, within its competencies related to the evaluation of trade policy in the services sector, can use STEC to understand the profile and main characteristics of companies involved in international service trade, in order to better channel, for example, the various export aid for services.

    - Bank of Spain. The Bank of Spain, as the ultimate responsible for Balance of Payments (BoP) statistics, and in particular, for the estimation of international trade in services within the framework of the Balance of Payments in Services, can enrich its traditional disaggregation of services by counterparty country and type of service, with data on the characteristics of the institutional units (financial and non-financial market-producing companies) that carry out these service transactions with non-residents

    -Other units of the INE. Some units such as the Department of National Accounts or the Large Cases Units, which are largely responsible for the statistical measurement of economic globalisation, could consider STEC to be of interest. In the first case, especially, STEC represents a good input for the preparation of the Expanded Origin-Destination Tables, as it allows breaking the homogeneity hypothesis that all companies operating in a certain sector are the same. STEC can also be highly relevant in the study and monitoring of Global Value Chains (GVC) regarding the weight of the value-added (VA) of services in the production and exports of goods, identifying the type of companies that contribute the most VA within the chain.

    Among the unmet needs that could be addressed in the future is adding other additional characteristics to those of economic activity, company size, and control of service-exporting/importing companies, such as their export/import intensity, among others.

  • 12.2User satisfaction

    The INE has carried out general user satisfaction surveys in 2007, 2010, 2013,  2016 and 2019 and it plans to continue doing so every three years. The purpose of these surveys is to find out what users think about the quality of the information of the INE statistics and the extent to which their needs of information are covered. In addition, additional surveys are carried out in order to acknowledge better other fields such as dissemination of the information, quality of some publications...

    On the INE website, in its section Methods and Projects / Quality and Code of Practice / INE quality management / User surveys are available surveys conducted to date.(Click  next link)

     

    
    

    As a new statistic, STEC has not yet been evaluated by users.

  • 12.3Completeness

    STEC complies with all the requirements of the European Business Statistics (EBS) Regulation concerning this statistic, including some optional data.

    European statistics available ratio, R1 = 100% . All the requested results are provided.

• 13Accuracy and reliability
  • 13.1Overall accuracy

    STEC is estimated using several statistical sources (see 6.2): BoP-ITSS, ITSS, and CBR. It is not possible to give a global measure of accuracy, as it will depend on the degree of accuracy of each of them, and many are not surveys per se.

    With regard to those that are surveys, such as the ITSS, the sample design tries to minimise sampling errors; the different processes of the survey are aimed at eliminating or reducing as far as possible errors outside sampling, both in the collection phase (response rate and purification control) and in the subsequent editing and imputation phases.

    The collection procedure, coverage control, debugging of errors, and imputation of non-response allow obtaining a high degree of reliability in the statistics.

  • 13.2Sampling error

    Not applicable

  • 13.3Non-sampling error

    STEC is estimated using several statistical sources (see 6.2): BoP-ITSS, ITSS, and CBR. It is not possible to give a global measure of non-sampling errors, as it will depend on those errors in each of them, and some are not surveys per se.

    Regarding the ITSS, non-sampling errors are attempted to be minimised at each stage of the statistical process. In general, their questionnaires in all their formats (paper, electronic or web) are designed with instructions or an explanatory annex to limit errors on the part of the respondent as much as possible. In the case of recorders and debuggers, controls are established that do not allow a questionnaire to be recorded that does not pass these controls, in order to limit recording errors and lack of consistency. They are also provided with ranges of temporal variation for the different study variables based on historical information.

    The imputation processes for non-response in the ITSS use historical information from the unit that does not respond, whenever available, and in its absence, the "nearest neighbour" imputation technique. In addition, a battery of solutions is available for the treatment of field incidents derived from closures, mergers, spin-offs, untraceability, etc. of the surveyed companies so that the final lifting and estimation process is not affected.

• 14Timeliness and punctuality
  • 14.1Timeliness

    TP1= 26m. Eurostat requires the STEC data within 18m.

    In the future, once the operation has been established, the possibility of bringing the date of national publication closer to the date of submission to Eurostat will be examined.

  • 14.2Punctuality

    TP3=100%.
    The annual dissemination of STEC is carried out in accordance with the calendar of availability of structural statistics that the INE prepares and publishes for each year.

• 15Coherence and Comparability
  • 15.1Comparability - geographical

    MoS is a statistic at the national and European level, and is therefore not designed to provide regional information.

    The use of international and European definitions and classifications contained in the commonly accepted international manuals on STEC, international trade in services, and balance of payments allows for geographical comparability not only in Europe but also internationally.

  • 15.2Comparability - over time

    CC2=1

  • 15.3Coherence - cross domain

    STEC is prepared based on BoP-ITSS data, so it is consistent with the service balance of payments data compiled by the Bank of Spain.

  • 15.4Coherence - internal

    There is no internal consistency issue in STEC data.

• 16Cost and burden
  • 16.1Cost and burden

    The operations 30240 International Services Trades by Enterprise Characteristics (STEC) and 30198 ITSS form the PEN operation with code 9248 International Services Trade by Enterprise Characteristics (STEC), with a budget of 44.64 million euros.
• 17Data revision
  • 17.1Data revision - policy

    The INE of Spain has a policy which regulates the basic aspects of statistical data revision, seeking to ensure process transparency and product quality. This policy is laid out in the document approved by the INE board of directors on 13 March of 2015, which is available on the INE website, in the section "Methods and projects/Quality and Code of Practice/INE’s Quality management/INE’s Revision policy" (link).

    This general policy sets the criteria that the different type of revisions should follow:  routine revision- it is the case of statistics whose production process includes regular revisions-; more extensive revision- when methodological or basic reference source changes take place-; and exceptional revision- for instance, when an error appears in a published statistic-.

    
    

    The EBS Regulation does not foresee the revision of STEC data; however, when a "Benchmark revision"of BoP-ITSS data or a change in classifications used in STEC occurs: National Classification of Economic Activities (CNAE) or the Extended Balance of Payments Service Classification (EBOPS), a revision of STEC can be justified.

     

  • 17.2Data revision - practice

    STEC 2022 is the first data in the time series and already includes the BoP-ITSS 2022 data revised by the "Benchmark Revision" of September 2024.

    A future revision of the STEC 2022-2025 series will be based on the new CNAE 2025 classification when it is implemented.

    no revision has been published yet, for now:

    A6-MAR=0%

    A6-RMAR=0%

• 18Statistical processing
  • 18.1Source data

    The main statistical sources for preparing the STEC are:

    1) International Trade in Services (Balance of Payments in Services-BoP-ITSS): Data produced annually by the Bank of Spain under the domain of balance of payments statistics. They are prepared from different base statistics, official administrative records, and additional information, to comply with international standards in this domain (6MBP/MECIS 2010). With regard to the "Other services" category, the main input is the International Trade in Services Survey (ITSS). BoP-ITSS is the main macroeconomic statistical source for exports/imports of services (or trade in services between residents and non-residents), disaggregated by type of service EBOPS 2010 and counterparty country. It does not have information on any of the three STEC variables (activity, size, and control). STEC requires that its totals by country and type of service match those of BoP-ITSS.

    2) Survey on International Trade in Services and Other International Operations (ITSS): Prepared by the INE to estimate above all the "Other services" category for the BoP and the National Accounts. It is mainly prepared from the direct declarations of a representative sample of companies. The ITSS collects two of the three characteristics of the companies that are the subject of STEC (economic activity and size), in addition to the traditional ones by type of service and counterparty country. Features of the ITSS:

    -This is a survey in which the selection of the sample is carried out by the technique of stratified random sampling on a sampling framework of companies that mainly belong to the VIES (European VAT Information Exchange System) restricted to intra-community service operators and provided that they cross with the latest CBR in force, plus other supplementary frameworks. The stratification variables are: activity, size, and type of control of the company (characteristics required in STEC), combined with the taxable base of VAT for intra-community trade in services declared by the commercial operators included in VIES, in forms 349 of the Spanish Tax Authority and of the Basque and Navarre provincial councils.

    - The final estimators of exports and imports of "Other services" included in BoP are obtained from the sample data declared for these two flows by the companies in the sample, by service category of EBOPS 2010, counterparty country, and mode of supply (the predominant mode of each service transaction is collected directly from the informant), by raising these to the population by indirect estimation methods, as not all legal units that are part of the companies in the sample are surveyed.

    3. CBR (Central Business Register):

    - Created and regularly updated by the INE using administrative and tax records, as well as business statistics compiled by the INE.

    - It includes independent companies and also a profiling of Business Groups (BGs) in the statistical companies (SCs) that make them up, companies which, in turn, may consist of several legal units (LUs), all together with relevant information about these units to serve as a framework for business statistics.

    - The CBR, in addition to the two STEC variables (activity and size), includes the third variable considered in STEC that characterises companies engaged in international service trade (the ownership or control of the company).

    STEC is developed based on the export/import data of BoP-ITSS by type of service (EBOPS 2010) and counterparty country. Furthermore, BoP-ITSS "Other services" is primarily obtained from the ITSS, which collects both the economic activity (CNAE 2009) and the size of the surveyed units, as well as the type of service and the counterparty country. Thus, by comparing the values of BoP-ITSS and ITSS, we can identify, by type of service and country, the portion of the BoP-ITSS value that comes directly from ITSS, and that can be distributed across the three characteristics of the companies considered in STEC (distributable value), versus the part that cannot be (non-distributable value). The distributable value in BoP-ITSS will be distributable because:

    - it comes from ITSS, and therefore, the identification code of each surveyed unit (Tax Identification Number) contributing to the value of each cell (type of service by country) in BoP-ITSS is available. Thus, it is also possible to know the economic activity and size of each unit, as both variables are collected in ITSS.

    - The Tax Identification Numbers of the mentioned units surveyed in ITSS can be cross-referenced at the microdata level (‘microdata linking’ or MDL) via Tax Identification Number with the CBR (and its "Profiling"), allowing us to identify if:

    1. The unit (Tax Identification Number) is an independent company, in which case its economic activity and size are already available from ITSS, and the control variable can be obtained from cross-referencing with CBR.

    2. The unit (Tax Identification Number) belongs to a statistical company (SC) made up of several legal units (LUs) or Tax Identification Numbers. In this case, since STEC's statistical unit is the company (the SC), it will be necessary to identify the SC to which this Tax Identification Number belongs through the CBR's "Profiling" in order to extract from the CBR the economic activity, size, and control type of the SC to which this Tax Identification Number belongs.

    The CBR also provides, both at the Tax Identification Number and SC level, the institutional sector code of the unit to ensure that only market-producing companies (the only ones subject to STEC) are included in the distributable value, and not other non-market-producing institutional units that are also recorded in the ITSS. Even though these non-market units can be identified by their Tax Identification Number and therefore their activity, size, and control can be obtained through the ITSS or the CBR, their value will be included in the non-distributable value.

    The non-distributable value in BoP-ITSS within each cell (type of service by country) is that which comes from sources other than the ITSS that do not allow the application of the microdata linking (MDL) technique, either because they are aggregated estimated data, statistics where the statistical unit is not the company (households or individuals), or macro-accounting adjustments required to comply with the BoP-ITSS standard, where it is not possible to have microdata (NIF) information.

    On the other hand, units from the ITSS whose Tax Identification Number does not cross with the CBR, or crosses but lacks any of the three STEC variables in the CBR, will also be included in the non-distributable value for the affected variable(s).

     

  • 18.2Frequency of data collection

    Annual.

  • 18.3Data collection

    1. International Trade in Services (Balance of Payments of Services-BoP-ITSS): These figures come directly from the Bank of Spain through a secure electronic data transmission channel.

    2. International Trade in Services Survey (ITSS): There are two different formats of questionnaires for the ITSS (the paper format or PAPI, and the web format or CAWI), however some business groups that have many quarterly service transactions are allowed to send an Excel file with the ITSS data of each of their sample legal units. The informant can always choose the format that best suits their needs and transmit the information by ordinary mail, fax, email or, like the vast majority of ITSS informants, through the IRIA web platform for the collection of economic data. IRIA can be accessed at https://iria.ine.es. The link to the ITSS paper questionnaire can be found at: https://www.ine.es/metodologia/t37/cuestionario_ECIS.pdf

    The INE attempts to minimise non-response by contacting the respondents by telephone, email, and once the period for sending the questionnaire has expired, through the sanctioning procedure. In addition, the CAWI questionnaire has an online filtering system in place that detects errors and forces respondents to correct them online at that time. A similar debugging system is also implemented in the application that collection agents use to record and debug non-CAWI questionnaires.

    The information from the questionnaires that are not sent in a given reference quarter (total non-response) is imputed on the basis of the historical information available from those unanswered units, updating it with the information from the units of their stratum that did respond in the reference quarter. If no historical information is available, it is imputed using the "nearest neighbour" technique (finding an optimal donor unit with a valid response within the closest environment of the unresponsive unit).

    3. CBR (Central Business Register): Created and regularly updated by the INE using administrative and tax records, as well as business statistics compiled by the INE. The CBR and its "Profiling" are available within the INE for the promoters of various business or trade surveys, such as the ITSS.

     

  • 18.4Data validation

    Since STEC is a multi-source statistic, the validation of STEC data is linked to the validation of the data from the statistical sources involved in its compilation.

    In the case of non-CAWI questionnaires (paper, Excel spreadsheets, etc.), the INE's own application for collecting and filtering ITSS data makes it possible to implement rules for validating the information contained in the questionnaires. Those rules are divided into strong and weak error detection rules. The former are usually basic errors of completeness and coherence, which does not allow the recording of the questionnaire and requires the recorders to contact the reporting unit to resolve the error. Weak controls are controls that have more to do with the statistical consistency of the information (that there are no extreme data or ‘outliers’, etc.), and although they allow the recording of the questionnaire to continue, they send a warning message.

    In the case of electronic questionnaires or CAWI, it is the online application itself that has these rules implemented within the electronic questionnaire, so it is the respondent himself who must correct the potential serious error online if he wants to continue with the questionnaire, or give an explanation in the comments section in the case of weak errors.

    Also, in the second phase of filtering and validation, there are rules for the control of the ranges of temporal variation of exports and imports declared by the informants, which jump in the event that the quarterly or annual variations go outside the established ranges of variation. Priority is given to control for the most important statistical units in terms of the value of their exports or imports, since their weight can have a great influence on the totals of certain service items or country/geographical area.

  • 18.5Data compilation

    Since STEC is a multi-source statistic, its compilation is closely linked to the compilation of the various statistical sources involved in its development. The ITSS is a sample survey that combines direct reporting with imputation of tax data. However, BoP-ITSS, which uses the ITSS as one of its main inputs, is a macroeconomic synthesis statistic (BoP) that also incorporates other sources. Finally, the CBR is a statistical business register.

    Given STEC's multifactorial nature, as well as that of some of the sources used in its compilation, it is not possible to define a generic process for inputting STEC data, assessing its impact on figures, adjusting for non-response (even when the "Unknown"category is allowed in STEC for non-distributable values or those that do not match), or correcting design elevation factors.

    Thus, in the context of data compilation, the processes of combining data from the different sources mentioned above that serve STEC can be described:

    1. BoP-ITSS is provided in the form of aggregated data by EBOPS 2010 service type and counterpart country, as the starting point for estimating STEC. However, BoP-ITSS does not include information on STEC's three company characterisation variables: economic activity, size, and type of control.

    2. The ITSS is a legal unit sample survey (LU) that is used as one of the main inputs to the BoP-ITSS data (specifically, under the category ("Other services") by service type and country. However, some EBOPS 2010 categories estimated in BoP-ITSS, such as: Travel, freight transport, insurance and pensions, and FISIM (Financial intermediation services indirectly measured, within financial services), among other less significant categories, are estimated using sources other than the ITSS, usually based on aggregated data, which prevents microdata linking (MDL) with the CBR. For most other EBOPS categories, BoP-ITSS uses the ITSS as an input, either directly or, during BoP-ITSS series revisions ("Benchmark Revisions"), with adjusted or revised ITSS data. This occurred in 2024 with the BoP-ITSS 2021-2023 series.

    After all statistical processes (recording, cleaning, validation, and imputation), the sample values collected in the ITSS are extrapolated to the total population. As the collection unit is the LU (Tax Identification Number) but the statistical unit is the Statistical Company (SC), the data of those LUs that, being part of the SC sample, were not selected to be surveyed, are imputed. This occurs because it is desired to reduce the number of units surveyed as much as possible, so that in SCs belonging to groups that are made up of several LUs, only the most important LUs are surveyed. Finally, the complete sample values of each sample SC are available, either from the data of their surveyed LUs, or from the imputation of the data of their non-surveyed LUs. The final estimators in SC terms are calculated using "indirect estimation techniques" based on the methodology presented by Lavallee and Labelle-Blanchet in the article: “Indirect Sampling applied to Skewed Population”, Survey Methodology, June 2013, Vol 39, Statistics Canada. The ITSS microdata with their sampling weights are transmitted to the Bank of Spain for the estimation of BoP-ITSS.

    The ITSS is stratified by economic activity, size, and control (i.e., the three STEC variables), and also by the taxable base of VAT declared for intra-community services in the 349 models of the Tax Agency and the regional tax offices, which must be filled out by all operators present in VIES (the European VAT Information Exchange System). This stratification based on the STEC variables greatly helps to maximise the value of BoP-ITSS data that can be distributed by the three STEC variables.

    Regarding the STEC variables, activity and size are collected in the ITSS questionnaire, while control is obtained by cross-referencing the ITSS with the CBR using the Tax Identification Number. Moreover, the data that can be distributed in STEC according to the three variables refer only to statistical business units that are market producers. For this reason, only ITSS data that contribute to BoP-ITSS and are coded in the CBR within institutional sectors S11 and S12 (financial and non-financial corporations) can be distributed according to the three STEC variables.

    Finally, the compilation of STEC data is based on the final BoP-ITSS data by type of service and country, as transmitted by the Bank of Spain to the INE. The majority of the EBOPS service categories estimated by the ITSS are directly integrated into BoP-ITSS data, and for this reason, these data can be distributed by activity, size, and control according to ITSS figures restricted to market-producing businesses. These BoP-ITSS values that can be distributed by the three STEC variables, as they originate from ITSS data, are referred to as the distributable value of STEC.

    BoP-ITSS values that do not come from the ITSS (either because they originate from other sources whose data are aggregated or because they are macro-accounting adjustments of BoP-ITSS, etc.) are referred to as the non-distributable value of STEC. STEC requires that the sum of both values (distributable + non-distributable) equals the BoP-ITSS totals. Among these non-distributable BoP-ITSS values are certain EBOPS categories that are not estimated directly from ITSS data, such as Travel, Freight transport, Insurance and Pensions, and FISIM (within financial services), among other less significant ones.

    Also included in the non-distributable value for the three STEC variables are data originating from the ITSS that do not correspond to market-producing businesses or, for some reason, even if they are businesses, the microdata cross-referencing with the CBR has not been entirely successful and could not be assigned any (or only some) of the three STEC variables. All these non-distributable values of the STEC statistics, in the various tables that relate BoP-ITSS variables (type of service and country) with the three STEC variables (economic activity, size, and control), appear under the category "Unknown".

     

     

  • 18.6Adjustment

    Not applicable.

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