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International Supply of Services by Modes of Supply (MoS)

• 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
    15/01/2026
  • 2.2Metadata last posted
    31/01/2025
  • 2.3Metadata last update
    15/01/2026
• 3Statistical presentation
  • 3.1Data description

    The international service provision statistics by modes of supply (MoS) show how and where the services are provided internationally, literally answering the question of how the services are exchanged through countries and how said services are provided to foreign customers. Detailed information from statistics on international provision of services by service category, mode of supply and counterparty country helps trade policymakers to develop current and future trade negotiation agendas based on evidence-based facts and arguments, allowing the impact of trade in services agreements to be monitored.

    The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the first multilateral agreement on trade in services, defines trade in services as the supply of a service through one of the following four modes of supply:

    Mode 1 - cross-border trade: from the territory of one country to the territory of another country;
    Mode 2 - consumption abroad: in the territory of one country to the consumer of services from another country;
    Mode 3 - commercial presence: by a service supplier of one country, by means of commercial presence in the territory of another country. The FATS (Foreign Affiliate Statistics) framework is designed to provide information on the activities of companies located in foreign markets.
    Mode 4 - presence of natural persons: by a service provider of one country, through the presence of natural persons of that country in the territory of another country;

  • 3.2Classification system
    • Clasificaciones utilizadas

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

      
      
      

      The disaggregation by product follows the Extended Classification of the Balance of Payments in Services 2010 (CABPS 2010) and covers the main components, detailed components and complementary groups of the CABPS 2010 as defined in the Manual of Statistics on International Trade in Services (2010) and subsequently explained in the 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

    Not applicable.

  • 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

    Not applicable.

  • 3.6Statistical population

    Total number of units supplying services internationally by the four modes of supply.

  • 3.7Reference area

    Spain.

  • 3.8Time coverage

    From 2023 (final) to 2024 (provisional).

  • 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: Anual A: 2024

• 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 1225/2024, of  3 December, is the Plan currently implemented. This statistical operation has governmental purposes, and it is included in the National Statistics Plan 2025-2028. (Statistics of the State Administration).

    
    

    Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics sets out the data requirements in the field of international provision of services by modes for EU Member States and EFTA countries. The precise technical specifications are included in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197. The requirements concerning the MoS domain are defined in Table 38 "Statistics on international activities - International Supply of Services by Modes of Supply - annual data" of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197. The variables must be reported annually, with 2023 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 MoS in Spain.

    The baseline statistics for MoS 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 (ECIS). 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" heading of the BoP.

    3) Foreign Affiliates Statistics (FATS). Prepared by the INE and other institutions, and integrated and coordinated at the EU level by the INE.

    4) Trade by Enterprise Characteristics (TEC). Statistics prepared by the Customs and Excise Department of the Spanish Tax Authority.

    5) Structural Business Statistics (SBS). Prepared by the INE and other institutions, and integrated and coordinated at the EU level by the INE.

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

    INE and the Spanish Tax Authority have a collaboration agreement for the exchange of information solely for statistical purposes that is reviewed every year.

• 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 MoS 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.

    
    

    The MoS statistics can be found in INEbase at the link: International Trade in Services by Modes of Supply (MoS)

  • 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 MoS microdata on the INE website.

  • 10.5Other

    .

  • 10.6Documentation on methodology

    The MoS methodology can be found in INEbase at the link: MoS Methodology

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

    At the international level, the methodological framework followed for the compilation of MoS data is the one defined in the European business statistics compilers guide for European statistics on international supply of services by mode of supply – 2023 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.

    
    

    MoS follows EESCoP. All phases of the statistical process of MoS (and its main base statistics BoP-ITSS, ECIS, FATS, TEC and SBS) 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 ECIS and SBS/IFATS sample information are carried out following the scientific principles of sampling theory in finite populations.

  • 11.2Quality assessment

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

    MoS is also prepared on the basis of the basic statistics of the aforementioned institutions following international methodological recommendations in the field of supply modes, in order to guarantee its quality and international comparability. On the other hand, Eurostat only accepts the MoS data sent by each Member State after it has gone through its computer applications implemented to assess the structure, completeness, consistency and coherence of the MoS data.

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

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

    On the other hand there are the 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 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

• 12Relevance
  • 12.1User needs

    The main MoS users by order of importance are:

    -Eurostat. MoS is a statistic regulated by the European Business Statistics Regulation with the aim of having comparable statistics at the level of EU countries and which also allows European aggregates to be estimated, which makes it easier to know the weight of the supply of services by each of the EU modes compared to other areas of the world in the context of the WTO GATS.

    -Ministry of the Economy, Trade and Business. The Secretary of State for Trade, within the scope of its competences within the WTO's GATS, needs to have statistical information for current and future multilateral (and bilateral) agreements on international trade in services, on the modes of supply of these services in each of the countries or geographical areas under negotiation. MoS provides information for an assessment of trade policy in the services domain.

    - 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 M1 modes of supply, M2 and M4, which are the ones that are within the domain of the BoP. You can also find an estimate of the Distribution Services via M1.

    -Other units of the INE. Some units such as the Department of National Accounts or the Division of Large Business Units, which are largely responsible for the statistical measurement of economic globalisation, could consider MoS of interest.

    Among the needs not yet met and that could be met in the future, is estimating digital trade in services within the M1.

  • 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)

     

    
    

    MoS has not yet been evaluated by users.

  • 12.3Completeness

    MoS complies with all the requirements of the European Business Statistics Regulation (EBS) with regard to this statistic, including optional data.

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

• 13Accuracy and reliability
  • 13.1Overall accuracy

    MoS is estimated using several statistical sources (see 6.2): BoP-ITSS, ECIS, FATS, TEC and SBS among others. 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 ECIS or SBS/IFATS, 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 the sampling, both in the collection phase (response rate and purification control) and in the subsequent editing and imputation phases.

    The procedure for collection, coverage control, debugging of errors and imputation of non-response allows a high degree of reliability of the statistics to be obtained.

  • 13.2Sampling error

    Not applicable.

  • 13.3Non-sampling error

    MoS is estimated using several statistical sources (see 6.2): BoP-ITSS, ECIS, FATS, TEC and SBS among others. It is not possible to give a global measure of errors unrelated to sampling, as it will depend on those errors of each of them, and many are not surveys per se.

    As far as QITSS and SBS/IFATS are concerned,non-sampling errors are 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 of the different study variables based on historical information.

    Non-response imputation processes use historical information from the unresponsive unit, whenever available, and in its absence, the "next neighbour" imputation technique is used for example in ECIS. In addition, a battery of solutions is available for the treatment of field incidents derived from closures, mergers, spin-offs, untraceable, etc. of the surveyed companies so that the final lifting and estimation process is not affected.

     

• 14Timeliness and punctuality
  • 14.1Timeliness

    TP1= 13 m. Eurostat requires the provisional MoS data for the M1, M2 and M4 modes in 10 m.

    TP2= 25 m. Eurostat requires the provisional MoS data for the (M1, M2 and M4 modes in 22 m.

    In 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 MoS 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 MoS, international trade in services and balance of payments, FATS (foreign subsidiaries) and EBS (European business statistics), allows for geographical comparability not only in Europe but also internationally.

  • 15.2Comparability - over time

    CC2=2

  • 15.3Coherence - cross domain

    MoS (M1, M2 and M4) is prepared based on data from the Bank of Spain's Balance of Payments Services (BoP-ITSS) statistics, so it is completely consistent with the international trade in services data provided by this statistic.

    In addition, the M3 data are fully consistent with the Foreign Affiliate Statistics (FATS) data within the domain of European business statistics.

  • 15.4Coherence - internal

    There is no internal consistency issue in MoS data.

• 16Cost and burden
  • 16.1Cost and burden

    The budgetary credit necessary to finance this statistic provided for in the 2025 Annual Programme is 36.9 thousand 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 EU regulation governing MoS provides for the revision of the provisional MoS data for modes M1, M2 and M4 one year after they are sent to Eurostat, just at the time of submission of the M3 data and the total modes (M1+M2+M3+M4).

    At the national level, the MoS statistics will follow this same criterion for data review.

  • 17.2Data revision - practice

    MoS 2023 is the first year of the time series. The general policy of revision in practice for a reference year T is:

    - M1, M2 and M4 (provisional data published in T+13M): Expected revision of data in T+23M.

    - M1, M2 and M4 (revised), M3 and Total modes M1+M2+M3+M4 (definitive data published in T+23M).

    Exports and imports data of M1+M2+M4 were revised for 2023: 

    A6-MAR (Exports_2023)= 417.9

    A6-RMAR (Exports_2023)=0.21%

    A6-MAR (Imports_2023)= 2,482.0

    A6-RMAR (Imports_2023)=2.63%

• 18Statistical processing
  • 18.1Source data

    The main statistical sources for preparing the MoS 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 basic statistics, official administrative records and additional information, to comply with international standards in this domain (6MBP/MECIS 2010). With regard to the heading of "Other services", the main input is the Survey of International Trade in Services (ECIS). BoP-ITSS is the main statistical source for the estimation of M1, M2 and M4 modes together with the information on these modes collected in ECIS.

    2) Survey on International Trade in Services and Other International Operations (ECIS): Prepared by the INE to estimate above all the heading of "Other services" for the BoP and the National Accounts. It is mainly prepared from the direct declarations of a representative sample of companies. Features of ECIS:

    -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 DIRCE in force, plus other supplementary frameworks. The stratification variables are: the activity, size and type of control of the company or entity, 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 the "Other services" included in the BoP, are obtained from the sample data declared for these two flows by the companies in the sample by service category of the CABPS 2010, counterparty country and mode of supply (the predominant mode of each service transaction is collected directly from the informant), by elevation of the same to the population by indirect estimation methods, as not all the legal units that are part of the companies in the sample were surveyed.

    3) Foreign Affiliates Statistics (FATS): Prepared by the INE and other bodies. The INE is responsible for the coordination and integration of all sectors before they are sent to Eurostat. IFATS (Inward FATS) provides information on the economic activity of foreign subsidiaries resident in Spain and under foreign control. OFATS (Outward FATS) provides information on the the economic activity of subsidiary companies resident abroad under Spanish control. The use of FATS is recommended as the primary source for estimation of M3 (commercial presence). However, the target variable of M3, which is the turnover generated by the subsidiary from the local sale of services in the country of residence of the subsidiary, is not directly included in FATS. It is necessary to carry out various processes, based on the information collected in FATS on the total turnover or production value (output) by main economic activity of the subsidiary (CNAE), to estimate the part accounted for by local sales of services by type of service (CABPS), to obtain the final figures for M3, and that these can be integrated with those of the rest of the modes by type of CABPS service and country. FATS is also used to estimate Distribution Services via M3.

    - IFATS information is collected exhaustively from the EES (Structural Business Survey) questionnaires: All subsidiary companies resident in Spain under foreign control are surveyed (census), as they can be identified in the DIRCE.

    - - OFATS information is collected from different sources: Microdata from the Foreign Direct Investment Statistics (Outward) of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise, combined with information from the DIRCE and the EuroGroups Register (EGR) of Eurostat, as well as from other external sources.

    4) Trade Statistics by Business Characteristics (TEC): Prepared by the Customs and Excise Dept. of the AEAT based on the cross-referencing of microdata from its Foreign Trade Statistics (FTS) with the DIRCE of the INE, to characterise exporting/importing companies of goods. It makes it possible to enrich the classic FTS information by counterparty country and type of product, with additional information on the company's economic activity, its size and the type of control, among other variables. The TEC information serves as a basic source for the estimation of Distribution Services supplied via M1, as it allows the identification of wholesalers and retailers of international trade in goods (they are the ones mostly classified within the Trade (G) section of the CNAE), which are the target population of Distribution Services exports.

    5) Structural Business Survey (SBS): Prepared by the INE and other bodies. The INE is responsible for the coordination and integration of all sectors before they are sent to Eurostat. It collects a great deal of information on economic variables for a set of sample companies (market producers) whose main economic activity is within the population area of the SBS. It uses the DIRCE as the main population framework. The EES's main role in MoS is to estimate the trade margin of international trade wholesalers and retailers in the resale of goods without processing. To this end, the commercial margin is estimated from the ratio (Gross margin from the resale of goods / Net turnover), as both variables are available in EES for wholesalers/retailers. These ratios obtained from the EES are multiplied by the exports of goods from the population of wholesalers and commercial retailers included in TEC, resulting in a good estimate of exports of Distribution Services via M1.

    6) Other statistics: Other statistical sources are used residually to compile MoS. For example, the Tourist Expenditure Survey (EGATUR) and the Resident Tourism Survey (ETR) prepared by the INE, are used to estimate the value of expenditure on goods over total tourist expenditure, to subtract it , respectively, from the value of credits and debits under the BoP Travel heading in order to estimate the main service provided by the M2 (tourism services), as the MoS methodology (GATS) focuses exclusively on the service component within the CABPS services. The Balance of Payments of Goods account prepared by the Bank of Spain is also used to help estimate imports of Distribution Services via M1.

  • 18.2Frequency of data collection

    Annual.

  • 18.3Data collection

    1. International Trade in Services (BoP-ITSS) and Balance of Payments in Goods: 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 ECIS (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 ECIS 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 ECIS paper questionnaire can be found at: https://www.ine.es/en/metodologia/t37/t373019801_cues_en.pdf.

    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. Trade by Business Characteristics (TEC): These figures come directly from the Customs and Excise Department of the AEAT through a secure electronic data transmission channel shared by all central administration institutions (Data Warehouse), where the TEC microdata corresponding to wholesalers/retailers of international trade in goods are temporarily made available to the INE for download under a strict set of passwords, sent by various means.

    4. SBS/FATS/EGATUR/ETR: These figures come from other INE units. SBS/FATS microdata are available within the general INE network in a specific space shared under authorisation and with access restricted only to interested parties. The aggregated EGATUR/ETR data are emailed from the unit promoting these statistics.

  • 18.4Data validation

    As MoS is a multi-source statistic, the validation of MoS data is linked to the validation of the data from the statistical sources involved in its production.

    In the case of non-CAWI questionnaires (paper, Excel spreadsheets, etc.), the INE's own application for collecting and filtering ECIS 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

    As MoS is a multi-source statistic, the compilation of its data is linked to the compilation of the different statistical sources involved.

    ECIS and EEA/IFATS are sample surveys with direct reporting by informants, while BoP-ITSS, which uses ECIS as one of its main inputs, is a macroeconomic synthesis statistic that is also fed by other sources. OFATS is mainly based on official administrative records (Foreign Direct Investment-Outward microdata) combined with statistical records of companies such as DIRCE and EGR (Eurostat EuroGroup Register), and some other sources of information. Finally, TEC is a combination of the Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics (FTS) and the DIRCE itself, through a process of cross-referencing microdata by the tax ID number (NIF).

    Given this multifactorial nature of MoS, and also of some of the sources used to compile it, it is not possible to describe a generic process of imputation of MoS data, nor of their impact on the figures, nor of the adjustments of the non-response or the corrections of the elevation factors of the design.

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

    1. BoP-ITSS is provided in the form of aggregated data by CABPS 2010 service type and counterpart country, as the starting point for estimating M1, M2 and M4 modes. However, BoP-ITSS does not collect information on modes of supply.

    2. ECIS is a legal unit sample survey (ULE) that is used as one of the main inputs to the BoP-ITSS data (specifically, under the heading "Other services") by service type and country. After all the statistical processes (recording, filtering, validation and imputation), the sample values collected in ECIS are raised to the total population. As the collection unit is the ULE (NIF) but the statistical unit is the Statistical Company (EE), the data of those ULE that, being part of the EE 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 EEs belonging to groups that are made up of several ULEs, only the most important ULEs are surveyed. Finally, the complete sample values of each sample EE are available, either from the data of their surveyed ULEs, or from the imputation of the data of their non-surveyed ULEs. The final estimators in EE 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 ECIS microdata with their sample weights are transmitted to the Bank of Spain for BoP-ITSS estimation.

    For each service transaction collected by flow, service type and country, the ECIS collects information on the predominant mode of service supply, which makes it possible to distribute the BoP-ITSS data by modes M1, M2 and M4 after removing from them the part of the value in respect of the goods included in an undifferentiated manner of services, in a series of headings selected from the 2010 CABPS: Maintenance & Repair, Travel, Construction and Government.

    The ECIS questionnaire directly asks respondents to differentiate. under the headings Maintenance and repair, Construction and Government, between the value of goods and the total value of the heading (goods + services) within the headings, since the MoS data must refer exclusively to service data. In the case of the Travel heading, the elimination of the value of the goods is carried out indirectly through the information collected in EGATUR and ETR (basic sources, which together with others, are used in the estimation of the BoP-ITSS Travel heading) on the value of these goods over total tourist expenditure.

    3. TEC and SBS are used in the estimation of Distribution Services provided via M1. TEC allows the identification of wholesalers and retailers of the international trade of goods classified in section G (Trade) of the CNAE, which is the target population of exporters of Distribution Services. The main role of SBS is to estimate the commercial margin of this population in the resale of goods without prior transformation. With this objective, the commercial margin is estimated by calculating the ratio (Gross Goods for Resale / Net Turnover), both variables being included in the SBS questionnaires for the target population. These trade margin ratios are multiplied by the TEC exports of the target population, resulting in a good approximation to exports of Distribution Services supplied via M1.

    4. IFATS (Inward FATS) provides information on the economic activity of foreign subsidiaries resident in Spain and under foreign control. OFATS (Outward FATS) provides information on the economic activity of subsidiaries resident abroad that areunderSpanish control. FATS is recommended as the main statistical source for the estimation of commercial presence (M3). However, the value of the turnover of these foreign subsidiaries corresponding only to the services sold to residents in Spain (objective of the M3), is not directly reflected in FATS. It is necessary to carry out several steps on FATS to estimate, based on the turnover and value of production (output) available in FATS by economic activity of the subsidiary, the final figures of M3:

    - First step: IFATS collects the turnover of foreign subsidiaries according to their main economic activity (CNAE), but also includes that of their secondary and auxiliary activities, if they have any. This makes it possible to estimate the value of turnover generated exclusively by service activities, even for those subsidiaries whose main economic activity is not within the services sector. By using variable % Net turnover generated in Spain included in SBS/IFATS, the net turnover of services generated in Spain is estimated, since the objective of M3 is to estimate the value of services sold locally (to residents) by subsidiaries of foreign companies located in Spain. In the case of OFATS, only the main economic activity of non-resident subsidiaries in Spain under Spanish control is available in the Foreign Direct Investment (Outward) microdata. However, the administrative form includes a question on the value of that turnover which corresponds to services sold locally by the subsidiary in the country of its location (target M3).

    - Second step: As FATS are producer-oriented (market) statistics, only CNAE codes for that producer are available (there is no information on products sold classified by any international product classification). On the other hand, the value of the services sold locally by the foreign subsidiaries estimated in the first step are classified exclusively by the sellers CNAE code (the subsidiary). That is why it is necessary to use a bridge or CNAE-CABPS conversion table, to obtain the value of these services sold locally by type of CABPS service, and thus be able to integrate the data of M3 with those of the rest of the modes (M1, M2 and M4) in a classification of common service products (CABPS 2010). This CNAE-CABPS conversion table has been prepared by Eurostat/WTO and has been included in the Compilation Guide MoS.

    It is also used by FATS to estimate the Distribution Services supplied via M3: Imports are estimated on the basis of the variable "value of production or output" included in IFATS for subsidiaries resident in Spain under foreign control, which are mostly classified in section G (CNAE Trade), as this variable "output" is very suitable as an estimator of the trade margin. In the case of OFATS, as the "output" variable is not included in the sources used to estimate OFATS, exports of Distribution Services via M3 are estimated by multiplying the variable "Turnover" of the subsidiaries resident abroad under Spanish control in section G, which is included in OFATS, by the ratio (Output/Net Turnover) calculated from IFATS.

     

  • 18.6Adjustment

    Not applicable.

• 19Comment
  • 19.1Comment