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Statistics on Affiliates of Foreign Companies in Spain

• 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
    20/09/2024
  • 2.2Metadata last posted
    04/10/2023
  • 2.3Metadata last update
    20/09/2024
• 3Statistical presentation
  • 3.1Data description

    STATISTICAL OPERATION GOALS:

    The Business Statistics by Group Status (EEPG by its Spanish initials) presents annual information on the main economic and employment variables of enterprises residing in Spain from industrial, commercial and non-financial services sectors, classifying the statistical findings according to whether the enterprise forms part of a business group, differentiating by the type of group (entirely domestically held, Spanish multinational or foreign multinational).

    In addition, specifically for enterprises of foreign multinationals in Spain (i.e. affiliates of foreign enterprises in Spain, collective we shall call FILINT), it facilitates statistical results by geographical area and country of the parent company which controls over it.

    EEPG diffusion is presented in two big blocks of statistical results tables:

    • A first block of tables of variables and indicators is included, mentioning the totality of enterprises residing in Spain from the sectors under study, classifying them according to their belonging to a business group and their typology.
    • A second block of tables is included, mentioning specifically the enterprises residing in Spain that belong to a foreign multinational, that is to say, affiliates of foreign enterprises in Spain, which was what FILINT was already disseminating until 2020, continuing the series previously published on said affiliates.

    EEPG's conceptual and methodological framework coincide with the ones from the Structural Business Statistics (SBS) that the INE presents in its respective operations of the Industrial, Trade and Services sectors. The EEPG integrates the information of the SBS of the three study sectors and adds supplementary information related to the membership and typology of the business group that the enterprise forms part of. All of these allow to offer statistical results by classifying the enterprises residing in Spain in sub-populations of interest for the macro-economic analysis and, regarding the foreign affiliates in Spain, for the globalisation study.

    These statistics (SBS and EEPG) allow to satisfy the demand of information required by Regulation 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council, in relation to the European business statistics (Regulation EBS) and its Implementation Act 2020/1197, regarding in particular its tables on structural business statistics and affiliates statistics.

    ​CLASSIFICATION VARIABLES:

    Group Status: According to this variable, the set of enterprises residing in Spain are classified in the following sub-populations:

    • Enterprises that are not part of a business group.
    • Enterprises part of a business group entirely resident or domestically held.
    • Enterprises part of a Spanish multinational group (Spanish multinational).
    • Enterprises part of a foreign multinational group (foreign multinational).

    Economic activity: The economic activity carried out by an enterprise is defined as the creation of added value through the production of goods and services. Companies frequently carry out various activities, which can be separated into different classes under the National Classification of Economic Activities. For the purposes of this statistical operation, enterprises are classified according to their main activity, i.e. that which provides the highest added value. However, in view of the difficulty that the calculation or estimation of this variable can sometimes pose for companies, if that information is not available, it will be considered as the main activity the one that generates a greater turnover value or, alternatively, the one that employees a greater number of people.

    Size of the enterprise. The dimension can be stablished in terms of magnitude of the turnover or the production value, or considering the number of people that make the enterprise's workforce. This statistical operation opts for considering that second option to determine the size of the enterprises.

    Geographical areas and country of the parent company. This classification variable is used for tables relating to Affiliates of foreign enterprises in Spain (FILINT). The criteria applied to determine the country of the parent enterprise is by considering the one corresponding to the company that ultimately controls over the foreign affiliate residing in Spain. The ultimate owner of an affiliate is the institutional unit located at the top of the control chain of a foreign affiliate and that is not controlled by any other institutional unit.

    ANALYSIS VARIABLES AND INDICATORS:

    • Enterprises and employment: Number of enterprises, people employed, paid personnel,
    • Economic variables: Turnover, Sells outside Spain, Total of purchases of goods and services, Personnel expenses, Wages and salaries, Investment in material assets,
    • Economic aggregates: Production value, Gross added value, Gross operating profit
    • Indicators: Productivity, Average salary, Added value rate, Personnel expenses rate, Gross operating rate, Material investment rate, Paid personnel rate, Female participation rate.

    IMPORTANT NOTE ON THE STATISTICAL CONCEPT OF THE ENTERPRISE
    According to the European Statistical System, structural business statistics (SBS and therefore FILINT) implemented for the year 2018, a new practical application of the statistical concept of the Enterprise. The reasons and details of the adaptation of the statistical concept of the Enterprise were announced by the INE in a Press Release of 17 December, 2019.

    Under this new approach, an Enterprise can be formed by one or several Legal Units, and in the latter case, the Statistical Enterprise will condense the economic and employment variables of the Legal Units that comprise it. This criterion differs from that previously applied, by which each separate Legal Unit was considered an Enterprise. Although the new approach affects only Legal Units that are part of business groups -which are highly relevant entities in terms of economics and employment- the statistical results and its distribution by activities and sizes is affected.

     

    NEW DEVELOPMENTS FROM REFERENCE YEAR 2021 AS A RESULT OF THE ENTRY INTO FORCE OF THE EBS REGULATION

    The reference year 2021 is the first one that has to apply what is stablished in Regulation 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding European business statistics (EBS Regulations) and its Implementation act 2020/1197, regarding structural statistics of companies and affiliates statistics. The main changes affecting EEPG and FILINT are the following:

    • Expansion of coverage. The coverage of study activities of the Services sector is expanded, including sections R (Artistic, recreational and entertainment activities), P (Education) and Q (Health and social work activities), as well as divisions S95 and S96 (Computers, personal effects and items of domestic use reparation and Other personal services, respectively).
    • Number of active companies: The new EBS Regulation defines the variable Number of active enterprises as a concrete form and establishes a match between the statistical domains of SBS and Business Demographics. In this regard, a set of criteria has been agreed on to determine, based on administrative information and of some statistical operations, if the legal unit counts as active. Therefore, a unique number of active enterprises (UNE) has been agreed on, which applies for both the Statistics of Business Demographics and the SBS, correcting the differences in this magnitude that existed until now. As a consequence of this improvement, the 2021 data on the number of enterprises is not directly comparable to that of 2020.
    • Objective population: It has been clarified which institutional sectors must be covered by the SBS: just the market producing units. Considered as such are the ones belonging to institutional sectors S.11, S.12 and S.14, that is to say Non-financial companies, Financial institutions and Households as individual businessmen. Therefore, sectors S.13 (Public administrations) and S.15 (Non-profit institutions serving households) are explicitly out of the coverage.

     

  • 3.2Classification system
    • Clasificaciones utilizadas

      Economic activity. This statistical operation uses the National Classification of Economic Activities CNAE-2009 to codify enterprises activities, to process and disseminate its data. Two different levels of disaggregation of enterprises activities are stablished:

      
      
      

      a) Classification of enterprises according to activity sector; Industry, Trade, Services.

      
      
      

      b) Classification of enterprises according to the branch of disaggregated activity.

      
      
      

      Size of the enterprise: Two different levels of disaggregation are stablished, defining size stages based on the employed personnel (annual average) of the enterprise:

      
      
      

      a) Classification of enterprises according to aggregated size:

      
      
      

      
      
      • Less than 10 employed persons
      
      
      • 10 to 49 employed persons
      
      
      • 50 to 249 employed persons
      
      
      • 250 or more employed persons
      
      

      
      
      

       

      
      
      

      b) Classification of affiliate enterprises according to disaggregated size interval:

      
      
      

      
      
      • Less than 10 employed persons
      
      
      • 10 to 19 employed persons
      
      
      • 20 to 49 employed persons
      
      
      • 50 to 99 employed persons
      
      
      • 100 to 249 employed persons
      
      
      • 250 to 499 employed persons
      
      
      • 500 to 999 employed persons
      
      
      • 1000 and more employed persons
      
      

      
      
      

      Country of parent company: The codes used are the ones stablished in the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1470 on the nomenclature of countries and territories for European statistics on international trade in goods and on the geographical breakdown

  • 3.3Sector coverage

    Reference years 2021 onwards (industry, commerce and services).

    B Mining and quarrying
    C Manufacturing
    D Electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply
    E Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities
    G Wholesale and retail trade; Repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles
    H Transportation and storage
    I Accommodation and food service activities
    J Information and communication
    L Real estate activities
    M Professional, scientific and technical activities
    N Administrative and support service activities
    P Education (Note1)
    Q Human health and social work activities (Note1)
    R Artistic, recreational and entertainment activities (Note2)
    S Other services (except 94 Associative activities) (Note2)

    _____

    Note 1: Activities of sectors P and Q (Education and Health) are included for the first time in the SBS and also de FILINT, starting in reference year 2021
    Note 2: Activities in sector R (Artistic, recreational and entertainment activities) and divisions S95 and S96 (Repair of computers, personal effects and household goods and other personal services), although already were included in the SBS, now are included in FILINT, starting in reference year 2021.

  • 3.4Statistical concepts and definitions
    • Branch under foreign control
      A local unit, without its own legal identity, which depends on a company under foreign control.
    • Company
      The company is the smallest combination of legal units that is an organizational unit producing goods or
      services, which benefits from a certain degree of autonomy in decision-making, especially for the
      allocation of its current resources. A company carries out one or more activities at one or more
      locations. A company may be a sole legal unit.
    • Employed persons
      Employed persons are understood to be the group of permanent and temporary employed persons who, during the reference year of the data, were carrying out paid or unpaid work for the company, and belonging to and being paid by said company.
      Persons on leave for illness, paid holidays, unpaid occasional leave, on strike etc., are included, as are part-time workers who are regarded as such by the laws of the country in question and who appear on the company payroll, as well as seasonal workers, apprentices or persons working from home, but included in the company's payroll.
      This also includes owners who regularly work in the unit, as well as family members and persons who regularly work there.
      However, this does not include persons working for the company who are employed and paid by other companies or agencies; people who are carrying out maintenance or repair work in some of the company premises or establishments and being paid by other companies; as well as persons on sabattical, unlimited leave or retired. The members of the Board of Directors who are remunerated exclusively for their presence at Board Meetings and those partners or other persons that work less than 1/3 of the working day are also not included.
      The concept of employed persons used in the survey refers to the average number of persons employed during the year.
    • Expenses on external services
      This concept comprises the total amount corresponding to the set of operating expenses of a different nature, carried out by the company during the reference year, such as expenditure on research and development, leases and taxes, repairs and preservation, independent professional services, transport, insurance premiums, bank services and the like, advertising, propaganda and public relations, supplies and other services.
    • Final Institutional control unit,
      ICU. The final owner of an affiliate is that institutional unit or company that, proceeding hierarchically upwards along the chain of control of said
      affiliate, exercises control over itself, not being controlled, in turn, by any other unit. Therefore, in our case, only results for affiliates abroad of parent companies or final owners resident in Spain are included in these statistics.
    • Gross investment in material fixed assets
      The concept of investment includes those capital material goods acquired from third parties, as well as those produced by the unit itself (that is, the capitalised production of material goods) that have a useful life longer than one year.
      Investments are considered to be gross, that is, before the value adjustment and the adjustment of deducting the income obtained from grants. The goods purchased are valued at the purchase price, that is, including transport and installation costs, fees, taxes and other property transfer costs. Self-produced material goods are valued at the production cost. The goods incorporated as a result of business restructuring (mergers, segregations, etc.) should not be considered in the concept of investment. Purchases of small tools that are not capitalised and are included as current expenses, should not be considered part thereof either.
      From the accounting perspective, investment in material fixed assets encompasses the concepts of land and natural goods, buildings, technical installations, machinery, tools, other installations, furniture, information processing equipment, transport elements and other material fixed assets.
    • Leadership
      Leadership is regarded as the ability to determine the general policy of a company by designating suitable managers where necessary.
    • Personnel costs
      Personnel costs means the total remuneration, in cash or in kind, to be paid by an employer to an employee (either fixed, temporary or homeworker) in exchange for a work done by this person during the reference period.
      Staff costs also include taxes and social security contributions of employees retained by the unit, as well as the employer's compulsory and voluntary social contributions.
      Staff costs are composed of:
      -Salaries and salaries
      -Employer costs of social security
      Any remuneration paid during the reference period is included, regardless of whether it is paid on the basis of the working day, the production or the piecework, and whether it is paid periodically or not. Also included are all bonuses, productivity and performance premiums, unpaid payments, extraordinary (and similar) pay, redundancy allowances, accommodation and transportation, cost-of-living premiums and Family allowances, commissions, attendance bonuses, overtime, night work, etc., as well as taxes, social security contributions and other amounts payable by employees and retained at the source by Employers.
      The employer's social security costs are also included. These include the employer's social security contributions aimed at covering retirement, sickness, maternity, disability, unemployment, occupational accidents and illnesses, family allowances and other contingencies. These costs are included regardless of whether they are statutory, the subject of a collective agreement, contractual or voluntary
    • Production value
      The production value measures the amount actually produced by the unit, based on sales, including changes in stocks and the resale of goods and services.
      
      The production value is defined as turnover or revenue from sales of goods and rendering of services, plus or minus the changes in stocks of finished products, work in progress and goods and services purchased for resale, minus the purchases of goods and services for resale (only for the goods and services sold during the reporting period and excluding the costs of storage and transport of the goods purchased for resale), plus capitalised production, plus other (operating and extra-ordinary) income (excluding subsidies). Income and expenditure classified as financial or as revenue in the form of interests and dividends in company accounts is excluded from production value. Included in purchases of goods and services for resale are the purchases of services purchased in order to be rendered to third parties in the same condition.
      
      Note : Capitalised production includes the own-account production of all goods that are retained by their producers as investment. The latter includes the production of fixed tangible assets (buildings, etc.) as well as intangible assets (development of software, etc.). Capitalised production is unsold production and is valued at production cost. Note that these capital goods are also to be included in investment.
      
      Note : Other (operating and extra-ordinary) income is a company accounting heading. The contents of this heading may vary between sectors and over time and as such can not be defined precisely for statistical purposes.
      
      For the statistics on activities of NACE Rev.2 groups 65.1 and 65.2, the production value is defined gross premiums earned plus total portfolio investment income plus other services produced minus gross claims incurred, excluding claims management expenses plus capital gains and provisions.
      
      For the statistics on activities defined in Section 3 of Annex VI of Regulation (EC) No 295/2008, the production value is defined as interest receivable and similar income less interest payable and similar charges plus commissions receivable plus income from shares and other variable-yield securities plus net profit or net loss on financial operations plus other operating income.
      
      For the statistics on activities defined in Section 3 of Annex VII of Regulation (EC) No 295/2008, the production value is defined as turnover less insurance premiums payable plus investment income plus other income plus insurance claims receivable less total expenditure on pensions less net change in technical provisions.
      
      For the enterprises of the NACE Rev.2 class 64.11 (central banks) the production value is defined as interest receivable and similar income less interest payable
    • Purchases and work carried out by other companies
      The total purchases of goods and services include the value of all of the goods and services acquired by the company during the reference year for resale or consumption in the production process. The goods and services in question may be resold with or without subsequent transformation, be used completely in the production process or be stored.
      Included in the global concept of purchases are the materials that are directly incorporated into the goods produced (raw materials, intermediate products, components), as well as the small tools and non-capitalised capital goods. This also includes the value of the complementary materials (lubricants, water, packages, maintenance and repair materials, office material), energy products used in the production process and purchases of materials used by the unit itself in the production of capital goods.
      The total purchases of goods and services are valued at their purchase price, excluding deductible VAT and other deductible taxes that are directly linked to turnover.
    • Sales a broad
      Sales out of Spain to total turnover
    • Subsidiary
      A subsidiary is understood to be a company with offices in Spain but controlled by a foreign company.
    • Total operating costs
      This is the total amount obtained as a result of aggregating different expenses linked to use carried out by the company during the reference year (purchases and work carried out by other companies; aforementioned activities; external services; and other operating expenses). Internal expenses are valuated at the production cost and include all operating costs, including labour costs and capital expenditure.
    • Total operating income
      This is the total amount obtained as a result of aggregating different income linked to operation, obtained by the company during the reference year (net value of turnover; tasks performed by the company for its assets; subsidies, gifts and legacies; and the remainder of operating income).
    • Turnover
      This includes the total amounts invoiced by the observation unit, during the reference period, for the sales of goods and services supplied to third parties, considering both those carried out directly by the observation unit itself, and those from temporary outsourcing.
      
      These sales of goods or services are accounted for in net terms, that is, including the charges to the client (transport, packages, etc.), though invoiced separately, but deducting the discount on sales for early payment, returns of sales or the value of returned packages, as well as taxes on sales. This includes taxes and fees on goods or services invoiced by the unit, but excludes the VAT paid by the client.
      
      From an administrative point of view, the General Accounting Plan (PGC) (RD 1514/2007, of 16 November) defines the Total net value of turnover, using the following accounting items: C700+C701+C702+C703+C704+C705-C706-C708-C709 with:
      
      C700. Sales of merchandise
      C701. Sales of finished products
      C702. Sales of semi-finished products
      C703. Sales of sub-products and waste
      C704. Sales of packages and packaging
      C705. Provision of services
      C706. Discount on sales for early payment
      C708. Returns of sales and similar transactions
      C709. "Taxes" on sales
      
      Therefore, turnover includes neither subsidies nor other operating income. It also excludes financial and extraordinary income, and other income that affects the results of the fiscal year.
    • Value added at factor cost
      The value added at factor cost is the gross income from operating activities after adjusting for operating subsidies and indirect taxes.
      
      It can be calculated from turnover, plus capitalised production, plus other operating income (including operating subsidies), plus or minus the changes in stocks, minus the purchases of goods and services, minus other taxes on products which are linked to turnover but not deductible, minus the duties and taxes linked to production. The duties and taxes linked to production are compulsory, unrequited payments, in cash or in kind which are levied by general government, or by the Institutions of the European Union, in respect of the production and importation of goods and services, the employment of labour, the ownership or use of land, buildings or other assets used in production irrespective of the quantity or the value of goods and services produced or sold. Alternatively it can be calculated from gross operating surplus by adding personnel costs.
      
      Income and expenditure classified as financial in company accounts according to the 4th Accounting Directive (78/660/EEC) is excluded from value added. Income and expenditure classified as interest income, dividend income, foreign exchange gain from foreign currency borrowings related to interest costs, gains on redemption and extinguishment of debt or finance costs according to Commission Regulation (EC) 1725/2003 are excluded from value added.
      
      Value added at factor costs is calculated "gross" as value adjustments (such as depreciation and impairment losses) are not subtracted.
      
      For the statistics on activities of NACE rev.2 groups 65.1 and 65.2, the value added at factor costs is defined as production value minus gross value of reinsurance services received minus commissions minus other external expenditure on goods and services.
      
      For the statistics on activities defined in Section 3 of Annex VI of Regulation (EC) No 295/2008, the value added at factor costs is defined as production value less total purchases of goods and services.
      
      For the statistics on activities defined in Section 3 of Annex VII of Regulation (EC) No 295/2008, the value added at factor costs is defined as production value less total purchases of goods and services.
      
      For the enterprises of the NACE Rev.2 class 64.11, the value added at factor costs is defined as production value less total purchases of goods and services.
  • 3.5Statistical unit

    STATISTICAL UNIT

    The basic statistical unit is the enterprise, which is understood as “the smallest combination of legal units that is an organizational unit producing goods or services, which benefits from a certain degree of autonomy indecision-making, especially for the allocation of its current resources. An enterprise carries out one or more activities at one or more locations. An enterprise may be a sole legal unit“’ (definition of the Regulation of the European Union 696/93).

    Specifically, for this operation it is considered an enterprise residing in Spain the one whose main economic activity is included, according to CNAE-2009, in any of the sectors under research (industry, trade and non-financial market services).

    As previously explained in section 3.1, a new operational concept for "Enterprise" is applied for the reference year 2018, which we call Statistical Enterprise, which differs from previous years in that, beginning this year, the Enterprise=Legal Unit analogy will no longer always be true. In other words, some Statistical Enterprises may be made up of two or more Legal Units.

    REPORTING UNIT

    The reporting unit, or rather, the unit from which the basic information is obtained is the Legal Unit, since being perfectly defined and located and having accounting and employment data, the answer is facilitated and homogeneous information is obtained. Legal Units can be legal persons (commercial companies) or natural persons (individual entrepreneurs).

    Basic information on the Legal Units comes either from direct collection (by completing questionnaires) or, increasingly, from the use of administrative sources (tax data for economic variables, and data from the Social Security for variables related to employment).

    Since 2018, already under the approach of a Statistical Enterprise as a statistical unit, information is obtained from each of the Legal Units that make up the Enterprise, and statistics are compiled by grouping (and in the necessary cases, consolidating) variables for all Legal Units that form the Enterprise. 

     

  • 3.6Statistical population

    In regards to its first block of tables, the population under study of the EEPG encompasses all enterprises residing in Spain that are producers of the market and whose main activity is included in the industry, trade and non-financial services sectors, that is to say in sections B to E, G, H, I, J, L, M, N, P, Q, R and divisions S95 and S96 of the National Classification of Economic Activities 2009 (CNAE-2009).

    Regarding its second block of tables (FILINT), the statistics is focused mainly in the enterprises residing in Spain that are foriegn affiliates, considering the same sectors and activities under study previously mentioned.

    _____

    Note 1: Activities of sectors P and Q (Education and Health) are included for the first time in the SBS and also de FILINT, starting in reference year 2021
    Note 2: Activities in sector R (Artistic, recreational and entertainment activities) and divisions S95 and S96 (Repair of computers, personal effects and household goods and other personal services), although already were included in the SBS, now are included in FILINT, starting in reference year 2021.

     

  • 3.7Reference area

    All statistical units (enterprises) located on national territory (including Ceuta and Melilla) are under study. (Note3)

    In its second block of tables (FILINT) relating the affiliates of foreign enterprises in Spain, it breaks down information by geographical area and country of the parent enterprise, that is to say, where is located, outside Spain, the enterprise that exercises control over the affiliate in Spain. It provides data for each of the countries of the European Union individually, as well as for certain aggregations of the same: Europe (distinguishing the Eurozone, the rest of the European Union, the Rest of Europe), America, Asia, Rest of the World.

    _____

    Note 3: The FILINT statistics published until the reference year 2020 excluded Ceuta and Melilla.

     

  • 3.8Time coverage

    The statistics have annual periodicity.

    The reference period for the data is the calendar year, which generally coincides with the annual accounting year.

    To date, the following statistical results are available:

    • FILINT. Reference years 2005-2007 (only trade and services). vCNAE-93. Results based on Legal Reference years 2008-2018 (industry, commerce and services). CNAE-2009. Results based on Legal Reference years 2018 onwards (industry, commerce and services). CNAE-2009. Results based on Statistical Enterprises.

    • EEPG (includes FILINT). Reference years 2021 onwards (industry, commerce and services). CNAR-2009. Results based on Statistical Enterprises.

     

  • 3.9Base period

    As this is a continuous statistical operation, 2008 is set as the base period, due to a logical gap in the series, as a consequence of the introduction of the new National Classification of Economic Activities (CNAE-2009) and the publication of information on industrial activities.

• 4Unit of measure
  • 4.1Unit of measure
    • Number of enterprises: units.
    • Employment: units (persons).
    • Economic variables: thousands of euros.
    • Indicators about Productivity and Average wage: euros.
    • Other indicators: percent.

• 5Reference period
  • 5.1Reference period

    The data reference period is the calendar year, which generally coincides with the annual accounting year. As an exception, units that operate by seasons or campaigns comprising two separate years and have their data recorded in this way, the information refers to the season or campaign that ending in the reference year.

    Data referred to the period: Anual 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 2021-2024, approved by Royal Decree 1110/2020, of 15  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).

    
    

    This statistical operation allows to comply with the European Regulation in this matter:

    • Until reference year 2020, for the FILINT statistics: Regulation (EC) No 716/2007 of the European Parliament and Council of 20 June 2007 on European Union statistics on the structure and activity of foreign affiliates. (FATS Regulation).
    • From reference year 2021, for the SBS and EEPG (including FILINT): Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parlament and the Council on European business statistics and its corresponding Implementation Act 2020/1197.

    These Regulations defines the most important concepts and specifies key aspects such as target population, statistical unit, variables to be measured, periodicity and quality.
    https://www.ine.es/normativa/leyes/UE/minine.htm#30227

  • 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.
    

    .

• 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.
    

    The technique used to guarantee statistical confidentiality is based on cell deletion.

• 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

    The statistical results are published annually.

• 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 statistical results are published on the INE website and some results are included in publications such as the Anuario Estadistico [Statistical Yearbook], Cifras INE [INE Figures], etc.

  • 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.

    
    

    Access to published tables:

    From www.ine.es, in INEbase / Economy / Companies / Statistics on affiliates of foreign companies in Spain

    • From 2005-2007: https://www.ine.es/dyngs/INEbase/en/operacion.htm?c=Estadistica_C&cid=1254736176899&menu=resultados&idp=1254735576778
    • As of 2008: https://www.ine.es/dyngs/INEbase/en/operacion.htm?c=Estadistica_C&cid=1254736161127&menu=resultados&idp=1254735576550

    No. of consultations of data tables: AC1= 23,564 (consultations in 2023)

     

  • 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
    

    No anonymous data file is provided for this statistical operation.

     

  • 10.5Other

    Users can request specific use of tailored data, that will be carried whilst preserving the confidentiality of the data in all cases, through the Information area at:

    https://www.ine.es/ss/Satellite?c=Page&p=1254735638180&pagename=ProductosYServicios%2FPYSLayout&cid=1254735638180&L=1

  • 10.6Documentation on methodology

    A detailed description of the methodology used can be found at:

    https://www.ine.es/en/metodologia/t37/ metodologia_EEPG_2022_en.pdf

    The Eurostat Manual for Foreign Affiliate Statistics (edition 2024) can be found at:

    https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/european-business-statistics-compilers-manual-for-foreign-affiliate-statistics-2024-edition

      

  • 10.7Quality documentation

    This standardised methodological report contains, in sections 10.6 to 17, the elements of what constitutes the "user-oriented quality report" for this operation.

• 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.

    
    

    The obtaining and treatment of EEPG information is framed in the general scheme of the production of the Structural Business Statistics of the industry, trade and services sectors. The following matters stand out:

    • The data collection has grave and second level errors programmed, so the data is purified as it is introduced by the user. During the collection and purification of the data, measures for the reduction of non-response are adopted as well.

    • A non-response and absent data treatment is made through imputation techniques.

    • Data is subjected to additional controls of micro- and macro-purification, as well as contrasting with other short-term surveys of industry, trade and services, as well as with information from administrative sources, allowing to guarantee a final product of sufficient quality.

    In regards to variables relating to a type of business group and country of the parent enterprise, the quality guarantee is ensured by the registry of groups of the DIRCE (Spanish Business Register of INE) in coordination with the EGR (Euro Groups Register of Eurostat).

     

  • 11.2Quality assessment

    Based on Regulation 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and the Council on European business statistics (EBS Regulation), and its Implementation act 2020/1197, including the structural business statistics and the affiliate statistics, the Commission must evaluate the data sent by the different States members, based on the quality criteria listed in Regulation (CE) 834/2009 of the Commission on communitarian statistics. Said criteria are: relevance, accuracy, timeliness, punctuality, accessibility and clarity, comparability and coherence. In this regard, the States members facilitate to the Commission (Eurostat) their corresponding annual reports of metadata. Additionally, for the structural business statistics, quantitative quality indicators (coefficients of variation and non-response) are facilitated to the Eurostat by activity.

    Statistics can be considered high quality since a sufficiently representative sample of the population under study, by activity strata and company size, is procured. In addition, the data are subjected to micro- and macro-purification processes, inter-annual verifications, as well as comparisons with administrative sources and other statistical operations.

• 12Relevance
  • 12.1User needs

    The users of the statistic are:

    • Eurostat, which uses the data in order to ha ve information at EU and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) level on the structure and activity of foreign affiliates located in that area, as a statistical indicator of economic globalisation.
    • Ministries and other public agencies.
    • The INE directories unit, which uses the information from Inward FATS to feed back the information from the Groups Directory of the Central Business Register (CBR) and also from the Eurostat EuroGroups Register (EGR).
    • Bank of Spain
    • Companies and institutions.
    • Researchers and universities.
    • Individuals.

  • 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)

     

    
    

    In the latest general user satisfaction survey of 2019, the assessment of the product quality dimensions (relevance, precision, timeliness, coherence and comparability) for the groups of statistics referring to the Industry and Services (in which this statiscal operation in framed) can be consulted.

    On the other hand, those responsible for this statistical operation are in permanent contact with the main users, in order to meet any specific need for information.

    Likewise, given the possibility that there are requests not attended to due to their complexity, these are evaluated as well as any suggestions made by the main users. Most of these demands are satisfied.

  • 12.3Completeness

    The statistical operation complies with the information requirements of the EBS Regulation as regards structural business satatistics and affiliates statistics (of the latter, specifically with regard to the tables of Regulation T14 and T15) , and the National Statistics Plan in the section on structural information for the industrial, trade and non-financial servicies sectors.

    The Completeness rate for available obligatory statistical results R1=100%.

• 13Accuracy and reliability
  • 13.1Overall accuracy

    The information of this statistics is gathered through the data of the Structural Business Statisticsof the industry, trade and services sectorsdrawn up on a sample basis. The sampling design tries to minimise the sampling errors and the different processes of the operation are directed to eliminating or reducing the errors of the same as much as possible, both in the collection phase (response rate and purification control) and in the posterior editing and imputation phases. The collection procedure (both direct and through the use of administrative sources), the coverage control, the purification of errors and the imputation of non-response allow to get highly reliable statistics.

  • 13.2Sampling error

    The Structural Business Statistics, in which this operation is framed, calculates and publishes the sampling errors of the main variables at different levels of disaggregation.

    Sampling error for the Turnover:

    • Industrial Sector: A1=0.16%
    • Trade Sector:A1=0.06%
    • Services Sector; A1=0.15%

     

  • 13.3Non-sampling error

    Throughout the whole statistical process, an error control external to the sampling is carried out.

    To reduce the coverage errors, the framework is upgraded annually and the returned questionnaires are analysed for duplicates, closures, out-of-scope units and change of characteristics. The measures and processing errors are minimised through the different phases of purification, both manually and automatically.

    Over coverage rate:

    • Industrial Sector: A2= 5,0%
    • Trade Sector: A2= 7,0%
    • Services Sector: A2= 7,1%

    Non-response rate per unit:

    • Industrial Sector: A4= 6,2%
    • Trade Sector: A4= 14,2%
    • Services Sector: A4= 15.2%

     

• 14Timeliness and punctuality
  • 14.1Timeliness

    The implementing act 2020/1197 of the Regulation (EU) of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics requires the availability of results for Affiliates within 20 months after the end of the reference period. The sending if the results to Eurostat is carried out in said period. The publication of the EEPG results on the INE website is done in t+21 months, t being the reference year of the data.

    Timeliness of final results (number of days between the end of the reference period and the date of publication of the final results) (2022):. TP2= 20 months + 25 days.

     

  • 14.2Punctuality

    Punctuality (delay in publication)(2022): TP3=0 (compliance with the INE's release calendar).

     

• 15Coherence and Comparability
  • 15.1Comparability - geographical

    The availability of the general EEE methodology, unified to treat the industry, commerce and services sectors in an integrated manner throughout their geographical scope, guarantees the comparability of the results. Furthermore, the methodological adaptation to the EBS Regulation in terms of structural business statistics and affiliates statistics makes comparability possible with the rest of the countries of the European Union that disseminate this same information for their respective scopes.

  • 15.2Comparability - over time

    The methodological continuity applied since the implementation of the survey allows comparability over time.

    However, from the beginning of this statistical operation, the following periods must be distinguished:

    • FILINT. Reference years of data 2005-2007: The statistics only cover the commerce and non-financial services sectors. Statistical results are based on Legal Units. The activities are classified according to the CNAE-93.
    • FILINT. Reference years of data 2008-2018: The scope of statistics is broadened to cover the sectors of industry, commerce and non-financial services. Results based on Legal Units. The activities are classified according to the new CNAE-2009.
    • FILINT. Reference years of the data 2018 onwards (industry, commerce and services). CNAE-2009. Results based on Statistical Enterprises.​

    As of 2018, the FILINT statistic applies the new operating concept of "Enterprise", according to which a Statistical Enterprise can be made up of a single Legal Unit (as it had been in previous years) or by several Legal Units. Due to this change, the statistical results for 2018 (based on the Statistical Enterprises) are not comparable with those of previous years (based on separate Legal Units). To facilitate the comparison in 2018, the INE released the statistical results of said exercise under both versions. From reference year 2019 only data based on the Statistical Enterprises is disseminated.

    • ​EEPG (includes FILINT). Reference years of the data 2021 onwards (industry, commerce and services) CNAE-2009. Results based on Statistical Enterprises.

    Length of the comparable time series for the FILINT statistic (affiliates in Spain of foreign companies): CC2=5

    Length of the comparable time series for the variable membership to business group: CC2=2

     

  • 15.3Coherence - cross domain

    The use of the same National Classification of Economic activities (CNAE-2009) allow to contrast the information with other economic statistics, for instance circumstantial statistics of the industry, trade and services sectors, as well as the Business Central Directory (DIRCE).
    It is comparable to an international level, it covers the information needs demanded by the diverse statistics users and it is an useful instrument for the macro-economic study by activity sectors.

  • 15.4Coherence - internal

    Coherence is a fundamental matter both in the survey methodology approach and in the whole preparation process. The coherence between the variables is compared in all phases of the statistical process.

• 16Cost and burden
  • 16.1Cost and burden

    The EEPG is a statistical operation that is derived from the results of the Structural Business Statistics (EEE) of the industry, commerce and services sectors, to which it adds, as an additional process, the variables related to membership in a business group. and the country of the company that ultimately controls.

    The estimate of the budgetary appropriation necessary to finance this statistic foreseen in the 2024 Annual Programme is 76.20 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 data is final. When first published they are no longer subject to revision.
    If errors are detected and the data must be changed, then an explanatory note is added along with the information to alert users that the data have been changed. Whenever possible, users are directly informed about these errors.

  • 17.2Data revision - practice

    The data are published when they are definitive, not subject to revision.

• 18Statistical processing
  • 18.1Source data

    The EEPG is totally integrated with the SBS of the industry, trade and services sectors, so all aspects related to the sampling framework and design coincide with these structural statistics.

    Sampling framework: The information needed for the elaboration of the SBS framework is obtained from the INE Business Central Directory (DIRCE), which contains, for each unit, information on the main economic activity, the number of salaried people and the turnover (variables used in the sampling design and the stratification process) and the identification and localisation data (needed for a proper collection of information). In addition, for the case of business groups, the DIRCE system contains information on the type of group, as well as the data on the last controlling unit and its country.

    Sampling design: The EEPG sample coincides with the one of the SBS of the industry, trade and services sectors, so all of the criteria stablished in the SBS regarding sampling design (sampling type, exhaustive units determination, stratification, sampling size and affixation, sampling selection, estimators and sampling errors) apply.

    The details can be consulted in the SBS Methodology available on the website of the INE:
    https://www.ine.es/en/metodologia/t37/metodologia_eee2022_en.pdf

    It is worth adding that, since the peculiarities of the specific collective of affiliates of foreign enterprises (FILINT collective), it has been considered appropriate to apply, whenever possible, exhaustiveness criteria in the process of selecting these units.

     

  • 18.2Frequency of data collection

    The EEPG is totally integrated with the SBS of the industry, trade and services sectors, so all aspects related to data collection coincide with these structural statistics.

    Data collection is on an annual basis. It includes the direct collection on a sub-sample of informants as well as, increasingly, the obtention and usage of the data of administrative sources.

  • 18.3Data collection

    The EEPG is totally integrated with the SBS of the industry, trade and services sectors, so all aspects related to data collection coincide with these structural statistics.

    For the SBS, the basic information is obtained annually of each Legal Unit, and comes from two sources:

    • The questionnaires directed to the Legal Units of the selected sub-sample. Completion is mainly via the Internet (IRIA system).
    • The administrative information, of tax origin for the economic and Social Security variables for the variables on employment, are available for all Legal Units in each of the sample Statistical Enterprises.

      

  • 18.4Data validation

    The EEPG is totally integrated with the SBS of the industry, trade and services sectors, so all aspects related to data validation coincide with these structural statistics.

    During the collection phase, a first data purification process is already made. Both the electronic questionnaires that the informants comply with through the Internet, and the management, recording and purification application of the collection that the Collection Units of the INE use, have systems for the detection of errors programmed to validate the data while they are being introduced by the user. A distinction is made between serious errors (which must necessarily be corrected) and second level anomalies (which, once confirmed, must be justified). Besides, during the collection and purification of data, measures for the reduction of non-response are also carried out.

    Recorded/purified registries by the Collection Units form and feed, weekly, the complete recording files on which the following processing and information phases are made. These files are treated on the Central Services, where a new information coverage control (to guarantee the completeness of the recorded data and to detect duplicates and coverage errors) and validation controls are carried out, submitting the data to micro- and macro-purification processes.

  • 18.5Data compilation

    The EEPG is totally integrated with the SBS of the industry, trade and services sectors, so all aspects related to data compilation coincide with these structural statistics.

    For the SBS, a distinction is made between the following processes which, additionally, and specifically for EEPG effects, variables relating to the business group and country of ultimate control are added:

    A. Compilation of information of sampling Legal Units. It includes the following sub-processes: 1) combination of data from direct collection and data from tax and administrative sources, 2) additional micro-purification controls focused, selectively, on the detection and purification of variables errors and inconsistencies of each registry, as well as the purification and imputation of content errors, 3) treatment for non-response and imputation procedures, 4) macro-purification, aggregates analysis and comparison of results with other sources.

    B. Compilation of information of Statistical Enterprises. It includes the following sub-processes: 1) addition of Legal Units that make up each sampling Statistical Enterprise and study of the typology combinations of said Legal Units, 2) consolidation for sampling Statistical Enterprises consisting of more than one Legal Unit and containing relationships between them, 3) formation of the complete file of sampling units in terms of Statistical Enterprises, 4) calculation of elevation factors, 5) construction and analysis of statistical results, 5) preparation of dissemination products and macro-data files to attend the requirements of the EBS Regulation.

    Details can be consulted in the SBS Methodology available on the INE website.
    https://www.ine.es/en/metodologia/t37/metodologia_eee2022_en.pdf

     

  • 18.6Adjustment

    Not applicable as it is not necessary to adjust the data seasonally.

• 19Comment
  • 19.1Comment