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The Outward Foreign Affiliates Statistics (FILEXT) is an annual structural statistic, whose main objective is to provide information on the key variables that determine the structure and activity of the affiliates of Spanish parent companies abroad.
The analysis variables examined are number of enterprises abroad, turnover, number of employees and self-employed persons, employee benefits expense and gross investment in tangible non-current assets.
The reference year 2021 is the first year in which Regulation 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning European Business Statistics (EBS Regulation) and its implementing act 2020/1197 apply to structural business statistics and affiliate statistics.
In accordance with this new EBS Regulation, the FILEXT statistic implemented for the fiscal year 2021 a new practical application of the statistical concept of Subsidiary Enterprise.
Under this new approach, a Subsidiary Enterprise may consist of one or several Subsidiary Units, and in the latter case, the Subsidiary Enterprise will condense the economic and employment variables of the Subsidiary Units that comprise it. This approach differs from the previous approach whereby each Subsidiary Unit was considered as a separate enterprise. The OFATS statistical results and their distribution by activity and size are slightly affected.
The affiliate's main economic activity, size and geographical location are used as classification variables.
The results of this statistic are prepared taking administrative information from the Register of Foreign Investments of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business as a base, which provides primary data to INE by virtue of a collaboration agreement between these.
INE has another collaboration agreement with the Tax Agency, through which it receives and uses form 231 of the Country-by-Country Information Declaration to complement the above information. Likewise, the European Register of Groups and the Structural Business Statistics serve as a source for calculating the necessary grossing up factors.
The National Classification of Economic Activities (CNAE-2009) is used to codify the activity of the companies, process and release their data.
Regarding countries, the ISO 3166-1 codes are used. And for the aggregates of countries, the codes contained in the Eurostat's Balance of Payments Vademecum are used.
The target population of this statistic is formed of market producers residing outside of Spain, that are affiliates of Spanish parent companies, and whose main activity is included in sections:
B Mining and quarrying
C Manufacturing industry
D Electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply
E Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities
F Construction
G Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles
H Transport and storage
I Hotels and restaurants
J Information and communications
L Real estate activities
M Professional, scientific and technical activities
N Administrative and support service activities
P Education
Q Health and social work activities
R Arts, entertainment and recreation R Other service activities
S Other services
of CNAE 2009
The basic unit of analysis is the company or branch under Spanish control.
The statistical units of the survey are considered to be the affiliate companies or branches of Spanish companies, resident outside Spain and whose main economic activity is included, in accordance with CNAE-2009, in one of the sectors studied (industry, construction, trade and other non-financial market services).
As explained in section 3.1, as from 2021 a new operating concept of 'Subsidiary Company' is applied, which differs from previous years in that the analogy Subsidiary Company=Subsidiary Unit will no longer always be true. In other words, some Subsidiary Companies may be composed of two or more Subsidiary Units.
With regards to the respondent units, in accordance with the methodology established by Eurostat and included in the recommendations manual, the Member States should apply the criteria of the Ultimate controlling institutional unit (UCI).
The final owner of an affiliate is the institutional unit (company or private individual) that, proceeding hierarchically upwards along the chain of control of the aforementioned affiliate, exercises control over it, not being controlled, in turn, by any other unit. Therefore, in our case, only the results of affiliates abroad of parent companies or owners ultimately residing in Spain are included.
The target population of study of this statistic for Spain is formed of the market producers resident outside Spain, that are affiliates of Spanish parent companies, and whose main activity is included in sections B to E (industry), F (construction) and G to S, except K and O (non-financial market services) of CNAE-2009.
From a geographical point of view, the statistic refers to affiliates of Spanish companies (according to the UCI criteria) resident outside Spain in any country in the world, both inside and outside the European Union. Broken down data for each of the countries of the world should be supplied, as well as certain aggregated data of these (Europe, EU, America, Africa, etc.).
The FILEXT statistic has been producing results annually since 2011, when the results corresponding to 2009 were published. Thus, the results published in the year T correspond to the annual period T-2.
Although the FILEXT statistic does not use index numbers, the FATS regulation states that
1. The first reference year for which annual statistics shall be compiled shall be the calendar year of entry into force of Regulation (EC) No. 716/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council that governed this statistic in its Annex II (Outward FATS), now repealed by Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
2. Thereafter, Member States shall provide data for each calendar year.
Notwithstanding the above, in Spain the official data began in 2009, due to a derogation granted to Spain and other countries for two years, in the application of the Community Regulation.
Turnover: Thousand Euros.
Employees and self-employed persons: number of persons employed.
Enterprises: number of affiliates.
Employee benefits expense: Thousand Euros
Gross investment in tangible non-current assets: Thousand Euros
The statistic is annual (publication in year T) and the economic data obtained are also annual and refer to the corresponding reference calendar year, that will correspond to 2 years before the year of publication (T-2).
Data referred to the period: Anual A: 2022
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).
As regards the statistics on subsidiaries of Spanish enterprises abroad, this is imposed by Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics, which repeals ten legal acts in the field of business statistics, and by its Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 of the Commission of 30 July 2020, which establishes technical specifications and modalities under European business statistics.
These regulations define the most important concepts and specify key aspects such as target population, statistical unit, variables to be measured, periodicity and quality.
https://www.ine.es/normativa/leyes/UE/minine.htm#30082
Until the 2020 reference period, this statistic was imposed by Regulation (EC) No. 712/2007 of the European Parliament and the Council in its Annex II (Outward FATS).
The FILEXT information essentially draws on three Administrative Registers:
1. The Register of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), that depends on the Secretary of State for Trade of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business. This Register is formed using model declarations that the General Directorate for International Trade and Investments compiles on overseas investments in Spanish companies and Spanish investment in overseas companies, both regarding flows and position (stock). FILEXT focuses on the stock of investment in overseas companies.
2. The Country-by-Country Report collected by the Tax Agency by which all large multinational companies (MNEs with consolidated group revenues of at least €750 million) must prepare a CBC-Report with aggregated data on the global allocation of revenues, profits and taxes paid among the tax jurisdictions in which they operate. This template is used to complement the information from the FDI.
3. Information from the EuroGroups Register (EGR) is also used in order to obtain definitive results of the study. The EuroGroups Register is a statistical source prepared by Eurostat that has information on groups of companies from private databases and from units responsible for company registers in the statistical institutes of the various Member States as well as of countries that are members of the EFTA.
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
In order to protect statistical confidentiality through the anonymisation of data, different procedures are used to guarantee statistical secrecy. Definitive data is presented in the form of a table which is broken down into the following variables: Number of Affiliates, Turnover, Number of employees and self-employed persons, Employee benefits expense and Gross investment in tangible non-current assets by country, geographical region, sector of activity of the affiliate or the size of the affiliate in relation to the number of employed persons. In some cases it may be possible to deduce the identity of the affiliate(s), and of the parent company when the number of elements included in the cell is very low. The technique used to guarantee confidentiality is based on deleting cells.
In primary confidentiality, cells with less than 4 affiliates are deleted.
Secondary confidentiality is set using Tau-Argus, deleting those cells which minimize the turnover.
The advance release calendar that shows the precise release dates for the coming year is disseminated in the last quarter of each year.
The calendar is disseminated on the INEs Internet website (Publications Calendar)
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
The statistic is disseminated annually.
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
The results of the statistic are released through the INE web page (INEBase) and some results are covered in publications such as España en cifras (Spain in Figures), Cifras INE (INE Figures), etc.
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.
Information on the Outward Foreign Affiliates Statistics can be found at:
Number of consultations of the data tables AC1= 23,330.
Number of consultations of metdata AC2= 786.
For this statistical operation no file of anonymised data is provided.
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/prodyser/informacion
Methodology can be found at https://www.ine.es/metodologia/t37/t3730082.pdf .
On the basis of Regulations 2019/2152 and 2020/1197 of the European Parliament and of the Council, the European Commission (Eurostat) evaluates the quality of the transmitted data and prepares reports on the quality of European statistics. In the case in question, FILEXT is a part of the European O-FATS (Outwards Foreign Affiliates), statistics and Eurostat, with the data provided by each country, prepares an internal quality report that contains quantitative and qualitative information.
Sections 10.7 to 17 of this document are the user-oriented quality report for this operation.
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 statistic is guided by the European Statistics Code of Practice and, in line with this, is essentially focused on:
1. Evaluating and comparing the quality of primary data from the administrative registers of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business and the Bank of Spain.
2. Guaranteeing statistical confidentiality.
3. Clear description of the methodology and annual revision of this.
4. Not adding statistical burden to the respondent units.
5. Comparing the coherence of both raw data for comparison of these with the Central Company Directory (CCD), the EuroGroup Register and the results of the statistic obtained each year. Regarding year-on-year comparisons as well as in the same period, comparing with data from other statistics produced by INE (FILEXT) or by external agencies (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business).
6. Using the definitions and standards that allow for consistency with data from other European statistical institutes.
The fundamental source of improvement is based on the optimisation of the framework of companies with affiliates overseas that is currently based on the Register of Foreign Investments of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business. This administrative register only affects investments made in companies or branches whose equity is greater than 1,502,530.27 Euros and in which the investor's share of the capital or of the total voting rights is equal to or greater than 10%. Results of affiliates from the third level of the ownership chain are also not covered. Thus, the statistical framework should be formed in a way that complements the previous register with data from INE's Central Company Directory (DIRCE) and Eurostat's EuroGroups Register (EGR), whose updating has been improved year on year.
The statistics' strength is the complete coherence with the statistics on Spanish Direct Foreign Investment prepared by the Register of Foreign Investments of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business.
The primary users of this survey are the European Commission and the Spanish economic authorities, with the aim of applying and reviewing the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), and in light of the present and future negotiations of new agreements.
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)
The INE web page at https://www.ine.es/ss/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1259944133654&pagename=MetodologiaYEstandares%2FINELayout&L=0# contains the surveys carried out so far, where it is possible to see the evaluation of the “Industry” sector that frames this statistical operation, which could provide indications on users opinion on it.
The survey complies with the information requirements of the FATS regulation and of the National Statistical Plan in the section of structural information on affiliates for the industrial, trade, construction and non-financial services sectors.
The rate of available obligatory statistical results or the Rate of completeness of the data R1=100%
The statistic makes use of the administrative registers that almost exhaustively cover the total target population of respondents for the most important variables: turnover and number of employees and self-employed persons. However, the existence of a cut-off threshold in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business data requires an estimate to be made of the data from the missing part, through CBC Report, DIRCE and EGR data and, in addition, the quality of the data of the Administrative Registers is variable.
Therefore, there are three main sources of error:
1. Missing or erroneous data in the Register of Foreign Investments.
2. Lack of coverage that especially affects the variable number of enterprises
3. Continuous errors and updates in EGR data.
Not applicable, as since this is a survey that uses administrative registers provided by the Register of Foreign Investments, no sampling is used.
A1=N.A
This is a statistic that is fed by two administrative registers of obligatory compliance for enterprises. One, the Register of Spanish Investment Abroad, dependent on the Directorate General for Trade and Investment of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business. And the other, dependent on the Bank of Spain for the financial companies supervised by it. As these are compulsory administrative registers, there is no over-coverage or non-response rate per unit or item.
A2=A3=A4=A5=N.A
Firstly, regarding Opportunity first results TP1, no provisional results are prepared.
The FATS regulation requires that results be made available within 20 months after the end of the reference period (Year), with t=December of this period. The results are sent to Eurostat before the deadline and are published nationally onTP2=t+21 (before 30th September).
The 2022 reference data (December 2022=t) are published on 25th September 2023.
The time before publication of definitive data: Opportunity final results TP2 = 20 months + 25 days
Punctuality (delay in publication) TP3 = Compliance with INE's release calendar.
The methodological adaptation to the FATS Regulation makes it possible to compare with the other European Union countries that release this same information for their respective sectors. The focus is on overseas affiliates of Spanish parent companies without considering the Autonomous Community in which the parent company is located.
The continuity in the methodology applied since the introduction of this survey allows for comparability over time; the new national classification of economic activities (CNAE-2009) has been used for the data published for the 14 years in which the Statistic has been prepared (2009-2022).
Since the 2021 reference period, and due to the new EBS Regulation, two new variables not previously included (Employee benefits expense, Gross investment in property, plant and equipment) are included.
The number of comparable elements of a time series before its last gap or the length of the comparable time series CC2 = 14 (without taking into account the two new variables, for which CC2=1)
As the source of the data is the Register of Foreign Investments of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business, the data are coherent with operations concerning the position in Spanish Direct Foreign Investment prepared by the General Directorate for Trade and Investments and, more specifically, the Sub-directorate General for International Trade of Services and Investments of the aforementioned Ministry.
Given that the statistic uses the EuroGroups Register, managed by Eurostat, as an auxiliary source of information, the concepts used are harmonised with those used in other Eurostat countries so that the operations of Inward FATS of different EU countries reflect, and thus are coherent, with the data published in the Outward FATS of Spain, and vice versa.
Internal coherence is guaranteed through the application of the quality assurance methodology at every stage of development of the statistic and, especially, in the filtration stage through the use of indicators based on variations of variables and ratios that allow for the detection of atypical values that are analysed in detail, in order to be maintained, corrected or deleted.
There is no additional burden on respondents to provide data, as data is used that was already under the authority of the administration, or that came from much earlier surveys.
The 2024 Annual Programme estimate of the necessary budgetary appropriation to finance this statistic is 57.94 thousand Euros.
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-.
Data are definitive when they are published.
If errors are detected and data must be modified, an explanatory note will be added to the information in order to alert users that the data have been changed. Where possible, users are directly informed of these errors.
Data are published when they are definitive. They could be modified just in case errors are detected in the primary sources of information used.
INE gets the information needed to obtain the results of this statistic from the Register of Foreign Investments of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business.
This Register is formed using model declarations that the General Directorate for International Trade and Investment and, more specifically, the Sub-directorate General for International Trade of Services and Investments compile on overseas investment in Spanish companies and Spanish investment in overseas companies, both regarding flows and position (stock).
Under the Royal Decree on foreign investments (RD 571/2023), in the case of the stock of Spanish investments in overseas companies, Spanish resident investors that make investments in overseas companies whose equity is greater than 1,502,530.27 Euros (or its exchange value in the currency in which this figure is expressed) and in those in which the investor's share of the capital or of the total voting rights is equal to or greater than 10% must present an annual report on the development of the overseas investment in the first nine months of each calendar year (model D-8). This report is also presented for investments in overseas companies whose activity is the share ownership of the capital of other companies, regardless of the investment quantity, in which the investor's share of the capital or of the total voting rights is equal to or greater than 10%. The owners of overseas branches will also present an annual report, regardless of the investment quantity, whose equity is greater than 1,502,530.27 Euros.
In the report, information is obtained on the companies in which the investor has holdings, as well as on the companies in which these companies have holdings. Finally, the third level of the affiliates holdings chain is reached, although less information is collected from this final one.
The Register of Foreign Investments covers operations on the position in Direct Foreign Investment in Spain and Spanish Direct Foreign Investment, which is published annually and appears in the National Statistical Plan (NSP), and also the quarterly and biannual release operations on flows on Direct Foreign Investment in Spain and Spanish Direct Foreign Investment, also present in the NSP.
Statistics on Spanish Investment on Foreign Negotiable Securities and Foreign Investment on Spanish Negotiable Securities, both flows and position, are also obtained from the Register of Foreign Investment.
It must be noted that, even though the data derived from the aforementioned Register of Investments have been considered as the fundamental primary base for generating information, these data have been complemented with information from the CBC-Report from the Tax Agency and the EuroGroups Register in order to obtain definitive investigation results.
It must be borne in mind that the coverage of affiliates derived from the Register of Investments is incomplete regarding the population of affiliates referred to, as, in accordance with current regulation, companies are not required to declare investments made in companies whose equity less than 1,502,530.27 Euros on relevant administrative forms. Results of affiliates from the third level of the holdings chain are also not covered. As a consequence, it has been necessary to carry out an additional estimation process that concerns the activity of these affiliates and from which, through the appropriate adjustment process, the definitive results of the statistic can be obtained.
Data are obtained annually from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business at t+17 months and from the Bank of Spain, at t+18, with t being December of the reference year.
The Register of Foreign Investments of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business is formed using model declarations that the General Directorate for International Trade and Investment and, more specifically, the Sub-directorate General for International Trade of Services and Investments compile on overseas investment in Spanish companies and Spanish investment in overseas companies, both regarding flows and position (stock).
Under the Royal Decree on foreign investments (RD 571/2023), in the case of the stock of Spanish investments in overseas companies, Spanish resident investors that make investments in overseas companies whose equity is greater than 1,502,530.27 Euros (or its exchange value in the currency in which this figure is expressed) and in those in which the investor's share of the capital or of the total voting rights is equal to or greater than 10% must present an annual report on the development of the overseas investment in the first nine months of each calendar year (model D-8). This report is also presented for investments in overseas companies whose activity is the share ownership of the capital of other companies, regardless of the investment quantity, in which the investor's share of the capital or of the total voting rights is equal to or greater than 10%. The owners of overseas branches will also present an annual report, regardless of the investment quantity, whose equity is greater than 1,502,530.27 Euros.
For submission, existing support software can be used for the completion of forms or, in the case of non-telematic submission, preprinted forms should be used.
INE requests a series of model D-8 variables needed to obtain the target variables of the study, and the Ministry sends an XML file with the corresponding data.
Once the Production Unit has received the microdata from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise, in the XML file, information coverage control is carried out in order to guarantee the completeness of the data received, to detect duplicates and coverage errors and, at the same time, to be able to effect the first evaluation of the quality of the variables.
Regarding the Bank of Spain, data are received, starting from the 2021 reference period, through the FIONAS application, in aggregated form in xls file. The application incorporates Eurostat validation checks (formats, codes used, totals equal to the sum of the parts....) in order to detect invalid data.
In both cases, the correction and resending of files is requested from respondents or, if the error is directly identifiable, it is corrected by the promoter unit.
In the initial stage, a content error process is carried out, deleting those affiliates that do not depend on truly Spanish parent companies, duplicates, those that are not controlled (with a percentage lower than 50%), or whose activity is not within the target population of the study. Subsequently, the information is compared and improved with the information provided in the Country-by-Country Report, and with data from the European Group Register. Once this stage is complete, the calculation of elevation factors is carried out to correct the lack of coverage of data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business and to adapt them to the target population and determine estimates of the various variables that were deleted due to the cut-off threshold.
The last stage, before the results are released, is the implementation of coherence controls between the different tables and breakdowns published both year-on-year and in the same year, identifying, in the latter case, the individual enterprises whose additions, deletions and modifications cause changes in the statistic for those data that are identified as atypical.
Measuring the imputation carried out, referring to the process used to assign valid values for inconsistent data that may have appeared in the depuration, gives an imputation rate A7= 2.35%.
Not applicable as it is not necessary to seasonally adjust the data.