WTO, Geneva (Switzerland)

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Compilation of International Trade-in- Services
Statistics in Spain ITRS vs. Enterprise Survey

• José A. Isanta
• Head of Unit (ITS Survey)
• e-mail jaisanta_at_ine.es
• Business Statistics Directorate

www.ine.es
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Institutional set-up. General description of the
BoP/ITS collection system

• Banco de España (BE) is responsible for compiling
  and disseminating BoP statistics in Spain
• BoP statistics are mainly based on ITRS and some
  direct reporting
• BoP item Other Services is currently estimated by
  ITRS. Future INEs ITS Survey??
• The ITS survey was jointly designed by INE and BE
  in 2004-2005 as a precaution against ITRS
  probable expiration in the future

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Institutional agreement INE-BE to estimate
BoP-Other Services with a survey

• -Gentlemens agreement to be formalised in near
  future when survey reliability is verified
• -The survey is included in the National
  Statistical Plan and is fully financed by INE
• -INE sends surveys micro and macro data to BE to
  be compared to those obtained by ITRS
• -Survey results (levels) are not disseminated by
  INE, only indices and yearly variation rates

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INE-BE responsibilities for the survey

• INE is responsible for,
• - Building maintaining business registers
• - Design, programming printing all
  questionnaires
• - Sampling design
• - Fieldwork organisation
• - Training staff
• - Edition and imputation procs.
• - Grossing-up
• - Final Tabulations
• - Methods, studies and analysis (eg response
  comparison, geographic breakdown)

• BE is responsible for,
• - Design questionnaires with INE
• - Sending quarterly ITRS reporters/figures on
  foreign receipts payments (Other Services) to
  INE
• - Design the Surveys Collection and Methods
  Manual with INE
• - Participate in training courses to INEs
  fieldwork statisticians
• - Methods, studies and analysis (eg microdata
  comparison)

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The Survey

• Aim
• Value of imports and exports of services by
  residents of Spain vis-à-vis non-
  residents.Travel and transactions through
  commercial presence are outside the scope of the
  survey
• Scope
• Population Resident institutional units
  (enterprises or other organisations).
• Time scope (fequency of reporting) the calendar
  quarter

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Sampling Design(introduction)

• -Lack of an administrative register or another
  source to play the role of a single population
  frame to select a representative sample.
• -The information of reporters on foreign receipts
  and payments of Other services (ITRS) is a good
  starting point.
• - Additionally, it was decided to use other
  populations coming from different Spanish
  institutions.

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Sampling Design(Sub-populations SPs and Frames
Fs)
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Sampling Design(Sampling procedure)

• -Sampling technique A classical stratified
  random sampling procedure on each frame with
  equal probability of selection, but selecting
  more of the sample in those strata with a higher
  number of enterprises trading in services with
  non-residents according to BE data.
• -Stratification variables principal economic
  activity at the 2-digit level of NACE rev.1 and
  enterprise size measured in number of employees
  (size intervals). Geographical dimension has not
  so far been used when stratifying

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Sample size and rates 2005 vs. 2010
2005 N n n/N ()
BE 4,126 4,126 100
TA.1 12,094 1,581 13.07
TA.2 9,370 1,102 11.76
INE 146,402 3,495 2.39
TOTAL 171,992 10,304 6
2010 N n n/N () Strata
BE 5,193 5,193 100 40
TA.1 14,773 1,453 9.84 54
TA.2 13,306 982 7.38 55
INE 161,452 2,987 1.85 147
TOTAL 194,724 10,615 5.45 296
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Questionnaire

• Filter question Did you export or import
  services during the reference quarter ? Yes/No
• Two main tables
• - Services Filter Table to help respondents tick
  the correct services box
• Table to register import/export values and
  counterpart country for the services previously
  ticked
• Questionnaire formats
• -Paper, electronic (e-questionnaire), website and
  XML-web

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Questionnaire (Services filter table)
51 EBOPS sub-items
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Questionnaire (exports/imports table)
Exchange rate quarterly average or Monthly
average, last day of the quarter, last day of the
month, transaction day, others
Literal description of the ITS transaction accordi
ng to the respondent
Counterpart country
Monetary value in for each transaction
Service code according to previous Table Filter
table
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Other Services Exports (ITRS vs. Survey)
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Other Services Imports (ITRS vs. Survey)
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BoP-Other Services (ITRS) vs. ITS
(Survey)(Comparison by type of service)
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Strengths and weaknesses of the ITS collection
systems

• Survey strengths
• -Flexibility
• -Accrual accounting principle
• -Gross values
• -Improves services classification
• Survey weaknesses
• - Sampling error
• - Incomplete reports
• -Manuals definitions may not be directly
  transferred to questionnaires

• ITRS strengths
• - Census of foreign receipts and payments on
  services transactions over threshold (50,000 EUR)
• ITRS weaknesses
• - Threshold increases
• - EC and ECB Regulations on statistics and
  finance
• - Integration of bank settlements and
  netting/clearing settlements
• -Cash accounting principle

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Survey Response Rates
Conclusion More than 50 of surveyed units do
not report exports or imports in the
questionnaire. Do all null reporters cheat or
dont they really trade services at international
level ?
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Matching units response rates
Conclusion More than 20 of total matching units
are null reporters under suspicion. This rate for
stable units reaches 18 (very high !!)
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BoP-Other Services (ITRS) vs. ITS
(Survey)(Matching units analysis)
Conclusions Due to cheats or lack of
understanding the survey supposedly misses more
than 8 of total BoP-Other services exports and
imports. In the case of stable units it reaches
10
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BoP-Other Services (ITRS) vs. ITS
(Survey)(Non-matching units analysis)
Conclusions 1.Survey should include more ITRS
reporters in the sample and 2. ITRS is missing
some reporters captured randomly by the survey
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Economic crisis and threshold raise effects on
ITRS
Note Reporting threshold up to 50,000 EUR came
into effect in 2008 (Spain). In 2007, around 60
of reporters reported transaction values below
50,000 EUR
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High degree of concentration
Conclusion On average, more than 3000 reporters
were necessary in 1999-2002 to cover 80 of both
exports and imports of services. In 2009 only
1245 reporters. Problem Reporters volatility
(10 decrease of receipts payments between 2008
and 2009)
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Whats next.

• - Regulation EC 924/2009 related to border
  payments in the Community and SEPA (ITRS
  expiration by law ??).
• -Joint decision BE-INE about the surveys future
• Sampling re-design, incorporating most of
  ITRS reporters into the sample?
• Due to the high degree of concentration just
  have an Annual ITS Survey and a Quarterly ITS
  Survey able to capture 80 of total exports and
  imports (UK model).
• Study Directives 2008/8/CE and 2008/9/CE
  related to the place of services provision and
  VAT returns
• -Adoption of NACE 2009, 6BPM, MSITS and EBOPS
  2010.
• -

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Thank you for your attentionFor further
contactjaisanta_at_ine.es
Do we have the right numbers? No, we probably
dont, but we are getting closer and closer