June Introduction Relevance of the database Extractions Hits Completeness...6

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1 June Introduction Relevance of the database Extractions Hits Completeness Coverage of the database Geographical level Distribution by domain Frequency of the series Length of the series Timeliness of data Freshness Accuracy of the data Missing values Strange values Clarity of data Metadata situation...20

2 TP TP PT For PT PT Moreover, 1 Introduction The Euro-IND database (now referred to as the European and national short term indicators in the free dissemination data tree) represents the outcome of the Euro-SICS project, launched by Eurostat in The objective of Euro-IND is to provide a comprehensive and detailed portrait of the shortterm economic situation in: the Euro-zone; the European Union; the Member States; and, whenever possible, acceding countries, Norway and main European economic partners. Euro-IND contains monthly and quarterly indicators and provides different breakdowns, such as by sector, product or country. Euro-IND is continuously evolving, with statistical and geographical coverage being kept up-todate to meet user needs. This report provides a global quality assessment of the Euro-IND database, at the end of May The quality of the database is assessed under 5 categories, which have been selected and defined in relation to the available information. The items considered are as follows: 1. Relevance: Extractions 3. Timeliness: Freshness Hits 2. Completeness: Coverage of the base 4. Accuracy: Missing values Geographical level Strange values Distribution by domains Frequency of the series 5. Clarity: Metadata situation Length of series Euro-IND was completely redesigned in The theoretical content of the Euro-IND database grew from a total of 13,208 series by the end of May 2002 to 28,501 series by the end of June Since this first restructuring exercise, more than 19,000 series have been added - these are mainly growth rate series, although a few new indicators were also added. At the end of March 2003, the Euro-IND database underwent a major expansion, with the insertion of data from Norway and the ten new Member States of the European Union, which enlarged in 1 May 2004TP PT. Major changes occurred in the External Trade domain - the BEC classification was introduced, including the breakdown for Member States in levels and growth rates. Series by product SITC are 2 still available, but only for the EUR-12 and EU aggregates.tp the recent introduction of the European Union 25 members aggregate has increased the number of series in this domain. In addition to Euro-IND, a restricted data selection, named Shorties, was created in 2003, in order to generate the predefined tables available on the Euro-Indicators dedicated section and on the Eurostat website homepage. Shorties is a subset of the 1000 tables (see next section). In March 2005, the set of countries not belonging to the European Union was extended to include Bulgaria, Iceland, Romania, Switzerland, and Turkey, and, for the first time, the candidate country Croatia. 1 2 more details see section 3.2 See section 3.2 for an aggregates definition. State of affairs June c

3 2 Relevance of the database Generally, when assessing the relevance of statistics we evaluate how closely the information contained in the Euro-IND database matches user information needs, which necessitates the identification of users and their expectations. However, to quantify the level of relevance, one can also examine how often the data is used; a database that is infrequently consulted would be considered less relevant than one that is frequently consulted. Consequently, this section considers two indicators which measure the frequency of use of the database: the number of extractions and the number of website hits. 2.1 Extractions The Euro-Indicators website, available on line since October 2001, became a dedicated section of the Eurostat website in October Euro-IND is the underlying database for the Euroindicators section on short-term statistics. The total number of extractions is the number of extractions from Euro-IND (belonging to the General Statistics theme of the Eurostat website, referred to as European and national short term indicators in the free dissemination data tree) plus the number of extractions from Shorties 3 (referred to as Short-term indicators in the free dissemination data tree). During the month of May 2005, 8,384 extractions were made from Euro-IND or Shorties. Figure 2-1 shows the evolution of number of extractions per day in a given month. The large increments in the number of extractions from October 2004 onwards are due to the introduction of the free dissemination policy by Eurostat, which makes all data on the Eurostat website available free of charge. Extraction data for April 2005 has been revised. Figures are not adjusted for number of working days or official holidays; this explains the decrease in the number of extractions for December 2004 and the drop off in March 2005, which contained the Christmas and Easter holidays, respectively. The number of extractions per day in May was 270; this number appears to be stabilising. Figure 2-1: Number of monthly extractions per day from the Euro-IND database and Shorties (3). extractions per day Jun-04 Jul-04 Aug-04 Sep-04 Oct-04 Nov-04 Dec-04 Jan-05 Feb-05 Mar-05 Apr-05 May-05 3 Note, that for Shorties, the number of extractions by table view is not available as Shorties are not downloadable in table view mode. Hence, the number of extractions refers to the full download of underneath tables in the corresponding Shorties domain. State of affairs June c

4 Table 2-1 shows the total number of extractions for Shorties plus Euro-IND, with a break-down by domain. Figure 2-2 shows the number of extractions over time from November National Accounts had the highest number of extractions, while Business and Consumer Surveys had the lowest number, in May In almost all domains, the number of extractions from the predefined tables prevails over the number of extractions from the Euro-IND database. The situation changed in May 2005 as a consequence of a redesign of Eurostat homepage, making the 1000 tables, and then Shorties, more accessible. The majority of domains have shown an increase in the number of extractions in May 2005, again this is due to easier access being made to the data. Table 2-1: Number of extractions in May 2005, by domain. Shorties Euro-IND Total Shorties and Euro-IND Balance of Payments Business and Consumer Surveys Consumer Prices ,450 External Trade Industry ,119 Labour Market ,390 Monetary and Financial Indicators National Accounts ,878 TOTAL 4,346 4,038 8,384 Figure 2-2: Evolution of the Number of monthly extractions from the Euro-IND database and Shorties, by domain. number of monthly extractions from Shorties and Euro-IND 1,900 1,700 1,500 1,300 1, Nov-04 Dec-04 Jan-05 Feb-05 Mar-05 Apr-05 May-05 Balance of Payments Business & Cons Surveys Consumer Prices External Trade Industry Labour Market Monetary & Fin. Indicators National Accounts State of affairs June c

5 2.2 Hits The number of hits registered for the Euro-Indicators dedicated section, as a whole, is currently not available; the possibilities offered by the technology underlying the new site are under analysis in order to develop a more detailed indicator for the relevance of the database. Euroindicators dedicated section: all data online, longer time series and breakdowns by country and all free of charge! Eurostat realized free dissemination of data on the first of October 2004, as planned. These efforts date back to the years 2001/2002 and are the foundation for the project 1000 tables. The 1000 tables project aims to provide a friendly way to consult the most important economic and social indicators online. The section on 1000 tables of the Euro-Indicators dedicated section (called Shorties) contains 316 tables. In January 2004, the number of hits on short term indicators done via 1000 tables amounted to 35, October 2004 shows a large decrease in this number, due to the raw series, that are used to produce the tables, being made available free of charge. Data for April 2005 was revised. The number of hits in May 2005 was 25,248, which gives 814 hits per day. The increment in May 2005 is a consequence of a redesign of the Eurostat homepage, providing easier access to the 1000 tables. Figure 2-3 shows the evolution over time of the number of hits per day on Shorties tables. Figure 2-3: Number of hits per day on short term indicators done via 1000 Tables. number of hits per day 2,000 1,800 1,600 1,400 1,200 1, (1) May-04 Jun-04 Jul-04 Aug-04 Sep-04 Oct-04 Nov-04 Dec-04 Jan-05 Feb-05 Mar-05 Apr-05 May-05 (1): data for April has been revised 4 The 1000 Tables started on the 8 th January. To make the number of hits in January comparable with other months, the number of hits in January 2004 have been scaled by a factor of 31/24. State of affairs June c

6 6P P March 3 Completeness When assessing the completeness of the database we assume that the choice of domains reflects the needs and the priorities expressed by the users. Five elements have been selected to assess the completeness of Euro-IND: coverage of the database, geographical level, distribution by domain, frequency of the series and length of the series. 3.1 Coverage of the database Concerning the coverage of the Euro-IND database, as a benchmark, we consider the theoretical content of Euro-IND, as defined in the classification plan approved by the Editorial Committee on th 2001, which (as mentioned in the introduction) has been successively modified to meet user needs. The necessary additional series are added under the approval of Eurostat Unit B1 and changes are transmitted to the Editorial Committee. We associate a status with each series: we call a series active when it was updated at least once during the last 12 months; we call it inactive if it has not been updated for a long time : 6 months for a monthly series, one year for a quarterly series, and two years for an annual series. A series will be in a stopped status if it is no longer available; for example, the M1 money supply indicator is no longer available for Euro-zone countries. Finally a series will be considered missing if does not contain any values; for instance, France does not yet compute a New Orders Index, Luxembourg does not compute Quarterly National Accounts, etc. Table 3-1 shows the distribution of series in the Euro-IND database by status (as defined above) and domain. By the end of May 2005 the Euro-IND database contained 62,377 national and European series: 39,623 are Uactive seriesu divided into 8 collections (or domains), 29 tables (or sub-domains) and various geographical levels. 6,018 series are UinactiveU. 58 series have been UstoppedU. Note that all stopped series can be found in the Monetary and Financial Indicators domain or in the Industry, Commerce and Services domain. 16,678 are Umissing seriesu. Note that due the introduction of the European Union 25 Members aggregate in the External Trade domain, the number of missing series and the total number of series has increased. State of affairs June c

7 Table 3-1: Total number of series in the Euro-IND database, by status and domain. Active Inactive Stopped Missing Total Balance of Payments Current account Financial account Business & Cons. Surv. 2, ,566 Construction Consumers Industry 1, ,188 Retail sale Sentiment indicators Services Consumer Prices 2, ,178 Harmonised indices 2, ,178 External Trade 18,415 4, ,804 29,862 External trade BEC classification 1, ,079 3,402 External trade SITC products 17,400 4, ,725 26,460 Industry, Comm. and Serv. 6, ,708 10,010 Construction Energy Industry 4, ,417 7,858 Other statistics Retail trade Labour Market 1, ,652 Conventional earnings Harm. unemployment Harm. unemployment rates Labour cost ,512 Monetary & Fin. Indicators Exchange rates Financial aggregates Interest rates Monetary aggregates National Accounts 6, ,218 12,662 Aggregates by industry 2, ,335 5,306 Government accounts Income aggregates ,440 Main aggregates 3, ,999 5,220 Price and cost indices TOTAL 39,623 6, ,678 62, State of affairs June c

8 Figure 3-1 shows the percentage of the total number of series used that are active, inactive, stopped and missing, and the number of available series in the last 12 months, for the Euro-IND database as a whole. 73.2% of Euro-IND series are available (active + inactive + stopped series): 63.5% are active, 9.6% are inactive, and 0.1% has been stopped. 26.7% of series are missing from the Euro- IND database, which is mostly due to the structure of the database and to the introduction of the European Union - 25 Members aggregate. Figure 3-1: Repartition of all series in the Euro-IND database by status. Euro-IND total Total series by status (as a%) Evolution of available series * Inactive 9.6% Stopped 0.1% 48,000 44,000 42,775 45, ,691 42,836 43,322 42,936 43,017 Missing 26.7% 40,000 36,000 32,000 29,525 29,729 29,654 29,703 Active 63.5% 28,000 24,000 Jun-04 Jul-04 Aug-04 Sep-04 Oct-04 Nov-04 Dec-04 Jan-05 Feb-05 Mar-05 Apr-05 May-05 * available = active+ inactive + stopped series. Figure 3-2 shows the percentage of the total number of Euro-zone (EUR + EUR-12 aggregates) series used that are active, inactive, stopped and missing, and the number of available Euro-zone series in the last 12 months, which is a subset of the series held in the Euro-IND database. 2,253 (59%) Euro-zone series were available on the site, at the end of May ,051 (53.7%) series are active; 202 (5.3%) are inactive; and none of the series have been stopped; the remaining 1,564 (41%) are missing. The small difference in May 2005 is due to a technical problem, which is currently being investigated. Figure 3-2: Repartition of Euro-zone series in the Euro-IND database by status. Euro-zone Total series by status (as a%) Evolution of available series * 2,280 2,257 2,257 2,253 Inactive 5.3% Missing 41.0% 2,220 2,190 2,191 2,194 2,191 2,181 2,181 2,178 2,181 2,181 Stopped 0.0% 2,160 Active 53.7% 2,100 Jun-04 Jul-04 Aug-04 Sep-04 Oct-04 Nov-04 Dec-04 Jan-05 Feb-05 Mar-05 Apr-05 May-05 * available = active+ inactive + stopped series. State of affairs June c

9 Figure 3-3 shows the series status, in percentage terms, within each domain. The domains Consumer Prices, Balance of Payments, Monetary and Financial Indicators and Business and Consumer Surveys, have a high percentage of active series. The lowest percentage of active series was recorded in the National Accounts domain (53.4%), followed by Industry, Commerce and Services (60.6%). Figure 3-3: Series in the Euro-IND database by actual status, in percent. 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Balance of Paym. Busi ness & Cons Surv. Cons. Prices External Trade Industry, Comm. & Serv. Labour M arket Monetary & Fin. Ind. National Acc. TOTAL Active 96.3% 83.7% 100.0% 61.7% 60.6% 70.2% 89.9% 53.4% 63.5% Inactive 3.7% 1.3% 0.0% 15.5% 2.3% 14.3% 2.1% 5.3% 9.6% Stopped 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 8.0% 0.0% 0.1% M issing 0.0% 15.1% 0.0% 23% 37.0% 15.5% 0.0% 41.2% 26.7% 3.2 Geographical level Due to the inclusion of the EU25 aggregate and of other candidate countries in the last months, the total number of geographical entities (countries and groups of countries) covered by Euro-IND has risen to 41, which are: 5 European aggregates: EUR, Euro-zone12 (EUR-12); European Union - 15 member states (EU15); European Union - 25 member states (EU25); and European Union (EU). The EU aggregate is used only in the Consumer Prices and Industry, and Commerce and Services domains; it is an evolving geographical aggregate including at each time t, the current number of states in the European Union. The EUR aggregate consists of the 11 countries first participating in the Euro-zone and also includes Greece starting from January The EUR- 12 aggregate refers to all 12 countries in the Euro-zone, including Greece. Note that if not explicitly indicated, when we talk about Euro-zone we refer to the sum of series from EUR and EUR-12. the 25 Members of the European Union: Belgium (BE), Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Greece (EL), Spain (ES), France (FR), Ireland (IE), Italy (IT), Cyprus (CY), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Hungary (HU), Malta (MT), Netherlands (NL), Austria (AT), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Slovenia (SI), Slovakia (SK), Finland (FI), Sweden (SE), and the United Kingdom (UK); 9 other countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Turkey, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Japan and the United States; 2 other specific country groups: BLEU and EURONEXT. It should be noted that: BLEU, Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union, is a group specific to the domains Balance of Payments; State of affairs June c

10 EURONEXT is a group of countries consisting of BE, FR, NL and PT, who are jointly producing a stock-market indicator, used in the Monetary and Financial Indicators domain. Table 3-2 provides a detailed breakdown of the number of series in the Euro-IND database by status and geographical entity. The Euro-zone12, EU-15 and EU-25 groups have nearly 3,000 series, with between 1,373 and 1,568 series available, and between 1,211 and 1,374 active series. Each EU Member State has more then 1,000 series available, with between 1,027 and 1,853 series available, and between 766 and 1,746 active series. France and Germany have the highest number of active series, with more than 1,600 active series each. Malta has the lowest number of active series, with 766 active series. The majority of Member States has more than 1,300 active series. Table 3-2: Number of total series in Euro-IND, by status and geographical entity. Other Countries Member States European Aggregates Active Inactive Stopped Missing Available Total Euro-zone (EUR) Euro-zone12 (EUR-12) 1, ,411 1,568 2,979 European Union (15 Members) 1, ,636 1,421 3,057 European Union (25 Members) 1, ,689 1,373 3,062 European Union BLEU EURONEXT Belgium 1, ,806 1,938 Czech Republic 1, ,413 1,939 Denmark 1, ,807 1,947 Germany 1, ,833 1,938 Estonia 1, ,311 1,923 Greece 1, ,344 1,799 Spain 1, ,786 1,938 France 1, ,853 1,938 Ireland 1, ,622 1,929 Italy 1, ,726 1,932 Cyprus ,232 1,887 Latvia 1, ,231 1,922 Lithuania 1, ,461 1,927 Luxembourg 1, ,610 1,912 Hungary 1, ,401 1,939 Malta ,027 1,693 Netherlands 1, ,765 1,938 Austria 1, ,790 1,936 Poland 1, ,285 1,937 Portugal 1, ,577 1,930 Slovenia 1, ,354 1,937 Slovakia 1, ,369 1,932 Finland 1, ,772 1,938 Sweden 1, ,642 1,935 United Kingdom 1, ,702 1,947 Bulgaria Croatia Romania Turkey Iceland Norway Switzerland Japan USA TOTAL 39,623 6, ,678 45,699 62,377 State of affairs June c

11 3.3 Distribution by domain Currently, the database is divided into 8 domains and 29 sub-domains. In considering the breakdown of the series by domain, we take into account the number of available series, i.e. the sum of active, non-active and stopped series. Table 3-3 shows the number of available series in the Euro- IND database, by domain, for different geographical entities. The table is divided into three sections: European aggregates, Member States, and Other Countries. The table shows that in certain domains, such as Balance of Payments and Consumer Prices, the number of series in Member States is constant, while in others, such as National Accounts, the number of available series varies more by country, ranging from 68 for the Netherlands to 343 for Austria, Denmark, and Italy. Table 3-3: Number of available series in Euro-IND, by domain and geographical entity. European Aggregates Member States Other Countries Balance of Payments Business & Cons. Surv. Cons. Prices External Trade Industry, Comm. & Serv. Labour Market Monetary & Fin. Ind. National Accounts Euro-zone (EUR) Euro-zone12 (EUR-12) ,568 European Union (15 Members) ,421 European Union (25 Members) ,373 European Union BLEU EURONEXT Belgium ,806 Czech Republic ,413 Denmark ,807 Germany ,833 Estonia ,311 Greece ,344 Spain ,786 France ,853 Ireland ,622 Italy ,726 Cyprus ,232 Latvia ,231 Lithuania ,461 Luxembourg ,610 Hungary ,401 Malta ,027 Netherlands ,765 Austria ,790 Poland ,285 Portugal ,577 Slovenia ,354 Slovakia ,369 Finland ,772 Sweden ,642 United Kingdom ,702 Bulgaria Croatia Romania Turkey Iceland Norway Switzerland Japan USA Total TOTAL 722 3,029 2,178 23,058 6,302 2, ,444 45,699 State of affairs June c

12 Figure 3-4 shows the percentage of available series in the Euro-IND database, by domain. The External Trade domain supplies the great majority of the available series in Euro-IND (50.5%); the high number of series is essentially due to the further breakdown by commercial partner. National Accounts (16.3%) and Industry, Commerce and Services (13.8%) domains follow: together these two domains provide 31.1% of the available series in Euro-IND. When considering only series for the Euro-zone, the same domains still supply the largest shares and External Trade again provides the majority of the series (37.2%). National Accounts (24.7%) and Industry, Commerce and Services (18.7%) also have an important contribution. Figure 3-4: Percentage of available series in the Euro-IND database, by domain. Total series avaliable in Euro-IND Avaliable series Euro-zone 4.8% 6.6% 1.5% 16.3% National Accounts Monetary & Fin. Ind. 5.9% 5.9% 0.6% 24.7% 1.6% Labour Market 4.9% Industry, Comm. & Serv. External Trade 1.8% 13.8% Cons. Prices Business & Cons. Surv. 37.2% 5.3% 50.5% Balance of Payments 18.7% 3.4 Frequency of the series Table 3-4 shows the available (active + inactive + stopped) series, by periodicity and domain, where the percentages express the ratio between the number of series by periodicity and the domain total. 33,600 (73.5%) of the available series in the Euro-IND database are presented on a monthly basis and 11,804 (25.8%) of the available series are presented on a quarterly basis. 295 series (0.6%) are annual, and are all in the National Accounts domain 5. Table 3-4: Available series in the Euro-IND database, by frequency and domain. Yearly Quarterly Monthly Total N % (1) N % (1) N % (1) N Balance of Paym % % % 722 Business Cons Surv % % 2, % 3,029 Cons. Prices 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 2, % 2,178 External Trade 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 23, % 23,058 Industry 0 0.0% % 4, % 6,302 Labour Market 0 0.0% % 1, % 2,241 Monetary Fin. Ind % 0 0.0% % 725 National Acc % 7, % 0 0.0% 7,444 TOTAL % 11, % 33, % 45,699 (1) percentages express the ratio with the total number of series in the domain 5 Rounding to one decimal place may mean percentage figures do not some to the whole exactly State of affairs June c

13 Table 3-5 shows the distribution of quarterly and monthly available series by domain and subdomain. There were 45,404 monthly and quarterly series for May The table shows the proportions of monthly and quarterly series for every domain; from March 2005 an increment was registered in the Business and Consumer Surveys domain, due to the introduction of new surveys concerning factors limiting the production. Table 3-5: Distribution of available series in the Euro-IND database, by frequency and domain. Quarterly Monthly Quarterly Monthly N % (1) N % (1) N % (1) N % (1) Balance of Payments Labour market 1, , Current account Conventional earnings Financial account Harm. unemployment Harm. unempl. rates Business & Cons. Surv , Labour cost 1, Construction Consumers Monetary & fin. indic Industry Exchange rates Retail sale Financial aggregates Sentiment indicators Interest rates Services Monetary aggregates Consumer Prices , National accounts 7, Harmonised indices , Aggregates by industry 2, Government accounts External Trade , Income aggregates External trade BEC class , Main aggregates 3, External trade SITC prod , Price and cost indices Industry, Comm. & Serv. 1, , Construction Energy Industry 1, , Other statistics Retail trade TOTAL (1) (2) 11, , (1) Percentages express the ratio with the total number of quarterly or monthly series 3.5 Length of the series Eurostat aims to provide indicator series that span more than 15 years, so that the data cover at least two complete economic cycles. In this part of the report only active series will be considered. Figure 3-5 shows the distribution of the active series in Euro-IND by length and domain, for the Euro-zone, the European Union and the EU Member States. Similar information is presented in Table 3-6. The table has been split into two groups: European aggregates and EU Member States on the top and other countries on the bottom. Domain percentages are expressed as the proportion of the total number of series by periodicity; percentages in the total lines are expressed as a proportion of the total number of series for the relevant group. The length of the active series in the whole Euro-IND database varies substantially from one domain to another. In particular, 50% of the domain External Trade, 45.9% of the domain Industry, Commerce and Services, and 42.5% of the domain Labour Market contain series that are shorter than 10 years in length. 47.9% of the Business and Consumer Surveys domain and 47.3% of the National Accounts domain have series with more than 15 years of observations. State of affairs June c

14 Table 3-7 presents the active series by length and geographical entity. Percentages are expressed as the proportion of the total number of series per geographical entity. At the end of May 2005, 35.3% of the active series of the database cover 15 years or more, and 60.1% cover at least 10 years. Focusing on the Euro-zone, 39.4% cover 15 years or more while 92.5% cover at least 10 years. In order to increase the length of the series, backward recalculation of Euro-zone data has become a priority for Eurostat. Figure 3-5: Distribution of active series in the Euro-IND database, by length and domain. NA Euro-zone (EUR + EUR-12) European Union (EU15+EU25+EU) EU Member States MF LM IS ET CP BS BP 0% 50% 100% 0% 50% 100% 0% 50% 100% < 5 years 5 to 10 years 10 to 15 years > 15 years Table 3-6: Distribution of active series in the Euro-IND database, by length and domain for European aggregates and EU Member States, and Other countries. Less than 5 years 5 to 10 years 10 to 15 years More than 15 years N % (1) N % (1) N % (1) N % (1) European aggregates and EU Member States Balance of Payments Business and Consumer Surveys , Consumer Prices External Trade 2, , , , Industry, Commerce and Services , , , Labour Market Monetary and Financial Indicators National Accounts , , TOTAL 3, , , , Other Countries Balance of Payments Consumer Prices Industry, Commerce and Services Labour Market Monetary and Financial Indicators National Accounts TOTAL (1) Domain percentages express the ratio with the total number of series by periodicity, percentages in the TOTAL lines express the ration with the total number of series State of affairs June c

15 Table 3-7: Active series in the Euro-IND database, by length and geographical entity. Less than 5 years 5 to 10 years 10 to 15 years More than 15 years N % (1) N % (1) N % (1) N % (1) Member States European Aggregates Other Countries Euro-zone (EUR) Euro-zone12 (EUR-12) European Union (15 Members) European Union (25 Members) European Union EURONEXT Belgium Czech Republic Denmark Germany Estonia Greece Spain France Ireland Italy Cyprus Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Hungary Malta Netherlands Austria Poland Portugal Slovenia Slovakia Finland Sweden United Kingdom Bulgaria Croatia Romania Turkey Iceland Norway Switzerland Japan USA TOTAL 3, , , , State of affairs June c

16 4 Timeliness of data The current principles of computer management applied to the Euro-IND database make it difficult to have accurate information on the timeliness of data. To take account of the national release calendars, under the existing legal acts, other indicators are under construction and will be presented in future releases of this report. To assess the timeliness of data two criteria are considered: 1. Punctuality - the delay between the announced and actual publication date; 2. Freshness - the delay between the date the user consults the database and the reference period of the most up-to-date data. The punctuality of data applies to two important dates: the publication date of the series, at national or European level; the date of loading data into the Euro-IND database. The publication date does not appear in the Euro-IND database but can be gathered from the publication calendars of the different Member States. In order to define the match with the first date, the easiest way will probably be through a dynamic link with the national release calendars. The loading date is also not available for the Euro-IND database and only the latest update of the domain is known. 4.1 Freshness The freshness of data is defined as the number of days between the date of the last value available in one series and the date at which the database was checked. Although freshness has been expressed in number of days, it should be noted that we consider series with different periodicity. Consequently, freshness does not truly reflect the timeliness of the data. However, it does give some indication for pointing out the main problems in the series. It is therefore used as a proxy for timeliness. In order to have a more accurate picture of freshness, it is useful to distinguish between series with different periodicity, as well as looking at the series overall. Table 4-1 shows the freshness of active and inactive series in the Euro-IND database, considering number of days. Percentages are expressed as the proportion of the total number of yearly, quarterly, or monthly series respectively. At the end of May 2005, 37.9% of the total series recorded a delay of less than 90 days, 45.6% a delay between 90 and 180 days and the remaining 16.4% a delay of more than 180 days. 42.9% of monthly series recorded a delay of less than 90 days and 35.4% of monthly series recorded a delay of less than 30 days. A large majority of quarterly series (87.1%) recorded a delay of less than 180 days which represents a lag of between 1 and 2 periods. Table 4-2 shows the freshness of quarterly and monthly active and inactive series in the Euro-IND database by frequency and domain, in number of days. Table 4-3 shows some statistics on freshness of active and inactive series in the Euro-IND database, by frequency and domain, in number of days. Note that the 0 values are a consequence of the nature of indicators in Euro-IND; for example the domains Consumer Prices, External Trade and State of affairs June c

17 Monetary and Financial Indicators contain only monthly indicators. For the same reason some domains are not present in Table 4-2. High values in Table 4-3 are related to the presence of inactive series, while constant values, such as for Consumer Prices, reveal a regular updating. Table 4-1: Freshness of active and inactive series in the Euro-IND database, by periodicity. < 30 days 30 to < 60 days 60 to < 90 days 90 to < 180 days 180 to < 365 days days SUBTOTAL N % (1) N % (1) N % (1) N % (1) N % (1) N % (1) N Yearly Quarterly 2, , , ,024 Monthly 9, , , , ,347 TOTAL 12, , , , , ,558 (1) Percentages express the ratio with the total number of series by periodicity Table 4-2: Freshness of active and inactive series in the Euro-IND database by frequency and domain. < 30 days 30 to < 60 days 60 to < 90 days 90 to < 180 days 180 to < 365 days > 365 days N % (1) N % (1) N % (1) N % (1) N % (1) N % (1) Balance of Payments Business and Consumer Surv Industry, Commerce and Serv Labour Market National Accounts , TOTAL , , N % (1) N % (1) N % (1) N % (1) N % (1) N % (1) Balance of Payments Business and Consumer Surv Consumer Prices External Trade 6, , , , Industry, Commerce and Serv. 2, Labour Market Monetary and Financial Ind TOTAL 9, , , , (1) percentages express the ratio with the total number of series in the domain Quarterly Monthly Table 4-3: Freshness statistics of active and inactive series in the Euro-IND database, by number of days. Yearly Quarterly Monthly Mean Median Max Min Mean Median Max Min Mean Median Max Min Balance of Payments , Business and Consumer Surveys , Consumer Prices External Trade , Industry, Commerce and Services , , Labour Market , , Monetary and Financial Indicators , National Accounts , TOTAL , , State of affairs June c

18 5 Accuracy of the data Measures of accuracy focus on two main elements: the number of missing values and the number of strange values in the series. Some new indicators are under construction: number of outliers, revision analysis, importance of the irregular component in the series, etc. They will be presented in future releases of the State of Affairs. 5.1 Missing values Table 5-1 shows the distribution of series with missing values by domain. During May 2005, missing values were present in only 641 (1.4%) of the total available series. 276 series have more than 10 missing values, 125 series have between 2 and 10 missing values and 240 series have only 1 missing value. Table 5-2 shows the distribution of series with missing values, by geographical entity. The table is divided into three sections: European aggregates, Member States and Other Countries. Series of the European Union aggregate do not have missing values and the number of missing values is zero or very small for all European Aggregates. The percentage of series with missing values is not greater then 1.2% for the majority of the Member States. Table 5-1: Distribution of series with missing values in the Euro-IND database, by domain. Series without missing values Series with missing values 1 2 to 10 over 10 N % (1) N % (1) N N N Balance of Payments Business and Cons. Surv. 2, Consumer Prices 2, External Trade 22, Industry, Comm. and Serv. 6, Labour Market 2, Monetary and Fin. Ind National Accounts 7, TOTAL 45, (1) percentages express the ratio with the total number of series in the domain State of affairs June c

19 Table 5-2: Distribution of series with missing values in Euro-IND, by geographical entity. Series without missing values Series with missing values 1 2 to 10 over 10 N % N % N Member States European Aggregates Euro-zone (EUR) Euro-zone12 (EUR-12) 1, European Union (15 Members) 1, European Union (25 Members) 1, European Union BLEU EURONEXT Belgium 1, Czech Republic 1, Denmark 1, Germany 1, Estonia 1, Greece 1, Spain 1, France 1, Ireland 1, Italy 1, Cyprus 1, Latvia 1, Lithuania 1, Luxembourg 1, Hungary 1, Malta 1, Netherlands 1, Austria 1, Poland 1, Portugal 1, Slovenia 1, Slovakia 1, Finland 1, Sweden 1, United Kingdom 1, Bulgaria Croatia Other Countries Romania Turkey Iceland Norway Switzerland Japan USA TOTAL 45, State of affairs June c

20 5.2 Strange values In a time series concerning quantitative economic results the values 0 and 1 are usually very rare. When they are observed, and if they appear repeatedly, they can be considered as strange and usually reflect a problem in the series. In the Euro-IND database, the phenomenon of strange values is of minor importance as only 3% of total available series show more than 10 strange values; 5.1% of the series records between 5 and 10 strange values and the remaining series (91.9%) have less than 5 strange values. Table 5-3 shows the distribution of series with strange values in the Euro-IND database, by domain. We consider 0 or 1 values as strange, with the exception of Business and Consumer Surveys and those series which are expressed in growth rates and rates, since 0 or 1 are quite normal values for this kind of data. Table 5-3: Distribution of the series with strange values in the Euro-IND database, by domain. < 5 5 to 10 over 10 TOTAL N % N % N % N % Balance of Payments Business and Cons. Surv. 2, , Consumer Prices 1, , External Trade 21, , , Industry, Comm. and Serv. 5, , Labour Market 2, , Monetary and Fin. Ind National Accounts 7, , TOTAL 42, , , , Clarity of data Dissemination is a vital step in the information chain. Data has to be made available to all potential users in an appropriate form. As an indication of the clarity of data in the Euro-IND database we consider the availability of metadata, which accompanies statistics with the necessary information on concepts and methods. 6.1 Metadata situation Metadata, as well as the statistics, are always evolving and subject to improvements and modifications. Table 6-1 provides the dates for when metadata was last updated. At present, only the state of affairs for the European Union and the Euro-zone is available and illustrated in the table. It is an objective to make national metadata available in the Euro-Indicators section. The work has started with the mapping of the National Accounts, Balance of Payments and Industrial Production Index. State of affairs June c

21 Table 6-1: Metadata. DOMAIN / Collection / Table Base page updated Methodology Updated by Table EUROINDICATORS 03/11/2004 Balance of Payments 09/02/ /02/2005 Business and Consumer Surveys 02/03/ /09/2004 Consumer Prices Harmonised indices of Consumer Prices (HICPs) 10/03/ /03/2005 External Trade 21/03/ /03/2005 Industry, Commerce, Services and Energy 19/01/2005 Industrial Production Index 19/01/2005 Industrial Turnover Index 19/01/2005 New Orders Received in Industry Indices 19/01/2005 Industrial Output Price Indices 19/01/2005 Construction Production Indices 19/01/2005 Construction New Orders Received Indices 19/01/2005 Construction Cost Indices(Input Price Indices) New Residential Buildings 19/01/2005 Building Permits Indices 19/01/2005 Retail Trade Turnover Index 19/01/2005 Other Services Turnover Index 19/01/2005 Number of persons Employed Index 19/01/2005 Hours Worked Index 19/01/2005 Gross Wages and Salaries 19/01/2005 Number of New Car Registrations Index 06/07/2004 Labour Market 03/11/2004 Harmonised Unemployment - Monthly data 04//2005 Labour cost index - Quarterly data 02/2005 Monetary and Financial Indicators 01/05/ Month interest rates 14/11/2003 Central bank interest rates 14/11/2003 Day-to-day money market interest rates 14/11/2003 Nominal and real effective exchange rates 14/11/2003 Euro bond yields 14/11/2003 Exchange rates against the euro 14/11/2003 Foreign official reserves including gold 14/11/2003 Loans to residents by monetary financial institutions 14/11/2003 Long-term interest rates 01/05/2004 Money supply 14/11/2003 Share price indices 14/11/2003 Stock market capitalization 14/11/2003 National Accounts 03/11/2004 State of affairs June c