Future of Services

3 Trends in Business Statistics: The Challenge of Covering Services Better (p. 49-50)

Manfred Schmiemann

3.1 Abstract

The efforts of the European Statistical System to capture the real picture of the market economy are significant. They encompass both statistical development projects to detect and analyze newly emerging trends, such as the growth of the services sector, as well as the provision of up-to-date legal bases for official statistics. A range of development projects that help reflect a more accurate image of the services sector is described. They include measures relating to business demography, entrepreneurship, the demand for services and the analysis of the business services sector.

3.2 Introduction

The European Statistical System (ESS) combines National Statistical Institutes of EU Member States, candidate countries and associated countries and the European Union’s own statistical arm, Eurostat. It guarantees the delivery of comparable, coherent and relevant statistics that can be used both to gauge existing policies and in helping to shape future political and economical tools. For the purposes of analysing the economy, statistics obtained from businesses (or, more precisely, from "enterprises" as the statistical unit) are the key to keeping track of the output of the market economy and to establishing National Accounts.

The economy undergoes changes that need to be taken into account. Acknowledging the growth of output and productivity in the services sector, Eurostat has developed a detailed strategy to better explore this sector2 and to adapt existing statistical legislation to allow enhanced mandatory coverage. The general strategy is first to analyse newly emerging fields and then to conduct surveys in the form of development projects involving collaboration between all actors in the ESS. If these projects prove that statistical needs have changed or economical trends need closer observation, the legal basis for official statistics may be changed. The most recent case of this happening was the revision of the basic Regulation 58/973 in a joint effort by the EU’s lawmakers - European Parliament and the Council - based on a proposal by the European Commission, represented by Eurostat. The outcome of this process, namely a recast of the outdated Regulation which dated back to 1997, is about to be formally adopted (as of November 2007).

A further adaptation of the business statistics framework in Europe is the subject of a substantial action line currently being prepared at Eurostat under the acronym MEETS, which stands for Modernization of European Enterprise and Trade Statistics. Those past or ongoing activities in the ESS that are aimed at a better coverage of the services sector are described below. Eurostat makes available a large amount of data on all sectors on their website4 free of charge – registration may be required. Please note that the EU nomenclature of economic activities will change in 2008 from NACE Rev. 1.1 to NACE 2, one of the changes which will place the level of detail of economic activities to be surveyed in the services sector on an equal footing with manufacturing.