Implementation of ESA 2010: First Experience

Eurostat C2/NAWG/845

Implementation of ESA 2010:
First experience

Item 12 on the agenda of the Meeting of the Working Group on National Accounts, Luxembourg, 25-26 November 2014

Implementation of ESA 2010: First experience

Summary:

This document present Eurostat’s first experiences with the processing and validation of ESA 2010 data transmissions. First a short summary across domains is presented, and then experience with main GDP aggregates is reviewed in more details. An update on the progress of data deliveries and validation will be presented in meeting.

The NAWG Members are invited:

1. to take note of the progress in different areas,

2. prevent any delay in the agreed delivery of data and

3. effectively address problems detected in the transmission or validation of data.

1. Introduction

Following the first comprehensive transmissions of ESA 2010 data for sector accounts, financial accounts, government finance statistics and annual and quarterly national accounts by the end of September 2014, Eurostat would like to inform the NAWG on the first experience with the first transmissions, processing and validation of data base don SDMX. Following a short introduction of data requirements for different national accounts domain in the next section, this paper mainly presents summaries regarding the status of data transmissions and validation for selected domains. It should be noted that the process of data transmissions and validation is still not entirely completed in some areas. An updated overview will be presented in the meeting.

2. Overview ESA 2010 implementation by domain

2.1 Main GDP aggregates

For main GDP aggregates, ESA 2010 based data transmissions in SDMX format are compulsory from September 2014 onwards, with a T+9 months transmission deadline for annual national accounts covered in tables 1, 3 and 5 of the ESA 2010 transmission programme. As tables 20, 22 and 26 have a transmission deadline of T + 24 months; most data transmissions for these tables are only expected by the end of 2014. Reflecting the data availability, Eurostat started to process and disseminate ESA 2010 based main GDP aggregates in a new Eurobase section na_10 on 5 September 2014, starting with a limited set of tables and countries, which was subsequently expanded as new data arrived.

2.2 Government finance statistics

For ESA table 2, 9 (including national tax list) and 28, the first transmission deadline for the submission of ESA 2010 based figures was at the end of September 2014. A provisional ESA table 27 had to be transmitted by euro area Member States on 23 September 2014. The transmission deadline for all EEA countries was at the end of September 2014. All Member States as well as Iceland and Switzerland had transmitted ESA table 2 main aggregates of general government and ESA table 9 detailed taxes and social contributions. All Member States and Switzerland had transmitted additionally quarterly non-financial accounts for general government, in some cases comprising subsector data. Norway will send ESA2010 data at the end of November.

Some countries were only able to deliver data with delays.

Eurostat published ESA table 2 figures as well as some ESA table 9 figures on 21 October 2014 with the EDP press release. Quarterly government statistics were published on 23 and 24 October 2014. ESA table 9 will be published in the course of November. Data transmissions regarding general government expenditure by function, table 11 of the transmission programme, are only expected by the end of 2014 as the transmission deadline for this table is T + 12 months.

A detailed reporting on the introduction of ESA2010 for GFS will be given in the GFS TF and FAWG.

2.3 ESA 2010 transmissions for sector accounts

For sector accounts data, ESA 2010 based data transmissions in SDMX format are compulsory from September 2014 onwards. For annual sector accounts, covered in table 8 of the ESA 2010 transmission programme, the transmission deadline is T+9 months. Quarterly sector accounts data, covered in table 801 of the ESA 2010 transmission programme, must be transmitted at T+85 days for euro area Member States, and at T+3 months for other European Union countries. In case the transmission at T+85 is considered provisional, the corresponding finalised figures shall be transmitted by the Member States concerned before expiry of the deadline at T+3 months. Eurostat started disseminating the first ESA2010 based sector accounts data in mid-October 2014 in a new Eurobase section and released first ESA 2010 based estimation of European saving and investment rates on 27 October 2014.

2.4 Financial accounts and balance sheets

Under the ESA 2010 transmission programme, Member States are obliged to transmit annual financial accounts and financial balance sheet data at year T + 9 months. Transmission in SDMX format is compulsory. Eurostat has no deadline for data dissemination, but publishes the data as soon as the validation process (based mainly on data consistency checks) is completed. To date, Eurostat has received official transmissions of ESA tables 6 and 7 from all Member States, and has validated the data for 25 of them. Not all transmissions are, however, complete.

2.5 Regional accounts

For regional accounts, ESA 2010 based data transmissions in SDMX format are compulsory from 31 December 2014 onwards, with a T + 12 months transmission deadline for indicators covered in table 1001, and with a T + 24 months deadline for indicators covered in tables 1002, 1200 and 1300. Since annual national accounts data released at T + 9 months is required for the compilation of regional accounts data, NSIs will start transmissions of regional accounts data to Eurostat earliest around early December 2014. Eurostat will start to process and disseminate ESA 2010 based regional accounts data as and when they are transmitted, latest as from beginning of January 2015. As the legal deadline for the first ESA 2010 based regional accounts data transmissions is 31 December 2014, Eurostat cannot yet report on compliance resp. non-compliance of Member States with the ESA 2010 data transmission programme.

2.6 Supply, use and input-output tables

The tables 15, 16 and 17 in the ESA 2010 transmission programme will be transmitted in SDMX format for the next transmission of years 2010 and 2011. The deadline for those tables is T+36 months after the end of the reference period. Eurostat expects a massive delivery of data by the end of December, although a very few Member States may transmit the data already in November or early December. The data will be disseminated after validation by Eurostat as soon as they arrive. Taking into account that most data will not arrive before the end of December, Eurostat expects that the dissemination will start only in January 2015. Not all country data will be released, as some Member States have asked for derogations regarding this first ESA 2010 based transmission of tables 15 to 17. Eurostat could report on the compliance/non-compliance of Member States early 2015.

3. Experience with transmissions of main GDP aggregates

While most Member States transmitted annual data for Tables 1, 3 and 5 of the ESA 2010 transmission programme in line with or shortly after the official transmission deadline, the processing and validation process took several days for many countries, reflecting problems in the format, coding or apparent inconsistencies in the data transmissions.

The overview table below presents the number of EDAMIS transmissions between July and end October since some countries transmitted data before the end of September deadline. While the number of transmissions for some countries reflects thus the fact data transmitted earlier were retransmitted at the end of September, the near doubling of the number of transmissions between 30. September and 31.October 2014 reflects the fact that many tables were transmitted more than once to address detected technical or consistency problems. The number might in fact be higher since some tables were retransmitted by e-mail in in excel format, notably in the case of apparent errors in the conversion process.

Due to severe time constraints, Eurostat concentrated the processing and validation on main GDP aggregates, notably GDP form the output and expenditure side used for the first estimation of European aggregates on 17 October 2014. Even though the transmission and validation of main GDP aggregates (tables T0101-2-3-10-11) could be completed with a few exceptions in time for their use to compile the first release of European aggregates on 17 October 2014, there are still open issues that prevented the validation of some tables, with major delays notably in the case of Tables T0117, T0120 and T0121 as well as T0302.

All in all, first experience with the processing and validation of main GDP aggregates data underlines the need to thoroughly follow up and improve the quality of data transmissions with the help of the Task Force on Validation (Item 13) and to include both quantitative and qualitative elements in the regular compliance reviews (Item 16) to appropriately evaluate and improve data transmissions.

EDAMIS data transmissions for tables 1, 3 and 5 between July and October 2014