22 March 2024

Services Sector Activity Indicators (SSAI)

January 2024. Provisional data

Main results

  • The annual variation of the Market Services Sector turnover index was 0.8% in the calendar and seasonally adjusted series.
  • In January, the monthly rate was 0.1% if seasonal and calendar effects are removed.
  • The INE today publishes the first Service Sector Activity Indicators based on 2021. 

The general index of the turnover for the Market Services Sector, after adjusting for seasonal and calendar effects, experienced a variation of 0.8% in January compared to the same month of 2023. This rate was the same as than that recorded in December.

The original series presented an annual variation of 2.8%, which was 3.5 points above that registered in December.

General index of turnover for the Market Services Sector

Annual rate. Percentage

Annual rates in Turnover index for the Market Services Sector: General and by sector. January 2024

Monthly trend in turnover for the Market Services Sector

After adjusting for seasonal and calendar effects, the monthly variation of the general index of turnover for the Market Services Sector between January and December was 0.1%. This rate was two tenths lower than that observed in December.

General index of the turnover for the Market Services Sector. Seasonally and calendar adjusted.

Monthly rate. Percentage

Results by Autonomous Community. Annual variation rates of the turnover index. Original series

Annual rate in Turnover index for the Market Services Sector increased as compared to January 2023 in 15 Autonomous Communities and decreased in the other two.

La Rioja (15.2%), Illes Balears (9.0%) and Extremadura (7.5%) registered the largest increases. País Vasco (−2.5%) and Comunidad de Madrid (−1.2%) recorded the largest decreases. 

General index of Market Services Sector Turnover by Autonomous Community. January 2024.

Annual rate. Percentage

Employment trend

The Employment in the Market Services Sector index experienced a variation of 2.1% in January as compared to the same month of the previous year. This rate was one tenth higher than that registered in December.

National Indices of employed personnel by sector. January 2024

Reviews and data updates

The INE has today updated the data of the IASS since the beginning of the series by publishing them in the new 2021 base. All the results of this operation are available at INEBase.

Informative Annex. Main characteristics of the Service Sector Activity Indicators based on 2021

The National Institute of Statistics (INE) publishes today the Activity Indicators of the Services Sector (IASS) based on 2021. In this way, Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 laying down technical specifications and modalities pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics is complied with.

The base change consists of reviewing and updating the main components that make up the calculation of the index. In addition to the updating of the sample and the weighting structure, on this occasion some relevant changes have been introduced, which are detailed below.

Extension of the scope of statistical operation

The population scope of this statistical operation extends with the incorporation of the following activities:

  • Division 68: Real estate activities
  • Division 77: Rental and leasing activities
  • Division 81 complete by adding groups 81.1 and 81.3: Comprehensive services to buildings and facilities and gardening activities
  • Groups 45.1, 45.3 and 45.4: Sale of motor vehicles, motorcycles and spare parts
  • Group 70.2: Business management consultancy activities
New statistical unit: UAE (Unit of Economic Activity)

According to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197, information is to be provided at UAE level. This means that for those companies that, due to their size, carry out activities other than the main one that imply a significant turnover, both turnover figures must be located in their respective activity codes of the National Classification of Economic Activities, which will influence the calculation of the indicator.

Use of administrative sources

In base 2021, the process of intensifying the use of administrative records has been continued, extending it to more units in the sample. The aim is to use information on the turnover and employment of large companies through the monthly VAT return of the AEAT and the files of Social Security Affiliates of the General Treasury of the Social Security (TGSS). In this way, a complete information of the companies is obtained and the response burden to the informants is decreased.

This change of source has been implemented retroactively for the period 2021-2023 and is settled definitively for the year 2024 and subsequent years.

Weighting structure

The complete structure of weights has been updated at all levels of disaggregation, functional and geographical, to represent in a current and accurate way the activity of the services sector.

For the 2021 update, the Structural Business Statistics: Services Sector and Trade Sector for 2021 was used, which provides information on turnover and employment by branch of activity and autonomous community. The weights of successive years are obtained using the evolution of the IASs indices themselves.

Activity weights (turnover)
Sample update

Another important aspect in the base change process is the sample update. To this end, a complete study of the population of companies in the service sector is carried out in the Central Directory of Companies, which is the population framework of this survey, defining a new theoretical sample that better reflects the current structure of the sector. In 2021, 2022 and 2023, changes were made to the weights and the sample of reporting units in order to update their structure and improve their representativeness.

Series linking

The implementation of a new structure represents a break in the continuity of the series, especially when there are also several relevant changes that significantly influence the calculation of the index, as occurs in the IASS based on 2021, where the population scope of the survey has been expanded, the statistical unit has been modified and administrative records have begun to be used as new sources of information.

In order to have continuous series that allow calculating rates of variation between different periods, and to carry out studies and predictions about the evolution of the retail sector, the INE has linked the series and published the indices based on 2021, since January 2000, in order to give continuity to the information published so far.

The indices prior to 2021 have been linked by multiplying the series by a constant coefficient, thus preserving the rates of variation published based on 2015.

Since January 2021, the series have been recalculated on the new basis. Therefore, the rates of variation for the years 2021, 2022 and 2023 of the 2021 base IASS will be different from those calculated using the 2015 base indices.

Results publication

In the IASS based on 2021, the detail is expanded by activities, breaking down some branches of activity that were published aggregated in the previous base, and adding new activities.

Likewise, the published indices are based on the UAE instead of the company or legal unit.

 

Methodological note

The Services Sector Activity Indicators (SSAI) measure the short-term evolution of the activity of companies belonging to the Non-Financial Market Services sector through two variables: turnover and employed personnel. Turnover comprises the amounts invoiced by the company for provision of services and sale of goods. Employed personnel include both paid and unpaid personnel.

In order to obtain this data, an ongoing survey is conducted, every month researching more than 28,000 companies that operate in this sector. Results are presented as indices so as to measure variations as compared to the base year 2021.

The characteristics of this statistics are:

Type of survey:
monthly continuous survey.
Base year:
2021.
Population scope:
companies whose main economic activity is described in sections G, (Trade), H (Transport and Storage), I (Accommodation), J (Information and Communications), M (Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities) and N (Administrative and Support Services Activities) of the National Classification of Economic Activities (CNAE-09).
Geographical scope:
all the national territory except for Ceuta and Melilla, for which it is only collected in division 47 of CNAE-09 (retail trade).
Sample size:
27.500 companies.
Type of sampling:
stratified random sampling.
Collection method:
internet (IRIA system), e-mail, fax, telephone or by postal mail.

For more information you can access the methodology and the standardised methodological report.

INE statistics are produced in accordance with the Code of Good Practice for European Statistics. More information at Quality at INE and the Code of Best Practices.

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