National Statistical Institute

Statistics on Tourism and Business surveys Department

Mariya Gergova

Hristina Terziyska

Head of department

State expert

2, P. Volov Str.; 1038 Sofia, Bulgaria

[email protected];

[email protected]

+359 2 9857 529;

+359 2 9857 628

The business surveys in industry, construction, retail trade and service sector gather information about the entrepreneurs' opinions about the situation and development of their business. The replies to the questions included in the questionnaires are presented in a three-option ordinal scale. The results are in the form of balances which are the difference between the positive and negative answering options.

Classification of Economic Activities (CEA-2008)

The business inquiries cover the enterprises from the sectors: industry, construction, retail trade and service sector.

The total business climate indicator is a weighted average of four branch business climate indicators in: industry, construction, retail trade and service sector. As the last indicator of the business climate in service sector has been included in the total time series since May 2002.

The business climate indicator in the observed branches is a geometric mean of balances of assessments about the present and the expected business situation in the enterprises.

The replies to the questions from the inquiries are presented in a three-option ordinal scale of the following type: "Increase", "No change", "Decrease" or "More than sufficient", "Sufficient", "Not sufficient". The balances of opinions are calculated as a difference of the relative shares of the extreme variants of answers.

Some of the indicators represent numerical assessment, e.g. production assurance with orders (number of months), capacity utilisation (%), etc.

The observed unit is enterprise.

Every month about 4900 enterprises are surveyed.

At national level: total for the territory of Republic of Bulgaria.

At European level: General for Economic and Financial affairs Directorate publishes for the EU member states, Euro area and EU candidate countries.

The time series with monthly data is published in the Information System INFOSTAT of the NSI:

• industry, construction and retail trade - from January 1997;
• service sector - from 2002.

The time series with quarterly data about industry is published on the Information System INFOSTAT of the NSI from 1999, and for construction from 1997.

Not applicable.

Balance, percentage, number of months and etc.

Month, quarter.

• Joint harmonised EU programme of business and consumer surveys;
• Manual to the Joint harmonised EU programme of business and consumer surveys;
• Law on statistics;
• National Statistical Program;

The indicators are provided to EC, DG "Economic and Financial affairs" and Government institutions, according to concluded agreement.

The confidentiality of the individual data of the respondents is guaranteed according to:

• Law on Statistics:  http://www.nsi.bg/bg/node/553;
• Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164). The regulation stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due *account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

(http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:087:0164:0173:bg:PDF)

Individual data from the survey are not published in accordance with article 25 of the Law on Statistics. The publishing of individual data can be performed only in accordance with article 26 of the Law on Statistics and Rules for provision of anonymized individual data for scientific and research purposes  (http://www.nsi.bg/bg/node/575).

The date of publication of statistical information is indicated in the Release Calendar presenting the results of the statistical surveys carried out by the National Statistical Institute. The data are announced in the last week of the month - around the 28^th.

The calendar is available on the NSI website: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/480

Data for the survey "Business survey in industry, construction, retail trade and service sector" are published on the NSI website, according to the Chapter 5 of the Law on Statistics and European Statistics Code of Practice, considering professional independence and with aim of impartiality and transparency, where all users are treated equal.

The access to the results of the statistical surveys of all users and equality of their rights are regulated in the Rules for dissemination of statistical products and services of the National Statistical Institute.

Monthly, quarterly.

NSI publishes regular monthly press release "Business conjuncture" in the last week of the reference month.

Analytical publication "Bulgaria 2011 - statistical panorama".

The results from the survey are available in the information system for online requests for statistical information - INFOSTAT.: Topic "Business Statistics", Subtopic "Business Surveys": https://infostat.nsi.bg/infostat/pages/module.jsf?x_2=33

Not applicable.

Information services on request, according to the Rules for dissemination of statistical products and services by the NSI http://www.nsi.bg/bg/node/564/.

Manual to the Joint harmonised EU programme of business and consumer surveys; 

Not applicable.

The applied statistical practice of providing data is according to the harmonized European Union programme for business surveys.

Is performed according to the standard criteria for quality assessment - applicability, accuracy and reliability, timeliness, comparability and coherence. 

Main users of the data are Government institutions, research institutions and other users from the country, the European Commission, the European Central Bank and other international organizations.

The users' satisfaction survey is not carried out.

Business surveys in industry, construction, retail trade and service sector covers all required variables, according to the Joint harmonised EU programme.

In sample surveys may be mistakes in the registration of answers, processing, and others.

The NSI presents information about business surveys in the last week of the reference month.

The data are disseminated according to the planned schedule.

The data received at national level are comparable between different countries carrying out business surveys according to Joint harmonised EU programme.

The time series data are comparable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

In order alleviate the business in submitting statistical data, reducing the respondents' burden and improve the quality of data in statistical surveys since January 2012 "Business surveys in industry, construction, retail trade and service sector" are conducted through web-based questionnaires.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Main data sources are:

• questionnaires of business surveys in industry, construction, retail trade and service sector.

Monthly, quarterly.

Methods of data collection:

• Through the web application and in order to reduce the degree of non-response is provided sending informational and reminder letters;
• Printed form is sent to the respondents by email or postal mail, and then they collect from RSOs that shall introduce the information in the application.

Data validation is done on two levels:

• Stage one: validation of the data in the process of entering data from the questionnaires. The information is entered through a specially developed software products, in which logical and arithmetic controls are set, which show possible discrepancies and incorrect values of the variables.
• Stage two: Once the data are entered, in HO of the NSI they are subjected to additional validation procedures.

The data processing is performed by developed application software.

Not applicable.