National Statistical Institute

'Annual Business Statistics' Department

Desislava Todorova

State expert

2, P. Volov Str.; 1038 Sofia

[email protected]

+359 2 9857 586

The survey is annual and provides information for the number, type, form of organisation and commodity specialisation of the Retail sales premises.

The data are collected from the non-financial enterprises in the country, which have indicated owned or leased premises for retail sales in the inquire 'Retail sales premises as of 31.12' from their annual report, independently from their branch classification by Classification of Economic Activities (NACE.BG 2008, NACE.BG 2003 and NACE.BG 2001).

The premises are observed by an established nomenclature for their type and their commodity specialisation. The premise is specialised, if there is a commodity group forming more than 1/3 of the sales volume.

The annual data of Retail sales premises are published as total and by commodity specialisation for the country and regional level.

· Classification of Economic Activities (CEA-2008, for international use NACE.BG 2008) - in force since 01.01 2008;

· National Classification of Economic Activities (NCEA-2003, for international use NACE.BG 2003) - for the period 2002-2007;

· National Classification of Economic Activities (NCEA-2001, for international use NACE.BG 2001) - for the period 2000-2001;

· Classification of territorial units for statistical purposes in Bulgaria (NUTS) - versions 14.02.2009 and 19.06.2006.

The survey is exhaustive and covers all non-financial enterprises, which have indicated managed by them retail sales premises (constantly acting, seasonal or at repair till a month).

'Number of retail sales premises' - includes all managed retail sales premises indicated from the non-financial enterprises in their annual reports for the reference year.

The basic unit of the survey is an enterprise.

The enterprise is the smallest organisation unit producing goods or services which makes its own business decisions. The enterprise carries out one or more activities at one or more locations. The enterprise may be an independent legal unit.

The survey is exhaustive and the statistical population includes all non-financial enterprises, which have realised retail sales in managed by them sales premises, independently from their branch classification by Classification of Economic Activities (NACE.BG 2008, NACE.BG 2003 and NACE.BG 2001).

The data refer to the retail sales premises in the country.

Since 2000 to the last reported year.

Not applicable.

Number.

Calendar year.

Bulgarian legislation:

· Law on Statistics;

· National Statistical Programme.

Not applicable.

Regulation (EC) № 223/2009 of 11 March 2009 defines common criteria for protection of confidential data and methods for sending the information to and its use by Eurostat. The Law on Statistics ensures the protection of statistical confidentiality and the use of individual data of enterprises for statistical purposes only.

The individual (primary) data are confidential according to the Law on Statistics and European legislation. To ensure their protection and inability to be identified, the aggregated indicators are also defined as confidential when:

· Criterion A - the indicator is calculated from one or two enterprises;

· Criterion B - one enterprise forms 85% or more of the total value of this indicator.

The data are published in accordance with the deadline specified in the Release Calendar presenting the results of the statistical surveys carried out by the National Statistical Institute.

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

Data are published on the NSI website and are available to all users of statistical information.

Yearly

Not applicable.

· Statistical Yearbook;

· Statistical Reference Book;

· 'Bulgaria' (brochure) .

The data are available to all users of the NSI website under the heading Business Statistics - Annual Business Statistics -  Other Annual Data - Non-financial Enterprises-  Domestic Trade: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/4767

Not available.

Information service on request, according to the Rules for dissemination of statistical products and services of NSI.

National legislation and developed statistical methodology: http://www.nsi.bg/sites/default/files/files/metadata/dTrade_Method_8_en.pdf

Not available.

This includes the improvement of the on-line based information system 'Business statistics', which ensures strict arithmetical and logical input control. The additional output control is made when are registered the big differences in the value of given indicator between two consecutive years or in comparison with the results of other statistical surveys in NSI.

This is made in accordance with the standard criteria for assessing the quality - relevance, accuracy and reliability, timeliness, comparability and coherence.

The main users of data for the retail sales premises are:

· Interested state institutions under signed agreements;

· Research institutes, universities, economic analysts and students;

· Private non-governmental organizations, agencies, associations, media, etc.;

· Directorates and departments in the NSI.

There has been no study of user satisfaction, but no cases of outstanding requests for information are registered.

Full compliance with the Bulgarian and European legislations.

The information for calculation of the number, type, form of organisation and commodity specialisation of the Retail sales premises is based on the annual reports of non-financial enterprises, as full coherence of the input data is provided.

The survey is exhaustive and there are no sampling errors.

Not applicable.

The deadline for the publication of data at national level is t+11 months for the final data, where t is the reference year.

The deadlines for publication are strictly followed.

For the country the data are comparable.

The comparability of the data is not affected by using of different classifications of economic activities (NACE.BG 2008, NACE.BG 2003 and NACE.BG 2001), because the indicators are calculated totally from all non-financial enterprises in the country.

The regional data series are fully comparable for the period 2000-2006, and the period 2007 - the last reference year.

Data for the Retail sales premises are logically tied to those from retail sales by product groups as well as from the annual accounts.

Not applicable.

NSI of Bulgaria is making extraordinary efforts to reduce the respondents' burden. An example is the signed agreement called 'Single Entry Point' between NSI and the National Revenue Agency for a single providing of the annual reports and using the data from both institutions. Developed by NSI on-line based information system 'Business Statistics' and ensured methodological and technical assistance to respondents during the reporting campaign are highly appreciated by respondents and help to reduce their workload.

The National policy allows the revision of already published data if there are serious reasons.

The revised data replace the already published data as soon as possible after the revision is made.

The main data sources for calculating the data are:

· Annual Reports of the non-financial enterprises, compiling balance sheets;

· Annual Reports of the non-financial enterprises, non-compiling balance sheets.

Yearly

Exhaustively for all non-financial enterprises, which have indicated managed by them retail sales premises in their annual report for the reference year.

Data validation is made by additional logical input control and comparison between the output data and the results of the previous year and other surveys, carried out by NSI.

The survey is exhaustive and further data evaluation is not made.

Not applicable.