Methodology and Quality Update 

Methodology and Quality last update 

17/11/2024

Statistical Presentation 

Data description   

Comprehensive Economic Survey provide indicators about the business sector including operating revenues, operating expenses, numbers of employees, capital formations, employee compensation and other economic indicators according to economic activity.  

These indicators contribute to measuring the structure of the business sector and its growth rates and considered a primary source of business statistics in the Kingdom that meet the requirements of local and international entities and organizations. 
Key Targeted Indicators 
•    Operating revenues. 
•    Operating expenses. 
•    Employee compensation. 
•    Number of employees. 
•    Operating surplus. 
•    Fixed capital formation. 
•    Salaries and wages. 
•    Benefits and allowances. 
•    Fixed assets purchased during the year (capital formations). 
•    • Fixed assets sold during the year (capital formations). 

Classification system 

The following classifications are applied in the Comprehensive Economic Survey: 
The National Classification for Economic Activities (ISIC4): 
The statistical classification based on the International Standard of Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC4) is used to describe productive activities of an establishment.  
The classifications are available on the GASTAT’s website: www.stats.gov.sa  
Saudi Classification for Products and Services - Based on the Central Product Classification:  
The Saudi Classification for Products and Services, based on the Central Product Classification issued by the United Nations Statistical Commission in 2018, constitutes a comprehensive classification for products encompassing goods. The purpose of this classification is to serve as an international standard for collecting and categorizing all types of data that require product details. This includes industrial production, national accounts, service industries, domestic and international trade in goods, international trade in services, balance of payments, consumption, and price statistics. Other primary purposes include providing a framework for international comparison and promoting coordination among various types of statistics related to goods and services. 

Sector coverage 

The survey covers all economic activities (ISIC4). 
The size classification is divided into two categories in terms of size of the enterprise as follows: 
•    Micro, Small, and Medium-sized: 
It includes all establishments in which the number of Employees equal or less than (249) Employees. 
•    Large-sized: 
It includes all establishments in which the number of Employees (equal or more than 250). 

Statistical concepts and definitions 

Terms and concepts for Comprehensive Economic Survey: 
•    Establishment: 
An economic business unit with a legal character, and with (a business registry), where it practices a particular economic activity. It is owned by an individual, a group of individuals, a company, a semi-government sector or an institution.  
•    Main economic activity: 
It refers to all the activities or services practiced or provided by the establishment. It might be profitable, or non-profitable (as is the case with charities which depend upon donations.). In the case of multiple economic activities for a single establishment, the economic activity with the highest revenue is selected. Classification of the economic activity of the establishments relies on International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC REV.4). The structural classification of business activities is based on the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC). 
•    Operation Revenues: 
They are the cash revenues achieved due to the establishment engagement in its main activity or other secondary activities, such as the sale and marketing of its products, the provision of services to consumers or the trade in goods generally. They include also other operation revenues not related to the main economic activity of the establishment, but related to the secondary activities of the establishment, including the industrial services revenues, the secondary activities revenues and the proceedings generated from the sale of production waste as well as the lease of buildings, non-agricultural lands, machinery, and equipment. And any other operating revenues, specifying the types of those revenues. 
•    Operating expenses: 
It means the value of the goods or services actually used by the establishment during the establishment’s fiscal year as a result of practicing the economic activity it carries out, whether these supplies were purchased in the same year, or withdrawn from inventory purchased in previous years. 
•    Employee compensation: 
All amounts of wages, salaries, in-kind benefits and social contributions due to employees during the accounting period in exchange for the work they perform, whether in cash or in-kind, before deducting any deductions from them, such as the social insurance share, taxes and the like. 
•    Operating surplus: 
Equals total production based on the value of the product minus intermediate consumption 
(goods and services supplies (based on the cost of the purchaser, compensation of Employees, depreciation of fixed capital, net indirect taxes (indirect taxes minus production subsidies). 
•    Fixed capital formation: 
Flows in fixed assets that show the movement of assets inside and outside the establishment and include fixed assets that the establishment acquires for use in achieving its purposes, and not for the purpose of selling them or entering them as raw materials in its production processes (such as residential and non-residential buildings, transportation equipment, furniture, machinery and equipment). 
•    Salaries and wages: 
All cash payments made periodically by the establishment to its employees for regular working hours and any fixed allowances given to it before any deductions are made by the employer in relation to taxes, contributions from employees to social security, retirement systems, and other obligations to employees. 
•    Benefits and allowances: 
Cash and in-kind payments provided by the employer to employees other than salaries and wages. These payments include all types of benefits, such as scholarships, education payments for the employee or his dependents, as well as what is paid for food, housing, social insurance, transportation allowance, and overtime allowance. 
•    Fixed assets purchased during the year (capital formations): 
Fixed assets purchased by the establishment during the year for use in achieving its purposes and not for the purpose of selling them or introducing them as raw materials in its production processes, such as buildings, lands, means of transportation, equipment, machines, and furniture. 
    •     Fixed assets sold during the year (capital formations): 
Fixed assets sold by the establishment during the year, which are no longer used in achieving its purposes or introduced as raw materials in its production processes, such as buildings, lands, means of transportation, equipment, machines, and furniture. 

Statistical unit 

The statistical unit in the Comprehensive Economic Survey is the establishment. 

Statistical population 

The target statistical community in Comprehensive Economic Survey consists of all economic establishments that practice economic activities and are classified as commercial entities through operating licenses from government agencies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 

Reference area 

The survey of Comprehensive Economic Survey covers all (13) administrative regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Riyadh, Makkah, Al-Madinah, Qassim, Eastern, Asir, Tabuk, Hail, Northern Borders, Jazan, Najran, Al-Baha, and Al-Jouf). 

Time coverage 

Data is available from the year 2005 to 2023. 

Base period 

Not applicable.  

Unit of measure 

Most of the results are numerical values and the input category is in thousands of riyals. 

Reference period 

The data for the Comprehensive Economic Survey is collected during the specified period by reaching out to establishments through the targeted survey sample and completing the survey Questionnaire. Survey data is usually assigned to the previous fiscal year of its implementation.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality - policy 

According to the Royal Decree No. 23 dated 07-12-1397, data must always be kept confidential and must be used by GASTAT only for statistical purposes. 
Therefore, the data are protected in the data servers of the Authority.

Confidentiality - data treatment

Data were displayed in appropriate tables to facilitate its summarization, comprehension, and results extraction. Also, to compare data with other data and extract statistical meanings for the study community. It is also easier to check tables without the need to see the original questionnaire, which usually include data like names and addresses of individuals, names of data providers, which violates data confidentiality of statistical data. 
“Anonymity of data” is one of the most important procedures. To keep data confidential, GASTAT removed information on individual persons, households, or business entities such a way that the respondent cannot be identified either directly (by name, address, contact number, identity number etc.) or indirectly (by combining different - especially rare - characteristics of respondents: age, occupation, education etc.). 

Release policy

Release calendar

The Comprehensive Economic Survey has been included in the statistical calendar by the name of Structural business statistics.

Release calendar access 

The statistical calendar is available at: https://www.stats.gov.sa/ar/future-releases

User access

One of GASTAT’s objectives is to better meet its clients' needs, so it immediately provides them with the publication's results once the Comprehensive Economic Survey publication is published. 
 It also receives questions and inquiries of the clients about the Publication and its results through various communication channels, such as: 
•    GASTAT’s official website: www.stats.gov.sa  
•    GASTAT’s official e-mail address: info@stats.gov.sa
•    Client Support’s e-mail address: info@stats.gov.sa
•    Official visits to GASTAT’s official head office in Riyadh or one of its branches in Saudi Arabia. 
•    Official letters. 
•    Statistical telephone (199009).

Frequency of dissemination

Annual.

Accessibility and clarity

News release

The announcements for each publication are available on the statistical calendar as mentioned in 7.2. Access to the statistical calendar and the press releases can be viewed on the website of GASTAT on the link: https://www.stats.gov.sa/en/news

Publications

GASTAT issues the Comprehensive Economic Survey publications and reports regularly within a preprepared dissemination plan and is published on GASTAT’s website. GASTAT is keen to publish its publications in a way that serves all users of different types, including publications in different formats that contain (publication tables, data graphs, indicators, methodology and quality, and questionnaires) in both English and Arabic. The results of the Comprehensive Economic Survey are available at: https://www.stats.gov.sa/en/64

On-line database

The data is published on the statistical database:  GASTAT (stats.gov.sa)

Micro-data access

Not available.

Other

Not available.

Documentation on methodology

The Comprehensive Economic Survey statistics relies on the following international standards for concepts, definitions, issues, and classifications: 
•    European Statistical System Quality and Metadata Handbook, European Union Statistical Office: 
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/european-statistical-system/news 
•    System of National Accounts 2008: 
National Accounts System 2008 | General Authority for Statistics (stats.gov.sa)
•    United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD): 
https://unstats.un.org/UNSDWebsite

Quality documentation 

Quality documentation covers documentation on methods and standards for assessing, measuring, and monitoring the quality of statistical process and output. It is based on standard quality criteria such as relevance, accuracy and reliability, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, comparability, and coherence.

Quality management 

Quality assurance

GASTAT declares that it considers the following principles: impartiality, user orientated, quality of processes and output, effectiveness of statistical processes, reducing the workload for respondents.  
Quality controls and validation of data are actions carried out throughout the process in different stages such as the data input and data collection and other final controls.

Quality assessment

GASTAT performs all statistical activities according to a national model (Generic Statistical Business Process Model – GSBPM). According to the GSBPM, the final phase of statistical activities is overall evaluation using information gathered in each phase or sub-process. This information is used to prepare the evaluation report which outlines all the quality issues related to the specific statistical activity and serves as input for improvement actions. 

Relevance

User needs 

Internal users in the GASTAT for Comprehensive Economic Survey data: 
•    National accounts. 
External users and major beneficiaries for Comprehensive Economic Survey data, include: 
•    Government entities 
•    Regional and international organizations 
•    Research institutions. 
•    private sector 
The disseminated key variables that mostly used by key users:  

User satisfaction

Not available.

Completeness 

The Comprehensive Economic Survey data is based on data collected through a survey of a representative sample of establishments to provide comprehensive information on Comprehensive Economic Survey indicators, data status is complete.

Accuracy and reliability

Overall accuracy

•    The data collected is improved through the researchers, who have been selected according to a set of practical and objective criteria and training program related to the field of work. 
•    Alert and validation rules are applied during the data collection process on the electronic questionnaire for the Comprehensive Economic Survey to enhance data quality. 
•    Data is checked with previous years to identify any significant changes in the data. 
•    The internal consistency of the data is checked before it is finalized. 
•    The links between variables are checked and coherence between different data series is confirmed. 

Timeliness and punctuality 

Timeliness 

The General Authority for Statistics is committed to applying internationally approved standards for publishing statistics, including the timing standard issued by the European Statistical Organization. It announces and clarifies the publication dates of statistics on its official website through the statistical calendar and adheres to the announced dates. In the event of any delay, an update will be provided.

Punctuality 

The publication is done according to the publication dates in the statistical calendar published for the Comprehensive Economic Survey on the website page of the General Authority for Statistics. 
The data are available at the expected time, as scheduled in the statistical release calendar, If the publication is delayed, reasons shall be provided. 

Coherence and comparability 

Comparability - geographical 

Data are fully comparable. 

Comparability - over time

The survey started in 2005 as an annual survey. The major changes that have occurred in recent years: 
•    In 2019, the General Authority for Statistics transitioned to administrative records to build and update the statistical business register according to global practices, ensuring the periodic update of statistical frameworks on an annual basis. 
•    2023 Launch of the Comprehensive Economic Survey (Phases One and Two) 
− The first phase aimed to list all establishments in the business sector to ensure access to all establishments and visit all those establishments to collect identification data for update the statistical business register and benefit from it to updating the frameworks of specialized economic surveys. 
− In the second phase, launched of Comprehensive Economic Survey by a sample representing the statistical community to complete the electronic questionnaire of establishments for collecting the required data, with the aim to producing statistical indicators that contribute to meeting the requirements of beneficiaries and product partners and supporting decision-makers and policymakers. 

Coherence- cross domain 

Not applicable.

Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics 

Not applicable.

Coherence- National Accounts 

Not applicable.

Coherence - internal 

The statistics of the Comprehensive Economic Survey for the reference period exhibit complete internal consistency, as they are all based on the same accurate dataset and calculated using statistical methods. 

Resources used

Data revision 

Data revision - policy

Not applicable, only final results will be published.

Data revision - practice

Not applicable, only final results will be published.

Statistical processing

Source data

The Comprehensive Economic Survey relies on two main sources: 
First source: Collecting data through the Comprehensive Economic Survey, which is conducted annually by the General Authority for Statistics. 
The key variables published for the Comprehensive Economic Survey Statistics Publication include:  
•    Operating revenues. 
•    Operating expenses. 
•    Employee compensation. 
•    Number of employees. 
•    Salaries and wages. 
•    Benefits and allowances. 
•    Fixed assets purchased during the year (capital formations). 
•    Fixed assets sold during the year (capital formations). 
Second source: Administrative Data: 
•    Ministry of Commerce. 
•    Ministry of Municipalities and Housing. 
The key variables published from the administrative data source: 
Classification of business sector establishments according to the National Classification of Economic Activities (ISIC.4). 

Frequency of data collection 

Annual.

Data collection

Collecting data for the Comprehensive Economic Survey 

Data for the Comprehensive Economic Survey is collected through Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviews (CATI), Computer-Assisted Web Interviews (CAWI), and Computer-Assisted Personal Interviews (CAPI). 

Data validation

The data is reviewed and matched to ensure its accuracy in a manner that suits its nature to improve the quality and accuracy of the statistics provided. An example of this used of IQR methodology, (interquartile range) it is widely applied and practiced worldwide to identify outliers. 
The calculation process: 
•    1st quartile (1st quartile/25%): the median of the lower half of the data set. 
•    3rd quartile (3rd quartile/75%): the median of the upper half of the data set. 
The interquartile range measures the spread of 50% of the data to highlight values that differ significantly from the central tendency of the data set. 
Outliers are defined:  
•    Lower bound: 1st quartile - 1.5 * interquartile range. 
•    Upper bound: 3rd quartile + 1.5 * interquartile range. 
Variables are defined as outliers if 
•    The variable is below the lower bound. 
•    The variable is above the upper bound. 
After identifying outliers, the Business, Investment and International Trade Statistics team analyzes and evaluates outliers on the averages, by comparing the mean and median on specific characteristics of the data set, using appropriate statistical measures and critical evaluation of outliers. 
The data of the current year publication are compared with the data of the previous year to ensure their integrity and consistency in preparation for processing data and extracting and reviewing results. 
In addition to the data processing and tabulation to check their accuracy, all the outputs are stored and uploaded to the database after being calculated by GASTAT to be reviewed and processed by specialists in the business, investment, and international trade statistics department through modern technologies and software designed for this purpose.

Data compilation

Data Coding: 
In the Comprehensive Economic Survey, researchers collect data from respondents and take a detailed description of the fields. This information is then coded in-house by an automated process, which is review by a dedicated technical team of coding experts using a series of consistency checks. 
Data Editing: 
Specialists of (Statistical dept) Department have processed and analyzed data in this stage, and this step was based on the following measures: 
•    Sort and arrange data in groups or different categories in a serial order. 
•    Summarize detailed data into main points or main data. 
•    Linking between many parts of data and make them connected. 
•    Process incomplete or missing data. 
•    Process illogical data. 
•    Converting data into statistically significant data. 
•    Organize, display and interpret data. 
Compensation (for non-response or incomplete datasets):  
The approach used for compensation in the Comprehensive Economic Survey Statistics, whether for establishments with incomplete response or missing data for specific variables. Reinterviews are allowed to obtain missing data from non-respondents. Subsequently, dealing with missing or non-response data involves assessing it by following a scientific approach to estimate the results based on considerations such as historical data series and an acceptable range of missing data, along with estimates built on class-level data. 
Extrapolation and weighting: 
After processing the data collected from respondents, survey weights were generated to produce indicator tables by following two main steps in creating survey weights:  
•    Processing non-response. 
•    Calculating the weighted average. 
Methods for calculating the applied statistical indicators:   
GASTAT has relied on the formulas approved by the international standards in calculating Comprehensive Economic Survey key indicators, as follows: 
•    Operating surplus = Operating revenue – Operating expenses – Compensation of employees. 
Net Fixed Capital Formation = Purchases during the year – Sales during the year.

Adjustment

Not applicable, only final results will be published.