Economic survey on turnover - FAQ
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What is the purpose of the preliminary survey?
The preliminary survey will be carried out only once. Its purpose is to:
- collect all of a business's economic activities(NOGA)
- assign a contact person within the business to facilitate contact throughout the survey
- encourage participants to do the survey online (eSurvey).
Where did the FSO get the addresses of the companies?
The Business and Enterprise Register (BER) contains all enterprises and business in private and public law which are domiciled and exercise an economic activity in Switzerland. The Federal Statistical Office (FSO) uses the BER as an address register for statistical surveys on businesses and workplaces.
What is the NOGA?
The General Classification of Economic Activities (NOGA) is an essential tool for structuring, analyzing and presenting statistical information. It enables the statistical units "enterprises" and "establishments" to be classified by their economic activity and categorized into coherent groups. It can be used to depict the real situation as accurately and comprehensively as possible.
The KUBB application allows to easily find NOGA codes:
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What is the Economic Survey on Turnover (KEU)?
The Economic Survey on Turnover (KEU) is a set of monthly short-term statistics that describe turnover growth in the secondary and tertiary sectors at national level. The published rates of change and indices serve to estimate turnover growth over time.
How many businesses are taking part in this survey?
Industry: around 3000 companies
Construction Industry: around 4100 companies
Services: around 7000 companies
Retail Trade: around 2700 companies
Which variables are included in the survey?
Companies are asked about monthly turnover per activity, divided into domestic turnover and exports. The activities covered by the survey are listed in the appendix "Codes and descriptions of activities". Additionally, some qualitative questions are asked about business performance.
Who is surveyed?
The Economic Survey on Turnover is a sample survey. The sample population consists of all companies exercising an economic activity in the secondary or tertiary sector. The companies are stratified into size categories based on their turnover and economic activity. The stratum with the largest enterprises is sampled exhaustively. Among small and medium-sized enterprises, a representative sample is selected for each economic activity.
How are the data collected?
Industry: Monthly data is collected once per quarter. The survey uses secondary sources to gather data on:
- energy supply
- manufacture of refined petroleum products
Construcion Industry: quarterly collection of quarterly data
Services/Retail Trade: The largest enterprises are surveyed monthly, small and medium-sized enterprises quarterly. To publish representative data each month, the small and medium companies are each surveyed on a staggered basis over a three-month period.
Should data be delivered including VAT?
Turnover should be given exclusive of tax, less rebates and discounts.
Why are retroactive data requested?
During the first year of the survey, we collect the previous year's period in parallel with the current period. As we publish changes between the period being surveyed and the same period of the previous year, it is necessary to collect this data at the same time.
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Where will the results be published?
Monthly indices will be calculated from the data and published. As turnover is highly dependent on the number of working days per month, the indices are corrected for these influential factors, as well as for seasonal factors.
All results are available here:
Who uses these data and for what purpose?
Companies can use the results for sector and market analyses or to estimate economic growth. In economic policy the data are used for economic growth forecasts, which in turn form the basis for investment decisions. The Swiss National Bank uses data from the secondary and tertiary sectors to inform its interest rate policy, which is designed to maintain price stability. In research, data collected by the FSO help to examine various economic and societal phenomena.