Methodology of short-term business statistics : Interpretation and guidelines

The Methodological Manual for Short-term Statistics (STS) provides guidelines for the implementation of the STS Council Regulation 1165/98. STS comprises a series of monthly and quarterly quantitative indicators relevant for the observation of the economic cycle. The indicators cover industry, construction, trade and other services. Some examples of indicators are industrial and construction production, turnover, new orders received, output prices, employment, hours worked and wages and salaries. These indicators are regularly published in the EBT series under Theme 4 in New Cronos of Eurostat. The Methodological Manual provides guidelines on the data collection, data treatment and index calculation for the different variables as well as an overview of the practices in the Member States of the European Union.