Transcript Proposal for quality standards and reports: Progress report

International Technical Meeting on Measuring
Remittances
Survey of the data sources and compilation
practices of EU Member States
Item 4.1
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Eurostat survey on data sources
 Issues related to remittances are regularly discussed by
the Eurostat BOP Working Group.
 In April 2009, a questionnaire was sent to all participants
of the Working Group.
 Several questions concerning data sources, compilation
practices and future plans for measuring remittances and
compensation of employees were asked.
 26 Member States and 5 other European countries replied.
 A report summarising the responses is not yet available.
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Responding countries
EU Member States:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic,
Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Finland,
Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta,
Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovakia,
Slovenia, United Kingdom
Other European Countries:
Switzerland, Norway, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Montenegro
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Questions
Question 1:
What data sources is your country using for compiling data
on remittances? Please give a detailed description of the
data sources and of the methods used for estimating
remittances?
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Data sources (1)
 No data on remittances:
 Latvia, Slovakia and Slovenia (since 2008).
 ITRS (banks report for MTOs):
 Montenegro (no threshold)
 Bulgaria (threshold)
 ITRS + direct reporting from MTOs:
 Portugal (most banks report transactions below threshold)
 Luxembourg (information from banks below threshold)
 ITRS based:
 Sweden (basis for estimation ITRS from 2002)
 Malta (bank tapes available on a monthly basis)
 Belgium (updated by voluntary reports by postal system)
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Data sources (2)
 ITRS + other information
 Greece (MTOs included, travel frontier survey to Albania).
 Serbia (MTOs included, net inflow of foreign exchange, new
foreign currency savings covering informal channel)
 Romania (MTOs and Post Offices, government agencies, mirror
data)
 Cyprus (direct reporting by MTOs, migration data, wages paid to
foreign employees)
 Bosnia and Herzegovina (direct reporting by MTOs, for informal
channel - panel survey, judgements by IMF)
 Germany (no of foreigners, assumption on average remittances)
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Data sources (3)
 Direct reports from MTOs
 Italy
 Lithuania (direct reporting from Post offices, specialised
commercial banks)
 Spain (outflows: MTOs account for 80%, remaining 20%
econometric model, ITRS for geo allocation; inflows: ITRS +
estimation below threshold).
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Data sources (4)
 Migration statistics
 Switzerland (no of immigrants, income, propensity)
 Czech Republic (based on labour force survey, average wage,
saving rates)
 Finland (stock of migrants, employment rate, propensity)
 Netherlands (no of immigrants with country of origin, GDP
growth)
 Ireland (12 new MS: household survey, wage, propensity to
remit; other countries: no of work permit)
 Estonia (assumptions – 50%of emigrants are employed, 50% of
them remit 15% of heir income)
 Poland (migration + specialised survey in UK and IE)
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Data sources (5)
 Income tax records
 Austria (outflows: country specific remittance rate + estimation
for illegal immigrants; inflows: stock living abroad +
assumptions on income and remittance rate)
 Hungary (savings = remittances)
 Estimations
 United Kingdom (based on historic, counterpart's and IMF data)
 Denmark (based on a study, remittance levels in neighbouring
countries, price index)
 Norway (benchmark estimate of 2004, growth in households'
primary income)
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Questions
Question 7:
Do you have any future plans for improving the collection of
data on remittances? If yes, please describe them.
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Future plans (1)
 No plans
 Denmark, Hungary, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Greece,
Montenegro, Switzerland
 Household surveys
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Italy (improved coverage of informal channel)
Cyprus (extend existing survey)
Slovenia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Belgium, Portugal, Sweden
Poland (specialised survey in NL and DE)
 Mirror exercise
 Austria, Ireland, Spain
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Future plans (2)
 Migration statistics
 Estonia (Eurostat data, household survey not successful)
 Slovakia (estimations based on migration data)
 Luxembourg, United Kingdom, Portugal (econometric
model)
 Bulgaria (demographic model)
 Romania (Eurostat labour force survey)
 More direct reporters
 Norway (new register of banks, MTOs, post offices)
 Portugal
 Serbia (more commercial banks)
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Future plans (3)
 Other sources
 Czech Republic (verify assumptions)
 Sweden (ongoing project to use data from MTOs, banks)
 Netherlands (MTOs for countries of destination and origin,
population statistics for countries of origin, GDP for grossing
up)
 Germany (4 steps method recommended by Luxembourg Group)
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Thank you for your attention
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