Turnover comprises the value of all own products and industrial/crafts services delivered to third parties in the reference month by local units with 50 and more employees in manufacturing (final invoice totals excluding turnover tax). The survey distinguishes between domestic turnover and turnover accruing from business with foreign recipients. The results are shown monthly as value indices to measure the nominal development of turnover and as volume indices to present the price-adjusted development of turnover.
Apart from the indices of orders received and of production, the monthly turnover indices in manufacturing are among the major indicators for monitoring and analysing the short-term economic development in Germany. As the data are rather sensitive with regard to economic policy, a particularly high level of currentness and accuracy of reporting is necessary.
How is the indicator calculated?
The basis of index calculation is the sum of the final invoice amounts accruing within a reference month (broken down by the two sales directions domestic territory and foreign countries). This total in value terms is related to the respective result for the monthly average in the base year and forms the value index for a branch of economic activity. To calculate the volume index, the figure is deflated with the producer price index or the export price index. The individual branch indices and their main groupings are aggregated to produce the overall result for the manufacturing sector using the shares of the base year turnover figures.
Turnover and the respective indices have been determined by official statistics since 1949. From 1977 onwards turnover statistics have been compiled as part of the monthly report for local units in manufacturing. The turnover of kind-of-activity units is presently recorded in a breakdown by domestic and foreign customers on the basis of the “Classification of Economic Activities, 2003 Edition (WZ 2003)“ for local units with 50 employees and over in 258 branches of manufacturing. For international purposes, the turnover indices for manufacturing are additionally calculated according to the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities ISIC Revision 3.1.
When is the indicator released?
In the interest of information being provided as early as possible on current short-term economic trends in the particularly important manufacturing sector, the Federal Statistical Office provides preliminary results about five weeks after the end of the reference month. The release calendar for the turnover index in manufacturing is available on the website of the Federal Statistical Office.
Results are published under Publications, Specialized publications Fachserie 4, Reihe 2.2"Auftragseingang und Umsatz im Verarbeitenden Gewerbe – Indizes" (Orders received and turnover in manufacturing – Indices) and in a number of cross-sectional publications of the Federal Statistical Office.
How accurate is the indicator?
First results for all branches are available some five weeks after the end of the respective reference month (preliminary index). At the time of calculation, not all local units have delivered their data or their reports contain estimates as the matter is very urgent. To improve the informational value of the indices at the current end in terms of quality, the expected need for correction is integrated into the preliminary results. The estimate is based on the values for earlier months which are still part of the most recent statistical reports; basically, the rate of change of the data received in time is inserted for these values and included into the index calculation.
Four weeks later, the estimates still contained in the current indices are replaced by the original figures reported until then and published together with the new preliminary indices. After one year, all data changes which have become known in the meantime are processed as part of the annual correction, as it is called (final index).
