On 8 October 2024, the Federal Statistical Office has resumed its regular publication of short-term statistics for trade and services with a release of calendar and seasonally adjusted results of wholesale trade turnover in the reference month of July 2024 and on October 10 with a release of calendar and seasonally adjusted results of retail trade turnover in the reference month of August 2024. After that, calendar and seasonally adjusted results for turnover in the service sector (reference month of July 2024 on 23 October 2024), motor vehicle trade (reference month of July 2024 on 23 October 2024), and the accommodation and food services sector (reference month of August 2024 on 31 October 2024) will be published. The monthly release of these results had to be suspended in June 2024 due to IT problems arising in connection with an extensive reorganisation of the data collection and processing system for short-term economic statistics in the trade and service sectors. The time series in the GENESIS-Online database (table codes 45211 to 45214 and 47414) have been updated gradually since the end of August 2024, now gradually again in the form of calendar and seasonally adjusted results. The change in methodology is required in order to meet new data requirements of the European Union. For example, the changeover from the "legal unit" presentation unit to the new "business segment” presentation unit in the relevant sets of statistics requires far-reaching methodological changes in the area of data collection and data processing
More precise presentation of economic activities by economic branch in future
Results will continue to be shown for the "legal unit" presentation unit until the statistics have been rebased to 2021, which has been scheduled for the end of 2024. Once the base year has changed, the results will be shown by "business segment".
The changeover entails far-reaching methodological improvements for short-term statistics in the trade and service sectors. Up to now, the survey variables “turnover” and “persons employed” have been covered on the basis of the "legal unit" presentation unit. This means that a legal unit (enterprise) is assigned to the economic branch where it generated most of its turnover. If the legal unit is simultaneously operating in one or several other economic branches and generated the remaining part of its turnover there, then this part of its turnover is also allocated to the main economic branch.
The changeover to the new "business segment" presentation unit in data collection will provide a more detailed picture of the economic activities performed by legal units in individual economic branches. If a legal unit operates in several business segments, it will be possible to assign the turnover it generates and the persons it employs to these business segments (economic branches) exactly. The short-term economic development by sector will therefore be reflected more precisely for trade and services in Germany.