Improving the quality of statistics of manufacturing turnover growth: timeliness and accuracy

The objective of the research described in this paper is to improve the quality of the statistics of the turnover growth of the manufacturing industry. The quality parameters studied are timeliness and accuracy. Without adaptations of the compilation process of the statistics, improvement of one parameter will usually lead to a deterioration of the other. Three approaches are explored. The first approach considers alternative imputation methods for non-response. Methods can be found which improve timeliness with one week without loss of accuracy. The second approach is selective response chasing of the largest enterprises, which also seems quite promising. The third approach combines early response with an expected value or "nowcast". It improves the accuracy of the estimation of the turnover growth during the first 3 weeks after the reference month, however not enough for a timelier publication.