1. LAMAS October 2016
Agenda Item 3.2 SDMX tests and revision policies for LCI Hubertus Vreeswijk Daniel Iscru

2. Overview
Survey results on the LCI revisions policies among member states
Results of the SDMX testing for the new SDMX standards performed in April/May 2016
Timetable for adopting the revised SDMX standards in production

3. I. Responses received
24 Countries filled out the online questionnaire on back series and revisions policies including 22 EU countries, Turkey and Iceland.
Regarding revisions policy: 21 EU countries, Turkey and Iceland.

4. Revisions of raw LCI data
14 countries revise data quarterly and 6 countries revise data on an ad-hoc basis (BG, SI, LT, SE, HU, PL)
CY, RO and SK revise raw LCI data every year while IS did not specify the frequency
The length of the revisions span varies among most Member States depending on the legislation, methodology or type of errors
UK, AT and ES revise one quarter back

5. Revisions of calendar adjusted LCI data
16 countries revise calendar adjusted data quarterly
BG, UK, RO, LT, IS, CY, HU and SE revise calendar adjusted LCI data annually or with another periodicity.
Span of revisions varies: BG, CY, DE, IT, NL revise as far as necessary; 9 countries go back to 2000Q1; for the other countries it is either shorter or not mentioned

6. Revisions of seasonally adjusted LCI data
16 countries revise data quarterly
BG, UK, RO, LT, IS, CY, HU and SE revise seasonally adjusted LCI data at annual or other frequencies
Span of revisions varies: AT, BG, CY, DE, IT, PT, NL revise as far as necessary; FR from 1998; 9 countries go back to 2000Q1; for the other countries it is either shorter or not mentioned

7. Conclusions of the survey exercise
Revisions policies vary across countries
It is proposed to revise LCI series every quarter + revise calendar/seasonal adjustment models every year (for the Q4 transmission)
MSs are invited to transmit full times series every quarter with as long back series as possible

8. II. SDMX testing for the new SDMX standards - April/May 2016
12 countries participated in the 1st test exercise (April/May 2016)
CY, FR, IT, LT, LV and SI provided files in conformity with the DSD standards; successfully fed
AT, CZ, EE, ES, NL and GB needed further instructions from Eurostat after 1st transmission
AT, EE, ES, NL were fed without problem at the 2nd transmission

9. List of issues at first transmission
AT Changing the current DSD name, they still used the old one. CZ Extensions of the files were changed to “XML”. LCI_WGT: FREQ=Q changed to FREQ=A. Changing to the current DSD name, they still used the old one. EE Requested the country to use numeric values for OBS_VALUE. Requested the country to change the codes for INDICATOR. WGT_O instead of WGT_OTH and WGT_T instead of WGT_TOT (this is the old code used last year). Use the most recent converter NL For the LCI_INDEX_Q file: CONF_STATUS For the LCI_WEIGHT_A file: SEASONAL_ADJUST, CONF_STATUS, TIME_FORMAT, BASE_YEAR, TIME_PER_COLLECT. UNIT=_Z not correct. See list of mandatory dimensions in page 7 of the guidelines (assignment status = 'M'). UK Missing attributes UNIT UNIT_MULT TIME_PER_COLLECT TIME_FORMAT BASE_YEAR

10. III. The timetable for adopting the revised SDMX standards in production
LCI tests using new SDMX standards were successful
Countries that did not participate are invited to join the 2nd testing in October and November
Parallel transmission of LCI data in old and new formats planned for the next production round (2016Q3)

11. Thank you for your attention!