Compilation and Dissemination of
Distributive Trade Statistics
by KONDWANI CHILOPA
NSO MALAWI
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Outline
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Sources of data
Coverage
Classification
Data collection
Processing of data
Quality control
Main outputs
Data users
Dissemination strategy
Sources data
NSO Malawi compiles its Distributive Trade Statistics based
on data collected from enterprises through an Annual
Economic sample survey (AES).
The names of the enterprises that are selected for the survey
are obtained from the Business Information Register (BIR).
The BIR is a dynamic database containing information on all
registered and unregistered enterprises know by the NSO to
operate in Malawi.
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The BIR contains names, addresses, physical location, type of
activity, number of employees, turnover, value added and
ISIC group of every business and it is updated on regular
basis.
Coverage
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The survey covers all sectors of the Malawi economy by
type of activity.
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The survey covers private, statutory bodies and public
(government) enterprises engaged in production and sale
of goods and services.
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The survey selects large scale profit making enterprises
while medium and small scale enterprises are selected on
basis of critical employment size or annual turnover.
Classification
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The United Nations International Standard Industrial
Classification (ISIC, Rev 3) is used to classify economic
activities.
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The activities are classified at 2-digit, 3-digit and 4-digit
levels.
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However, some activities are combined to ensure
confidentiality inline with the Statistics Act 1967.
Data collection
Personal delivery of questionnaires to respective respondents in the selected
enterprises is used as a method of collecting information.
For enterprises that fail to respond but have the current annual company
accounts available, their questionnaires are completed at our office
using these accounts as a basis for estimates.
The reference period is 12 months and this is normally the enterprises
financial year. A financial year is determined on the basis of bias of the
months within the year. For example, any enterprise with its financial
year ending 31th March will be considered to have operated in the
previous year because the current year has only 3 months as
compared to 9 months in the previous year.
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Data processing
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Data is processed using Microsoft Excel
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Mainly graphs and tables are computed
Quality control
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On receipt of questionnaires, the following steps
are undertaken
 Sorting
 Manual checks
 Verification of responses where company
accounts statements are available
 Any problems found are corrected after
consultation with the respondent.
Main Outputs
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The major indicators compiled from this survey
are the following;
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Employment
Total income
Remuneration
Annual Capital Investments (Fixed assets)
Disposal of fixed assets
Turnover
Value added
Gross profit by sector
Stocks
Data users
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Government institutions
National Accounts
Private researchers
Academia
Business community
NGO’s
Media
Investors
Dissemination methods
The AES indicators are released in the official NSO
publication as follows;
A) Annual Economic Survey report
B) In addition data users make specific data requests that are
provided either by email, fax or post.
C) Users can also access the reports which are posted on the
NSO official website:
www.nso.malawi.net
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Challenges faced
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Late completion of questionnaires by respondents this in turn
delays data entry and processing
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No any distributive trade indices are produced
Thank you for very much for attention
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