Monthly VAT-registered units, now available according to the NACE

Enterprises
Monthly VAT-registered units, now available according to the NACE

Since October 2020, Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, has been publishing in its DataLab a new monthly statistic of VAT-registered units, with provisional results 30 days after the reference month, in order to better map the impact of Covid-19 on economic life.

Five months later, this new methodology has been refined and is now an official statistic as from reference month January 2021 (see methodological note at the bottom of the page). It makes it possible, among others, to analyse the evolution of VAT-registered units according to their economic activity sector (NACE).

In contrast to the month of December where an overalldecrease in the number of enterprises was observed, only three sectors saw their population being sensitively reduced in January:

  • Accommodation and food service activities (loss of 158 enterprises);
  • Wholesale and retail trade (loss of 91 enterprises);
  • “Other service activities” (loss of 20 enterprises).

First registrations

In January 2021, first registrations for all sectors combined are down by 5.7% compared to January 2020. That is 786 fewer births than last year in the same period.

Re-registrations

As for re-registrations, all sectors combined, we observe a 14.1% decrease compared to last year. This represents 263 fewer enterprises.

De-registrations

In January 2021, the number of de-registrations increased by 361 units compared to January 2020 (+3.1%).

Evolution of the population of VAT-registered units

Despite the disturbances related to the health crisis, results for January 2021 remain positive in terms of growth of the population of VAT-registered units over a year. We see a 3.8% increase of the whole VAT-registered population, i.e. 38,711 more units than in January 2020.

Methodological note:

The methodology for this statistic differs slightly from the former monthly statistic on VAT units:

  • In contrast to the former monthly statistic, we no longer use a method for the identification of all existing events in the databases to calculate de-registrations, first registrations, re-registrations or migrations of enterprises. The technique used to calculate the number of de-registered and re-registered enterprises is the comparison of snapshots between two months: if the enterprise did not exist in the snapshot of active units of the previous month but appears in the current month, it will be considered as a first registration or a re-registration depending on whether this is the first appearance[i] or not of the enterprise in the register. On the contrary, if an enterprise existed in the snapshot of active units of the previous month but no longer appears in the last month analysed, it will be considered as a de-registration. Therefore, the number of first registrations or re-registrations (or de-registrations) will not exactly correspond to the one from the former official statistic and will be slightly lower. Finally, if an enterprise that existed in the snapshot of the previous month also appears in the active population of the current month, it will be considered as active in the existing breakdown (NACE). If the NACE has changed between these two snapshots, it will be considered as an immigration and emigration into another NACE (phenomenon that has no influence on the total number of active units at the end of the period).
  • The NACE is added, but it should be kept in mind that it is a temporary NACE, which can still, where relevant, be subjected to examination and review over the year. However, this variable gives an idea of the movements per sector. The NACE is updated monthly for the whole series until T-10 months, in order to better reflect the reality over the whole period: for instance, if an enterprise has been recently created and its NACE has been revised later, it is preferable that the sector revision be related to the creation date of said enterprise rather than appearing as a “false” change of activities.

[i] If the enterprise appears for the first time in the register, it will be considered as a first registration. All subsequent registrations will be considered as a re-registrations.