Accounting statistics, non-financial enterprises foreign financing

The units below are regarded as Norwegian in the statistics:

Legal persons registered as Norwegian, excluding their affiliates abroad. The definition is valid regardless of the owner’s nationality. Hence, foreign-owned companies registered as Norwegian are regarded as Norwegian units.

Affiliates in Norway of foreign registered legal persons. Physical persons permanently residing in Norway, regardless of citizenship. The following units are regarded as foreign in the statistics:

Legal persons registered abroad, including Norwegian-owned companies that are registered abroad.

Norwegian companies’ affiliates abroad.

Physical persons permanently residing abroad, regardless of citizenship.

Fixed assets in foreign countries cover assets that are mainly included in the company’s long-term creation of value and are intended for permanent ownership or use. They also include receivables and securities scheduled for repayment later than one year after the time of the settlement. They include tangible fixed assets, long-term receivables and investments. Investments include securities, shares and loans to other companies within the same group.

Current assets are assets relating to the company’s sales of goods and services (stocks of goods are not included, but assets and liabilities concerning sales of goods are), and assets which are expected to have a functional period of less than one year in production. This includes cash and short-term capital in foreign countries, foreign receivables and inventories.

The data are based on accounting legislation, and the values do not necessarily give a good picture of the real or the market value of the assets.

Liabilities cover all obligations that may limit the company’s future use of its resources. They are divided into short-term and long-term liabilities to foreign countries. Long-term liabilities are legal or financial obligations not meant to be redeemed during the coming accounting period. They are not related to the company’s short-term sales of goods and services. Short-term liabilities are liabilities that fall due for payment within one year from the time of settlement. Liabilities which are directly related to the company’s short-term sales of goods and services also fall in this category.

Companies applying the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) classify proposed dividends as a part of the equity, and not as a short-term liability.

In the statistics, assets and liabilities are grouped into assets and liabilities in companies within own group and assets and liabilities in companies that are not in own group.

The annual statistics are broken-down by groups of countries.

Groups of countries are based on the ISO standard 3166.

Name: Accounting statistics, non-financial enterprises foreign financing
Topic: Establishments, enterprises and accounts

Division for Business Dynamics Statistics

The annual statistics are divided into countries or groups of countries.

Annually and quarterly statistics on non-financial companies’ foreign financial income, foreign financial expenses and foreign balance sheet items. The quarterly statistics are published 10 weeks after the quarter’s end, while the annual statistics are published within one year after the fiscal year.

The statistics are part of the basis for the Balance of Payment of non-financial companies, and partly the basis for reporting of Foreign Direct Investment to international organizations as IMF, OECD and Eurostat.

Statistical files are stored.

The purpose of the statistics is to give an overview over Norwegian non-financial companies’ foreign economy (assets, liabilities, ownership, financial income and financial expenses).

Parts of the earlier basis for the Balance of Payments statistics were closed, and this statistics was established to replace parts of the basis. The statistics also gives information on non-financial companies’ foreign assets and liabilities was previously collected as a part of the Financial Census.

The Accounting Statistics, non-financial companies foreign financing, are a part of the Balance of Payment.

No external users have access to the statistics and analyses before they are published and accessible simultaneously for all users on ssb.no at 8 am. Prior to this, a minimum of three months' advance notice is given inthe Statistics Release Calendar.

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Accounting statistics, non-financial companies' foreign financing, is part of the basis of the Balance of Payment. The statistics is also part of the international reporting of assets and liabilities to foreign countries. The data collection is partly joint with the statistics on import and export of services.

The quarterly statistics cover the sample, and do not give figures for the entire population. The statistics is not directly comparable with the Balance of Payment.

Statistics Act Sections 10 and 20.

Council Regulation (EF) 184/2005.

The statistics are based on a survey of the 600 largest non-financial companies. The size of the company is measured by assets and liabilities in foreign countries, foreign shares and foreign ownership.

The population is based on the Financial Census of 2003 and taxation data.

Data are collected from non-financial companies, and are matched with information from the accounting statistics, stock statistics and the Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises.

The data are collected quarterly from the about 600 largest companies quarterly. The annual statistics cover approximately 3000 companies, where the 600 largest are included.

The data are collected by electronic questionnaires. The respondents must report within 30 days after the quarter, but have longer time to report the annual data.

The data are checked when reported to Statistics Norway, and for some types of errors, the respondent is contacted to get the errors corrected. The data are also verified by comparing them with data from other sources, like previous reports and accounting data.

Figures are not published in a way which makes it possible to identify particular units in the statistics.

Revisions in the accounting legislation may cause less comparability over time.

The reported data are based on the tax questionnaire on accounting. The interpretation of figures concerning Norwegian amounts and amounts toward foreign countries may vary from company to company, and cause missing values. There may also be errors in reporting. One of the most common errors stem from differences between variables as defined by Statistics Norway and as they are in the company’s accounting system or general ledger. The separation of the figures into Norwegian and foreign may also cause errors.

Non-response weakens the quality of the statistics. To minimize non-response, missing data are imputed electronically.

To secure high relevance at low cost, ensuring that the largest companies are in the sample is emphasised. There is no complete register covering all units in the population. Due to this, it might be units in the population not covered by the sample.