DDi_MWI_2003_AES_v01_M Development Economics Data Group 2013-02-14 NADA Version 01 (February 2013) Annual Economic Survey 2003-2005 AES 2003-2005 MWI_2003_AES_v01_M National Statistical Office of Malawi NADA National Statistical Office of Malawi Enterprise Survey [en/oth] Previous rounds of the AES series include: AES 1973-1979 AES 1979-1980 AES 1980-1981 AES 1980-1983 AES 1983-1989 AES 1990-1994 and AES 1994-1998. The AES is conducted annually through mail questionnaires sent to all large scale profit making enterprises. The reference period is twelve months and this is normally the enterprise's financial year. The survey covers private, statutory bodies and public sector industries engaged in the production and sale of goods and services on the market at prices normally designed to cover the cost of production. Public sector industries include Government Print, Plant and Vehicle Hire Organisation (PVHO), Controller of Stores and Forestry Department.The AES provides information on the economic activity of large-scale enterprises in the Malawian economy with regard to their production and employment characteristics, profitability level, acquisition and issue of both real and financial claims in different sectors of the economy. Malawi Large Scale Enterprises The survey aims at covering all large-scale profit oriented enterprises in Malawi. Sample survey data [ssd] The main indicators compiled from this survey include employment, turnover, stocks, value added and gross profit by sector. The sample has partly been updated to reflect the deaths and births of major enterprises in the economy over time. The enterprises selected for the survey were initially obtained from the Business Information Register (BIR). This register had more routinely updated information on large and medium scaled businesses in the years 2003 to 2005. The BIR is a dynamic database containing information on enterprises known by the National Statistical Office to be operational in Malawi. The register covers the population of large scale enterprises fairly well, but for the population of medium sized enterprises the coverage is not currently exaustive. The BIR gives information on both enterprise and the underlying establishments. The database names, addresses, type of activity, number of employees and turnover (i.e. total incomes). Currently, the BIRis being updated to enehance the framefor AES and othere related studies. Although the AES mainly covers the large scale enterprises, due to the current importance of medium and small-scale enterprises, the survey has to progressively incorporate these companies in order to monitor the substantive growth of the economy. Mail Questionnaire [mail] Due to diversity in the nature of businesses in the different sectors, it was felt necessary to develop activity-specific questionnaires. The AES quationnaires have had minor adjustments over the three year period form 2003 to 2005, and in 2005 we used separate questionnaires for the following 12 sector groups: - Agriculture & Forestry - Manufacturing & Mining - Wholesale & Retail - Construction - Hotels & Restaurants - Banking & Intermediation - Insurance & Pension - Post and Telecommunications - Transport and Other service - Electricity & Water industries. The enterprises were handed questionnaires tailored for their activities. Enterprises were requested to respond to the survey questions, basically as reflected in their annual statements of accounts. The AES has traditionally been conducted annually through mail questionnaires sent to all large scale profit oriented enterprises. The reference period for the information collected is twelve months which is the normal length of the enterprise’s financial year. However, the end date of the financial year varies between the enetrprises. The survey determines which calendar year an enterprise should be included. For example, any enterprise with its financial year ending 31st March will be considered to have operated in the previous year because the current year has only three months as compared to nine months in the previous year. Currently, data is collected through personnel delively of questionnaires to respective respondentfrom the enterprises. Interviewers were sent to deliver and collect completed questionnaires. AES 2003 data collection exercise started in September 2004, 2004 data in July 2005 while 2005 data collection started in February 2007. The exercise started with one week training on data collection techniques, administration and questionnaire quality check. On receipt of the questionnaires, they were checked for errors and discrepancies. The questionnaires were checked for internal inconsistencies, but also if changes from answers in the previous survey were reasonable. Where company accounts were available, crosschecks were also made with the questionnaires to detect omissions and inconsistencies. Errors and discrepancies found were corrected after consultation with the respondent. For enterprises that failed to respond (unit non-response) and enterprises with incomplete answers (item non-response) the missing information were estimated. In cases where current annual company accounts were available, their questionnaires were completed at the office using these accounts as a basis for estimation. In other cases, missing data were imputed by applying the same growth rate as for enterprises responding for the two periods 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 respectively. Separate growth rates were calculated and used for total sales, total purchases, employment and remuneration per employee. There were two types of checks, manual check and computer validation. The checked questionnaires were keyed in using Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet. The tabulation and further analysis were done in SPSS. The whole data processing took about three months to complete. In total 412 enterprises were selected in the initial survey sample. However, some of the enterprises have not responded any of the three years of interest and is therefore not included in the final results. The figures in the attached report give results based on 371 enterprises that responded to the survey at the minimum one of the three years. National Statistical Office of Malawi Use of the dataset must be acknowledged using a citation which would include: - the Identification of the Primary Investigator - the title of the survey (including country, acronym and year of implementation) - the survey reference number - the source and date of download The user of the data acknowledges that the original collector of the data, the authorized distributor of the data, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.