Economic statistics surveys released by Statistics South Africa will now include two million more businesses, the organisation said on Friday.
”Our economic surveys will now include two million more businesses which are registered as tax income units,” Stats SA head Pali Lehohla told reporters in Pretoria.
He was speaking at the announcement of the organisation’s improved methods for collecting economic statistics.
Lehohla said previously only value-added tax (vat) registered businesses were sampled for the survey.
The new sampling method would be more representative of South African businesses as it would include smaller businesses which were registered as tax income units, but were not necessarily vat-registered.
Stats SA said the results from the new sample for the monthly survey would be made public on April 14, and those for the quarterly survey in June.
Plans to release new surveys in sectors that have not been covered before by Stats SA were also announced.
Lehohla said Stats SA planned to release quarterly reports on the transport, post, telecommunications, personal and business services and the civil engineering and construction sectors. – Sapa