Foreign trade statistics
What do foreign trade statistics describe?
The German foreign trade statistics describe the cross-border trading of goods between the Federal Republic of Germany and other countries.
The cross-border trading of goods is presented in a breakdown by general trade and special trade. General trade, as a rule, covers all goods moved into or moved out of Germany. Basically, special trade only covers goods that are imported into Germany for use, consumption, treatment or processing, and goods exported that were produced, treated or processed in the country. The difference between general and special trade consists mainly in (not) covering imports and exports via (customs and free zone) warehouses. Foreign trade statistics are one of the indicators of the dissemination standard of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
How are the data of foreign trade statistics collected?
Since foreign trade statistics have been designed as a centralised system, the relevant surveys are organised and conducted by the Federal Statistical Office alone. Since the completion of the Single European Market on 1 January 1993 and the subsequent abolishment of customs commodity control at the internal borders of the Member States of the European Union (EU), foreign trade data have been collected based on two different concepts. Intra-community trade statistics cover the trade in goods with EU Member States. Businesses engaged in foreign trade directly submit their declarations to the Federal Statistical Office. Businesses whose scope of dispatches to other Member States and of arrivals from those countries each have exceeded the currently specified threshold of Euro 400,000 (until 2004: 200,000 Euro) in the current and in the previous year are obliged to submit declarations for the purpose of intra-Community trade statistics.
Extra-Community trade statistics cover the cross-border trading of goods between Germany and states outside the European Union, that is the so-called non-member countries. Extra-Community trade data are collected in the traditional way via the customs authorities. A declaration must be submitted for any consignment of goods whose value is above Euro 1,000. However, consignments whose value is below that threshold, but whose total weight exceeds 1,000 kilogramm must be declared as well.
The results of extra- and intra-Community trade statistics are published together as Germany's foreign trade data.
When are the results of foreign trade statistics released?
The foreign trade data are released every month. Provisional results are published in a press release about 40 days after the end of the reference period. More detailed data in a breakdown by countries and commodity groups become available approximately two weeks later. The release calendar and the press releases are accessible as part of the Federal Statistical Office's website content. In October of each year delayed and corrected data are integrated into the preliminary results, thus finalising the collection and processing of data of the previous year.
How accurate are the results of foreign trade statistics?
The provisional results may differ from the final results of foreign trade statistics as not all businesses responsible for providing information transmit their data in time. Consequently, the Federal Statistical Office has to add estimates for non-response. The estimates will be replaced by original data at a later time. Additional inaccuracies may be attributed to the fact that businesses sometimes allocate their foreign trade transactions to incorrect commodity codes. This often has to do with the rather detailed breakdown of goods in the Commodity Classification for Foreign Trade Statistics. Apart from that, estimates are required for foreign trade transactions whose scope does not exceed the exemption threshold so that they are exempted from declaration.
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