0 Administrative Information about the Statistical Product


0.1 Name
EU trade (Intrastat)

0.2 Subject Area
External trade

0.3 Responsible Authority, Office, Person, etc.
External trade
Mr Casper Winther, tel. +45 39 17 32 27, e-mail: caw@dst.dk
Mr Søren Rich, tel. +45 39 17 33 36, e-mail: sri@dst.dk

0.4 Purpose and History
The statistics analyse the development in Denmark's trade in goods at a detailed commodity level (imports and exports) with the other Member States of the European Union.

The statistics were introduced at the beginning of the EC Single Market 1 January 1993. Previously, these flows of goods were analysed via customs and shipping documents reported by firms to the Customs and Tax Authorities (see declaration of contents for trade with non-EU-countries).

0.5 Users and Application
Public authorities, private organisations and firms, the news media, and private individuals. The detailed figures distributed by commodity-countries are used by trade and industry for market research.

0.6 Sources
Monthly reports from approx. 8,500 firms.

0.7 Legal Authority to Collect Data
Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 of 31 March 2004 concerning statistics on the exchange of goods between Member States with later amendments and addenda, Act on Statistics Denmark, and Consolidated Act No 1495 of 16 December 2004 of the Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs.

0.8 Response burden
...

0.9 EU Regulation
Council Regulation (EEC) No 638/2004 of 31 March 2004 concerning statistics on the exchange of goods between Member States with later amendments and addenda.


1 Contents


1.1 Description of Contents
The statistics show Denmark's imports and exports of goods from/to the other European Union countries, distributed among partner countries and approx. 10,000 different goods recorded by value, net weight in kilograms and/or supplementary unit. Furthermore, unit value and volume indices are published at a more aggregated level (SITC-chapters, but not distributed among partner countries).

1.2 Statistical Concepts
The statistics are prepared on the basis of reports from Danish companies with total annual imports and/or exports of goods of DKK 3.6m and DKK 4.8m, respectively. The obligation to report is established for imports and exports separately.

For each commodity flow (imports or exports) and month, the following statistical information is gathered:

• Product code in accordance with the Combined Nomenclature CN
• Partner country (imports=country of consignment, exports=country of destination)
• Nature of transaction
• Invoice value in Danish kroner (whole numbers)
• Net weight in kilograms (whole numbers) and/or supplementary unit, e.g. litres, units (if indicated in CN).

The statistics are published at the most detailed level as sums of statistical value (estimated on the basis of the invoice value), net weight, and any supplementary unit for identical occurrences of product code and partner country, some types of transactions are, however, indicated separately (e.g. repair goods). Furthermore, quarterly unit value and volume indices are published at a more aggregated level (SITC-chapters, but not distributed among partner countries).

For each flow of goods (imports or exports), grouping is primarily made on commodity groups (e.g. all goods for which the first two digits are identical, i.e. the chapter level). For the grouping, different nomenclatures are used (KN, SITC rev. 3, BEC and KONJ).


2 Time


2.1 Reference Period
The month in which the goods are received (imports) or shipped (exports) from/to another European Union country.

2.2 Date of Publication
Aggregated statistics for selected countries and country groups and for aggregated commodity groups are published monthly approximately 6-7 weeks after reference period. Detailed statistics are published 11-12 weeks after reference month.

2.3 Punctuality
The Statistics are usually published without delay on the date published on Statistics Denmarks homepage, which is announced at least 3 month in advance.

2.4 Frequency
Monthly.


3 Accuracy


3.1 Overall accuracy
The first publications of the external trade figures are subject to considerable uncertainty, as approx. 20-30 per cent of the data material is either missing entirely or the quantity of imperfect data is so high that it cannot be included at the time of publication. To make up for this, supplementary estimates have to be made. The reliability of figures for a given month is greatly increased by later publications, as estimation is made for missing reports via VAT figures. The final total figures are considered very reliable.

3.2 Sources of inaccuracy
The figures for total imports and exports from/to European Union countries are considered to be of high quality in the final compilation as information can be added via estimation on the VAT return, which covers all transactions of goods between Denmark and the European Union countries. However, it cannot be excluded that companies give imperfect information on the VAT return.

At the detailed level, the reliability of the figures is affected by:

• No reports from companies below the threshold limits
• Imperfect reports from the firms obliged to report
• Submission of inconsistent information: the relationship between value and net weight in kilograms and/or supplementary unit seems unlikely
• For reasons of resources, it is not possible to examine all reports where (probably) inconsistent information has been submitted.

3.3 Measures on accuracy
The uncertainty with respect to the final imports and exports figures cannot be quantified, but various comparisons with alternative statistical sources does not indicate a systematic quality problem, please see the paper: The Quality of the External Trade Figures.

The uncertainty with respect to the detailed figures distributed by commodity-country is in the order of approx. 10% on average, corresponding to the supplement that is made to the reports from the VAT figures.


4 Comparability


4.1 Comparability over Time
Any gap in the time series as a result of changed collection methods etc. is adjusted for by estimation, which is the reason why the external trade figures are comparable over time.

It goes without saying that data comparability does not apply at the most detailed commodity level as the content of many product codes is changed over time.

4.2 Comparability with other Statistics
The external trade figures are comparable with several other sources:

• The partner country's recording of the same transaction (the mirror transaction). The comparison is hampered by differences in the level of value for the recording of imports and exports (cif and fob, respectively).
• Reports on European Union purchases and sales of goods on the VAT return. These statistics are not published, but are used in the continuous control of the reports to INTRASTAT.
• For the exports of industrial products with figures from the industrial statistics' recording of turnover in export markets. The comparison is made difficult by the fact that the industrial statistics' records are not distributed by country.

4.3 Coherence between provisional and final statistics
As the share of estimated figures is in the order of 20-30 per cent when the statistics are published for the first time, there are a number of deviations between the first and the final publication of external trade figures for any given month.

The inaccuracy on the provisional statistics can be illustrated by the difference between the first provisional statistics and the revised figures. Information on these revisions are presented in the table below for the latest final statistics - 2003.

Revisions (Mill. DKK), 2003

---------------------------------------------------

                Numeric   Actual   Numeric   Actual 

Imports        --- Mill. DKK ---   -Percent latest-

- INTRASTAT      26,636  -12,555      10.4     -4.9

- EXTRASTAT       2,552      -55       2.4     -0.1

- I alt          29,188  -12,611       8.1     -3.5

Exports 

- INTRASTAT      29,234  -16,945      10.5     -6.1

- EXTRASTAT       6,351    2,772       4.3      1.9

- I alt          35,585  -14,173       8.3     -3.3

Trade balance 

- INTRASTAT               -4,390              -19.7

- EXTRASTAT                2,828                6.6

- I alt                   -1,562               -2.4

---------------------------------------------------

5 Accessibility


5.1 Forms of dissemination
The statistics are published in Nyt fra Danmarks Statistik (News from Statistics Denmark) (monthly), in the series Statistiske Efterretninger (Statistical News) (monthly), in the series Statistikservice (Statistics Service) (quarterly), in Konjunkturstatistik (Main Indicators) (monthly) and in StatBank Denmark (monthly).

Annual publications: Statistical Yearbook,Statistical Ten-Year Review,Denmark's Imports and Exports of Goods ("Danmarks vareimport og eksport") and Statistics across Borders ("Statistik uden grænser").

The external trade figures are published in the following way:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Publication                 Frequency  Extent

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

NYT (NEWS)                  Monthly    Summary tables

  from Statistics Denmark   

Statistical News            Monthly    Detailed distribution among countries 

                                         2-digit commodity grouping

                                         Unit value and quantity indices

Statistics Service          Quarterly  Detailed figures by commodity-country

Statistical Yearbook        Annually   Approx. as in Statistical News 

Statistical Ten-Year Review Annually   Summary tables (also index)

Main Indicators             Monthly    Slightly more detailed than in NYT

StatBank Denmark            Monthly    Detailed figures by commodity-country

Statistics across Borders   Annually   Summary tables

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Access to data can be obtained in accordance with Statistics Denmark's standard terms for the relevant products.

Furthermore, data can be supplied by taking out a special subscription where subscribers receive selected data according to their requirements.

5.2 Basic material: Storage and usability
In addition to the statistical material, cf. section 1.2, the basic material contains a range of identifier information (e.g. VAT registration no. ("SE-no.")) and a distribution by nature of transaction.

Particularly identifier information is well suited for linking data with other business statistics.

5.3 Documentation
At the homepage of external trade (www.dst.dk/udenrigshandel) most documentation can be found.

The procedure used in compiling the external trade statistics is described in Udenrigshandel med varer og tjenester - kilder og metoder

5.4 Other Information
The Danish external trade figures are accessible via various international publications, e.g from the OECD, the UN, the IMF and Eurostat, including Eurostat's COMEXT-database.


Supplementary documentation
Hent bilaget - Kvaliteten af udenrigshandelsstatistikken