This paper discusses those countries that have never reported data by trade partners to the IMF or to the United Nations COMTRADE, estimates are obtained by using directly the corresponding bilateral flow reported by counterpart countries. For example, if country B has never reported trade statistics with a geographical breakdown, but country A has reported imports from country B, then A’s data for imports are used to estimate B’s exports. Because imports are valued on a cost, insurance, and freight (CIF) basis and exports on a free on board (FOB) basis, the data are adjusted for the cost of freight and insurance. A CIF/FOB factor of 1.06 is currently used. Reported imports CIF are divided by 1.06 (i.e., the CIF/FOB factor) to give partner country estimates of exports FOB. Similarly, reported exports FOB are multiplied by 1.06 to give partner country imports CIF.

This paper discusses that shipments to and from free-trade zones and bonded warehouses, exclusion of military and other confidential items and government goods, value thresholds for customs registration of shipments, returned goods, and other goods missed by customs (or surveys) are examples of coverage differences that can result in inconsistencies. As a result of reporting and processing lags, trade data for a given period are often released before all customs documents for the period have been processed. These data are sometimes not revised, or, if data are revised, errors are nevertheless made in assigning the date on which goods are shipped or received and the late data are assigned to the wrong month, quarter, and/or year. Errors can also be made in assigning a destination to exports and an origin to imports during customs clearances, or in cases when the ultimate destination is changed after the initial consignment during transshipment, the change is not incorporated into published statistics via the release of revised data.

This annual publication provides detailed data on transactions in revenue, expense, net acquisition of assets and liabilities, other economic flows, and balances of assets and liabilities of general government and its subsectors. The data are compiled according to the framework of the 2014 Government Finance Statistics Manual, which provides for several summary measures of government fiscal performance.

This paper analyses that the IMF has published data on a basis that is consistent across countries and across time periods. Such data consistency is required to perform cross-country data comparisons, track growth rates across time, and produce regional or global data aggregates. The methodologies, compiling practices, and data sources available through data.imf.org and DVD-ROM are based on information provided to the IMF by reporting countries. The descriptions are intended to enhance user understanding of the coverage, as well as the limitations, of individual country data. The estimation procedure is based largely on the use of the WEO database in BPM6 format. For a variety of reasons, however, countries may not correctly record some transactions, or they classify corresponding transactions differently. Under these circumstances, errors and omissions in the national data and asymmetries (discrepancies) in the global statistics arise.

This paper focuses on composition of the basket that was changed on the basis of updated data for 1972–1976. The weights of some currencies were also changed. The amount of each of the 16 currencies in the revised basket was such as to ensure that the value of the Special Drawing Right (SDR) in terms of any currency on June 30, 1978 was exactly the same in the revised valuation as in the previous valuation. Since January 1, 1981, the value of the SDR has been determined based on the currencies of the five member countries having the largest exports of goods and services during the 5-year period ending one year before the date of the latest revision to the valuation basket. Broadly reflecting the currencies’ relative importance in international trade and finance, the weights are based on the value of the exports of goods and services of the members issuing these currencies and the balances of their currencies officially held by members of the IMF.

The Direction of Trade Statistics yearbook, usually published in September, contains data on the value of merchandise exports and imports between each country and all its trading partners. The Yearbook provides seven years of data for 183 countries and two sets of world and area summaries: world and area trade as seen by the reporting countries, and as seen by the partner countries to those transactions.

This paper discusses the complete set of updated country notes is accessible from the IFS Online Service internet site (in the Metadata tab), and appear on the DVD-ROM edition of IFS under the Publications tab. A print edition of Country Notes may be ordered separately by subscribers of the DVD-ROM. The sources for the unit labor cost data are the OECD Analytical Database (quarterly unit labor cost in manufacturing) and IMF staff (annual data interpolated into higher frequencies). Euro area unit labor cost is used as a proxy for a number of economies for which data are unavailable: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, and Slovak Republic. For manufactured goods, trade by type of good and market is distinguished in the database. For primary products, the weights assigned depend principally on a country’s role as a global supplier or buyer of the product. Trade in crude petroleum, petroleum, and other energy products are excluded. For some countries that heavily depend on tourism, bilateral exports of tourism services averaged over 2004–2006 are also included in calculating the competitiveness weights.

This paper discusses that for ease of comparison between the nominal effective exchange rate index and the real effective exchange rate index, the average exchange rate expressed in terms of US dollars per unit of each of the national currencies. In both cases, an increase in the index reflects an appreciation. Because of certain data-related limits, particularly where IMF estimates have been used, data users need to exercise considerable caution in interpreting movements in nominal effective and real effective exchange rates. The IMF publishes calculated effective exchange rates data only for countries that have given their approval. Similar indices that are calculated by country authorities may contain different results. For manufactured goods, trade by type of good and market is distinguished in the database. For primary products, the weights assigned depend principally on a country’s role as a global supplier or buyer of the product.

This paper discusses annual publication detailed data on transactions in revenue, expense, net acquisition of assets and liabilities, other economic flows, and balances of assets and liabilities of general government and its subsectors. International Financial Statistics (IFS), Balance of Payments Statistics (BOPS), Direction of Trade Statistics (DOTS), and Government Finance Statistics (GFS) are available on DVD-ROM by annual subscription. The DVD-ROMs incorporate a Windows-based browser facility, as well as a flat file of the database in scientific notation. The Statistics Department of the IMF is pleased to make available to users the IFS, Balance of Payments Statistics (BOPS), DOTS, and Government Finance Statistics (GFS) databases through the new, easy-to-use data. In the interest of streamlining and standardizing datasets, all indicator codes have been converted to one code/indicator that is the same in all media.

This paper describes the country, euro area, and world tables that provide measures of effective exchange rates, compiled by the IMF’s Research Department, Statistics Department, and area departments. A nominal effective exchange rate index represents the ratio of an index of a currency’s period-average exchange rate to a weighted geometric average of exchange rates for the currencies of selected countries and the euro area. A real effective exchange rate index represents a nominal effective exchange rate index adjusted for relative movements in national price or cost indicators of the home country, selected countries, and the euro area. For ease of comparison between the nominal effective exchange rate index and the real effective exchange rate index, the average exchange rate expressed in terms of US dollars per unit of each of the national currencies is also given in the index form, base 2010 = 100.