National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria (NSI)

Statistics On Foreign Trade In Goods Department

2, Panayot Volov Str., 1038 Sofia, Bulgaria

Foreign trade in goods covers the trade with third countries (Extrastat) and with the Member states of EU (Intrastat). Imports include all goods entering the statistical territory of the Republic of Bulgaria from other countries and are for consumption in the country, for processing in the country with the purpose to be exported/dispatched to another country after processing, and also imports/arrivals of goods after processing outside the country. Exports include all goods leaving the statistical territory of the Republic of Bulgaria and are for normal export to another country. It covers also goods returned to the trade partner after processing in Bulgaria or exported/dispatched goods sent for processing in another country in order to be returned back to the Republic of Bulgaria. Statistical data on imports and exports do not include imported goods placed under the customs warehousing procedure without processing, and in exports - re-exports of these goods. Foreign trade statistics does not cover the transit of goods through the territory of Bulgaria.

Goods imported and exported from Bulgaria are invoiced in a range of currencies. The main currency is the Bulgarian lev (BGN). But the euro and the US dollar is also used. In general the Bulgarian customs declarations are filled with the currency BGN. The TIC data collection is mandatory in even reference years. Data on trade by invoicing currency (TIC) is collected by using the customs declarations from the Bulgarian Customs Agency. Тhe trade operators submit monthly declarations about their import and export outside the European Union. Their data is used as statistical data, because it includes the invoicing currency. Bulgaria collect, compile and transmit TIC data to Eurostat in line with the legislation in force. The information recorded from the customs declarations is according to Article 4(1) of Regulation (EC) No 471/2009. In Bulgaria the invoicing currency for exports is always available in the customs declaration. The TIC data is used also from the National Bulgarian Bank.

For the TIC data, the Bulgaria electronic system gather and use the information as the reporting country, the partner country, the reference period, the trade flows, the products and the currency. The value of traded goods is calculated at the national frontier, on a FOB (free on board) basis for exports and a CIF (cost, insurance, freight) basis for imports.

Product classification

Bulgaria use the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) is managed by the United Nations and correlated with the subheadings of the Harmonised System. The SITC Rev. 4 has 97 codes, 10 sections, 67 divisions and 262 groups. 

Country classification

The ‘Nomenclature of countries and territories for the external trade statistics of the Union and statistics of trade between Member States’, known as the ‘Geonomenclature’, is used to collect detailed statistics on exchanges of goods. TIC data are only disseminated at an aggregated partner level: partner ‘extra-EU’ for TIC data reported by the EU Member States and partner ‘world’ for the TIC data reported by the EFTA and enlargement countries.

The scope of TIC data is the same as for monthly detailed data on extra-EU trade in goods. They cover all goods entering (imports) or leaving (exports) the statistical territory of Bulgaria and for which the trading partner is a non-EU country. Тhe statistical territory of Bulgaria corresponds to its customs territory. Due to Brexit, the extra-EU trade area includes the United Kingdom as partner country. This change applies since 2020 as reference year. Note that the statistical territory of Bulgaria corresponds to its customs territory. As ITGS in general, TIC data cover all sectors of the economy.

For Bulgaria, the trade by invoicing currency covers all the transactions with non-EU countries i.e. with any country or territory which does not form part of the statistical territory of the European Union. The data for individual (non-EU) partner countries is summed up to provide aggregated data.

Reporting country/ reference area: The reporting country considered for the Bulgarian TIC data is the European Union as aggregate; all the EU Member States individually; all the EFTA countries except Liechtenstein for which a derogation applies: Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. The United Kingdom is used as country outside the European Union, togather with the enlargement countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey. Except for some specific goods like vessels and aircraft, ITGS follow the physical movements of the goods. A country should record an import when goods enter its statistical territory and an export when goods leave that territory except if those goods are in simple transit.

Partner country: the country of destination for exports and the country of origin for imports. Individual partner countries are not kept in the dissemination of data by invoicing currency. They are replaced by the partner areas ‘extra-EU’ for the EU Member. The data is prepared in connection with every partner country. Specific codes are used for simplified reporting of the partner country for specific goods or movements like QP, QS, QW, QZ, countries not specified for commercial or military reasons.

Reference period: the TIC data in Bulgaria is compiled once in every two years.

Trade flows: imports and exports.

Product: Goods are primarily classified by commodity code as set out in the EU Combined Nomenclature. TIC data are compiled on the basis of a correspondence table enabling the transposition of detailed data collected according to the Combined Nomenclature into the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC). TIC data are available by three product groups: Raw materials without oil (SITC sections 0-4, excluding division 33), Oil (SITC division 33) and Manufactured products (SITC sections 5-8). Additionally, since 2022 reference period, TIC data are available also by 10 individual SITC sections.

Currency: the invoicing currency is the currency in which the commercial invoice is drawn up. Its definition is provided by the customs legislation under Regulation (EU) No 113/2010 of 9 February 2010 implementing Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics relating to external trade with non-member countries, as regards trade coverage, definition of the data, compilation of statistics on trade by business characteristics and by invoicing currency, and specific goods or movements.

For the data transmission to Eurostat Bulgaria only use the following currencies or groups of invoicing currencies:      

• Euro (‘EUR’)
• Bulgarian lev (‘BGN’)
• UK pound sterling (‘GBP’)
• US dollar (‘USD’)
• National currencies of non-euro area Member States (‘XU3’)
• Other not specified currencies (‘_X’)
• Unknown currency (‘_U’)
• Total ‘_T’

Additional invoicing currency breakdown since the data source is the customs declaration:

• Brazilian real (‘BRL’)
• Canadian dollar (‘CAD’)
• Swiss franc (‘CHF’)
• Chinese yuan renminbi (‘CNY’)
• Indian rupee (‘INR’)
• Japanese yen (‘JPY’)
• South Korean won (‘KRW’)
• Mexican peso (‘MXN’)
• Norwegian krone (‘NOK’)
• Russian rouble (‘RUB’)
• Singapore dollar (‘SGD’)
• Turkish lira (‘TRY’)

Note on ‘unknown’ currency: Trade for which the currency is unknown should be distributed over the individual currencies or groups of currencies proportionally to their relative share except if it is known that such a distribution would skew the data in a too significant extent. In such a case, the code UNK ‘Unknown’ could exceptionally be used.

The set of collected currencies has been evolving over time. Initially, only 5 currencies were collected (EUR, USD, _X, XU3 and _T). Since 2020 reference year, _U currency was added. The full set mentioned above has been collected only since 2022 reference year.

Our TIC data are updated every year by the end of April with a new reference year. Bulgaria provides TIC data to Eurostat every even years (e.g. 2018, 2020, 2022). Revisions of historical data may occur at any time but remain exceptional.

The statistical unit is any natural and legal person lodging a customs declaration in Bulgaria on the condition that the customs procedure is of statistical relevance. Since 2020 as reference year, the statistical units are complimented by any natural and legal person who has submitted an Intrastat declaration with transactions related to the trade with United Kingdom. 

The statistical population comprise all the legal or natural persons who lodged a customs declaration with the Customs Agency of Bulgaria. Since 2020 as reference year, as a part of the statistical population are considered also all the legal or natural persons who have submitted to the National Revenue Agency of Bulgaria an Intrastat declaration related to the trade with United Kingdom.

Bulgaria

TIC data disseminated by Eurostat

See document TIC Quality indicators.

TIC data disseminated at national level

Not available.

Not applicable.

For data transmission to Eurostat – Trade values (in national currency units - BGN) by invoicing currency. The value of traded goods is calculated at the national frontier, on a FOB (free on board) basis for exports and a CIF (cost, insurance, freight) basis for imports. Hence, only incidental expenses (freight, insurance) are included and they are incurred for:

• exports in the part of the journey located on the territory of the country where the goods are exported from;
• imports in the part of the journey located outside the territory of the country where the goods are imported to.

 For data dissemination on Eurostat website – Share of each invoicing currency in extra-EU imports and exports.

Theoretically, the reference period for the information on international trade in goods transactions should be the calendar month of export or import of the goods. However, in practice the reference period is generally the calendar month during which the customs declaration is accepted by the Customs Agency of Bulgaria.

The reference years for which TIC data are disseminated result from the aggregation of monthly figures from January to December.

General statistical legislation

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European statistics

Legislation applicable as of 1 January 2022

• Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics

• Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152

• Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/1225 specifying the arrangements for the data exchanges and amending Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197, as regards the Member State of extra-Union export and the obligations of reporting units

• Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1704 further specifying the details for the statistical information to be provided by tax and customs authorities and amending Annexes V and VI of Regulation (EU) 2019/2152

Extra-EU trade legislation (or Extrastat) - legislation applicable up to 1 January 2022

Basic Act: Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council

• Implementing Commission Regulation (EC) No 92/2010

• Implementing Commission Regulation (EC) No 113/2010

All regulations relevant for the European statistics on international trade in goods can be found in the publication Legislation on European statistics on international trade in goods or consulted from the Legislation page of the International trade in goods section on Eurostat website. All legal texts of the EU are accessible on Eur-Lex.

Not applicable.

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

L_2019327EN.01000101.xml (europa.eu) : CHAPTER V - Exchange of confidential data for the purpose of intra-Union trade in goods statistics. 

The exchange of confidential data between Member States on intra-Union exports of goods shall take place, exclusively for statistical purposes, between the NSAs contributing to the development, production and dissemination of intra-Union trade in goods statistics.

The technical specifications for data requirements as referred to in the Article 7(1) and (2) shall also apply to the exchange of confidential data in accordance with this Chapter.

and

CHAPTER VI - Exchange of confidential data for the purpose of European business statistics and national accounts.

The exchange of confidential data, which are collected or compiled pursuant to this Regulation, shall be allowed between the NSAs of Member States concerned, their respective national central banks, the ECB and the Commission (Eurostat) for statistical purposes only, where the exchange is necessary to safeguard the quality and comparability of European business statistics or national accounts in line with the concepts and methodology of Regulation (EU) No 549/2013.

NSAs, the national central banks, the Commission (Eurostat) and the ECB that have obtained confidential data shall treat that information confidentially and shall use it exclusively for statistical purposes in accordance with Articles 20 to 26 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009.

Data by invoicing currency are not detailed enough to make it possible to identify a specific trader. Thereforе no specific data treatment applies. 

TIC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 8.1 ‘Release calendar’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tic - International trade in goods – trade by invoicing currency (TIC)’ for more details.

TIC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 8.2 ‘Release calendar access’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tic - International trade in goods – trade by invoicing currency’ for more details.

TIC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 8.3 ‘Release policy - user access’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tic - International trade in goods – trade by invoicing currency’ for more details.

TIC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 9 ‘Frequency of dissemination’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tic - International trade in goods – trade by invoicing currency’ for more details.

TIC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 10.1 ‘Dissemination format - News release’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tic - International trade in goods – trade by invoicing currency’ for more details.

TIC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 10.2 ‘Dissemination format - Publications’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tic - International trade in goods – trade by invoicing currency’ for more details.

TIC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 10.3 ‘Dissemination format - online database’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tic - International trade in goods – trade by invoicing currency’ for more details.

See document TIC Quality indicators.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

See document TIC Quality indicators.

TIC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 10.6 ‘Documentation on methodology' of the related metadata ‘ext_tic - International trade in goods – trade by invoicing currency’ for more details.

100%

TIC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 10.7 ‘Quality management - documentation’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tic - International trade in goods – trade by invoicing currency’ for more details.

Quality reporting and assessment
The Extrastat regulation includes standardised quality articles. These articles are in line with the ESS Quality definition, European Statistics Code of Practice and the Regulation of European Statistics. In particular, they require the reporting countries to provide Eurostat with annual quality reports within a fixed deadline. Those reports are used for quality and compliance assessments. The following indicators are compiled for each reference year:
• Statistical information required by the legislation but not or partially provided
• Timeliness and punctuality of TIC data

Data quality checks prior to any dissemination
The prime responsibility for ensuring the data completeness and accuracy rests with the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria. Further checks are carried out by Eurostat, essentially to ensure that the transmission of the requested data meets the requirements. Datasets must be complete, error-free, and all possible extreme values (outliers) confirmed.

See item 11.2 ‘Quality management - assessment' of the related metadata ‘ext_tic - International trade in goods – trade by invoicing currency’ for more details.

TIC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 12.1 ‘Relevance - User Needs’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tic - International trade in goods – trade by invoicing currency’ for more details.

TIC data are only disseminated by Eurostat. See item 12.2 ‘Relevance - User Satisfaction’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tic - International trade in goods – trade by invoicing currency’ for more details.

See item 12.3 ‘Completeness’ of the related metadata ‘ext_tic - International trade in goods – trade by invoicing currency’ for more details.

See document TIC Quality indicators.

See item 13.1 ‘Accuracy - overall' of the related metadata ‘ext_tic - International trade in goods – trade by invoicing currency’ for more details.

See item 13.2 ‘Sampling error' of the related metadata ‘ext_tic - International trade in goods – trade by invoicing currency’ for more details.

Not applicable.

See item 13.3 ‘Non-sampling error' of the related metadata ‘ext_tic - International trade in goods – trade by invoicing currency’ for more details.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

See concepts 14.1.1 and 14.1.2.

See document TIC Quality indicators.

Not applicable.

See concept 14.2.1 for the time lag between the actual delivery of the TIC data and the target date when it should have been delivered.

See document TIC Quality indicators.

See item 15.1 ‘Comparability - geographical' of the related metadata ‘ext_tic - International trade in goods – trade by invoicing currency’ for more details.

Not applicable.

Changes due to definitions, classifications, coverage or methods will have an impact on the continuity of the time series. No methodological change occurred in recent years. The only changes relate to the definition of the intra- versus extra-EU are as following:

• Croatia's adhesion to the EU in 2013;
• United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU in 2020. 

2010 – 2022 (i.e. data for the reference years 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 are available)

See item 15.3 ‘Coherence - cross domain' of the related metadata ‘ext_tic - International trade in goods – trade by invoicing currency’ for more details.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

See item 15.4 ‘Coherence - internal' of the related metadata ‘ext_tic - International trade in goods – trade by invoicing currency’ for more details.

TIC data are derived mainly from information collected via customs declarations. Since 2020 as a reference year, the information from Intrastat declarations covering the trade with the United Kingdom are also used. No specific data collection is then necessary, which means that the burden is null for the respondents, i.e. for the traders and businesses. The cost of TIC data only relates to the compilation step carried out by the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria, which is considered as minor given the small number of records.

Revisions are not foreseen for TIC data if they have passed all the validity checks and are approved by Eurostat.

Statistics by invoicing currency are only exceptionally revised.

Not available.

TIC data are derived mainly from the combination of two types of information collected via customs declarations:

• Trade in goods transactions; and
• The invoicing currency associated to these transactions.

Since 2020 as a reference year, information collected via Intrastat declarations relating to the trade transactions with the United Kingdom is also used as a data source.

Collection of trade in goods data: every month via customs and Intrastat declarations.

Collection of the invoicing currency: every month via customs declarations.

Collection of trade in goods data
The standard source of information on trade transactions is the customs declaration submitted in electronic format by businesses and, in some cases, by private individuals involved in an international transaction of goods with a non-EU country. For trade relating to reference year 2020 and transactions with the United Kingdom, Intrastat declaration remains the collection mean during the transition period (February-December 2020).

Collection of the invoicing currency
The invoicing currency is the currency in which the commercial invoice is drawn up. This information is collected by the Customs Agency of Bulgaria and is one of the data elements collected via the customs declarations.

At national level the monthly detailed data are processed by the “Foreign trade” Information System in which the necessary rules for data validation and credibility control are defined. 

Before the transmission of TIC data to Eurostat additional checks are made in order to ensure that all the requirements set up for a given reference year are met.

Bulgarian TIC data disseminated by Eurostat have passed the following quality checks:

• Intra-dataset checks: completeness of the dataset and uniqueness of the records, validity of the codes, validity of code combinations across the different dimensions, inter-record consistency checks;
• Intra-domain check: check of the coherence between trade values published in the TIC dataset and trade values coming from aggregated and detailed trade in goods data.

At national level:

The preliminary monthly detailed data from customs declarations of a given reference year, which is already validated and processed by the “Foreign trade” Information System, serve as a basis for the compilation of TIC data. During the data processing, to each CN code the appropriate SITC code is attributed by using correspondence table. For the purposes of compilation of TIC data the trade values from SAD box 46 of the monthly data from customs declarations for the whole reference year are aggregated by flow, by invoicing currency (SAD box 22) and by the required SITC codes. The preliminary monthly detailed data from Intrastat declarations for the reference year 2020 related to the trade with the United Kingdom are also added in the compilation process and these trade values are classified under unknown invoicing currency (i.e. the code '_U' (=‘Unknown’) is assigned).

At European level:

The share of each invoicing currency in the imports and exports of Bulgaria is calculated on the basis of the transmitted trade values.

At national level:

No imputation is made at national level

At European level:

No imputation is made by Eurostat.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.