Statistical Service of Cyprus

International Trade in goods

Michalaki karaoli, 1444, Nicosia, Cyprus

International trade in goods statistics (ITGS) published by Eurostat measure the value and quantity of goods traded between the EU Member States (intra-EU trade) and goods traded by the EU Member States with non-EU countries (extra-EU trade). ‘Goods’ means all movable property including electricity. ‘European’ means that the statistics are compiled on the basis of the concepts and definitions set out in EU legislation.

Trade by invoicing currency (TIC) data are part of the information available for extra-EU trade. The invoicing currency is the currency in which the commercial invoice is drawn up. Data by invoicing currency can be used for instance to explore the use of the euro in the EU’s international trade, to compare it with the role of the United States dollar (USD) or to analyse the role of the euro in the euro area and in the EU. These statistics are very useful to central banks, including the European Central Bank, for comparing the euro with other major international currencies. These data are also used by financial market segments or foreign investors.

Statistical dimensions available for TIC data:

• reporting country;
• partner country;
• reference period;
• trade flows;
• product; and
• currency.

Product classification

The Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) is managed by the United Nations and correlated with the subheadings of the Harmonised System. SITC Rev. 4 comprises 2 970 basing headings which are aggregated into 262 groups, 67 divisions and 10 sections. TIC data are based on the section level complemented by the division 33 ‘oil”.

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. See the publication Geonomenclature applicable to European statistics on international trade in goods for more information (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/international-trade-in-goods/publications#methotherpub).

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 national statistical territory and for which the trading partner is a non-EU country. Note that the statistical territory of Cyprus corresponds to its customs territory.

As ITGS in general, TIC data cover all sectors of the economy.

Reporting country – 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 – At detailed level, this is the last known country of destination for exports and the country of origin for imports. However individual partner countries are not kept in the dissemination of data by invoicing currency. They are replaced by the partner area  ‘extra-EU’.

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. Only the following currencies or groups of invoicing currencies are considered for data transmission to Eurostat:

Common currencies reported whatever the data source used:
— Euro (‘EUR’)
— UK pound sterling (‘GBP’)
— US dollar (‘USD’)
— National currencies of non-euro area Member States (‘XU3’)
— Other not specified currencies (‘_X’) – As TIC data must cover total extra-EU exports and imports of goods (or total exports and imports for EFTA and enlargement countries), trade in other currencies than the ones specifically identified are reported under the group ‘Other not specified currencies’ (‘_X’).
— Unknown currency (‘_U’)
— Total ‘_T’ including all currencies is to be provided
 Additional invoicing currency breakdown reported for which 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’)

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. 

The statistical unit is any natural and legal person lodging a customs declaration in Cyprus on the condition that the customs procedure is of statistical relevance. Additionally, all natural or legal persons who carry out transactions which fall under special movement goods which are reported through other sources than the custom declaration.

The statistical population comprise all the legal or natural persons who lodged a customs declaration with the National Customs Authority of Cyprus. Additionally, all natural or legal persons who carry out transactions which fall under special movement goods which are reported through other sources than the custom declaration.

Cyprus

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) 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. This rule is applied for specific special movements goods.  However, in practice the reference period is the calendar month during which the customs declaration is accepted by the National Customs Authority.

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

Extra-EU trade legislation

1. Regulation (EU) No 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics Implementing and delegated acts:

2. EBS General Implementing Act (EBS GIA): Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 2020/1197 of 30 July 2020 laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics

3. EBS Implementing Act related to the Customs Data Exchange (EBS IA CDE): Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/1225 of 27 July 2021 specifying the arrangements for the data exchanges pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council and amending Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197, as regards the Member State of extra-Union export and the obligations of reporting units

4. EBS Delegated Act (EBS DA): Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1704 of 14 July 2021 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council by further specifying the details for the statistical information to be provided by tax and customs authorities and amending its Annexes V and VI

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.

Applicable regulation: Regulation (EC) No 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council

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.

As a general definition, data used by national and EU authorities for producing statistics are considered confidential if statistical units can be identified, either directly or indirectly, and information about individuals or businesses is disclosed as a result.

The confidentiality policy followed nationally is the same as the one followed for compilation of detailed extra-EU trade statistics. 

In principle data by invoicing currency are not detailed enough to make it possible to identify a specific trader. They are therefore free for publication. However the inclusion of additional detailed product categories and individual invoicing currencies might make it possible to identify individual traders. In such a case, Cyprus may prevent the release of confidential data by an appropriate marking of data transmited to Eurostat as confidential.

However, at product level, the confidentiality policy followed for the detailed extra EU imports and exports statistics is followed for TIC statistics as well.

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 Authorities. 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.:

Quality control at national level is carried out on a very detailed transaction level on a monthly basis for Extra EU imports and exports data. Furthermore, before producing the final TIC data set, the quality of the data produced is checked.

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.

Customs Authority, carries out several checks of customs declarations. Further to this, the accuracy of the data is checked by Statistical Service of Cyprus as well. Therefore, the accuracy of the TIC data is considered as high.

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.

From the year 2014 additional data sources were used in order to record imports and exports of vessels according to the economic ownership principle.

From 2014 onwards.

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 from information collected via customs declarations. 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 Authorities, which is considered as minor given the small number of records.

No formal revision policy is applied.

No revision was carried out thus far.

Not available.

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

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

Collection of trade in goods data: every month via customs declarations or other administrative data for special movements

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 by businesses and, in some cases, by private individuals involved in an international transaction of goods with a non-EU country. The customs declaration is collected in electronic format. Moreover, trade data are collected via other administrative sources for special movements.

Collection of the invoicing currency
The invoicing currency is the currency in which the commercial invoice is drawn up. It is mandatory information to be collected by the Customs National Authorities of Cyprus for imported and exported goods.

At national level:

The TIC data are compared with previous years results in order to identify possible problems. Moreover, the validity of the codes is checked as well as the coherence of the international trade in goods statistics published compared to TIC statistics figures.

At European level: 

Cyprus 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:

Extra EU trade data for imports and exports of the reference year in question are compiled by SITC aggregate category and invoice currency grouping according to the relevant groupings required by Extra EU trade statistics regulations as following:  
(a) trade flow;
(b) statistical value;
(c) invoicing currency breakdown as following:

— Euro (‘EUR’)
— UK pound sterling (‘GBP’)
— US dollar (‘USD’)
— National currencies of non-euro area Member States (‘XU3’)
— Other not specified currencies (‘_X’) – As TIC data must cover total extra-EU exports and imports of goods (or total exports and imports for EFTA and enlargement countries), trade in other currencies than the ones specifically identified are reported under the group ‘Other not specified currencies’ (‘_X’).
— Unknown currency (‘_U’)
— Total ‘_T’ including all currencies is to be provided
 Additional invoicing currency breakdown reported for which 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’)

(d) 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 and division 33:

• · total trade: code ‘_T’; (Total trade covers SITC sections 0 to 9.)
• · food and live animals: code ‘SITC0’;
• · beverages and tobacco: code ‘SITC1’;
• · crude materials, inedible, except fuels: code ‘SITC2’;
• · mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials: code ‘SITC3’;
• · animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes: code ‘SITC4’;
• · chemicals and related products, n.e.s.: code ‘SITC5’;
• · manufactured goods classified chiefly by material: code ‘SITC6’;
• · machinery and transport equipment: code ‘SITC7’;
• · miscellaneous manufactured articles: code ‘SITC8’;
• · commodities and transactions not classified elsewhere in the SITC: code ‘SITC9’; and
• · oil according to SITC division 33: code ‘SITC33’.
• · Division 33 is reported separately under SITC33, and is also included in SITC3

The invoice currency for each custom declaration on import and export and invoice currency for transactions which are recorded via other administrative sources for trade with third countries in order to produce the TIC statistics.

 At European level:

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

At national level:

Imports and exports recorded via customs declarations include invoice currency information. Imputation of invoice currency is carried out for special movements goods, only in the case the information is not available, 

At European level:

No imputation is made by Eurostat.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.