State Data Agency (Statistics Lithuania)

International Trade and Foreign Investment Statistics Division

29 Gedimino Ave, LT-01500 Vilnius Lithuania

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 European statistics on international trade in goods, 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 Lithuania 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 (SITC0, SITC1, SITC2, SITC3, SITC4, excluding division 33), Oil (SITC division 33) and Manufactured products (SITC5, SITC6, SITC7, SITC8, SITC9). Additionally, since 2021 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:

Up to 2021 reference period:

•  Euro;
•  national currencies of EU Member States not belonging to the euro area;
•  US dollar;
•  ‘other’ (i.e. aggregated group of currencies of all non-EU countries except the United States); and
• unknown' (only since 2020)

Since 2021 reference period:

• Euro (EUR);
• UK pound sterling (GBP);
• US dollar (USD);
• 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);
• National currencies of non-euro area Member States;
• Other not specified currencies;
• Unknown currency .

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 statistical unit is any natural or legal person lodging a customs declaration in Lithuania on the condition that the customs procedure is of statistical relevance.

The statistical population comprises all the legal or natural persons who have lodged a customs declaration with the National Customs Authority of Lithuania within the reference year.

Lithuania

TIC data disseminated by Eurostat

See document TIC Quality indicators.

TIC data disseminated at national level

At national level Lithuanian TIC data is disseminated on yearly basis, starting with 2022 as a reference year.

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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. However, in practice the reference period is generally the calendar month during which the customs declaration is accepted by the Customs of the Republic of Lithuania.

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.

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, and strictly only upon request of an importer or exporter of goods, reporting countries should prevent the release of confidential data by an appropriate marking.

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

TIC data disseminated by Eurostat

No release calendar as such but the practice to publish TIC data at country level once they have passed all the quality checks. If all the validation rules are met, this means within a few days after the data transmission by the reporting country to Eurostat. Note that this practice applies both for a new reference year and for revisions.

TIC data relating to the EU and EA (euro area) aggregates are compiled and disseminate once all the Member State have transmitted their data to Eurostat.  

TIC data disseminated at national level

TIC data are released on an annual basis. There is no specific release calendar for TIC data.

TIC data disseminated by Eurostat

International trade release calendar

 TIC data disseminated at national level

Official Statistics Calendar

TIC data disseminated by Eurostat

In line with the EU legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

TIC data disseminated at national level

Statistical information is prepared and disseminated under the principle of impartiality and objectivity, i.e. in a systematic, reliable and unbiased manner, following professional and ethical standards (the European Statistics Code of Practice), and the policies and practices followed are transparent to users and survey respondents.

All users have equal access to statistical information. All statistical information is published at the same time – at 9 a.m. on the day of publication of statistical information as indicated in the calendar on the Official Statistics Portal. Relevant statistical information is sent automatically to news subscribers.

Statistical information is published following the Official Statistics Dissemination Policy Guidelines and Statistical Information Dissemination and Communication Rules of Statistics Lithuania approved by Order No DĮ-176 of 2 July 2021 of the Director General of Statistics Lithuania.

TIC data disseminated by Eurostat

TIC data are updated every year in April/May with a new reference year. However it should be noted that only TIC data relating to even years (e.g. 2020, 2022) are to be mandatorily provided to Eurostat. The geographical coverage might thus be incomplete for reference periods corresponding to odd years (e.g. 2021).

Revisions of historical data may occur at any time but remain exceptional.

 TIC data disseminated at national level

TIC data are disseminated each year in April, on Official Statistics Portal

TIC data disseminated by Eurostat

News releases on-line

TIC data disseminated by Eurostat

Statistics Explained is an official Eurostat website presenting all statistical topics in an easily understandable way. Together, the articles make up an encyclopaedia of European statistics, completed by a statistical glossary clarifying all terms used and numerous links to further information and the very latest data and metadata. One of the Statistics Explained articles relating to international trade in goods statistics is dedicated to TIC data. See the article Extra-EU trade by invoicing currency.

 TIC data disseminated by Eurostat

The TIC data can be accessed via the Data Navigation Tree, under the ‘International trade’ theme and the ‘International trade in goods’ branch. Two views are available:

• Trade shares by invoicing currency with additional currency and SITC product group breakdowns (from 2021 onwards) (EXT_TIC02)
• Trade shares by invoicing currency (from 2010 onwards) (EXT_LT_INVCUR)

  TIC data disseminated at national level

TIC data are available on Official Statistics Portal

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User Guide on European statistics on international trade in goods – The purpose of this Guide is to explain to a wide range of users how the statistics relating to trade in goods, both between EU Member States and with non-EU countries, are collected, compiled, processed and published at European level. The different issues are tackled in a question and answer format.

European business statistics compilers' manual for international trade in goods statistics – This Guide provides clarifications, often through concrete examples, to help the compilers to better interpret and apply the complex legislation on ITGS.

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Quality Report on European statistics on international trade in goods — This Report provides users with a tool to assess the quality of the international trade in goods statistics published by Eurostat. The data quality can be assessed against indicators covering the following components: relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, comparability and coherence.

The quality of statistical information and its production process is ensured by the provisions of the European Statistics Code of Practice and ESS Quality Assurance Framework.

In 2007, a quality management system, conforming to the requirements of the international quality management system standard ISO 9001, was introduced at Statistics Lithuania. Monitoring of the quality indicators of statistical processes and their results and self-evaluation of statistical survey managers is regularly carried out in order to identify the areas which need improvement and to promptly eliminate the shortcomings.

TIC data are derived from monthly detailed trade in goods data combined with additional information on invoicing currencies. Therefore their quality primarily depends on the quality of these two data sources.

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.

No user survey on TIC data was carried out so far but direct feedback from main users like the European Central Bank indicates a good level of satisfaction as regards the data coverage and timeliness. The data availability could however be improved by an annual rather than biennial compilation. Most reporting countries have started to compile TIC data on an annual basis since 2017 as reference year.

TIC data are based on the EU legislation which is directly applicable in the EU Member States. In particular, the Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics include a clear and precise description of the characteristics of the TIC dataset to be transmitted to Eurostat. All characteristics are provided.

See document TIC Quality indicators.

The accuracy is tackled at national and European levels, by eliminating as much as possible the non-sampling errors. It should be noted that the accuracy of TIC data depends mainly on the accuracy of customs declarations.

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 The accuracy of TIC data is primarily impacted by issues in the collection and compilation of detailed trade in goods statistics (e.g. delayed declarations, estimated trade value) combined with issues in the reporting of the invoicing currency by the trader.

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See concepts 14.1.1 and 14.1.2.

See document TIC Quality indicators.

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TIC data are transmitted within the legal deadline.

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.

From a methodological point of view, the comparability across countries is ensured by the implementation of the concepts and definitions set up by the EU legislation and by the application of the complementary guidelines provided by the European business statistics compilers' manual for international trade in goods.

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Changes due to definitions, classifications, coverage or methods will have an impact on the continuity of the time series. The most significant change came with the recent Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 on European business statistics.

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Apart from the TIC dataset, information on trade flows can be found in the aggregated and detailed trade in goods statistics. The intra-domain checks carried out by Eurostat before any data dissemination ensure the coherence between the trade values published in the TIC dataset and trade values coming from aggregated and detailed trade in goods statistics.

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The internal coherence of the TIC dataset is ensured by the intra-dataset checks carried out at national and European levels before any data dissemination. See item 18.4 ‘Data validation’ 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.

There are no revisions for TIC data.

Statistics by invoicing currency could be only exceptionally revised.

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TIC data are mainly 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.

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.

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 of the Republic of Lithuania for imported and exported goods.

The validity checks are executed in the Customs at the moment of the acceptance of Customs declaration. Additional controls are performed by Statistics Lithuania. Records are checked for completeness, validity and credibility.

Lithuanian 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:

Data are compiled on the basis of EU requirements using the data of Customs declarations.

At European level:

At European level, the share of each invoicing currency in the imports and exports of the reporting country is calculated on the basis of the transmitted trade values. Additionally, Eurostat derives TIC data for the EU and the euro area as reporting entities by aggregating the trade values reported by the Member States.

At national level:

No imputation.

At European level:

No imputation is made by Eurostat.

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