IMF Direction of Trade Statistics, 1980-2017

The <i>International Monetary Fund (IMF) Direction of Trade Statistics (DOTS)</i> database contains data on the value of merchandise exports and imports between each country and all its trading partners. Total bilateral and multilateral exports and imports are aggregated at national or regional group level. For each reporting country or group, all the trading partners are listed. The corresponding monetary values of total imports and total exports are then provided as time series for each country/trading partner pair. All exports are valued free on board (f.o.b.). Imports are usually reported cost including insurance and freight (c.i.f.), although a small number of countries report imports f.o.b.<br>
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Along with data from reporting countries, estimates are provided by partner countries for non-reporting countries or for those that are slow to report.<br>
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The period for which data are available varies from country to country, but most countries data extend from the 1980s to the present. The Direction of Trade pre-1980 data is found in the DOTS Historical database which runs from 1948 to 1980.<br>
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There can be inconsistencies between exports to a partner and the partner's recorded imports from a particular country, i.e. the exports from Country A to B do not always equal the imports of Country B from A. This is due to the different ways countries report their trade, i.e. differences in classification concepts and detail, time of recording, valuation, and coverage, as well as processing errors. <br>
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This database was first provided by UK Data Service in December 2003. The UK Data Service web site includes further information on its <i>IMF Direction of Trade Statistics</i> holdings, including a <a href="http://ukdataservice.ac.uk//use-data/guides/dataset/dots.aspx" title=" IMF Direction of Trade Statistics dataset user guide">dataset user guide</a> and details of <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5257/imf/dots/2016-07" title=" IMF Direction of Trade Statistics latest database updates">latest database updates</a>.<br>
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<b>Citation:</b> The bibliographic citation for the database is: International Monetary Fund (<i>{YYYY}</i>): Direction of Trade Statistics (<i>{date/edition of dataset}</i>). Uk Data Service. DOI: <i>{edition specific doi - e.g. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5257/imf/dots/2016-07">http://dx.doi.org/10.5257/imf/dots/2016-07</a>}</i>.<br>
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