Goods and Services Trade methodologies

Goods trade data methodology Statistics New Zealand compiles goods and services trade statistics using quarterly and annual surveys of NZ resident enterprises, surveys conducted by other entities, and administrative data. Goods trade data is presented, at a total level only, as per Balance of Payments (BoP) methodology rather than merchandise trade methodology. BoP and national accounts report imports and exports in the period economic ownership of the asset changes. This is in contrast to International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS) methodology which measures the imports and exports when they cross the customs frontier. See Overseas merchandise trade for more information on IMTS methodology. Total imports of goods are published on a value for duty (vfd) basis in the goods and services trade release, rather than on a cost, insurance, and freight (cif) basis. This is because insurance and freight is included as part of imports of services data, and we would be double-counting these items if we combined cif imports with services information. Imports of goods are published on a vfd basis in Overseas Trade Index statistics. To present goods data according to BoP methodology, a number of "conceptual adjustments" are made to the data. These adjustments include: - Timing adjustments, such as when ownership of a good changes in one period but the good doesn't cross the customs frontier until another period. - Coverage adjustments - imports of goods under $1,000, changes in oil stocks held abroad, and removing operating leases from goods trade data as an operating lease is a service. - Classification adjustments - general classification adjustments, such as removing the cost of insurance and freight as these are considered services under BoP methodology. These adjustments are only able to be applied at the total level. At any level below the total level, for example when looking at trade by country or by commodity, data is presented as per IMTS methodology. Services data is collected and presented as per the BoP conceptual framework based on the sixth edition of the IMF Balance of Payments Manual (BPM6). Trade in services includes transactions where no physical product changes hands, for example a New Zealand lawyer who provides advice to a client overseas or an overseas head office charging a management fee to its New Zealand branch. Data sources The source data and information for Goods and Services Trade statistics collected and processed each quarter are summarised below and include: Statistics New Zealand surveys of New Zealand-resident enterprises surveys conducted by other entities administrative data The main surveys that provide data for Goods and Services Trade are: International Trade in Services and Royalties Survey – a quarterly sample survey that is the primary source for commercial services data. Quarterly International Investment Survey – a sample survey that is the main source of data on primary income, financial account flows, and the stock of overseas assets and liabilities. Transportation surveys – full-coverage surveys that measure transactions relating to transportation services such as passenger airfares and port expenses. Surveys conducted by other organisations – we use data from other organisations that operate surveys that are relevant to our data needs. For example: International Visitor Survey – run by a marketing company for MBIE. The data is used to estimate exports of travel services. Administrative data – examples of these include non-resident withholding tax data from Inland Revenue, and New Zealand Customs Service records of imports and exports published in the overseas merchandise trade (OMT) statistics. en-NZ