The methodology (principles, concepts and definitions) of external trade statistics is based on the recommendations of the United Nations Since EU-accession the earlier entirely customs based statistics have two sub-systems, which are to be operated according to EU regulations; rules for statistics relating to the trading of goods between member states (intra-EU trade) were set by the European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) 638/2004 and Commission Regulation (EC) 1982/2004, while for statistics relating to the trading of goods with third counties (extra-EU trade) Council Regulation (EC) 1172/95 and Commission Regulation (EC) 1917/2000 is applied.
External trade of Hungary includes trade with both EU Member States and third countries.
Data sources: Concerning intra-EU trade, data are reported directly by traders, while extra-EU trade data are received from the Hungarian Customs and Finance Guard, collected along the customs procedures. Processing of all input data takes place with the supervision of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO).
Coverage of intra-EU trade is not full; enterprises below the assimilation threshold are exempted from their information providing liability. The application of the threshold system is resulting ca. 98% coverage. Adjustments based on administrative data and time series are made both for the below the threshold trade and non responses.
Recording methodology: External trade statistics mainly includes transactions conducted between resident and non-resident economic units. The majority of transactions recorded are sale or purchase, but some cases without change of ownership and/or compensation are also included. Accordingly, statistics include operations with a view to and after processing under contract (at the gross values of products in both directions), financial leasing transactions (at the market value of the product without additional expenses), returns of goods, as well as movements of some special goods (e.g. natural gas and electric energy).
In contrast, goods treated as part of trade in services (e.g. repair and operational leasing), direct re-export, fuel sold on the territory of Hungary to foreign motor vehicles and purchased abroad by Hungarian motor vehicles etc. are excluded from the statistics on trade in goods.
Since 2004 external trade statistics has been based on recording of the goods crossing the border of the country's economic territory, with the following restrictions: goods entering to a customs warehouse from a foreign country or leaving a customs warehouse to a foreign country are excluded unless they are goods for inward processing or processing under customs control, while goods moving between the free circulation area and a customs warehouse are included.
Between 1997 and 2004 statistical observation of external trade turnover was based upon the relaxed definition of "special trade" system, which means the observation of goods crossing the country's economic customs border. Trade between inland and the industrial free zones did not belong to the scope of observation, while trade between industrial free zones and foreign markets was taken into account. Trade between inland and customs warehouses or commercial free zones was in the scope, while trade between foreign countries and customs warehouses or commercial free zones was not.
Before 1997 the strict definition of "special trade" system was applied. The difference to the relaxed definition concerns industrial free zones. According to the strict definition trade between inland and industrial free zones is recorded, while trade between foreign countries and industrial free zones is not. Data of 1996 (base year) were adjusted according to the methodological changes, and are available in both versions.
Valuation. The statistical value of imported goods is a c.i.f.-type, while that of exported goods is a f.o.b.-type value. C.i.f.-type values include the market value of imported goods plus freight and insurance expenses incurred in the course of delivery to the border of the importing country (in our case Hungary). F.o.b.-type values include the market value of exported goods plus freight and insurance expenses incurred in the course of delivery to the border of the exporting country (in our case Hungary).
Conversion of values into HUF in the case of intra-EU trade is based on the official medium exchange rate on the day when the contract was fulfilled of the bank named in the accounting policy of the given enterprise. Concerning extra-EU trade the exchange rate is the official rate of the National Bank of Hungary (NBH) valid on the second-last Wednesday of the month preceding the customs clearance of goods. Data expressed in Euros and Dollars are calculated for intra-EU trade at the monthly average exchange rate of the NBH, while in case of extra-EU trade the official rate of the NBH valid on the last but one Wednesday of the month preceding the customs clearance of goods is applied.
Export data of external trade statistics differ from the export sales data under 2.2.2. Section Industry, construction regarding that they comprise direct exports of other branches (e.g. agriculture) and the exports of goods deriving from the trading activity of industrial corporations (of not own produced industrial or agricultural products). Another difference is that external trade statistics takes into account processing by the gross method (processed product + processing fee), while industrial statistics includes only processing fee. In industrial statistics – diversely from external trade statistics – the value of industrial services performed abroad is considered as export sales, and time of accounting may also differ.
Balance of external trade is the difference between the values of exports and imports.
Commodity pattern of external trade is set up according to product groups of the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC Rev. 4) of the UN.
Basic data are collected according to the customs- and statistical product nomenclature (CN) specified by EU legislation which is directly applicable to Member States.
Groups of countries:
EU–15: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden United Kingdom;
EU–12: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia;
EU–27: the two previous groups together.
For years 2004–2006 country groups EU–10 and EU–25 do not contain data of Bulgaria and Romania.
For data of 2003 and the preceding years country classification was the following:
Developed countries: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, United States, Finland, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Canada, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Great Britain, Germany, Norway, Italy, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Turkey, New Zealand, Vatican.
Central and Eastern European countries: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Yugoslavia.
Developing countries: countries not listed to the above two groups.
Export figures arranged by countries are recorded according to countries of destination. The partner country for imports was the country of origin until 2003. Since 2004 this was replaced by the country of consignment. Base import data of 2003 were due to this change adjusted and are available in both versions.Volume indices are calculated by using a deflation method as the quotient of value index and price index computed of data measured in HUF.
The data revision for the year 2007 has revealed that from October 2007 value data of extra-EU trade of commodity group of telecommunications equipments do also contain a significant trade margin realised not in Hungary due to a changed practice of filling in the customs declarations in case of specific group of companies. In the time series this is reflected as a temporary volume increasing effect therefore in the revised data volume indices – without modifying the value data – were calculated by using value indices of a comparable content to base data. The same adjustments have been introduced to the monthly volume indices of 2008.
Methodological sources: Methodology for External Trade Statistics, 2005, Intrastat Manual for Providers of Statistical Information, 2004
This survey is carried out by the Regulations (EC) No 184/2005 and No 707/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics concerning balance of payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investment.
Data sources:
Transportation and business services: reports of enterprises within the data collection OSAP 1470 being involved in trade in services.
Government services: data transmission from government bodies, OSAP 2057
Recording methodology: Trade in services data before 2004 were compiled by the Hungarian National Bank according to the reports of commercial banks on cross border payments and the direct reports of enterprises holding accounts abroad. Since 2004 HCSO has been responsible for collecting trade in business services data from enterprises. The 2004 publication doesn't include information on transportation, financial, insurance and government services, these can be obtained from the balance of payments statistics of the Hungarian National Bank. Since 2005 HCSO has been publishing also these service categories.
According to the EU regulations off-shore status is cancelled in Hungary form the first of January 2006. Tables contain the following information of these enterprises:
Missing information of the quarterly data collection was imputed by administrative sources.
Trade in services is linked to an arrangement between resident and non-resident.
Valuation: Transactions are valued at the actual price agreed by the supplier and the consumer, without VAT. Conversion of values into HUF is based on the official medium exchange rate of the Hungarian National Bank valid at the time at which the transaction occurs.
The appropriate time to record transactions in services is when they are delivered or received. (Usually this is the same with the time of the invoicing.)
Transportation services by mode of transport:
Business services by the following groupings:
Government services: Embassies and consulates; Military units and agencies; Other government services.
Partner country of business services is the country in which the non-resident trading partner is domiciled. Transportation services are collected on settlement basis.
Groups of countries: