Foreign Trade Division International Trade Statistics Conference #4 Data Revisions – Maria Iseman

 Monthly,  Quarterly,  Annual, or as needed (special circumstances). Standard Revision Policy Revisions are made to our published data on a…

Monthly Revisions  Applied to prior month in U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services report  Carryover transactions  Late transactions and corrections  Canadian Data Exchange program  Aggregate level for seasonally adjusted and unadjusted export and import data

Quarterly Revisions  Chain-weighted real dollar series only  Released in the last month the quarter for the previous two quarters  Incorporates the BLS’s, BEA’s, and FTD’s deflator revisions

Annual Revisions Released in June for the previous year Includes:  Carryover sorted in proper month  not seasonally adjusted  Data corrections  current revised year only  New seasonal factors & real dollar deflators  three years  Revisions to services  minimum of one year but….

 Historical corrections documented  Advanced notification, in some cases, of corrections  Available on FTD website at: Corrections Webpage trade/statistics/corrections/index.html

Current Correction System  Only certain elements are changed  Changes once a year  Not all corrections are applied  Corrections are applied at a summary level Limitations include:

 Designed to incorporate all types of corrections and revisions The new system will:  revise back 3 – 5 years  be applied monthly  be applied at transaction level  provide multiple publishing options  New export process scheduled for January 2009 statistics  New import process scheduled for with January 2010 statistics New Corrected Nets System

 Run all data received through editing process including:  current month  prior month/year  future month (??)  Each transaction will be edited based on transaction month and year  Current files  Files to receive corrections Processing Changes

 Improved data quality  all corrections are applied  more data elements are corrected  Improved flexibility  Apply corrections in a more timely manner  AES and ACE allows for faster collection  Multiple publishing options  rolling press release  Bi-annual revisions  current method  Better meet data users needs Net Correction Benefits

Press Releases  U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services Internet Products  USA Trade On-Line  District, Port, State Exports, and NAICS  FTD Website Corrections page Downloads  Imports and Exports of Merchandise  Imports and Exports History Revised FTD Products

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