United Nations Expert Group on Distributive Trade Statistics (EG-DTS)

Objectives

The Expert Group on Distributive Trade Statistics (EG-DTS) was established by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) to assist in the revision of the existing UN recommendations on distributive trade statistics published in International Recommendations on Statistics of the Distributive Trades and Services (Statistical Papers, Series M, No. 57) and in updating the UNSD compilation advice contained in Organization and Conduct of Distributive Trade Surveys (Statistical Papers, Series F, No. 19).

The EG-DTS has the following broad objectives:

• to provide an assessment of those recommendations and advice in view of the new realities in distributive trade and current country practices in the compilation of relevant statistics;

• to contribute to the drafting of revised recommendations and to suggest new approaches in data compilation including organization and conduct of distributive trade surveys;

• to review the provisional draft of the International Recommendations on Distributive Trade Statistics 2008 (IRDTS 2008), which will contain the new recommendations; and,

• to advise on the preparation of two follow-up manuals which will complement IRDTS 2008 and provide practical guidance to compilers of distributive trade statistics, namely, Distributive Trade Statistics: Compilers Manual and Indices of Distributive Trade: A Handbook of Good Practices

Expert Group Meetings

Second meeting - New York, 16-19 July 2007

First meeting - New York, 22-25 August 2005

Expert Group Discussion Forum

A password-protected website has been created to facilitate communication between EG-DTS members and sharing of relevant materials.