International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS)

At its forty-first session in 2010, the Statistical Commission adopted “International merchandise trade statistics: concepts and definitions 2010” (IMTS 2010) and endorsed the proposed implementation programme, including the preparation of the revised International Merchandise Trade Statistics, Compilers Manual (IMTS Compilers Manual) and supporting technical assistance activities.

The Commission further requested the Expert Group on international merchandise trade statistics (EG-IMTS) as well as the Task Force on IMTS to continue their work, to focus on the implementation of IMTS 2010 and to give due consideration to national circumstances, the harmonization of national and regional compilation practices and the conduct of related comparison studies. The Commission also requested that greater attention be given to the strengthening of institutional arrangements in countries to ensure that proper national coordination mechanisms exist for the compilation of high-quality international merchandise trade statistics. In addition, the merchandise trade compilers should cooperate with compilers of statistics on international trade in services, the balance of payments and national accounts.

Statistics of International Trade in Services (SITS)

The Statistical Commission at its forty-first session in 2010 adopted the Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services 2010 (MSITS 2010) and endorsed the implementation programme. The Commission urged the Task Force to take note of the following: (i) The importance of the compilation guidance, (ii) The significance of trade in services in globalization and links to other frameworks, (iii) The emphasis on linking the Manual to the revised Balance of Payments Manual, the revised System of National Accounts and the linkage to commodity trade. The Commission also emphasized the importance to the following areas: (i) Foreign Affiliates Statistics, in particular outward Foreign Affiliates Statistics, (ii) Tourism statistics and the measurement of the contributions of tourism to national and regional economies, (iii) Valuation and pricing, and (iv) Research and development.

Revision of Broad Economic Categories (BEC)

The Classification by Broad Economic Categories (BEC) is one of the most widely used frameworks for the analysis of economic statistical data, often beyond its original purpose of summarizing international trade in goods. It allows organizing production and trade data in three basic classes of goods within the System of National Accounts, namely, capital, intermediate and consumption goods, and has constituted a valuable tool for linking production and trade statistics to support evidence-based policy making.

However, in spite of having been revised four times since its inception in the 1960s, BEC’s original structure has remained essentially unchanged, focusing exclusively on goods (with services remaining outside its scope) and with some of its categories often appearing to be either too narrow or too broad for the current requirements of analysts and policy makers. Given the increasing importance of trade in services and international supply chains, there is a clear need to adapt BEC to the new realities of global production. A revision of the BEC should aim to improve its usefulness as tool to organize data to better understand who produces what for whom, and where value added is created in a globalized economy.

Classification of Business Functions

The international outsourcing of business functions is one of the aspects of globalization related to the operating practices of enterprises. In search of efficiency gains and cost-cutting measures, companies are increasingly outsourcing business functions that were performed in-house to either other domestic enterprises or to enterprises located abroad. This typically results in jobs being moved, thus affecting employment and economic activity.

A 2008 study by a number of European countries led by Statistics Denmark attempted to measure the extent of international outsourcing of business functions. An important feature of the study was the breakdown of these business functions into core and support functions. The results of this study were quite revealing, indicating among others that core functions were outsourced more than support functions. A follow-up study with broader participation of countries is planned for 2012. Because of the employment implications there is a lot of interest in the outcome of these studies.

Another direct result of these studies is the development of an international classification of Business Functions.

Guidelines for Integrated Economic Statistics

The draft Guidelines on Integrated Economic Statistics has been developed in accordance with the request of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) in 2008 at its thirty-ninth session. This request was made in recognition of the user needs for coherent basic economic statistics and macroeconomic statistics in enhancing the story the statistics contain.

purpose of the handbook is to set out practical guidelines for advancing consistency, coherence and reconciliation of statistical information through the application of the methodology of integrated economic statistics. The Guidelines provides practical guidance and disseminates case studies and other practical material by sharing experiences in implementing an integrated statistical production approach in the national statistical systems using the System of National Accounts 2008 as the comprehensive conceptual framework.