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20.50. Trade in services statistics have developed their own revisions policy that is consistent with AESRP on a broad level (that is, maximizing accuracy and timeliness while taking both into account) but also guides decisions BSC use. In summary, it states that survey revisions may be recorded at any stage but should be applied only after the current survey data has been finalized to ensure consistency across publication cycles, particularly during periods of monthly, quarterly and annual releases. Historical revisions should be recorded as soon as they are identified, as they only occur once a year in statistics on the international supply of services and may not cover periods in which revisions are identified. Any revisions that do not fit the other two criteria may be applied at any stage. For instance, if the survey data are revised from the previous quarter, the following steps are taken: (a) revisions are identified and confirmed; (b) revisions are documented; (c) revisions are applied in the processing system for trade in services through to working spreadsheets; and (d) those spreadsheets are updated with only the revisions mentioned above and are sent to other areas for further processing.
Back to: C.5. Revision policy