Statistical Yearbook of the Czech Republic

      After the external trade of the former Czechoslovak Federal Republic was liberalized in 1991, the Czech Statistical Office (formerly the Federal Statistical Office) gets data on imports and exports of goods based on customs statistics. For this purpose, the single administrative document - SAD (Customs Proceedings Proposal before 1992) is used, based on agreement with the Directorate General of Customs (formerly Central Customs Administration) is used. External trade results measured before the liberalization (i.e. before 1991) were reported via the state statistical questionnaire on imports and exports submitted by former monopolistic organizations of external trade.

      Definitions and methodology of key indicators

      Following the recommendation of Eurostat, the Czech Statistical Office has been using the geographical breakdown laid down by the international standard 'Geonomenclature' since 1999, which differs in principle from the nomenclature used before. This shift affected the allocation of some countries to higher units: e.g. Turkey and Cyprus were formerly (before 1999) included in Asia, while the Geonomenclature, which is updated every year by Eurostat, places them in Europe now.

a) Groupings of countries (1 January 2002)

      European transition and CIS economies include Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgysztan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and the countries of the former Yugoslavia. The group of CEFTA is composed of Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia.

      China, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mongolia and Viet Nam make up the group of other transition economies and economies with a state trading system.

Market economies include:

(i) developed market economies:

• EU countries: : Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France (incl. Monaco; French Guyana; departments of Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Reunion), Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom (incl. the Isle of Man and islands Guernsey and Jersey),
• EFTA countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway (including territories Svalbard and Jan Mayen), Switzerland,
• others developed market economies: Andorra, Australia, Canada, Cyprus, the Faeroe Islands, Gibraltar, Greenland, Israel, Japan, Malta, New Zealand, South Africa, San Marino, Turkey, United States (including Puerto Rico) and the Vatican (Holy See),

The group of countries associated under the OECD (OECD countries) includes the EU countries, EFTA countries (except for Liechtenstein), Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Turkey, and the following countries outside Europe: Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, and United States (including Puerto Rico).

The deflators released are based on 2000 average (= 100) and derived by deflating values according to individual SITC Rev. 3 sections using price indices to reflect the structure of imports or exports in a given (reference) period. Index of imports or exports at constant prices (formerly the physical volume index) compares the volume of imported or exported goods at constant prices to the volume of goods imported or exported in the previous period; it shows a relative change in the volume of goods exchanged in the reference period compared to the basic period, excluding price changes. Terms of trade (formerly real terms of trade) are the ratio of export to import price indices. To calculate deflators, nominal price indices of imports and exports are applied. Conversion of the 1994 price level to the 2000 one is based on price bridges.

The trade balance published in this chapter has not differ since 2000 as for methodology from the trade balance, which is part of the current account of the balance of payments that is compiled for this Yearbook by the Czech National Bank (Chapter 7). Using data of a different date of processing causes that in the last mentioned year there are differences between the data of the Czech National Bank and the Czech Statistical Office.

      Changes in methodology for the collection of data on the Czech external trade - i.e. the transition to customs statistics - render the data released from 1991 not fully comparable to those for previous periods.

a) Comparability as to time

• Since 1996 exports have been reported as of the date on which goods are released into export regime (not as of the date on which goods cross the border, as it used to be before);
• Imports are reported as of the date on which goods are released into free circulation in the country.

• Figures reported since 1991 only refer to tangible exports and imports over the reference period. Figures for 2002 are temporary and only include imports/exports assessed from correctly completed single administrative documents (SADs) received by 16 April 2003 - the deadline for still preliminary processing of the external trade statistics. SADs for 2002, completed incorrectly and not corrected by the deadline, will not be included in 2002 export and import volumes until the following processing, whose results were not available at the time this publication was under preparation. This subsequent processing will be published later on;
• Customs statistics contain no information on direct re-export;
• Industrial plants are not reported as invoiced; the information includes only the value of tangible deliveries crossing the border;
• Customs statistics contain no figures on exports or imports of services, as these are implemented in an intangible form;
• Before 1991, external trade data were measured broken down by trading country; since 1991, however, customs statistics have been referring to countries of origin (imports) and countries of destination (exports), as requested by international organizations;
• Ministry of Finance of the CR - Directorate General of Customs converted 1986-1990 data for them to comply with the methodology of customs statistics as much as possible. This step also took account of exchange rate changes. All figures on the Czech external trade are given in the real (average) exchange rate of the Czech koruna to foreign currencies effective in the years concerned;
• The move to customs statistics also changed the classification used, and the Harmonized System of Coding and Description of Goods, contained in the Czechoslovak tariff, superseded the Czechoslovak national classification. Correspondence tables have been used to turn the data into the nomenclature SITC, Rev. 3 (UN Standard International Trade Classification) used in this Chapter;
• CZSO Measure No. 69/1993 Coll., introduced the national Standard Classification of Production (SKP; a variant application of CPA also referred to as CZ-CPA) and since 1997 the Statistical Yearbook has released figures on imports and exports broken down by CZ-CPA two-digit code;
• Included are new tables on imports for and exports after inward processing broken down by CZ-CPA two-digit code.

      Having consulted the issue of external trade methodology with Eurostat and users of statistics, the Czech Statistical Office amended the methodology in 2000 so that the statistics do not include any value of the following:

1. ships and aircraft imported for and exported after inward processing; it only includes labour input and material and energy consumption for the processing;
2. ships and aircraft exported for and imported after outward processing; it only includes labour input and material and energy consumption for the processing;
3. returned goods, i.e. goods that return in an unchanged state into free circulation procedure within three years after they were exported out of the country;
4. exported goods, which will not be left abroad permanently and are assumed to be imported back;
5. monetary gold in both imports and export.

       Detailed figures on external trade are available in the following CZSO publications brought out according to the CZSO Catalogue of Publications 2003:

a) under group 6 - EXTERNAL TRADE:

• "External Trade of the Czech Republic" (Czech-English version; monthly, on the 29th working day following the end of reference period)
• "External Trade by CZ-CPA" (Czech-English version; quarterly, on the 35th working day following the end of reference period, only in electronic form now)

• "External Trade Yearbook of the Czech Republic 2002 - Part 1" (Czech-English version; annual data on external trade of the Czech Republic in territorial structure, broken down by country group, continent, and country, and on commodity structure based on the HS, SITC and CZ-CPA; in the 4th quarter)
• "External Trade Yearbook of the Czech Republic 2002 - Part 2" (Czech-English version; annual data on external trade of the Czech Republic by six-digit items of the HS; in the 4th quarter)
• yearbook "External Trade - Time Series" (Czech-English version, data for 1993-2000, converted data for 1996-1998, brought out in October 2001)

• "CZSO Current News" (Czech-English version, monthly)
• "Bulletin ČSÚ" (quarterly)
• "Indicators of Social and Economic Development of the Czech Republic" (quarterly).

      The Czech Trade Promotion Agency (formerly the Centre of External Economic Relations), the CZSO, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the CR, and the Ministry of Finance of the CR - Directorate General of Customs bring out jointly the publication "Facts on Foreign Trade of the Czech Republic" every year.

      The Internet websites of the Ministry of Finance of the CR - Directorate General of Customs (www.cs.mfcr.cz) release figures on trends in imports and exports starting in 1993. The query system of the pages allows you to have a look at figures broken down by commodity (down to the eight-digit and five-digit levels of the customs tariff and SITC Rev. 3 nomenclature, respectively), country (countries, continents, basic economic groupings), and time (month, quarter and year). The figures are released in terms of value (CZK in thousands, FOB) and volume - net mass (kg) and quantity (pieces, metres, etc.) - where requested by the customs tariff. Since the beginning of 2001, this information can be asked for in English, too.