Dataset description and subject overview

The Direction of Trade Statistics database contains data on the value of merchandise exports and imports between each country and all its trading partners. Total bilateral and multilateral exports and imports are aggregated at national or regional group level. For each reporting country or group, all the trading partners are listed. The corresponding monetary values of total imports and total exports are then provided as time series for each country / trading partner pair. All exports are valued free on board (f.o.b.). Imports are usually reported cost including insurance and freight (c.i.f.) although a small number of countries report imports f.o.b..

Area and world aggregates showing trade flows between major areas of the world are presented as well. Reported data are supplemented by estimates whenever such data are not current or are not available in monthly frequency.

In Beyond 20/20, all the data in the Direction of Trade are expressed in $US. As most of the countries report in their national currency, U.S. dollar equivalents are obtained by converting data at period average exchange rates published in lines rf or rh on the country tables in International Financial Statistics. Data are generally converted at their highest available frequency and are subsequently aggregated to longer periods: for example, monthly data are converted at monthly exchange rates and the resulting U.S. dollar equivalents are aggregated to quarterly and annual values.

Free on Board (f.o.b.) and Cost including Insurance and Freight (c.i.f.)

Each individual country's export data is shown f.o.b. (free on board) whereas the import data is usually shown c.i.f. (cost, insurance, freight). For the calculation of area totals the import data reported f.o.b. are adjusted to a c.i.f. basis by applying a c.i.f./f.o.b. factor of 1.1.

Free on board means the seller's obligation to deliver is fulfilled when the goods have passed over the ship's rail at the named port of shipment. This means that the buyer has to bear all costs and risks of loss of or damage to the goods from that point.

Cost including insurance and freight means the seller must pay the costs and freight necessary to bring the goods to the named port of destination but the risk of loss of or damage to the goods, as well as any additional costs due to events occurring after the time the goods have been delivered on board the vessel, is transferred from the seller to the buyer when the goods pass the ship's rail in the port of shipment. In addition, the seller has to procure marine insurance against the buyer's risk of loss of or damage to the goods during the carriage. The seller contracts for insurance and pays the insurance premium. The buyer should note that under the c.i.f. term the seller is only required to obtain insurance on minimum coverage. The c.i.f. term requires the seller to clear the goods for export.

The terms c.i.f. and f.o.b. are defined for goods transported by sea or inland waterway. However, in practice, they are applied to all imports and exports. UN guidelines recommend that imports be valued at the c.i.f. transaction value at the frontier of the importing country. For exports, the guidelines recommend valuation at the f.o.b. transaction value at the frontier of the exporting country.

Import & Export Inconsistency

There can be inconsistencies between exports to a partner and the partner's recorded imports from a particular country, i.e. the exports from Country A to B do not always equal the imports of Country B from A. This is due to the different ways countries report their trade, i.e. differences in classification concepts and detail, time of recording, valuation, and coverage, as well as processing errors. The Guide to Direction of Trade Statistics (www.esds.ac.uk/international/support/user_guides/imf/DOTGuide.pdf) provides more information on sources of inconsistency.

ESDS International's IMF DOTS on Beyond 20/20 WDS show the reporter country, the partner country and the reporter flow so any inconsistencies are clearly visible.

IMF DOTS Estimation Methodologies

The partner country information makes it possible to estimate trade not only for countries less current in their reporting but also for countries for which data are not available from other sources. For a given year the percentage of world trade that is estimated declines over time, as data reported by countries replace the estimates. Estimation procedures include:

• If monthly DOTS are unavailable, quarterly or annual reported DOTS are used.
• If quarterly data are available, they are distributed over the relevant months using DOTS reported for other partner countries, IFS monthly totals or an even distribution.
• If the only data available is annual other estimation procedures (in addition to those already given) include DOTS reported from the most recent annual report or extrapolations of the most recent data or estimates.

Full details of DOTS estimation procedures are described in A Guide to Direction of Trade Statistics(www.esds.ac.uk/international/support/user_guides/imf/DOTGuide.pdf) Copyright © 1993, International Monetary Fund.

User Documentation

The IMF produces the following documentation to accompany the DOTS:

• The IMF’s A Guide to the Direction of Trade Statistics (www.esds.ac.uk/international/support/user_guides/imf/DOTGuide.pdf) describes the collection and compilation of the Direction of Trade. The Guide also discusses the concepts, methodology, coverage and reliability of data.
• The IMF also provides Documentation on Direction of Trade (DOTS) Database and Browser on CD-ROM (www.esds.ac.uk/international/support/user_guides/imf/dot.rtf). The discussion of methodology in this file make specific reference to the features of the IMF’s CD ROM product, although the general discussion will be of interest to all users of DOTS data.
• Descriptions of individual country methodologies are provided in the Country Notes (www.esds.ac.uk/international/support/user_guides/imf/DOTNotes.rtf) and Country and Area codes (www.esds.ac.uk/international/support/user_guides/imf/dotcty.pdf) are provided.
• Concepts, terms, sources, and coverage areas are described the IMF's own DOTS online interface documentation section.(www.imfstatistics.org/dot/DOTConte.htm) and the DOTS code structure is also explained.

The IMF also produces an annual print version of the database, the Direction of Trade Statistics Yearbook (www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=20721.0). Besides a country code guide and introduction, the yearbook presents:

• Summary and analytical tables showing trade flows for the world and major areas; and
• Country pages providing detailed trade-by country data on exports and imports for the most recent seven years.

The IMF DOTS hosted by ESDS International are delivered via Beyond 20/20 WDS - a guide to accessing the DOTS data is available (www.esds.ac.uk/international/support/user_guides/imf/dotswe.asp) .

Note: You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader software to read documents in pdf format. It can be downloaded free of charge from the Adobe website at:
www.adobe.co.uk/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Accessing the IMF Direction of Trade Statistics

To access the ESDS International macro datasets you must be a user from a UK higher or further education institution. We cannot provide data to users outside of this community due to the data re-distribution license agreements we have with our data providers. If you are a member of a UK higher or further education institution access to the macro-economic datasets is provided free of charge.

Access to data requires ESDS registration and uses the federated access management authentication system. . Registration is a simple online process - go to the How to Register web page at www.esds.ac.uk/aandp/access/access.asp to begin the process.

Once you have registered with ESDS and attempt to access one of the macro-economic datasets, you will automatically be prompted to agree to additional dataset specific conditions if they apply.

Countries in the IMF Direction of Trade Statistics

In the IMF DOTS 'country' does not only refer to a territorial entity that is a state as understood by international law and practice - the term is also covers some non-sovereign territorial entities such as the European Union or Africa. A full list of IMF DOTS countries and regional groups is given below:

Afghanistan, I.S. Of
Africa
Albania
Algeria
American Samoa
Angola
Antigua And Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Asia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas, The
Bahrain, Kingdom Of
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belgium-Luxembourg
Belize
Benin
Bermuda
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Brunei Darussalam
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Cape Verde
Cayman Islands
Central African Rep.
Chad
Chile
China,P.R.: Mainland
China,P.R.:Hong Kong
China,P.R.:Macao
Colombia
Comoros
Congo, Dem. Rep. Of
Congo, Republic Of
Costa Rica
Cote D Ivoire
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Czechoslovakia
Denmark
Developing Countries
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Eastern Germany
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Europe
European Union
Faeroe Islands
Falkland Islands
Fiji
Finland
France
French Polynesia
Gabon
Gambia, The
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Gibraltar
Greece
Greenland
Grenada
Guadeloupe
Guam
Guatemala
Guiana, French
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Industrial Countries
Iran, I.R. Of
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Korea
Kuwait
Kyrgyz Republic
Lao People S Dem.Rep
Latvia
Lebanon
Leeward Islands
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia, Fyr
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Martinique
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mexico
Micronesia, Federated States of
Middle East
Moldova
Mongolia
Montserrat
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands
Netherlands Antilles
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Non-Oil Develop.Ctys
North Korea
Norway
Oil Exporting Ctys
Oman
Other Countries Nie
Pakistan
Palau
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Reunion
Romania
Russia
Rwanda
Sacca
Sacca Exc.South Afr.
Samoa
Sao Tome & Principe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia & Montenegro
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovak Republic
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
St. Helena
St. Kitts And Nevis
St. Lucia
St. Pierre-Miquelon
St. Vincent & Grens.
Sudan
Suriname
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Syrian Arab Republic
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Timor
Togo
Tonga
Trinidad And Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Tuvalu
U.S.S.R.
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Venezuela, Rep. Bol.
Vietnam
West Bank/Gaza
Western Hemisphere
Windward Islands
World
Yemen Arab Rep. (pre-1990 data)
Yemen, P.D. Rep. (pre-1990 data)
Yemen, Republic Of (data from 1990 onwards)
Yugoslavia, Sfr
Zambia
Zimbabwe

Note: Data for Taiwan is not included as part of the mainland China data series. Due to political reasons there is no data series for Taiwan in the DOTS online database but Taiwan (country code 528) is included in the hard copy of the DOTS yearbook.

Periodicity and Time Range

The IMF Direction of Trade Statistics contains over 100,000 quarterly and annual time series data. The period for which data are available varies from country to country, but most countries’ data extend from the 1980’s to the present. The DOTS pre-1980 data is found in the DOTS Historical 1948 - 1980 folder on Beyond 20/20 WDS.

Data that countries report to the Fund on exports and imports by trading partners vary in frequency and currentness. The 23 industrial countries and about 40 developing countries report their data by month on a regular basis. In recent years, these countries have represented more than 85 percent of the value of recorded world exports and imports. Other countries report monthly data that are less current, or they compile and provide only quarterly or annual data. In general the data for individual countries are reported by official national agencies to the Fund or through their official publications. For some countries, the data reported to the United Nations Statistical Division have been used. For most member countries of the European Union, monthly data are sourced from Eurostat.

The IMF DOTS at ESDS International is updated once a month. See the latest data update page (www.esds.ac.uk/international/news/dataupdate.asp) for further information.