Row

Data Sources

Central Statistics Office (CSO)

Background

• The Central Statistics Office (CSO) Goods Exports and Imports statistics provide data on the movement of goods between Ireland and other countries including Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
• The collection of trade data is the responsibility of Revenue Irish Tax and Customs and the CSO is responsible for processing and disseminating the data.
• The statistics use a combination of Customs-based non-EU trade statistics and data from the Intrastat Survey of Irish traders involved in trade with other EU member states.
• Data frequency: Monthly.

Points to note:

• Monthly trade figures are provisional and will be updated as more data becomes available.
• Intrastat (intra EU Trade) – all traders registered for VAT whose annual Intra-EU imports exceed €500,000 or annual Intra-EU exports exceed €635,000; approx. 7000 traders comprising some 6000 importers and 2000 exporters some of who are involved in both importing and exporting of merchandise goods.
• Extra-Stat (non-EU) trade is compiled from administrative data of Revenue Commissioners (via Customs declarations – approx. 3 million movement record numbers per month).
• Data is presented in Euros and so will be different values to those in Pounds Sterling.
• Trade in goods only.
• Please note revision to trade with NI September 2021.
• More detailed product level information can be found on CSO’s PxStat Open Data Platform.

For more information please refer to the CSO website.

 

HMRC Regional Trade Statistics (HMRC RTS)

Background

• HMRC RTS data is collected from two data sources: the EU-wide Intrastat survey to capture Northern Ireland’s goods trade with EU countries and Customs import and export declarations for GB-EU and UK-Non-EU goods trade flows, both administered by HMRC.
• These data sources record the movement - for trade purposes - of goods between the UK -EU and UK-Non-EU countries. For the data collected by Intrastat survey (currently only captures NI’s goods trade with EU countries) there is a legal requirement for all VAT-registered businesses to supply this data if they are above the Intrastat declaration threshold (exports >£250k, imports > £500k). NI businesses that trade goods with EU and fall below the Intrastat declaration threshold, their trade value with EU is estimated via Below Trade Threshold Allocation (BTTA) methodology.
• The RTS methodology allocates trade to a region based on the location of the business exporting or importing the goods. For multi-branch businesses, it allocates trade to a region based on the proportional distribution of employees of that business across the regions of the UK.
• RTS do not include non-response estimates.
• RTS do not include non-monetary gold trade.
• Data frequency: Quarterly.

Points to note:

• Consistent data across all UK regions.
• No inter-regional trade.
• Administrative data source – it is a legal requirement for all VAT/EORI registered businesses to supply this data.
• For NI’s goods trade with EU, businesses included must have EU exports or imports above the Intrastat threshold (exports >£250k, imports > £500k). Detailed information on smaller traders is not available.
• Users should note that from January 2022, HMRC implemented a change in data collection methods affecting trade in goods data on imports from the EU into Great Britain. This creates a break in the time series, users should take care when making comparisons with quarters and years prior to 2022.
• Trade in goods only.
• More detailed product level information can be found on HMRC’s Build a Regional Trade Data Table.

For more information please refer to the HMRC website.

 

Eurostat

Background

• Trade in goods data for Northern Ireland published by Eurostat.
• Data on NI’s trade in goods captures physical movements between NI and EU countries.
• A detailed dataset covering the UK’s trade in goods at country and product level. This dashboard only provides country level data.
• They are published monthly from trade declarations, providing access to both aggregated and detailed data for over 9,500 commodities and around 200 partner countries.
• Data frequency: Monthly.

Points to note:

• Latest figures are provisional and subject to revision.
• Users should note that from January 2022, HMRC implemented a change in data collection methods affecting trade in goods data on imports from the EU into Great Britain. This creates a break in the time series, users should take care when making comparisons with quarters and years prior to 2022.
• There is currently a 3 month lag in availability of monthly data.
• Businesses included must have EU exports and imports above the Intrastat threshold (exports >£250k, imports > £500k).
• All figures are reported in Euros and so will be different values to those in Pounds Sterling.
• Non-response estimates are included.
• Some intra and extra Union trade has not been allocated to specific partners. For the total trade figures all intra-Union trade has been allocated to Rest of European Union and all extra-Union trade has been allocated to Rest of World. It is not possible to split the intra-Union trade into Ireland and Rest of European Union.
• Guidance on how to access detailed product level information is available on the HMRC website.

For more information please refer to the Eurostat website.

 

Northern Ireland Economic Trade Statistics (NIETS)

Background

• The NIETS (formerly known as the Broad Economy Sales and Exports Statistics (BESES)) is an annual measure of local businesses’ sales and purchases of goods and services within Northern Ireland (NI) and to and from markets outside NI.
• NIETS data is gathered through the NI Annual Business Inquiry (ABI) and has been running since 2011.
• Captures trade in both goods and services.
• Data frequency: Annual.

Points to note:

• Only trade in goods data is presented in this dashboard.
• Latest figures are provisional and subject to revision.
• Survey-based data source – associated drawbacks include respondent bias, error, gaps in survey coverage, sampling error etc.
• Survey simply captures the value of a transaction and the destination of the sale. We know nothing about:
  • the business making the purchase
  • the products sold
  • whether the goods are final products or are intermediate goods to be used in a further production process
  • the ultimate destination of any goods sold on
  • transport/shipping routes
• Sector coverage – Excludes the following sectors:
  • Insurance and re-insurance industries;
  • Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing; Public Administration and Defence;
  • Local authority and central Government bodies in Education and Human Health and Social Work Activities plus Medical and Dental Practice Activities.
• Product level information is not available for the NIETS. However, trade by industry sector is available on the NISRA data portal.

For more information please refer to the NIETS Quick Reference Guide and the NISRA website.

 

Additional Links

• NISRA - UK Regions Imports and Exports of Goods by Country and World Region
• NISRA - Northern Ireland Monthly Trade in Goods Dashboard
• NISRA - Social, Economic and Environment Indicators
• DAERA - Size and performance of the NI food and drinks processing sector
  • For trade data by destination and high level product groupings see “Northern Ireland Food and Drinks Processing Report - Tables and Figures.ODS”.
• International goods trade: interactive dashboard | GOV.WALES
• ONS Interregional Trade in Goods and Services, UK: 2019 and 2020
• Summary of Movements of Goods into Northern Ireland from Great Britain 2023: commentary

Glossary

Goods refers to specific, tangible products.

Sales refer to sales that take place within the United Kingdom i.e. within Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

Exports refer to sales that take place outside of the United Kingdom.

Purchases refer to purchases that take place within the United Kingdom.

Imports refer to purchases that take place outside of the United Kingdom.

Total NI International Trade refers to all NI trade outside the UK i.e. Ireland, rest of the EU and rest of the world.

Total NI Trade refers to all trade within and outside of Northern Ireland.

Within NI Trade refers to NI businesses selling/purchasing goods to/from other NI businesses.

Great Britain refers to England, Scotland and Wales.

The Rest of the EU (REU) is composed of the following countries: Germany; France; Belgium; Luxembourg; Netherlands; Italy; Denmark; Portugal; Spain; Greece; Austria; Croatia; Sweden; Finland; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Estonia; Hungary; Latvia; Lithuania; Malta; Poland; Romania; Bulgaria; Slovakia and Slovenia.

The Rest of the World (ROW) refers to all other destinations outside the EU and Great Britain.

Trade balance is defined as the difference between the value of exports and the value of imports, or:

\[\text{trade balance = value of sales or exports - value of purchases or imports}\] Total trade is the sum of the value of sales/exports and the value of purchases/imports, or:

\[\text{total trade = value of sales or exports + value of purchases or imports}\]

Trade Asymmetries is a known issue in trade statistics. Differences in import and export statistics between countries is not unusual and can occur for a variety of reasons (e.g. exchange rates, tax reporting thresholds etc.).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is undertaking research into the UK trade asymmetries with the rest of the world. The first in a series of articles, which provides a good overview of this known issue and work that is ongoing to address it, can be found on the ONS website.

More information can be found at the following links:

• Asymmetries in trade data: updating analysis of UK bilateral trade data
• Asymmetries in international trade in goods statistics: UK measured against trade partners 2020 to 2022