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International trade in goods and services: documentation of statistics

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2.7.2022 valid documentation

Concepts

CIF price

The price includes costs, insurance and freight between the ports of loading and destination. The seller pays the sea freight to the agreed port of destination and takes out marine insurance for the goods in the buyer’s favour.

CIF-FOB conversion

Finnish Customs compiles statistics on imports of goods at CIF value. In balance of payments, imports of goods are at FOB value. To attain the FOB value, freight and insurance costs between the ports of loading and destination are deducted from imports of goods.

Computer services

Computer services include hardware, software and data processing services. The item comprises hardware and software consultancy and implementation services; maintenance and repair of computers and peripheral equipment; disaster recovery services, provision of advice and assistance on matters related to the management of computer resources; analysis, design and programming of systems ready to use, including web page development and design; technical consultancy related to software; licence fees collected for the use of software (other than ordered by the customer); development, production, supply and documentation of customised software, including operating systems made on order for specific users; systems maintenance and other support services, such as training provided as part of consultancy; data processing services, such as data entry, tabulation and processing on a time-share basis; web page hosting services, i.e. provision of server space on the Internet to host customers’ web pages; and computer facilities management.

Construction

Construction covers the creation, management, renovation, repair or extension of fixed assets in the form of real estate, land improvements of civil engineering nature and other constructions such as roads, bridges and dams. This also includes related installation and assembly work, site preparation and general construction, as well as specialised services such as painting, plumbing and demolition.

Country of consignment

The country of consignment for imports refers to a member country from which the good was originally sent to be exported to Finland either directly or through a second country.

Country of destination

The country of destination for exports refers to the latest known member country to which the good has meant to be exported from Finland.

Country of origin

The country of origin is the country where the good was produced or manufactured. If the good was manufactured in two or several countries, the country of origin is the country where the latest significant and economically justified manufacturing or processing has taken place.

Delivery of goods to vessels

Deliveries of vessel spare parts and supplies, vessel fuel and lubricants, goods meant to be sold to passengers on vessels and to be consumed there by passengers or the crew for vessels and aircraft in professional international traffic.

Direct leasing

Leasing based on an agreement where the lessee gets the user right but where the risks and benefits of ownership are not transferred to the lessee. Also includes leasing (rental) and charter of ships, aircraft and transportation equipment, such as railway cars, containers and rigs without operators or crew.

FOB price

The value of goods at basic prices. The seller delivers the goods to the buyer in the port of loading.

Factoryless production

In factoryless production, an enterprise located in Finland (factoryless producer) has outsourced all its production, but its other activities, such as the head office, sales and research and development are located wholly or partly in Finland. A factoryless producer located in Finland organises the international manufacturing process. In addition to manufacturing costs, the sales price of a product includes planning, administration, patents and knowhow, marketing and financing. Especially in high technology goods these immaterial inputs may be considerable compared to the value of materials and assembly. In the balance of payments, the difference between sales and purchases (the margin of sales from abroad to abroad) in factoryless production is recorded in Finland in goods exports.

Financial services

As a rule, financial services cover financial intermediation of banks and other financial corporations and support activities for them except insurance and pension services.

Foreign trade in services

Foreign trade in services takes place when an economic actor (e.g. a business enterprise) resident in Finland and an economic actor resident abroad conduct trade in services. The exports of services generate income. The imports of services generate an expense item. The distinguishing criterion of foreign trade in services is that a domestic company receives compensation from a foreign economic actor for a service provided, or pays a foreign economic actor for a service it has provided.

Global manufacturing services

When goods are sent abroad for processing, the producer owns the raw materials and the finished product and carries the risk for the whole production process. Economic ownership lies with the foreign producer. The balance of payment recordings depend on whether it is a question of goods sent to Finland for processing charged to a foreign unit or goods sent abroad for processing charged to a Finnish unit.

Global production

Global production covers goods sent to Finland for processing charged to a foreign unit, goods sent abroad for processing charged to a Finnish unit, merchanting and factoryless production.

Goods sent abroad for processing charged to a Finnish producer

When goods are sent abroad for processing, the Finnish producer owns the raw materials and the finished product and carries the risk for the whole production process. Economic ownership is in Finland. The Finnish producer pays to the foreign processor, which can also be its affiliate, compensation for the work done (service). The manufacturing premium is recorded in balance of payments in Finland's imports of services. Goods exported from Finland for processing and finished goods imported back to Finland are removed in the balance of payments from Finland's goods trade, because their ownership does not change. Goods bought from aboard that have been remodelled abroad and goods sold abroad that have been manufactured abroad are, in turn, added in the balance of payments to Finland's goods trade.

Goods sent to Finland for processing charged to a foreign producer

When goods are sent to Finland for processing, the producer owns the raw materials and the finished product and carries the risk for the whole production process. Economic ownership is abroad. The foreign producer pays to the Finnish processor, which can also be its affiliate, compensation for the work done (service). The manufacturing premium is recorded in balance of payments in Finland's exports of services. Goods imported to Finland for processing and finished goods exported back from Finland are removed in the balance of payments from Finland's goods trade, because their ownership does not change.

Goods trade in balance of payment terms

Goods trade in balance of payments terms includes goods whose ownership changes between a domestic and foreign unit, and which are not parts of a service. Usual merchandise is recorded at market value according to the FOB principle. Exports are recorded in the statistics by the country of destination, imports from the EU area by the country of consignment and imports from outside the EU by the country of origin.

Goods trade in customs terms

Finnish Customs produces statistics on goods trade across Finnish borders. Data on Finland's trade with countries outside the EU are derived from the customs clearance system. Statistical data are reported monthly by importers and exporters to Finnish Customs concerning trade inside the EU according to the Intrastat system. Finnish Customs compiles statistics on imports at CIF value.

Information services

Provision of news, photographs and background information to the media, database services, optical or printed media and web search portals, non-bulk subscriptions to newspapers and periodicals, other production of web contents, and library and archiving services.

Insurance and pension services

Insurance and pension services comprise direct insurance, reinsurance, activities auxiliary to insurance services and pension and standardised guarantee services. Direct insurance can be classified into life insurance, freight insurance and other direct insurance. Pension and standardised guarantee services are divided into pension services and standardised guarantee services. These services are estimated or valuated rather based on service charges included in total insurance premiums than the total value of insurance premiums.

Maintenance and repair services n.i.e.

Maintenance and repair services n.i.e. cover repairs made to keep the good in operation, improve the functionality or capacity of the product or extend its service life, excluding cleaning of transport equipment, construction maintenance and repair, and repair and maintenance of computers. The repairs may be performed at the site of the repairer or elsewhere.

Manufacturing services

Manufacturing services comprise processing, assembly, marking, packaging and so forth, by an enterprise that does not own the goods in question. The manufacturing service is performed by a unit that receives payment for it from the owner. Manufacturing services are also referred to as goods sent abroad for processing, processing and paid work.

Merchanting services

In merchanting, a Finnish economic unit purchases a good from abroad and resells it without changes abroad without the goods ever entering Finland. Merchanting is recorded exclusively in exports.

Other business services

Research and development services, legal services, accounting, auditing, bookkeeping and tax consultancy services, management consulting and public relations services, advertising, market research, public opinion polling, architectural services, engineering services, other technical services, waste treatment and depollution, services for agriculture and forestry and fishing, services related to mining and quarrying and oil and gas extraction, direct leasing services, trade-related services, employment services, and other business services.

Personal, cultural and recreational services

Audiovisual services, artistic services, education services, health services, heritage and recreational services and other personal services. Services associated with the production of motion pictures, radio and television programmes and musical recordings. Renting of audiovisual products and related products and fees for watching rights to encrypted television channels, mass-produced audiovisual products sold to continuous use, which are supplied electronically, fees received by performing artists, writers, composers, etc. Services supplied between resident and non-resident actors relating to education, such as correspondence courses and education via television or the Internet, as well as teachers or the like, who supply services direct in host economies. Services provided by doctors, nurses and public health nurses and corresponding professionals, as well as laboratory and corresponding services rendered either remotely or on-site. Services related to museums and other cultural, sports, gambling and recreational activities except for services involving persons outside the national economy where resident. Social work activities, domestic services by paid staff and so on.

Project deliveries

Project deliveries may include turnkey deliveries of machines, production equipment and industrial plants, including installation and assembly of machines and other related construction work.

Public administration services n.i.e.

Transactions made by general government (excl. international organisations) concerning goods and services which cannot be classified under other items.

Research and development services

Services related to basic research, applied research and experimental development of new products and processes. Research and development in the fields of natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. Development of technologically advanced software. Commercial research in the fields of electronics, medicine and biotechnology.

Royalties and licence fees n.i.e.

Charges collected for the use of intellectual property n.i.e. include charges for the use of propriety rights (such as patents, trademarks, copyrights, protection of methods and designs, incl. trade secrets and franchising). These rights may be produced from research and development and marketing, and charges for licences to reproduce and/or distribute intellectual property embodied in produced originals or prototypes (such as copyrights of books, manuscripts, software, film work, recordings) to make them available to the public or related rights (like television, cable television and satellite broadcasts).

Services

Services are the result of a production activity that changes the conditions of the consuming units or facilitates the exchange of products or financial assets. Services are not generally separate items over which ownership rights can be established and cannot generally be separated from their production.

Telecommunication services

Telecommunication services comprise the transmission of sound, images or other data by telephone, telex, telegram, radio or cable television, and broadcasting, satellite, electronic mail, etc., including business network services, teleconferencing and support services. The value of the transmitted data are not included here. This also includes mobile telephone services, Internet backbone services and online access services, as well as access to the Internet.

Tourism

Tourism comprises the activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year (12 months) for leisure, business or other purposes. This includes goods and services the tourist pays for personally or somebody pays for on his/her behalf, or which the tourists receives without compensation for his/her own use or to be given to someone else. Included are expenses paid before the trip or after it. Tourism does not include international transport of tourists, which is included in passenger transports of transport services.

Transport

Transport includes sea, air, railway, road and inland water passenger and freight transport and support activities for them. In addition, transport comprises postal and courier services.

Classifications

Px code list of countries

Principles and outlines

Contact organisation

Statistics Finland

Contact organisation unit

Economic statistics

Legal acts and other agreements

The compilation of statistics is guided by the Statistics Act. The Statistics Act contains provisions on collection of data, processing of data and the obligation to provide data. Besides the Statistics Act, the Data Protection Act and the Act on the Openness of Government Activities are applied to processing of data when producing statistics.

Statistics Finland compiles statistics in line with the EU’s regulations applicable to statistics, which steer the statistical agencies of all EU Member States.

Further information: Statistical legislation

Confidentiality - policy

The data protection of data collected for statistical purposes is guaranteed in accordance with the requirements of the Statistics Act (280/2004), the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999), the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and the Data Protection Act (1050/2018). The data materials are protected at all stages of processing with the necessary physical and technical solutions. Statistics Finland has compiled detailed directions and instructions for confidential processing of the data. Employees have access only to the data essential for their duties. The premises where unit-level data are processed are not accessible to outsiders. Members of the personnel have signed a pledge of secrecy upon entering the service. Violation of data protection is punishable.

Further information: Data protection | Statistics Finland (stat.fi)

Release policy

Statistics Finland publishes new statistical data at 8 am on weekdays in its web service. The release times of statistics are given in advance in the release calendar available in the web service. The data are public after they have been updated in the web service.

Further information: Publication principles for statistics at Statistics Finland

Accessibility and clarity

Statistical data are published as database tables in the StatFin database. The database is the primary publishing site of data, and new data are updated first there. When releasing statistical data, existing database tables can be updated with new data or completely new database tables can be published.

In addition to statistical data published in the StatFin database, a release on the key data is usually published in the web service. If the release contains data concerning several reference periods (e.g. monthly and annual data), a review bringing together these data is published in the web service. Database tables updated at the time of publication are listed both in the release and in the review. In some cases, statistical data can also be published as mere database releases in the StatFin database. No release or review is published in connection with these database releases.

Releases and database tables are published in three languages, in Finnish, Swedish and English. The language versions of releases may have more limited content than in Finnish.

Information about changes in the publication schedules of releases and database tables and about corrections are given as change releases in the web service.

Data revision - policy

Revisions – i.e. improvements in the accuracy of statistical data already published – are a normal feature of statistical production and result in improved quality of statistics. The principle is that statistical data are based on the best available data and information concerning the statistical phenomenon. On the other hand, the revisions are communicated as transparently as possible in advance. Advance communication ensures that the users can prepare for the data revisions.

The reason why data in statistical releases become revised is often caused by the data becoming supplemented. Then the new, revised statistical figure is based on a wider information basis and describes the phenomenon more accurately than before.

Revisions of statistical data may also be caused by the calculation method used, such as annual benchmarking or updating of weight structures. Changes of base years and used classifications may also cause revisions to data.

Quality assurance

Quality management requires comprehensive guidance of activities. The quality management framework of the field of statistics is the European Statistics Code of Practice (CoP). The frameworks complement each other. The quality criteria of Official Statistics of Finland are also compatible with the European Statistics Code of Practice.

Further information: Quality management | Statistics Finland (stat.fi)

User access

Data are released to all users at the same time. Statistical data may only be handled at Statistics Finland and information on them may be given before release only by persons involved in the production of the statistics concerned or who need the data of the statistics concerned in their own work before the data are published.

Further information: Publication principles for statistics

Unless otherwise separately stated in connection with the product, data or service concerned, Statistics Finland is the producer of the data and the owner of the copyright. The terms of use for statistical data