Following an agreement between the Czech National Bank (CNB) and the Czech Statistical Office (CZSO) on co-ordination of statistical activities in the area of balance of payments data, revised balance of payments data for 2004 (since the Czech Republic’s accession to the European Union), 2005 and 2006 will be published. This adjustment will be also taken into account in the usual source data revision in the field of national accounts.

6 June 2007	9.00	CZSO	a standard News Release „External Trade (April 2007)“ together with the publication of figures on imports of goods in FOB prices from May 2004
7 June 2007	10.00	CNB	the balance of payments data for 2007 Q1 together with the revised 2004 – 2006 data
7 June 2007	10.00	CZSO	a standard revision of annual HDP figures
8 June 2007	9.00	CZSO	a standard News Release „GDP (1st quarter of 2007)“
29 June 2007	9.00	CZSO	a standard revision of annual national accounts

The main reason for the revision is a shift to new sources of data on exports and imports of transport and other services. Previous information received from banks‘ documents based on the codes of transactions (payment titles) used by clients of banks will be replaced by results of a direct survey of respondents conducted by the CZSO in respect of exports and imports of services in 2005 and 2006. Further, goods imports data will be newly published not only in the CIF ¹ methodology applicable to foreign trade statistics, but also aggregately in the FOB ² methodology. A threshold of EUR 12,500 for the statistical identification of transactions by clients of banks, which entered into force in accordance with Community law following the Czech Republic‘ s accession to the European Union, is likely to be increased to EUR 50,000 from January 2008. The value of information based on the identification of payment titles mainly in the field of services decreased, as many of such transactions, which did not exceed the limit, remained statistically unidentified. Moreover, the number of payments effected outside the domestic banking sector increased due to liberalisation of the economy. Further, items necessary for national accounts, which cannot be monitored by means of receipts and payments, are being gradually implemented into the current account of the balance of payments in line with international standards.

In 2004, for the above mentioned reasons and in compliance with a recommendation of Eurostat, the CNB and the CZSO agreed a specification of the powers, responsibilities and mutual co-operation in respect of the organisation of the collection of primary data for the statistics of the balance of payments and international investment position. The CZSO conducted a pilot survey on exports and imports of services for 2005 and 2006. The results of the survey were assessed as sufficiently robust. This manner of data collection also provides better quality checks of the primary source of information. It was therefore decided by mutual consent to shift to the new source of data from the first quarter of 2007 and to revise the period following the Czech Republic’s accession to the European Union on the dates of publication of the data. The CZSO‘s statistical surveys will thus become a primary source of information on exports and imports of goods, as well as of transport and other services, for the purpose of the balance of payments and national accounts. From a methodological point of view, the shift to the new sources of statistical and administrative information will also help meet the new requirements by international institutions to a larger extent and underline the link to the production statistics data. The statistics of receipts and expenditure from foreign travel will be within the competence of the CNB until adoption of the euro.

The time series of data on foreign trade in goods remain unchanged. The revised national accounts data will be affected not only by the revised balance of payments data but also by the usual source data revision in line with the CZSO revision policy.

A seminar concerning the released revised data will be held on 7 June 2007 at 2 p.m. at the building of the Czech Statistical Office, Na padesátém, 81 Prague 10. Please confirm your attendance at the seminar by e-mail: miroslava.borovkova@czso.cz by 5 June 2007.

CNB Communications Department

CZSO Press Department

 
                                                            

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¹⁾ Cost, insurance and freight, i.e. the value of the goods, including international trading costs, at the border of the importing country.
²⁾ Free on board, i.e. the value of the goods at the border of the exporting country.