New Statistics of Commodity Details of Exports and Imports

The Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CBBH) as of today commenced releasing of a new series of statistics at BiH level on export and import of goods classified by main commodities. These statistics provide important new detailed information on foreign trade at country level.

These statistics cover commodity data on exports and imports for the first half of 2003, the July to September quarter of 2003 and the first nine months of the year. The statistics provide commodity data for the 22 main groups of the World Customs Organization's Harmonized System classification used by many European and other countries. This will facilitate comparison between BH's statistics and those of many other countries in the world.

In addition to commodity data for the 22 main groups, the statistics released by CBBH also contain details of some important items of commodity exports and import within the main groups.

The basis of these foreign trade commodity statistics differs from that used in balance of payments statistics, where various timing, coverage and valuation adjustments are made in accordance with IMF statistical standards. It is not possible to provide commodity details for these adjustments. The foreign trade commodity statistics, on the other hand, are on a Customs basis as provided by entity and Brčko District Customs administrations.

These new statistics have been made possible by the introduction of new ASYCUDA processing systems in the Customs administrations.

In future, this type of commodity data for foreign trade will be released by the Bank on a monthly basis on the Bank's website www.cbbh.ba.

CBBH appreciates the full cooperation received from the Customs administrations for providing the source data to the Bank needed for preparing the statistics now being released.