CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE

Main Aspects of Foreign Trade Statistics in ChileTeresa CornejoBalance of Payments and External DebtInformation and Statistical Research AreaCentral Bank of Chile CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE September 2007

PRESENTATION STRUCTURE • Introduction • Merchandise Trade Statistics in Chile • Merchandise trade and balance of payments data on goods compiled by the Central Bank of Chile • Final Remarks SEPTEMBER 2007 CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE

INTRODUCTION • Foreign trade is central to the Chilean economy. On average for 1996 through 2006, exports were 28% of nominal GDP, imports amounted to 24% of GDP, and net trade (exports minus imports) was 5%. • Between 1996 and 2006, exports have averaged US$ 25,204 million per year, and reached US$ 58,116 million in 2006, as a result of the high price of copper, which is the country’s main export (averaging 39% of total exports in 1996 – 2006). • Chile’s imports of merchandise goods has averaged US$ 20,607 million (FOB value) in the last 10 years . Classified by use, 58% of imports are intermediate goods- of which 14% are fuel- 19% are consumer goods and 21% are capital goods SEPTEMBER 2007 CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE

INTRODUCTION SEPTEMBER 2007 CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE

INTRODUCTION • Considering the importance of foreign trade in Chile’s economy, both the public and the private sector have great interest in these statistics and in indicators based on them. • Several different trade databases have been created to meet those needs SEPTEMBER 2007 CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE

MERCHANDISE TRADE STATISTICS IN CHILE SEPTEMBER 2007 CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE

MERCHANDISE TRADE STATISTICS IN CHILE (Continuation) • Public Institutions - Customs • National Customs Service (NCS, or SNA, in Spanish) • Functions: Facilitation of export and import processes, responsibility for safeguarding the state’s interests, collecting associated duties and taxes, generating trade statistics. • Coverage of Customs data: • Follows the general guidelines of the Special Trade System (Merchandise Trade Manual, UNSD). • Since 1990, customs data was expanded to include certain exports of services, which have been classified under a special heading (0025) of the HS.This was associated to tax exemptions and other incentives, and applies to services defined by Customs for those purposes. SEPTEMBER 2007 CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE

MERCHANDISE TRADE STATISTICS IN CHILE (Continuation) • Public Institutions Customs SEPTEMBER 2007 CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE

MERCHANDISE TRADE STATISTICS IN CHILE (Continuation) • Public Institutions - PROCHILE • Direction of Export Promotion (ProChile) • Description: • Government agency devoted to promoting foreign trade. • Activities based on four pillars: supporting small and medium sized companies in gaining access to world markets; making use of opportunities arising from commercial treaties; enhancing public-private sector cooperation; fostering Chile’s image in international markets. • Prochile has a network of offices in Chile and in main world markets. It has developed a variety of services that are provided to exporters in three areas: Orientation, Commercial Promotion, and Information Technology. SEPTEMBER 2007 CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE

MERCHANDISE TRADE STATISTICS IN CHILE (Continuation) • Publics Institutions PROCHILE • Direction of Export Promotion (ProChile) • Prochile compiles export and import statistics (based on customs records), and disseminates information in publications posted on its website: Quarterly report of Chile’s foreign trade, Reports for Chile’s trade with countries with which there are treaties, Other occasional reports and Directory of Chilean exporters . • Free access to trade data by means of an interactive application (Foreign Trade Statistics) that stores monthly and annual data beginning in 2002. SEPTEMBER 2007 CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE

MERCHANDISE TRADE STATISTICS IN CHILE (Continuation) • Private Institutions • Santiago Chamber of Commerce:Organization of more than 1,363 private companies. Among its activities are actions aimed at having high impact on trade. It has developed a foreign trade database (www.portalcomexccs.cl), which offers, for a fee, data on exports and imports at aggregate levels and broken down at 8- digit HS level, as well as other services related to foreign trade • Other enterprises (LEGIS & LEXISNEXIS):Both have created external trade databases, which enables customers to obtain very detailed Customs data, from aggregate levels down to individual transactions. Almost all fields or dimensions of the import and export declarations may be obtained. The product classification is the HS, down to the 8 digit level. The databases are updated monthly. SEPTEMBER 2007 CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE

MERCHANDISE TRADE COMPILED BY THE CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE • AND BALANCE OF PAYMENTS STATISTICS OF GOODS SEPTEMBER 2007 CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE

MERCHANDISE TRADE COMPILED BY CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE • BALANCE OF PAYMENTS STATISTICS (Continuation) • Classification Systems: • The Central Bank has incorporated into its databases, different classification systems • - International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC): version adapted to Chile • - Harmonized system • Single Product Classification (SPC): It is a product classification system developed for Chilean national accounts. • Standard International Trade Classification (SITC): • Final Use and duration of goods: Applied to imports (Consumer goods, intermediate goods, and capital goods. Goods for consumption are further classified into durable, semi-durable and other). • Other uses of this information: • National Accounts rest of the world account and monthly economic activity indicator (data classified according to the SPC – HS 8 digit) • Price and volume indexes, calculated monthly and quarterly, to support economic analysis and forecasts, and to be used to calculate price deflators for the national accounts. CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE SEPTRMBER 2007

MERCHANDISE TRADE COMPILED BY CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE • BALANCE OF PAYMENTS STATISTICS (Continuation) • Revisions: • Main causes of revisions are value adjustments for exports shipped at provisional values, and for coverage of transactions not covered by Customs data, and which are received later and less frequently (initially they are estimated) • Monthly data are revised with first quarterly balance of payments release after the initial monthly dissemination • Further revisions with annual BOP releases: year t is revised in March of year t+1, in March of year t+2, and, in March of year t+3. • Exceptional revisions if necessary ( copper exports in recent years) SEPTEMBER 2007 CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE

MERCHANDISE TRADE COMPILED BY CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE • BALANCE OF PAYMENTS STATISTICS (Continuation) • Dissemination: SEPTEMBER 2007 CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE

MERCHANDISE TRADE COMPILED BY CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE • BALANCE OF PAYMENTS STATISTICS (Continuation) • Presentation of Data disseminated: • Balance of payments: statistics are presented according to BPM5 classifications, except for goods for processing, which are not calculated. • Supplementary information on trade in goods, for US $ value of exports (FOB) and imports (CIF): detailed by type of good , for the General Merchandise category. Exports classified according to ISIC (rev. 2) identifying certain products relevant for Chile. • Imports shown according to final use ( Consumer, intermediate and capital. Consumer goods broken down into durable, semidurable and other, and intermediate goods, into fuels and others). • Available series: monthly and weekly (4 periods for each month). • Quarterly data on unit price and volume indexes, with breakdowns by main categories • Foreign Trade Indicators: publication that presents a greater level of detail for values and quantities- FOB values for exports and CIF for imports- classified by ISIC, version 2, with further breakdowns for certain products, defined according to combinations of 8 digit SH codes. It also disseminates supplementary data on geographical breakdown and specific reports on related subjects. SEPTEMBER 2007 CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE

MERCHANDISE TRADE COMPILED BY CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE • BALANCE OF PAYMENTS STATISTICS (Continuation) • Confidentiality: • Data disseminated by the Central Bank are subject to confidentiality regulations contained in the Bank’s Organic Constitutional Law. Disclosure of information that identifies individual agents’ transactions is forbidden. • Customs restricts disclosure of data on specific providers, in the case of imports, and of buyers, in the case of exports. • Metadata: • Sources and methodology of balance of payments compilation system are described in a document posted on the Central Bank of Chile’s website. • Additionally, some tables in the paper publications and in the Economic Statistical Database contain footnotes that explain certain aspects of the data. • Metadata posted on the IMF SDDS website. SEPTEMBER 2007 CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE

MERCHANDISE TRADE COMPILED BY CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE • BALANCE OF PAYMENTS STATISTICS (Continuation) • Perception of quality of statistics: • Statistics of trade in goods compiled by the Central Bank are generally perceived by users as being high quality data. • Compilers are permanently revising methods and sources, to ensure that basic data are properly adjusted and/or supplemented by other sources, to meet in a cost-effective way, analytical needs and international definitions. • - ROSC evaluation in April 2007 showed very good results for BOP statistics. SEPTEMBER 2007 CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE

MERCHANDISE TRADE COMPILED BY CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE • BALANCE OF PAYMENTS STATISTICS (Continuation) • Future developments and challenges • Information Technology: • - Need to upgrade applications developed at the Central Bank to store and access the data (OALP) • - Unit value index platform: currently use ACCESS ( risky and time consuming). Special applications, using Visual Basic and SYBASE, are being built. • b. Challenges and development in methodological and analytical matters: • - Implementation of BPM6 (merchanting) • -Unification of classification systems among the different Central Bank publications, and eventually with Customs. • - Improving other data to support analysis SEPTEMBER 2007 CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE

FINAL REMARKS • Data on merchandise trade are of great interest in Chile: different sets of data available to users, compiled by public and private institutions. Central bank data are disseminated at aggregate levels, other databases provide much greater detail, down to individual transactions. • Central Bank Foreign Trade Statistics have special characteristics that enhance their usefulness: • Product breakdown : in most cases, an adapted version of ISIC that shows relevant products for Chile. Also, SITC classification for exports and final use classification for imports. • Frequency and timeliness: the data released by the Central Bank have the greatest frequency and are the most timely among the data released to the public. • The data have been adjusted for coverage (additions form non Customs sources, and subtractions of certain transactions), and for market valuation • Consistency with the national accounts • Supplementary information on unit price and volume indexes is provided • Because of their relevance both for its own compilation, analytical and policy purposes, and also because of the users’ interest in merchandise trade data, the Central Bank continues to work to improve this important set of statistics. SEPTEMBER 2007 CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE

Main Aspects of Foreign Trade Statistics in ChileTeresa Cornejo Balance of Payments and External DebtInformation and Statistical Research AreaCentral Bank of Chile CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE September 2007

CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE