Information on data

This folder provides indicators for the EU and its members, the euro area, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), enlargement countries  and North Ireland by broad product categories. This means by 1-digit codes of the standard international trade classification (SITC) or aggregates of the broad economic categories (BEC).

Data are available:

• monthly, so called short-term indicators, which include gross and seasonally adjusted trade values, growth rates and indices
• annually, so called long-term indicators, which include trade values and indices as well as shares by reporting country and trading partner.

This folder provides indicators for the EU and its members, the euro area, the EFTA, enlargement countries, and Northern Ireland at the most detailed level of the following product nomenclatures: 

• combined nomenclature (CN)
• standard international trade classification (SITC)
• broad economic categories (BEC)
• classification of products by activity (CPA)
• standard goods classification for transport statistics

The indicators provide information on the value and volume – quantities in kilos and in supplementary units – of imports and exports with partner areas or countries. Data is available monthly and annually.

This folder provides indicators based on the classification of the enterprises engaged in international trade in goods by activity sector. This refers to sections A to U of the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE Rev. 2).

Data are available for the following characteristics:

• enterprise size-class (in terms of number of employees)
• type of trader (exporting or importing company)
• trade concentration (share of total trade accounted for by the top 5, 10, 20, etc. companies)
• geographical diversification (in terms of the number of partner countries)
• export intensity (share of exports in total turnover)
• products traded

Trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC) data provide information on the number of enterprises per size class and their global trade value.

This folder provides indicators by invoicing currency which are calculated for each product group based on the total extra-EU trade for the EU countries and on world imports and exports for the EFTA and enlargement countries.

Short-term indicators are released shortly after the reference month, in general within 46 days. They aim at providing users with timely figures on the trade of goods of the EU, the euro area, and the EU countries with the rest of the world.

The release dates are announced in the Euro indicators release calendar. Please filter by indicator and select ‘International trade in goods’.

Long-term indicators are updated usually in March with data for the new reference year.

They are released as follows:

• extra-EU data are published at the same time as the short-term indicators, meaning 46 days after the end of the reference month;
• intra-EU data are published for the majority of EU countries 1 month after the release of the extra-EU data, meaning in general around 2.5 months after the end of the reference month. However, some EU countries release their detailed intra-EU data at the same time as the extra-EU data.

For more information, please consult the  dates of latest data uploads.

Data are updated once a year, usually in July, with data for the new reference year.

Data are updated once a year, usually in May, with data for the new reference year. However, TIC data are only complete every 2 years because data delivery by the countries is mandatory biannually.