Wednesday, January 9, 1974
14
SYSTEM FOR COMPILING TRADE STATISTICS EXPLAINED
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Statistics of Hong Kong's trade published in respect of any
particular month do not relate to all shipments actually made during that
month, nor only to shipments made during that month, the Director of
Commerce and Industry, the Hon. David Jordan, told the Legislative Council
today.
"The reason for this is that full details about all shipments
do not come to hand in time," he said, "and if we waited until all the
information was available there would be an unacceptable delay in
publication of any figures at all."
Mr. Jordan, who was replying to a question from the Hon. Dr. S.Y.
Chung, said that, generally speaking, provisional trade figures for a given
month are published four weeks after the end of that month.
They are based on trade declarations covering shipments made in
that month and lodged by the 10th of the succeeding month, and on declarations
covering trade in previous months and lodged between that day and the 11th
day of the preceding month.
"On average, this system results in published figures for a given
month covering about 70 per cent of shipments actually rade during that month,
but of course the 30 per cent not recorded then is made up for by declarations
relating to trade in previous months," said Mr. Jordan.
"The Census and Statistics Department's experience has shown that
the offsets cancel each other out to a high degree."
Mr. Jordan.....................