XN000022-1974-01-09 — Page 15

Wednesday, January 9, 1974

14

SYSTEM FOR COMPILING TRADE STATISTICS EXPLAINED

+

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.....................