Ships and aircraft –
The economic ownership principle –
status on implementation
Nordic meeting on Trade in Goods and
Services/BoP 2014
Tórshavn, Faroe Islands, 16-18 September 2014
Søren Rich, Senior Adviser, Statistics Denmark
Outcome of Eurostat discussions
2010-2013 –Danish view
 In general satisfied with the outcome
 Very important that business accounts standards IAS17
was adopted as a tool/method
 No Holy Grail found: the perfect data source was not
identified
 Use of commercial databases like IHS Fairplay was
fortunately not adopted as main data source…
 … and recommendations from Task Force ‘Trade in
Ships and Aircraft’ allow for the necessary freedom of
collection methods.
 Good cooperation with Iceland about finding a joint
position on the issue and getting influence on the
outcome of Task Force ‘Trade in Ships and Aircraft’
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Danish implementation of economic
ownership principles so far
Gradual implementation of economic ownership in External
Trade in Goods Statistics:
 Ships: Bareboat leasing included since 2010
 Aircraft: Activities of Danish leasing companies included
since 2011
 Ships: Flagging in/out currently under investigations
Point of departure: Ships under foreign flag should not be included…
 … but a confirmation is needed.

 Full implementation of economic ownership is expected to
take place with the finalisation of statistics
for 2012 next year.
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Potential for Nordic cooperation
 Close dialogue and exchange of experience on how to
implement economic ownership concept within ships and
aircraft
 Exchange of (micro) data on identified transactions can
facilitate the implementation of economic ownership and
improve the quality
 Sweden, Norway and Denmark
could intensify the cooperation on
how to record the transactions by
Scandinavian Airlines
4
The future of economic ownership in
External Trade in Goods
According to EU Commissions proposal for new
legislation for business statistics (FRIBS) the following
will happen to economic ownership principle:
 Ships and aircraft: the principle is kept in FRIBS
 Spacecraft: the principle is kept in FRIBS
 Goods delivered to ships and
aircraft: replaced by the flag nation
of the ship/aircraft
 Sea products: replaced by the flag
nation of the ship landing the
products.
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The end
Thanks for your attention!
Questions, comments?
Søren Rich, sri@dst.dk
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