CBS, STATISTICAL ABSTRACT OF ISRAEL 2012
16
2012
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS
DEFINITIONS AND EXPLANATIONS
Imports and exports of goods and services
are presented in the goods account and in
the services account – two of the four
accounts that comprise the current balance
of payments (see Chapter 15 - International
Accounts).
The data on imports and exports of goods
were compiled in accordance with the
recommendations of the International
Merchandise Trade Statistics Compilers
Manual – 2004, and the data on imports and
exports of services were compiled in
accordance with the Manual on Statistics of
International Trade in Services – 2002, both
published by the UN.
Goods: Physical, produced objects for which
a demand exists, over which ownership
rights can be established and whose
ownership can be transferred from one
institutional unit to another by engaging in
transactions on markets.
Services: Products that are the result of
production activity that changes the
conditions of the consuming units, or
facilitates the exchange of products or
financial assets.
Imports
of
goods
and
services:
Purchases, barter, or receipts of gifts or
grants of goods and services by residents
from non-residents.
Exports of goods and services: Sales,
barter, or gifts or grants of goods and
services by residents to non-residents.
The c.i.f. price (cost, insurance and
freight price): The price of a good delivered
at the frontier of the importing country,
including any insurance and freight charges
incurred to that point
The f.o.b. price (free on board price): The
market value of the goods at the point of
uniform valuation (the customs frontier of the
economy from which they are exported). It is
equal to the c.i.f. price less the costs of
transportation and insurance charges,
between the customs frontier of the exporting
(importing) country and that of the importing
(exporting) country.
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS
‫ שנתון סטטיסטי לישראל‬,‫למ''ס‬
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF
GOODS AND SERVICES
(Table 16.1)
Foreign trade in goods and services – which
includes imports, exports, and the balance of
foreign trade – is presented separately for
goods and for services. The total imports,
exports, and balance of foreign trade are
presented as summaries of goods and
services. The balance of foreign trade is
defined as the difference between total
exports and total imports. The data on
imports and exports of goods and services
are adjusted to the terms of the balance of
payments,
according
to
international
definitions and as specified in Table 16.2.
ADJUSTMENTS OF FOREIGN
TRADE DATA TO THE
BALANCE OF PAYMENTS
DEFINITIONS
(Table 16.2)
The foreign trade data on imports and
exports of goods and services are obtained
from the customs authorities and adjusted to
the definitions of the balance of payments,
according to international guidelines. These
adjustments pertain to the following items:
ADJUSTMENT OF IMPORTS
Adjustment to a uniform valuation: Data
on imports of goods are obtained from the
customs authorities, and are based on c.i.f.
data. According to international guidelines,
the c.i.f. data need to be converted into f.o.b.
terms which correspond to the presentation
of data on exports. The costs of freight and
insurance are deducted from the value of
imports obtained from the customs
authorities in order to be recorded in the
balance of payments. The costs of freight
and insurance by foreign companies are
imputed to imports of services in the
appropriate item.
Diplomatic
missions
and
tourist
shipments: Transactions made by foreign
residents among themselves are not
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‫יבוא ויצוא‬
recognized as sales that can be recorded in
the books of the company. Recording in the
balance of payments is based on the reports
of the companies that work according to this
method. The amounts reported through
customs for exports made by these
companies are deducted simultaneously
from the foreign trade data.
Exports to the Palestinian Authority:
These exports are recorded from sources
based on VAT invoices, and the data are not
obtained from the customs data.
included in the balance of payments. The
value of imports in this item is subtracted
from the value of imports obtained from the
customs authorities, in order to be recorded
in the balance of payments.
Goods on rental basis: There is no transfer
of ownership for these goods. Hence, they
do not need to be included in imports.
Bunker oil: These costs are not included in
the data obtained from the customs
authorities, but they are part of imports of
goods. Hence, they need to be added to the
value of imports.
Defence imports: The value of total defence
imports is obtained from the defence system,
and added to total imports of goods.
Other adjustments for imports: This item
includes various adjustments. Of those, the
main ones are: deduction of defence imports
recorded in customs and obtained from the
foreign trade system; addition of goods
imported by duty free stores; transfer of
costs related to purchase of newspapers,
magazines, and other printed matter to the
services account; deduction of the temporary
value of imports of goods and services
intended for exhibitions and fairs, etc.
Imports from the Palestinian Authority:
These imports are not obtained from the
foreign trade system, because they do not go
through customs; they are added to the total
imports of goods from sources based on
VAT invoices.
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS
OF GOODS
(Tables 16.3-16.13)
The data on imports and exports presented
in these tables do not include information on
trade between Israel and the Palestinian
Authority or information on defence imports.
CLASSIFICATION OF GOODS
The data on Israel’s imports and exports are
published according to two classifications of
goods:
Standard
International
Trade
1.
Classification, Revised IV, United Nations
Statistical Office, Statistical Papers series
14, No. 34, New York, 2006.
2. The Harmonized Commodity Description
and Coding System, Customs Cooperation
Council, Brussels, 2007.
Data on imports are also classified by
economic use. In this classification, import
items are categorized according to the
primary use of the goods.
The classification is based on surveys
conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics
every few years. These surveys investigate
the uses of imported goods.
Data on exports are classified also by
technological intensity, according to the
classification of the OECD (Classification of
Manufacturing
Industries
based
on
Technology, OECD Science, 2001).
ADJUSTMENTS OF EXPORTS
The main adjustments of exports are derived
from the following three items:
International trade in goods sold abroad,
without the goods entering or leaving the
country's borders: According to the new
international guidelines (BPM6) these
transactions are recorded in the balance of
payments as exports of goods (in the
Statistical Abstract 2010, these transactions
were recorded in the services account).
Purchase of goods abroad or the cost of
manufacturing of goods abroad by subcontractors are recorded as negative
exports, whereas the sale of goods abroad to
end customers is recorded as positive
exports. The sum of both is recorded as net
exports of goods (see Table 16.14).
Recording sales by progress of work in
large
establishments:
These
establishments carry out large projects, in
which partial completion of the work is
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS
VALUE OF GOODS
Imports are valued at the c.i.f. (cost,
insurance and freight) price, and exports are
valued at the f.o.b. (free on board) price.
The exception to this rule is exports of citrus,
fresh fruit and vegetables, and flowers.
These exports are recorded here - and in
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‫יבוא ויצוא‬
other publications of the CBS on exports after deduction of all expenses abroad.
Exports data are classified according to the
new classification of economic activities.
(Standard Classification of All Economic
Activities 1993, Second Edition, Technical
Series No. 63, Central Bureau of Statistics).
The distribution of goods among the various
industries is based on descriptions of items
in the classification of goods and not on the
exporter’s industry. As of 1988, data on
exports by industry can be obtained from the
database of the Central Bureau of Statistics.
which are published abroad are used as a
substitute for the average unit value.
The information used to estimate price
indices of foreign trade encompasses about
50% of the total import or export value.
Once a year, the selection of items used for
calculating the indices is checked and
updated. Indices are calculated on the basis
of the previous year and are chained and
presented in this publication on the basis of
the average for 2000.
Foreign trade price indices were calculated
according to the Fisher formula, i.e., as a
geometrical mean of the indices according to
the Laspeyres and Paasche formulas.
Volume indices: Measure the quantitative
changes which occurred between two
periods in the total for imports and exports or
total for a group of goods. The calculation of
volume indices is also based on the Fisher
formula.
Quarterly price and volume indices
according to the Fisher formula are
published in the Foreign Trade Statistics
Monthly (Internet only).
CLASSIFICATION OF COUNTRIES
Country of purchase: The country in which
the seller of the goods resides.
Country of origin: The country in which the
goods imported to Israel were produced.
Country of last known destination
(formerly: country of destination of
exported goods): The last country - as far
as it is known at the time of exportation - to
which goods are to be delivered, irrespective
of where they have been initially dispatched
to and whether or not, on their way to that
last country, they are subject to any
commercial transactions or other operations
which change their legal status.
IMPORTS OF GOODS
Imports are recorded according to the
special trade system, representing total of
imports passing directly through customs
(including those for exchange and repair), or
withdrawals from bonded warehouses.
Goods are considered imported when they
are released by the customs authorities.
Their release date determines the date of
import.
Imports of goods: The value of goods
which add to the stock of material resources
of a country by entering its economic
territory. Goods simply being transported
through a country (goods in transit) or
temporarily admitted do not add to the stock
of material resources of a country and are
not included in the value of imports.
Gross imports: Refers to the value of the
flow of imported goods released by customs.
Net imports: Refers to the value of flow of
goods imported to Israel after deduction of
returned imports. Unless otherwise stated,
the data for imports refer to gross imports,
i.e., imports without deduction of returned
imports.
Returned imports of goods: The value of
goods imported to Israel and subsequently
returned abroad without any further
processing.
INDICES OF VALUE PRICES AND VOLUME
Value indices: Measure the changes in the
value of imports and exports between two
periods (without weighting).
Exchange conditions measure the change in
average export prices, relative to average
import prices between two periods.
Price indices: Measure the change which
occurred in the average price of total imports,
of total exports, or of a group of goods,
between two periods. The price of a single
good is determined according to the average
unit value of the exported or imported good.
The definition of goods is based on the
classification used for customs tariffs
(imports) and on the Classification of Export
Goods
Made
in
Israel.
In
these
classifications, groups of goods do not
always specify single items of a uniform
quality, but may also specify groups of similar
goods. In some cases, the changes obtained
in the price of the good, as it is defined in the
classification, may also reflect changes in the
various components of the group of goods. In
such cases, price indices of similar goods
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS
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‫יבוא ויצוא‬
to Israel and sold abroad without further
processing. Goods in the latter category
include such items as polished diamonds,
imported to complete the collection of gems
offered for sale by Israel's manufacturers;
aircraft and ships manufactured in other
countries, imported and later sold after use.
Since a considerable proportion of fresh
agricultural produce is generally exported on
a consignment basis, the values declared to
the customs authorities upon shipment do
not always represent the final sales value of
the produce.
Since the 1991/92 agricultural export season,
when the Board of Citrus Marketing was
dissolved, exports have been transferred to
other companies. Consequently, most
shipments arrive in Belgium, where they are
bought by various agents, and so there is no
information about the country of final
destination. Also, the sale of flowers through
the flower exchange is registered as exports
to the Netherlands and cannot be classified
by country of final destination.
Net exports are gross exports less returned
exports.
Returned exports of goods: The value of
exported goods returned from abroad
(without further processing).
Unless otherwise specified, all of the data on
“exports” refer to “gross exports”, i.e., exports
without deduction of “returned exports”.
Total exports include among other things:
personal effects which were exported by
emigrants who left Israel; fuel and food
supplied to foreign ships and aircraft in Israeli
seaports and airports; the estimated value of
gifts sent by mail; ships and aircraft.
Since 1990, sales of unworked diamonds to
foreign countries are recorded as exports,
whereas they were previously recorded as
returned exports and subtracted from the
data on imports.
Total exports do not include: Shipments of
engines and parts of aircraft by local firms to
their branches or representatives abroad;
shipments of imported goods that were
returned for purposes of exchange, repairs,
etc. These shipments appear under the
heading Returned Imports; exports from
bonded warehouses; export of currency of
legal tender.
As of Statistical Abstract 2001, data on
exports of software were deducted from trade
Average payment by the importer in Israeli
currency per US Dollar: Refers to all the
importer’s expenses on imports, in NIS, on
delivery from customs (i.e., the c.i.f. (cost,
insurance and freight) import value in NIS
plus the taxes imposed on these imports),
divided by the c.i.f. value of imports in US
dollars. Taxes on imports include only those
taxes which were imposed on the importer
upon the delivery of the goods from customs:
customs duty, compulsory payments and
purchase tax, not including Value Added Tax.
Total imports include, among other things:
Personal effects of immigrants; personal
effects imported by tourists and not taken out
of the country again; estimated value of gifts
received by mail, ships and aircraft; nonmonetary gold and silver; shipments of goods
returned after their import and received again
from abroad.
Total imports do not include: Returned
shipments of equipment to local firms from
other countries after use in contract work;
import into bonded warehouses; fuelling of
ships and aircraft abroad; other goods (such
as food); ballast and dunnage supplied to
Israeli ships and aircraft abroad; import of
currency of legal tender; military equipment
and weapons (the estimated value being
included in the goods account in the balance
of payments).
EXPORTS OF GOODS
Since March 1982, the date of statistical
recording of exports is the date of the loading
of the goods. From November 1962 until
February 1982, the date of statistical
recording of exports was the date of releasing
the export entries by the customs authorities.
Exports of goods: The value of goods
which leave the domestic territory of a
country, and thus decrease its stock of
material resources. Goods simply being
transported through a country (goods in
transit) or temporarily sent from it are not
included in the value of exports.
The domestic territory of a country is the
territory administered by a government,
including territorial enclaves in the rest of the
world, and any free zones or bonded
warehouses or factories operated by
offshore enterprises under customs control.
Gross exports are defined as the gross
value of outflow of goods from Israel whether
they were totally or partially manufactured in
the country, and whether they were imported
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS
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‫יבוא ויצוא‬
in goods, because they are defined as
services.
Freight and transportation services
Tourism services
Insurance services
Government services
Other business services
Some of those categories are divided into
additional sub-categories. The main division
of types of services is in the category “other
business services”. Those services are the
main exports of Israeli services, including:
computer and related services, research and
development services, technical services,
telecommunications services, royalties and
licence fees, business and management
consulting, advertising services, legal
services, accounting services, etc. The
definitions of these categories are uniform
with regard to exports and imports of
services.
The data from the past three years are a
preliminary estimate, based on crosstabulation of data on exports and imports by
industry for the estimated years, with data on
the distribution by categories that are
available from the results of the last annual
survey
that
was
conducted.
These
preliminary data are updated every year,
according to summaries of the findings of
new surveys.
Exports of R&D services (as part of exports
of other business services) include exports of
services for sale of start-up companies
abroad, in cases where those sales include
transfer of intangible services abroad.
SOURCES OF THE DATA
The source of the data is a sample survey of
"International Trade in Services", conducted
annually by the Central Bureau of Statistics.
SOURCES OF DATA
The sources of the data are the forms
submitted to the customs authorities by
importers or exporters or their agents (import
and export entries).
In special cases, data are derived from
administrative summaries prepared by
various institutions (as in cases of ship and
aircraft records).
EXPORTS OF GOODS AND
SERVICES, BY INDUSTRY OF
EXPORTER
(Table 16.14)
The table lists all of the export activities in
the economy, by industry of the exporter.
The industries are classified according to the
Standard Classification of All Economic
Activities 1993, Second Edition, Technical
Series No. 63, Central Bureau of Statistics.
A distinction is made between the distribution
of exports of goods by industry in the foreign
trade data, and the distribution of exports by
the industry of the exporters, which is
presented in this table. The foreign trade
data are based on industries which are
determined by the properties of the goods. In
contrast, the industries of the exporters are
based on the main economic activity of the
exporting units.
Of the total exports of services, the following
categories are not specified by industry:
Goods sold abroad that do not pass over the
country's borders – net exports, tourism
services,
excluding
expenditures
for
accommodation of tourists, and exports of
services to the Palestinian Authority.
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF
BUSINESS SERVICES, BY
COUNTRY
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF
SERVICES, BY TYPE OF
SERVICE
(Table 16.16)
The imports and exports of other business
services (computer and related services,
research
and
development
services,
technical
services,
telecommunications
services, royalties and licence fees, business
and management consulting, advertising
services, legal services, accounting services,
etc.) are listed in the table by country. This
distribution is based on the results of annual
surveys conducted by the CBS on
“International Trade in Services”. The data
(Table 16.15)
CLASSIFICATION OF SERVICES
Classification of services is based on the
Extended
Balance
of
Payments
Classification
of
Services
(EBPOS)
published in the Manual on Statistics of
International Trade in Services – 2002, the
United Nations Statistics Division. The
EBPOS classification includes several main
groups of services, as follows:
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS
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results of the last annual survey that was
conducted. These preliminary data are
updated every year, according to summaries
of the findings of new surveys.
from the past two years are a preliminary
estimate, based on cross-tabulation of data
on imports and exports by industries for the
estimated years, with data on the distribution
by countries, which are available from the
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS
Import Destinations Survey 1988
952
PUBLICATIONS APPEARING ONLY ON THE CBS WEBSITE
Imports, by commodities and countries, 2007-2011 - annual data
Exports, by commodities and countries, 2008-2011 - annual data
Imports, by commodities and countries, 1996-2001 (CD only)
Imports, by commodities and countries, 2002-2006 (CD only)
Imports, by commodities and countries, 2007 (CD only)
Imports, by commodities and countries, 1996-2007 annual data (CD only)
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS
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‫יבוא ויצוא‬