“We need up-to-date data in order to gain an accurate understanding of the growth rates of our foreign trade in goods to be able to promptly assess Austria’s increase in prosperity and the economic trends in foreign trade,” explained Minister of Labour and Economy Martin Kocher.
The Federal Ministry of Labor and Economy (BMAW) has therefore commissioned the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) to create a nowcast of Austrian foreign trade in goods using econometric methods and up-to-date data.
Starting in April 2024, the BMAW will publish up-to-date, high-quality estimates for Austrian trade in goods in the previous month on a monthly basis. In addition to the nominal values, the FIW Trade Indicator also shows price- and seasonally adjusted values, which eliminate distortions caused by seasonal influences and public holidays in order to allow a timely assessment of economic trends in foreign trade. This means that, for the first time, timely and reliable forecasts of Austrian foreign trade are available. For comparison: Statistics Austria publishes the first provisional data on nominal exports and imports of goods with a time lag of more than two months.
The FIW Trade Indicator is now available on the FIW website under the section ‘Data’.