In all its statistical work, GASTAT applies a unified methodology suitable for the nature of each statistical product using the Statistical Procedures Guide approved by international organizations. Statistical products undergo 8 main phases, in addition to a ninth comprehensive phase, “Management”, as shown in the following diagram and explanation underneath:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first 3 stages (Scope, Design and Organization) are a cooperative process between GASTAT and its clients, represented by developmental entities data users, while Phase 4 (Data Collection) is done through GASTAT’s cooperation with the statistical population, whether families, businesses or holdings, in order to complete data and information. The remaining phases are statistical stages in which data is classified, reviewed and published. Then, Phase 8 (Evaluation) is carried out with clients. The Management Phase it is an administrative and organizational procedure applied across all phases. These phases have been applied to national account indicators as follows:

The starting point of producing (Trade Exchange Statistics) and the first shared phase between GASTAT and other stakeholders from relevant entities, represented in (Ministry of Energy, Industry, and Mineral Sources, as well as Saudi Customs as main source of data, Ministry of Economy and Planning, and SAMA as main beneficiaries of these statistics). At this stage, a number of meetings and workshops were held between GASTAT and those entities to understand their needs and requirments. Their feedback were also considered to ensure the realization of all the objectives of the survey, which are:

1. Support decision and policy makers, researchers and those who are interested in updated statistics and indicators of Saudi Arabia’s goods exports and imports.

2. Monitor the changes occurred in the trade exchange movements between Saudi Arabia and the main countries in ten years. 

3. Determine the amount of surplus and deficit in Saudi Arabia’s balance of trade.

4. Identify the main imported and exported goods from and to each country. 

5. Build the important economic indicators of national accounts components and balance of payments. 

6. Contribute in setting the trade policy to protect and encourage local industries over imported ones.

In addition, statistics of this work will cover the requirements of Saudi 2030 vision. They will also cover regional requirements such as: GCC Statistics as well as Arab League. International requirements will be also covered, for instance, the United Nations General Assembly, WTO, FAO, and other organizations that are concerned with exports and imports statistics.   

During this stage, a complete design for the statistical product in addition to the tools and methods of data collection, statistical community, survey form, sampling units   are all set forth. Beneficiaries are engaged in all these processes to take their feedback into account, so that the product would live up to their expectations.

The most important outcomes of this stage are:

Statistics of Saudi Arabia’s trade exchange depend on the data of exports and imports received from government entities, as follows: 

• Data received from the Ministry of Energy, Industry, and Mineral Sources: which is considered as a main source of oil exports. 

• Data received from Saudi Customs: which is the main source of non-oil exports and imports.

Those data are provided to GASTAT to be calculated and released in the bulletin of trade exchange bulletin. 

According to the foreign trade system, it is all commodities produced or manufactured locally, or was modified by an industrial process that changed its look and value, and intended for export, after completing required customs procedures.    

All imported commodities to cover the local need, and have been subject to the followed customs clearance of imported commodities, whether were subject to custom fees or exempted.  

It is the difference between the total value of commodity exports and imports. When the exports' value is bigger, there will be surplus in the Kingdom's trade balance. When the imports value is bigger, there will be a deficit in the Kingdom's trade balance.    

It is the total of exports and imports.

The value of imported commodities based on (C.I.F). The value of imports is in the cost (value when sending in addition to the value of insurance, transportation, shipping, and other expenses until the commodity is delivered to the loading dock in entry port) excluding customs fees.    

The value of exported commodities based on (F.O.B) (free on board), which means the value of goods in addition to other costs until its delivered on the shipping method, or, it includes the value of commodities including all expenses up until the exporting office.

 

       

The classification is an organized group of related categories, which are used to collect data according to their similarity. It forms the base line for collecting and publishing data in different statistical fields, such as: (economic activity, products, expenses, occupations or health …etc.). Classification of data and information will assist in putting them in meaningful categories to produce useful statistics. In fact, data collection requires accurate order and methodology based on their common characteristics in order to produce comparable and reliable statistics. 

Trade Exchange statistics are classified according to the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding Systems (2017), also known as the Harmonized System (HS), which is maintained by the World Customs Organization (WCO). The HS allows countries to classify traded products in an internationally standardized system of product names and codes.

Trade Exchange statistics cover all the imported and exported goods for the top (100) countries of Saudi Arabia’s main partners, and that is through all the customs ports in the Kingdom.

This is the last stage of preparation that precedes the process of visiting the establishment and collecting the data. The procedures for the preparation of the industrial production index have been prepared in this stage and will begin from the next stage "Collection “and ends with the "Assessment stage", as well as the organization and collection of these procedures and determining which is the appropriate sequence to reach to a methodology that meets the bulletin’s objectives. At this stage, the procedures that were carried out in preparation for the previous release of the bulletin were reviewed in order to develop the work procedures in this release. These procedures were also described and documented to facilitate updates in future cycles. The procedures of the work were tested to ensure that they meet the requirements of the bulletin in its final form, and an implementation roadmap was set as well.

GASTAT has coordinated with the Saudi Customs as well as the Ministry of Energy, Industry, and Mineral Sources to obtain data on exports and imports statistics. These data include oil and non-oil exports and imports, and they were stored in GASTAT’s database to be revised and edited according to a scientific statistical methodology, also based on the internationally recognized standards in coordination with the data provider. 

Raw data of Trade Exchange statistics were disaggregated based on classification and coding inputs that were created while collecting the data, which were classified according to WCO harmonized system of commodity classification (H.S.2017). Data were presented in suitable tables to facilitate their summarization and results extraction, also to ease the process of their comparison with other data.

Number of steps were made in this stage, most importantly:

To ensure quality and accuracy of data, all the data are reviewed and matched to check their correctness and accuracy in a way that fits the nature of such data. Data of the current survey are matched with the data of the previous survey to ensure their validity and logicality before processing, extracting, and reviewing the results in the next stages of data disaggregation.

Data shall be kept confidential at GASTAT and shall be used for statistical purposes only. Collected statistical tables for a number of variables related to Saudi Arabia’s trade exchange statistics are the data to be published.

After revising and verifying the register-based data in the fourth stage, results were calculated and extracted by GASTAT. They were also stored on the database, however, the final revision was through specialists of trade exchange statistics by using the latest technologies and software that were designed for reversion purposes. 

According to the Royal Decree No. 23 dated 07-12-1397, shall be kept confidential, and must be used by GASTAT only for statistical purposes. Therefore, data are protected in the data servers of the Authority. 

During this stage, GASTAT downloaded the data’s results from the database of surveys of industrial production surveys. Then, publishing tables and charts of data and indicators, metadata, and methodology were all prepared and processed to be published in both languages English and Arabic.

 The publication date of the bulletin is already set up by GASTAT on its official website at the beginning of the Calendar Year. During this period, the Authority is preparing the media kits to announce the date of releasing the bulletin through media, in addition to its various platforms in social networking sites. The bulletin will be published firstly on GASTAT’s official website in different formats, such as Excel format to be easily reached for all clients and those who are interested in Saudi Arabia’s trade exchange statistics. It will be uploaded on the website’s statistics library as well.

GASTAT believed in the importance of communication with the clients, therefore, once the bulletin is released, GASTAT will communicate with the clients and provide them with the bulletin. GASTAT will receive the questions and enquiries about the bulletin and its results through its various channels. Requests and enquiries are received through:

To keep data confidential, GASTAT removed the identities from the dataset taken from the administrative records, such as: removing the names of individuals or establishments for privacy.

When the report is released and after it reached all clients, GASTAT will contact with them to assess the entire statistical process to achieve constant improvement in order to obtain high quality data. The improvements may include methodologies, operations, systems, skill of statistical researchers, and statistical work framework; this procedure is made in partnership with data users as well as GASTAT’s clients through a number of steps:

The most important comments and notes are collected and documented from their sources in different stages, for example comments and notes given by data collectors and their field supervisors. Also, notes written by specialists responsible for reviewing, auditing, and analyzing data collected from the field team or administrative regions. Finally, comments and notes collected and documented by data users after publishing the Bulletin, or social media comments and clients’ feedback that sent to the Authority through its main channels.

It is done by analyzing the collected assessment inputs, and comparing the results of this analysis with the ones predicted previously, identified and discussed with specialists, experts, and concerned partners. During this step, clients' performances and satisfaction levels of using the results of Saudi Arabia’s commodity exports and imports are measured. Based on that, suggested recommendations to obtain high quality data for future reports will be considered.  

A comprehensive stage that is required to carry out each phase of the exports statistics. During this stage, the plan was set, which includes the feasibility study, risk management, financing methods, in addition to expenditure mechanisms. The plan also covered the development of performance indicators, quality criteria, and work force map required for production. Through this plan, the implementation process of the tasks assigned to different departments at each stage will be reported to ensure that GASTAT meets its clients’ requirements.