Direction of Trade (ICPSR 7628)

1. Due to an agreement between ICPSR and the IMF, this study is available only to users at ICPSR member institutions. Those who wish to use the study and are at non-member institutions should contact the IMF directly.

2. ICPSR's subscription with the the IMF for monthly updates of the DIRECTION OF TRADE (ICPSR 7628) series expired with the July 1998 tapes.

3. Part 1 data are stored in the packed zoned decimal format as distributed by the IMF. A supplemental COBOL processing program is available for use with this data file in the zipped package file (pkg07628-0001.zip). Datasets 2, 3 and 5 are no longer distributed. Datasets 6, 7 and 8, respectively, comprise the yearly, quarterly, and monthly records as extracted from the IMF data file.

4. The legacy documentation also documents the following IMF studies: DIRECTION OF TRADE (ICPSR S07628), INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL STATISTICS (ICPSR S07629), BALANCE OF PAYMENTS STATISTICS (ICPSR S08623), and GOVERNMENT FINANCE STATISTICS (ICPSR S08624). The original codebook is part of dataset 1 for all four studies. Dataset 4 was reprocessed and now includes the current suite of ICPSR distribution files. The legacy documentation now distributed with this collection was distributed as the codebook for dataset 4 in previous releases of this study.

5. Each time series in Part 1 can contain a variable number of logical records. The exact number of records in any time series in this collection is dependent upon the availability of annual, quarterly, and monthly data for trading partners. Approximately 61,000 time series are included in this collection.

6. The term "country," as used in this dataset, does not in all cases refer to a territorial entity that is a state as understood by international law and practice. The term also covers some territorial entities that are not states but for which statistical data are maintained and provided internationally on a separate and independent basis. Data are expressed in millions of United States dollars.

7. All exports are valued "free on board" (f.o.b.) and all imports "cost, insurance, and freight" (c.i.f.).

8. Three datasets have been added to the collection. The new datasets comprise the yearly, quarterly, and monthly records extracted from the IMF data file. The variable extraction was performed using SAS's PROC DATASOURCE. Data files generated by this extraction were subsequently processed using ICPSR's automated production routine. The new data files should be considered as minimally processed as no variable value checks or comparisons were performed. The layout and/or content of the new data files may not match those of the original data files. The codebooks for each new dataset document only the variables in that dataset's data file and should be used in conjunction with the legacy documentation.

Central bank reports and bulletins, IMF area departments, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, International Labor Organization, IMF Treasurer's Department, the United Nations, the National Bureau of Economic Research, and information from national authorities.

• International Monetary Fund. Direction of Trade. ICPSR07628-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2014-10-23. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07628.v2

2014-10-23 Three datasets have been added comprising yearly, quarterly, and monthly records extracted from the original IMF data file in part 1 of this collection using SAS's PROC DATASOURCE. The Annual Data: 1948-1978 data file and the yearly, quarterly, and monthly data files have been processed using ICPSR's automated production routine as Part 4, 6, 7, and 8, respectively. These four parts include SPSS, SAS, and Stata setup files, SAS transport (CPORT) file, tab-delimited ASCII data file, R data file, and Variable description and Frequencies. The legacy codebook in Part 4 is now being distributed as a Data Documentation File. The COBOL FUNPACK program previously distributed as part 5 is now included in the zipped package file (pkg07628-0001.zip).