From April 2024, the BMAW will publish up-to-date, high-quality estimates for nominal, real and seasonally adjusted foreign trade in goods data on the FIW website on a monthly basis using an econometric model developed by the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS). This means that current forecasts (so-called nowcasts) of Austria’s monthly foreign trade are available – with a lead of more than two months compared to the publications of Statistics Austria. In addition to the nominal values, the FIW Trade Indicator also shows price-adjusted real values. This real foreign trade data gives an exact impression of the actual increase in Austria’s welfare due to foreign trade and is also seasonally and working day adjusted. As a result, the nowcasts differ from the unadjusted, nominal values published by Statistics Austria. For example, unlike last year, the Easter holidays fell in March this year. In the official unadjusted time series, this results in an apparent decline in the growth rates of foreign trade in goods in March and an apparent increase in April. This distortion is avoided in the FIW Trade Indicator.
The FIW Trade Indicator is available at https://www.fiw.ac.at/fiw-trade-indicator/