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• Foreign trade in goods   

• International trade in services

Foreign trade in goods

Foreign trade statistics are produced based on Intrastat and Extrastat data. The target of these statistics – commo­dities entering and leaving the statistical territory of the Republic of Lithuania.

Foreign trade of Lithuania is defined by four in­di­cators: exports and imports define trade volumes of Lithuania with non-member states of the EU, while dispatches and arrivals define trade with the EU mem­ber states. Exported or dispatched commo­dities are distributed by country of destination. Imported commodities are distributed by country of origin, arrivals – by country of con­signment. The publication pre­sents data on general foreign trade volumes which are defined using the exports and imports concepts.

Commodities in foreign trade statistics are clas­si­fied according to the Combined Nomencla­ture (CN). The first six digits of the CN coincide with the Har­mo­nised System commodity codes.

Imported goods and arrivals are estimated at CIF, exported goods and dispatches – at FOB prices. In case of imports and arrivals, the CIF price includes the value of goods together with trans­por­ta­­tion, loading, insurance and other costs related to the transportation of goods to the territo­ry of the Re­pub­lic of Lithuania. The FOB price inclu­des the va­lue of goods together with insurance and trans­por­ta­tion costs incurred within the ter­ritory of the Repub­lic of Lithuania. The statistical value of goods does not include the VAT or other duties.

Commodities excluded from foreign trade sta­tistics:

1. Monetary gold.

2. Means of payment which are legal tender and securities, including means which are payments for services such as postage, taxes, user fees.

3. Goods for or following temporary use (e.g. hire, loan, operational leasing), provided that the respective conditions are met.

4. Goods used as carriers of customised information, including software.

5. Software downloaded from the Internet.

6. Goods supplied free of charge which are themselves not the subject of a commercial transaction, such as:

– advertising material,

– commercial samples.

7. Goods for and after repair and replacement parts that are incorporated in the framework of the repair and replaced defective parts.

A comprehensive list of goods excluded from fo­reign trade statistics for methodological reasons is given in Commis­sion Regulation (EU) No 113/2010 of 9 February 2010 (Extrastat) and Com­mis­sion Regulation (EC) No 1982/2004 of 18 Novem­ber 2004 (Intrastat).

In 2018, according to the final data obtained from customs declarations and Intrastat reporting data, exports from Lithuania amounted to EUR 28.3 billion in terms of com­mo­di­ty value, imports to Lithuania – EUR 30.9 billion. Exports of goods of Lithuanian origin amounted to EUR 17.3 billion. The foreign trade deficit of Lithuania amoun­ted to EUR 2.7 billion.

In 2018, against 2017, exports increased by 7, imports – 8.5 per cent.

In 2018, the largest share in Lithuania’s exports and imports fell within mineral products (14.8 and 20.5 per cent respectively), machinery and mechanical appliances, electrical equipment (15.2 and 17.5 per cent respectively) and products of the chemical and allied industries (10.7 and 11.6 per cent respectively). As for the goods of Lithuanian origin, the largest share in exports fell within petroleum products (20.3 per cent), miscellaneous manufactured articles (11.2 per cent), prepared foodstuffs, beverages, spirits and tobacco (9.2 per cent), products of the chemical and allied industries (8 per cent).

In 2018, the most important Lithuania’s partners in exports were Russia (14 per cent), Latvia (9.8 per cent), Poland (8.2 per cent) and Germany (7.4 per cent), while in imports – Russia (14.2 per cent), Germany (12 per cent), Poland (11.5 per cent) and Latvia (7.2 per cent). Most of the goods of Lithuanian origin were exported to Poland (9.3 per cent), Germany (9.1 per cent), Latvia (7.6 per cent), the United States (7.6 per cent), and Sweden (7.2 per cent).

The biggest proportion of goods was exported to the EU member states – 58.8 per cent of total ex­ports from Lithuania. The biggest proportion of imports was also from the EU member states – 68.9 per cent of total imports to Lithuania.

Foreign trade in goods

The latest and detailed data are available in the Database of Indicators

Main foreign trade partners
   EUR million

More:

Exports, imports of goods by country and territory

Exports and imports of goods by Combined Nomenclature chapter  

Exports and imports of goods according to the Classification by Broad Economic Categories

International trade in services

Exports and imports of services by type of service and country

Source: Bank of Lithuania

Primary data on services provided to non-resi­dents by the economic entities of Lithuania (exports of services) and those provided by non-residents to the residents of Lithuania (imports of services) are obtained from various sources. The main sour­ce of data is an exhaustive quarterly statistical survey on enterprises’ financial-commercial activity with non-residents, covering standard service groups as established in the Balance of Payments Manual of the Internatio­nal Monetary Fund (IMF) and classifications of ser­vices of Eurostat and the Organisation for Econo­mic Co-operation and Development (OECD). A survey on non-banking sector enterprises is carried out by Statistics Lithuania. The Bank of Lithuania collects data directly from the country’s monetary financial institutions, Ministry of Finance (on services provided/received by the Government) and of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (expenditure of embassies and representative offices of the Republic of Lithuania, admission and membership fees of international organisations). The State Patients’ Fund under the Ministry of Health provides data on the funds paid to and received from foreign countries for health care services provided. Moreover, data from the Interdepartamental Tax Data Warehouse are used.

Construction services cover site preparation, building construction and renovation, maintenan­ce, installation, assembly and putting into opera­tion of machinery and equipment. Construction services also cover the rental of construction ma­chinery and equipment (including with an operator).

Financial services cover monetary and other financial intermediation and auxiliary services, ex­cept for those of insurance and pension fund management enterprises. These ser­vices cover services related to securities (stockbrokers’, issue, registration and repurchase of securities), search for lines of credit and loan brokerage, lease brokerage, currency transactions, financial, stock and commodity market and other market adminis­tration services not elsewhere classified, financial consulting services.

General government goods and services not elsewhere classified cover transactions in general government goods and servi­ces (including those of interna­tional organisations) not included in other items. Included are all transactions by em­ba­ssies, consulates, military units, and defence agencies (both in goods and in services) with non-resi­dents.

Insurance and pension services cover all types of insurance services provided to non-residents by resident in­su­rance companies, and vice versa. These servi­ces are estimated, or valued, as service charges included in insurance premium. They comprise life insurance, freight insu­ran­ce, other direct insurance, reinsurance and auxiliary insurance services, as well as pension funding and standardised guarantee services.

Manufacturing services cover processing of raw materials belonging to other entities, assembly, labelling, packaging and other services provided by enterprises which do not own the goods.

Other business services comprise trade-related, leasing, legal, accounting, business and management consulting and public relations, advertising, market research and public opinion polling, research and development, archi­tectural, engineering, scientific and other technical, agricul­tu­ral, forestry, fishery, veterinary and mining, waste ma­na­gement and processing services.

Personal, cultural and recreational services comprise audiovisual and related, educational, health care, other personal, cultural and recrea­tional services.

Charges for the use of intellectual property not elsewhere classified include charges for the use of proprietary rights (such as patents, trademarks, copyrights, industrial processes and designs, including trade secrets and franchise) and charges for licences.

Telecommunications, computer and information services cover the transmission of audio, visual or other information in various manners, mobile communication, Internet and direct access services, hard­­­ware and software-related consultancy, installation, data processing, news agency and other information services.

Transport covers all transport services that involve the carriage of passengers, move­ment of goods (freight), rentals (charters) of carriers with crew, other transport services, and related suppor­ting and auxiliary services. Transport also includes postal and courier services. Trans­port ser­vi­ces are classified by type of vehicle: sea, air, rail, road, modes of transport not indicated in other groups (in­ternal waterway and river, pipeline, other suppor­ting and auxiliary transport services). Moreover, in terms of functional purpose, transport services are classified into passenger, freight transport and other transport services.

Passenger transport services by all means of transport cover only in­ternational transport (trans­portation of passen­gers, passenger baggage, ani­mals and similar transport services, rental of pa­ssen­ger vehicles with an operator).

Freight transport services cover international freight transport (exportation and importation of goods of Lithuanian origin, transit of goods of non-residents via Lithua­nia, transport of goods bet­ween points of destination abroad, rental of all types of non-passenger vehicles with an operator).

Travel covers goods and services meant for personal use acquired by Lithuanian nationals abroad and foreign nationals in Lithuania during visits of less than one year. This item does not cover the transport of travellers within the eco­no­mies that they are visiting, where such trans­por­t is provided by carriers not resident in a par­ti­cular economy being visited, as well as the inter­national carriage of travellers, both of which are covered in passenger transport services under transport services. This item also does not cover goods purchased by travellers for resale. Travel services are divided into business and personal travel services. For the estimation of travel services, primary data on the number of persons who have arrived in Lithuania from non-EU member states and those who went to those countries, provided, on a monthly basis, by the State Border Guard Service at the Ministry of the Interior, data received through sample surveys on the expenditure of Lithuanian nationals abroad and of foreigners in Lithuania, the purpose and length of their stay (trip), conducted by Statistics Lithuania, as well as data from quarterly statistical surveys on the ser­vices of accommodation establishments and tourism and travel agencies, are used.

For further terms, see the Dictionary of Statistical Terms.