Q: How soon will country data for imports and exports be available?

A: There is no expected date or time when a specific country’s data will become available. We request the annual and monthly merchandise and services data in February and June. However, we receive data from various countries at different times. When our office receives the data, we harmonize, validate, and upload it into the UN Comtrade database.

You can use data availability API to monitor newly released data or visit our data availability page.

Q: What is the frequency of data refresh?

A:  Similarly, there is no set schedule for data refresh.  We process data continuously as long as data providers send data.  For annual data, most data providers send provisional data earlier during the year and follow up with revised and/or final data towards the latter part of the year.  For monthly merchandise data, we follow up with countries that have indicated they will regularly provide monthly data. Receipt of monthly data varies by data provider and can be received monthly or quarterly, or together with their annual dataset. Some countries provide their latest monthly data within a month of the close of the reference period, while others provide their data later.  Many countries still need to establish regular provision of monthly data, and we are working with data providers to improve the regularity of data provision.

Q: Why is monthly data not available for a specific year when annual data for the same reporter/period exists?

A: Countries submit their datasets in diverse formats and follow varying schedules. Some countries furnish annual data without monthly breakdowns, so we can only release the annual data. However, certain countries may include the monthly breakdown within their annual data or transmit monthly data separately. In these instances, we publish both sets of data.