The Office for National Statistics (ONS) will be making alterations to the annual and quarterly International Services (ITIS) questionnaires in 2013.
Primarily, the reason for the new questionnaire is due to changes in the International regulations governing ITIS reporting, as specified by The Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Eurostat.
These reporting regulations are contained in the Balance of Payments manual 6th edition published by the IMF. This defines all balance of payments components including international trade in services. The United Kingdom, along with other OECD countries must produce data which is in line with the latest concepts as described in the manual.
The BPM6 manual is part of the European System of Accounts (ESA) , which defines all national accounts variables. The ONS ESA 2010 page describes the main national accounts changes being made as a result of the new version of ESA. In there, under ‘survey information’ is further information regarding ITIS.
The new draft version of the ITIS questionnaire
(262.3 Kb Pdf)
is available. This goes live in April 2013
