The CSO publishes International Trade in Goods statistics for Extra-EU Trade Data, which would include the level of alumina exported to Russia since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The relevant data underlying trade in goods statistics published by the CSO are provided by the Office of the Revenue Commissioners from information collected on Customs declarations. The CSO is responsible for processing and disseminating this data.
I am aware that an issue arose at the start of June relating to the returns made by a company but that these returns were subsequently corrected in the usual manner. As both the CSO and Revenue are bodies under the aegis of the Department of Finance, I am not in a position to comment on the accuracy of any of the data collected and processed by them.
To assist the Deputy, I requested some general information from the CSO in relation to the compilation and correction of trade figures and I have been informed that “final monthly trade figures are published nationally six months after the publication of each month’s preliminary figures. However, further revisions are possible in exceptional cases and asymmetries are the subject of ongoing examination.
A large component of the monthly revisions received from Revenue come from the incorporation of late data received from traders, however, in some cases, traders may correct errors in previously reported value and volume data. Revisions to the trade data are managed and communicated in line with CSO’s Revision Policy.
Revised data for the year 2025 and Quarter 1 2026 have recently been received by the CSO from Revenue for Goods under CN 28182000 (Aluminium oxide excl. artificial corundum). Updated trade in goods statistics for these periods will be published by the CSO on July 15th.
For confidentiality purposes, trade data published by the CSO is published in aggregate form at the product level. Trade data at the enterprise level is not published by the CSO.
