U.S. FEBRUARY TRADE TO BE REPORTED ON NEW BASIS
The February monthly merchandise
trade figures to be reported Tuesday by the Commerce Department
will be on a new basis reflecting more recent data, so avoiding
future revisions of the monthly figure, Commerce officials
said.
    The overall January deficit of 14.8 billion dlrs will be
revised, but the February figure will be a final one, officials
said.
    Previously, the initial monthly figure has had to be
revised in subsequent months because of the time lag between
the report and the compiling of final estimates on imports and
exports.
    The reporting of the February trade data was delayed
several weeks to permit gathering latest figures on imports and
exports to give a clearer picture of the monthly trade balance.
 Reuter
