This site uses cookies. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Cookie settings
adulteración de medicamentos
credito por impuestos diferidos

Glossary entry

Spanish term or phrase:

serie histórica

English translation:

since official records began

Added to glossary by William Pairman
Jun 4, 2013 19:02
11 yrs ago
20 viewers *
Spanish term

serie histórica

Spanish to English Bus/Financial Economics
From a Spanish institution's monthly report on the economy

La economía continuó con el saludable ajuste de sus cuentas externas, y en marzo la balanza comercial logró el primer superávit de la serie histórica

Is it safe to say "the first trade surplus of recent times" or something similar or is their a specific term?
Proposed translations (English)
4 +3 since records began
4 +1 historical series
4 +1 historical data series

Discussion

nweatherdon Jun 6, 2013:
the determining factor probably has more to do with the level of technical complexity in the document (if high, series is right) than the native language of the writer or reader. It's very commonplace. If it's the first surplus since records began, this may be the focus, in which case it's more interesting to focus on that in the translation. But if that's not the focus in the original, then imo the boring approach is better (simply a historical series, or historical data series)
Charles Davis Jun 5, 2013:
My position is not that "the first surplus in the historical series" is wrong, but that it's unlikely to be expressed like that in an equivalent English text. The documents I find that use that kind of language on this subject all (or virtually all) seem to be non-native or translated. I think that "the first surplus since (official) records began" means exactly the same thing and is how it would more probably be expressed, but in the financial press and in institutional statements.

Just to be clear: what I'm saying is that bona fide English-language institutional documents on trade balance do refer to "the historical series", but they don't tend to use the turn of phrase proposed here.
Charles Davis Jun 5, 2013:
@ Bill "historical series" + "trade" gives 320 results (you have to remember that the number Google announces, in this case 136,000, is always wildly inaccurate), and from a quick browse it's clear to me that many of these are irrelevant (like for example the one I referred to, which is about a series of books on history).

As I say, I'm not denying the term exists in this sense (as illustrated by your US Census link), but from what I can see "absolute industry standard" is overstating this case.
Billh Jun 5, 2013:
CD I must confess I was not familiar with the term but googling ("historical series" trade) made me realise that this is a universal term for this and seems to be an absolute industry standard. I see where you are coming from but research into this term is pretty conclusive.......
Charles Davis Jun 5, 2013:
@ Bill I don't think anyone's denying that the term exists; I'm certainly not. But it's not terribly helpful to just to bung down a job lot of Google results, whose context is of varying relevance. You might care to take another look at the fourth of these, for example.
Billh Jun 5, 2013:
Historical series is a standard term stats-pubs-35 | Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI)
www.detini.gov.uk › Statistics & Economic Research › Publications‎
... Industry Panel · nibusinessinfo.co.uk – practical advice for Northern Ireland business ... LFS Key data Historical Series 1992 - 2011 (please enable macros) ...

List of Datafiles of Historical Prices and Wages
www.iisg.nl/hpw/link.php‎

May 3, 2011 – Exchange rate between the the United States dollar and the British pound ..... several historical series on GDP, construction, trade, inflation, etc.

9781241557966: W.'s Historical Series. - New & Used ... - Alibris UK
www.alibris.co.uk/search/books/isbn/9781241557966‎
W.'s Historical Series. – Trade paperback (2011) by W Woodward. British Library, Historical Print Editions ISBN: 124154784X ISBN-13: 9781241547844 ...

[PDF]
a market study - Office of Fair Trading
www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/reports/property/OFT1186.pdf‎
9 CLG Housing statistics Table 101 Dwelling stock: by tenure, United Kingdom ( historical series),. Dec 2009. 10 CLG Housing Statistics Table 804 Household

[PDF]
External and intra-European Union trade - Eurostat - Europa
epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY.../KS.../KS-CV-07-001-
William A McNab Jun 4, 2013:
Great news for Spain? For what it's worth, it looks like all components of the Spanish current account have increased over the past 12 months, including exports (trade balance) and tourism (included in services). So this is an unambiguously positive sign for Spain.
See the Bank of Spain's press release: http://www.bde.es/webbde/es/estadis/bpagos/divisas/notabal.p...
Charles Davis Jun 4, 2013:
I know, it seems hard to believe. But then Spain has never been a great exporter. Not sure whether they include tourism in the figures?

And I'm not sure it's such great news, in fact; it means that imports have collapsed. Demand is flat.
William Pairman (asker) Jun 4, 2013:
Has there never been a trade surplus since 1971? Wow!

Proposed translations

+3
25 mins
Selected

since records began

Difficult though it may be to believe (well, I find it so), the Banco de España only started to keep records of the balance of payments in 1971, or possibly 1972. That is when the "serie histórica" began, and this March surplus was the first in 42 years. That is, since the "serie histórica" began, which means since they started to keep records: since records began.

"Los datos de la evolución del déficit comercial relativos a los primeros diez meses de 2012 son los mejores de toda la serie histórica. [...] España registra estos datos desde 1972, un año que recoge el Ministerio de Economía en el titular de la nota de prensa [...] Y es aquí donde nos encontramos con el dato histórico: La tasa de cobertura hasta octubre ha sido del 86,8 por ciento, que son 4,9 puntos más que el mismo período del año pasado, y el mejor dato desde que se empezaron a registrarse, en 1972."
http://www.elimparcial.es/economia/el-sector-exterior-espano...

"La energía eólica ha conseguido su primer superávit comercial para España, según ha anunciado el Ministerio de Economía. Desde 1971, el Banco de España realiza estadísticas de los datos económicos del país y esta ha sido la primera vez que un sector ha dado resultados positivos, en lugar de déficit."
http://www.larazon.es/detalle_normal/noticias/2486489/la-ene...

"El dato económico de la jornada nos obliga a remontarnos hasta 1971, cuando comenzó la serie histórica que refleja la balanza comercial de nuestro país. Por primera vez en 42 años, el pasado mes de marzo, España exportó más de lo que importó."
http://www.rtve.es/noticias/exportaciones/

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 26 mins (2013-06-04 19:29:11 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

"Serie histórica" simply means "(historical) records" in this case.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 30 mins (2013-06-04 19:33:12 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I just can't imagine English-language media or official announcements referring to the historical series in this context, correct though that may be.
Peer comment(s):
agree peter jackson
27 mins
Thanks, Peter :)
agree William A McNab : Wow, who would have thought, eh? Great little bit of digging. Perhaps may want to supplement it with "official"?
33 mins
Thanks a lot, William :) Yes, that's a very good idea, which I hadn't thought of, but it's what would probably be said.
agree Paul Lambert
46 mins
Thanks, Paul :)
neutral nweatherdon : I see ... yeah, first one since records began. If there's a strong focus on methods, I still think my proposal is good, but this is much nicer to read.
1 hr
So it seems... Many thanks!
neutral Billh : Imagine again. http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/historical/ There a a zillion uses of this standard term google "historical series" trade - and you will see.
20 hrs
All right, so I see. I still think it's more likely to be expressed as I've suggested.
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "I think in the context of the text, this answer works best. The information needs to be readily digested by investors, I think this gets the message across most neatly hear. many thanks to everyone for their help!"
+1
13 mins

historical series

If you search "historical series" on Google, I think you'll find that associated data often jives with what's in your document, but if it gets much more into methodological detail them "time series" may be more appropriate.
Peer comment(s):
neutral William A McNab : Can't see why this wouldn't be fine too... // Apologies, I thought we were both spot on. IMHO it now appears as though Charles has hit the nail on the head
12 mins
agree Billh : http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/historical/
14 hrs
Something went wrong...
+1
18 mins

historical data series

I'd steer clear of "recent times", which may not even be correct depending on how far the data in question dates back to. "Historical time series" could be another option.
Peer comment(s):
agree Billh : This is actually a recognised term for this - see http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/historical/
14 hrs
Something went wrong...
Close search
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search