ECB-RESTRICTED
STC - Statistics Accessibility and
Presentation Group (STAP)
FINAL
Communication of Statistics
Joint ECB NBRM Seminar on Statistics
Skopje, 4 October 2013
Rubric
ECB-RESTRICTED
FINAL
Outline – STAP Communication of Statistics
1
The importance of communicating statistics
2
Who are using our statistics
3
User feed-back and what do they want
4
Challenges ahead
* The views expressed are those of the author and do not
necessarily reflect the position of the ECB.
2
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Rubric
The importance of communicating statistics
Good sustainable decisions
Professional users and citizens
Knowledge-based society
Policy accountability
Analysis & assessment
Statistical and
financial literacy
Policy-making
Policy validations
Policy decisions
Policy options
Analysis & assessment
FACTUAL AND INDEPENDENT STATISTICS
The communication of statistics contributes to building public support for and trust
in the pursuit of price and financial stability and prudent economic policies.
Source: Nymand-Andersen, P. (2013), “Communicating central banking statistics: Making useful sense of statistics in a dynamic world”, Journal of
the International Association for Official Statistics, IOS Press, forthcoming
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Rubric
The importance of communicating statistics
The added value of communicating central banking statistics
1
Supporting sustainable and sound policies
2
Assisting the acceptance process of policy decisions
3
Enhancing the effectiveness of monetary policy
4
Facilitating the functioning of financial markets
5
Building trust in central banking and contributing to positive reputation
Contributing to the responsibility of independent institutions in being
transparent and accountable for decisions
6
7
Enriching the analytical contribution and enhances the political debate
8
Fostering a knowledge-based society
9
Enhancing statistics and financial literacy
10
Increasing welfare in society
Source: Nymand-Andersen, P. (2013), Communicating facts and figures in times of financial crisis: a European perspective, Special edition of
the Statistical Journal of the IAOS to celebrate the 2012 IAOS Conference, IOS Press, forthcoming
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Rubric
Who are using our statistics
Based on 5 tailor-made user surveys:
 Interview with ECB journalists
 ECB website users
 International ESCB/IO statisticians
 Large data users/vendors
 European banks/European Banking Federation (EBF)
More than 300
suggestions for improving
the accessibility and
usability of ESCB
statistics
also…
Significant
barriers for
accessing
statistics
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Rubric
Who are using our statistics
Core users of
Statistics
Request for
Statistics
Governing Council/
Executive Board
Journalists/Media
Financial analysts
• •
•• • • •
Research/Academia
General public
High volume data users
Reporting institutions
 Serving the core professional market segment will amplify the statistics
message and reach a significant broader audiences, including the general public
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Rubric
User feed-back and what do they want
From the pool of research
 62 recommendations are put forward as the most valuable and fit for
central banking
 The recommendations are already standard practice and are applied
with success by other NCBs, OECD, FED, Eurostat and NSIs
The 62 recommendations were clustered into
 Nine self-contained “Islands of Excellence” – (IoE)
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Rubric
User feed-back and what do they want
Island of Excellence
Examples of user recommendations
(# of recommendations in brackets)
Media /Journalists (8)




Financial analysts (7)
 Easy to select country comparison
 Ability to select charts, graphs and associated
statistics directly from publications
Research /Academia(4)
 Promoting research based on central bank’s statistics
 Availability of micro data
High volume users (3)
 Facilitate the re-distribution of statistics
 Easy to use download facilities
Workshop, training, webinars
Using descriptive statistics in press releases
Adding deep links to series in press releases
Communicate in common terminology
Reporting institutions (3)  Provide reporting agents with monthly comparable
statistics (national & other national)
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Rubric
User feed-back and what do they want
Island of Excellence
Examples of user recommendations
(# of recommendations in brackets)
Mobile statistics (2)
 E-book formats
 User required and user friendly statistics applications
for mobile devices
Visualisation (2)
 Explore common off-the-shelf visualisation tools fit for
statistics use
 Competition on use of visualisation of statistics
Website (24)
 Sharing of chart gallery
 One shop for euro area and associated national
statistics
User interaction (9)




Website monitoring
User surveys and needs
Online call centre
Use of video to present statistics
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Rubric
Challenge of communicating statistics
By any NCB
with no or
insignificant
technical work
• release policy
• one stat shop
With a ESCB
policy concept
by the STC
ESCB
coordination
needed
• technical feasibilities
• technical standards
• friendly downloads
• mobile applications
With close
involvement
and feed-back
from WGSIM
• web-statistics sharing of findings
• user needs
• use of video
With
interaction of
other
business
areas
Together with
identified
sparing
partners
• press briefings
• press releases
• the use of webinars
• EBF, statistics to reporters
• data vendors
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Rubric
Challenge of communicating statistics
 Extract wisdom from statistics, what is the statistical
message, guide the users in using quality statistics
Users can not be expected to understand statistics language and
the impact of different statistics methods
 Combine text, statistics, tables and graphs for easy reuse
 Boost the use of visualisations and graphics
 Tailor internet portal for core professional users based on
economic concepts and an user centric approach
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Rubric
Challenge of communicating statistics
 The STC created a “Statistics Accessibility and Presentation Group”
 Think tank for proposals for “making ESCB statistics more accessible”
 Propose communication strategy and prioritised implementation
proposals to the in a phased approach
 The STC working groups play a central and important role in the
implementation process
STC forthcoming proposal for
 a policy for accessing euro area and national statistics
 fostering cooperation and information-sharing and transparency in
methodology
 serving reporting agents with meaningful statistics
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