ECBRESTRICTED STC Statistics Accessibility and Presentation Group STAP

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 www. ecb. europa. eu ©

Rubric The importance of communicating statistics Good sustainable Professional users and citizens decisions Policy accountability Analysis & assessment Statistical and financial literacy Policy validations N TIO ICA UN MM CO CO MM UN ICA TI O N Knowledge-based society Policy-making 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 www. ecb. europa. eu ©

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 www. ecb. europa. eu ©

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 www. ecb. europa. eu ©

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 www. ecb. europa. eu ©

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” – (Io. E) www. ecb. europa. eu ©

Rubric User feed-back and what do they want Island of Excellence Examples of user recommendations (# of recommendations in brackets) Media /Journalists (8) Ø Ø Financial analysts (7) Ø Easy to select country comparison Ø Ability to select charts, graphs and associated statistics directly from publications Research /Academia(4) Ø Promoting research based on central bank’s statistics Ø Availability of micro data High volume users (3) Ø Facilitate the re-distribution of statistics Ø 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) Ø Provide reporting agents with monthly comparable statistics (national & other national) www. ecb. europa. eu ©

Rubric User feed-back and what do they want Island of Excellence Examples of user recommendations (# of recommendations in brackets) Mobile statistics (2) Ø E-book formats Ø User required and user friendly statistics applications for mobile devices Visualisation (2) Ø Explore common off-the-shelf visualisation tools fit for statistics use Ø Competition on use of visualisation of statistics Website (24) Ø Sharing of chart gallery Ø One shop for euro area and associated national statistics User interaction (9) Ø Ø Website monitoring User surveys and needs Online call centre Use of video to present statistics www. ecb. europa. eu ©

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 www. ecb. europa. eu ©

Rubric Challenge of communicating statistics ü 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 ü Combine text, statistics, tables and graphs for easy reuse ü Boost the use of visualisations and graphics ü Tailor internet portal for core professional users based on economic concepts and an user centric approach www. ecb. europa. eu ©

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 www. ecb. europa. eu ©