STC - Statistics Accessibility and Presentation Group (STAP)

Communication of Statistics

Joint ECB NBRM Seminar on StatisticsSkopje, 4 October 2013

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Outline – STAP Communication of Statistics

* The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the ECB. 2

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3 User feed-back and what do they want

Who are using our statistics

The importance of communicating statistics

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4 Challenges ahead

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The importance of communicating statistics

Good sustainable decisions

FACTUAL AND INDEPENDENT STATISTICS

Analysis & assessment

Policy options

Policy decisions

Policy validations

Analysis & assessment

Statistical and financial literacy

COMMUN

ICATION

COMMUN

ICATION COM

MUNICATION

COMMUNICATION

Professional users and citizens Policy-making

Knowledge-based society

Policy accountability

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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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 policy4  Facilitating the functioning of financial markets5  Building trust in central banking and contributing to positive reputation

6  Contributing to the responsibility of independent institutions in being transparent and accountable for decisions

7  Enriching the analytical contribution and enhances the political debate

8  Fostering a knowledge-based society

9  Enhancing statistics and financial literacy10   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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Who are using our statistics

Based on 5 tailor-made user surveys:Interview with ECB journalistsECB website usersInternational ESCB/IO statisticiansLarge data users/vendorsEuropean banks/European Banking

Federation (EBF)

More than 300 suggestions for improving the accessibility and usability of ESCB statistics

also…Significa

nt barriers

for accessing statistics

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Request for

Statistics

Core users of

Statistics

•

Governing Council/Executive Board

• • • • •

Journalists/Media

Financial analysts

Reporting institutions

•

High volume data users

General public

Research/Academia

Serving the core professional market segment will amplify the statistics message and reach a significant broader audiences, including the general public

Who are using our statistics

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User feed-back and what do they wantFrom the pool of research 62 recommendations are put forward as the most valuable and fit for central bankingThe 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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Island of Excellence (# of recommendations in brackets)

Examples of user recommendations

Media /Journalists (8) Workshop, training, webinars Using descriptive statistics in press releases Adding deep links to series in press releases Communicate in common terminology

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

Reporting institutions (3) Provide reporting agents with monthly comparable statistics (national & other national)

User feed-back and what do they want

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Island of Excellence (# of recommendations in brackets)

Examples of user recommendations

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

User feed-back and what do they want

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•web-statistics sharing of findings

•user needs•use of video

•press briefings•press releases • the use of webinars

•EBF, statistics to reporters

•data vendors

• technical feasibilities

• technical standards

• friendly downloads

•mobile applications

• release policy

•one stat shop

Challenge of communicating statistics

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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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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