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 policy
4 Facilitating the functioning of financial markets
5 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 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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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
Rubric
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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 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)
Rubric
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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
Rubric
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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
Rubric
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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