1. 1 SUMMARY OF ISSUES EMERGING SINCE 2003 STESEG MEETING SUMMARY OF ISSUES EMERGING SINCE 2003 STESEG MEETING SHORT-TERM ECONOMIC STATISTICS EXPERT GROUP (STESEG) 28 – 30 JUNE 2004

2. 2 Work of the STESEG task forces Enlargement of the OECD database on business tendency and consumer opinion surveys Co-ordination of OECD / Eurostat collection of short-term economic indicators Creation of the OECD Committee on Statistics SUMMARY OF MAIN ISSUES EMERGING SINCE 2003 STESEG SUMMARY OF MAIN ISSUES EMERGING SINCE 2003 STESEG

3. 3 Work of the STESEG task forces Will form the basis of discussion over next two days Comprises:  Task force on services – prototype Index of Services Production Manual  Task force on data presentation and seasonal + Draft Manual – growth rates, terminology, data presentation  Task force on timeliness and benchmarking

4. 4 Work of the STESEG task forces (cont.) Flow:  Brief introduction by Session chair  Summary of written comments / feedback received from STESEG delegates  Discussion  Meeting conclusions / recommendations – future work, tangible output

5. 5 Enlargement of the OECD database on business tendency and consumer opinion surveys Extensive additional series published in MEI from February 2004 – more metadata being provided For BTS comprises series on manufacturing, construction, retail trade, other services For COS comprises series on consumer confidence, expected inflation Data collection co-ordinated with the European Commission Linked to OECD work on composite leading indicators, development of international standards for BTS / COS data

6. 6 Business tendency and consumer opinion surveys - other OECD work - Work with European Commission on development of international standards for BTS / COS Established a forum for work on these series – Brussels in November 2003, OECD meeting in September 2004, joint EC / OECD meeting in 2005 Key areas of work comprise:  Sharing information / metadata standards  Harmonisation of output, seasonal adjustment, improving response rates / minimisation of respondent load

7. 7 Business tendency and consumer opinion surveys - other OECD work - (cont.) Publication of joint OECD / CIRET Journal of Business Cycle Management and Analysis Published 3 times a year Covers:  Analysis of cyclical fluctuations  Business cycle specification, definition and classification  Statistical approaches to development of STS  Business tendency, investment and consumer surveys  Use of survey data & cyclical indicators for business cycle analysis

8. 8 Co-ordination of OECD / Eurostat collection of short-term economic indicators Aim is test feasibility of OECD MEI using Eurostat’s Euroind data for OECD EU countries in lieu of direct collection. Detailed work underway to compare the two databases for:  coverage of series by statistical domain & country;  length of time series and relative timeliness;  availability of metadata;  evaluation of data quality. Initial results for limited domains encouraging – now looking at other domains Still a number of outstanding issues to resolve, e.g. – differences between national data and Eurostat data, efficient means of data transfer, metadata availability Project strongly supported by Eurostat

9. 9 Creation of OECD Committee on Statistics Created officially in May 2004 – first meeting in early June. Mandate includes:  be responsible to Council for statistical policy of the OECD  ensure that OECD statistical are produced to high standards  Oversee budget of the Statistics Directorate  Give advice to other OECD Committees on their plans for statistics  Officially approve methodological recommendations  Approve common standards for data and metadata exchange

10. 10 Creation of OECD Committee on Statistics (cont.) Recommendation is for STESEG to be an official body of the new Committee Implications to be discussed in more detail Session 6 on Wednesday