1. The Macroeconomic Imbalances Procedure: Quality framework and reporting
ESTP course - MIP Luxembourg 1-3 December 2015 Peter Parlasca and Ivana Jablonska

2. Outline Draft MIP regulation CMFB quality framework
ESS-ESCB generic template for national reports
Current reporting on metadata and quality
Survey of existing quality information on MIP relevant statistics
ESS quality reporting standards
Proposal for a new standard on Inventories

3. Draft MIP Regulation Commission proposal for legal act on MIP quality
7 June 2013
Elements of the proposal related to statistics:
Quality reports
Inventories of data sources and methods
Missions

4. CMFB quality framework
The ESS and the ESCB responsible for the production of MIP relevant statistics
Ensure the quality of these statistics
ESS-ESCB communication and work programme
Level 1: ESS-ESCB quality report
Level 2: around 7 reports for MIP relevant domains
Level 3: Reports of 28 MSs per MIP relevant domain
Endorsed by ECOFIN Council on 7 Nov. 2014

5. CMFB quality framework (cont.)
State of play
Level 1 report:
Finalised in 2015 – sent to ECOFIN in November
Level 2 reports:
To be developed based on generic template filled, deadline tbc
Level 3 reports:
generic template already available for bop/iip, for other domains to be developed during 2016

6. Level 3 work
Mandate
The July 2014 CMFB plenary meeting mandated the set-up of a Technical Group to design a
"Generic template for national reports on statistics underlying the MIP indicators"
Output presented in January 2015:
A generic template applicable to all statistics

7. The generic template shall:
Foster alignment of ESS and ESCB quality monitoring frameworks;
Contribute to the overall quality assurance framework of the MIP related statistics;
Provide information on quality, sources and methods + information on statistical processes in compliance with existing metadata standards (SDDS, SIMS)

8. Timeframe for further work
FA templates
End January 2016 – to be sent to CMFB
HPI templates
End May 2016 – to be sent to Eurostat
LFS templates
Ongoing

9. Current reporting on metadata and quality
Draft MIP Regulation
Requires Inventories of data sources and methods and Quality reports.
Member States already provide Eurostat with inventories or quality reports
GFS (EDP), GNI, LFS, BOP
In accordance with existing legislation but are they comparable?
For a few statistical domains there is no legal framework for quality assessment (e.g. FA, Employment data in NA).

10. Request to review
Early 2013 the DMES called upon Eurostat to review the existing quality information of MIP relevant statistics
Reuse existing domain specific information and make use of existing standards.

11. Survey of existing reporting
In summer 2013 the MIP team carried out a survey to collect the existing quality information on MIP underlying statistics
Idea
to identify best practices,
to identify areas of missing or incomplete information

12. Survey of existing reporting (cont.)
Covered six statistical domains relevant for the MIP indicators:
Balance of payments (BOP/IIP, share of world exports)
National non-financial accounts (Nominal unit labour cost, GDP)
National financial accounts (Total financial sector liabilities, private sector credit flow, private sector debt)
Government finance statistics (GG gross debt)
Price statistics (House price index)
Labour statistics (Unemployment rate)
The MIP indicator on Real effective exchange rate (REER) was not surveyed
Cooperation with relevant Eurostat productions units

13. Survey of existing reporting (cont.)
Balance of payments
‘BOP book’ – 2007 (ECB); Quality report – annual
National non-financial accounts
GNI Inventory – every 5 year; Quality report – annual
OECD/Eurostat questionnaire on national accounts employment and hours worked
National financial accounts
Manual on sources and methods for the compilation of the ESA95 financial accounts – 2011;
Euro Area quarterly financial accounts – annual quality report (ECB)
Government finance statistics
EDP Inventory – 2013; Questionnaire to the EDP notification – biannual
Price statistics
Quality report on HPI – from 2014
Labour statistics
Quality report of the European Union - Labour Force Survey - annual

14. Outcome of survey Some quality information exists for MIP indicators
either in the form of inventories or quality reports
Situation is very heterogeneous across domains
general consensus on the structure and content of an inventory of sources and methods
contents of quality reports are much more diverse
Most legal frameworks have explicit requirements for some quality reporting
level of detail is very heterogeneous and not necessarily sufficient

15. Conclusions after survey
Need further harmonisation building on existing quality frameworks
Use of appropriate IT tools and also reporting standards

16. ESS reporting standards
Euro-SDMX Metadata Structure
(ESMS)
ESS Standard for Quality Reports
Structure (ESQRS)
Single Integrated Metadata Structure (SIMS)

17. ESS reporting standards (cont.)
ESMS
broad but light information about statistical concepts used for the compilation of the statistics and summary information on quality – user oriented
ESQRS
mainly focused on statistical outputs – peer/producer oriented
Proposal to develop a new standard focusing mainly on data sources and compilation processes and to link the existing inventories
Drafted common template for Inventories (ESS Standard for Sources and Methods - ESSM) – peer/producer oriented

18. What is the situation in your country concerning publication of metadata and quality reports?