The unece organizes with the financial support of the World Bank

UN

• The Common Metadata Framework
• Making Data Meaningful 1 and 2
• Guidelines for Statistical Metadata on the Internet
• Terminology on Statistical Metadata

OECD

• Data and Metadata Reporting and Presentation
• Glossary of Statistical Terms
• Publishing Standards for Datasets and Data Tables

IMF

• Guide to the Data Dissemination Standards

Metadata Management

• “data about data”

• Identify users and provide only valuable metadata

• Ensure metadata is easily available

• Reuse metadata for integration and efficiency

• Preserve history (old versions) of metadata

• Document variations from standards

• Make metadata work an integral part of production

• Create a coherent system for metadata

• Ensure that the metadata for users reflects the real production process

Contents of Metadata

• Purpose and main uses of the statistics

• Definitions of the underlying economic concepts

• Reference to the respective legislation

• Data coverage, periodicity and timeliness

• Self assessment of data quality

• revision history and accuracy of concepts
• availability, comparability and coherence
• limitations in the use of statistics

• Descriptions of the methodologies used

• Index formula, weighting and frequency of revising
• Frequency of re-basing and linking methods
• Treatment of changes in commodities or quality

User Consultation

• Create mechanisms to obtain users’ views on regular basis in order to

• identify priority areas for improvement
• ensure responding to user needs
• provide users with advice on the strengths and weaknesses of your statistics

• Important with key indicators (CPI, IPI, GDP...)

• Engaging users should be an integral part of the work in the NSO

• Mutual understanding and exchange of information (=transparency) builds trust
• Decisions will be made independently by the NSO

GDP “- Yes, of course”

• GDP “- Yes, of course”

It may be another story

• It may be another story

• Why?

• No real supply provided by official statistics (?)
• Too many disappointments, when requesting good AND timely statistics
• Substitutive indicators, guesstimates in wide use
• And if there IS some supply
• Often not much information provided to potential users
• Misinterpretations about the consistency of the statistical information due to necessary revisions

This is a very positive development

• This is a very positive development

• Availability and accessibility of official statistics has grown substantially

• In the beginning of the year 2008

• >500 Million internet hosts in the world!

• This also increases pressure on timeliness

Just putting your information on your web site does not automatically mean it is utilized

• Just putting your information on your web site does not automatically mean it is utilized

• Even though your web information is utilized, it does not mean that your most important users make use of it

Counting the popularity of your web site by “hits” may deceive you because

• Counting the popularity of your web site by “hits” may deceive you because

• a substantial part of the “fabulous growth” comes from search engines checking if you have any new information

“Statisticians like to talk to one another in mysterious ways and with a time clock which runs 10 times slower than everyone else's”

• “Statisticians like to talk to one another in mysterious ways and with a time clock which runs 10 times slower than everyone else's”

•  We have to communicate better!

•  We have to imagine ourselves into the position of the potential users of our information!

Timeliness is an issue of huge importance

• Timeliness is an issue of huge importance

• Trade-off between timeliness and accuracy - always

• Globalization

• Modern communication tools

Rob Wright, Deputy Minister of the Department of Finance of Canada, opening in May 2009 the

• Rob Wright, Deputy Minister of the Department of Finance of Canada, opening in May 2009 the

• International Seminar on Timeliness, Methodology and Comparability of Rapid Estimates of Economic Trends in Ottawa, organized by UNSD and Statistics Canada