Meeting of the Short-Term Economic Statistics Expert Group - Paris, 28-30 June 2004

The Short-term Economic Statistics Expert Group (STESEG) meeting was held at the OECD headquarters at 2 rue André Pascal, Paris 75016, from Monday 28 June to Wednesday 30 June 2004

• Final draft Agenda (14/06/2004)
• Information for Participants
• Final Meeting Papers
• List of participants
• Meeting outcomes and future work

Monday, 28 June (Room C)

Item 1 Introduction 
09.30 – 09.40 Welcome address (Enrico Giovannini, OECD Chief Statistician) 
09.40 – 10.00 Summary of issues emerging since the 2003 STESEG meeting:
(Denis Ward, OECD) ppt presentation

• work of the STESEG task forces;
• enlargement of the OECD database on business tendency and consumer opinion surveys;
• co-ordination of OECD/European Commission’s Eurostat collection of short-term indicators from EU countries;
• implications of the creation of the OECD Committee on Statistics

Item 2 Task force on services
Session Chair: Eun-Pyo Hong, OECD

10.00 – 10.20 Presentation on Task Force activity to date; outline of a prototype draft Index of Service Production (ISP) manual forwarded on 30 April 2004 (Presenter: Benoit Arnaud, OECD
ppt presentation ppt presentation

Papers:
Summary information on STESEG task force work on services since the beginning of 2003 (STD/STESEG(2004)2)
A compilation manual for a monthly index of service production (ISP) (STD/STESEG(2004)3)

10.20 – 10.40 Presentation of main comments received from national agencies and international organizations on the prototype draft ISP manual (Presenter: Eun-Pyo Hong, OECD). ppt presentation
Paper:
Comments received from countries on the work of the task force on services

10.40 – 10.55 Discussion of main issues
11.15 – 11.35 Presentation of key terminology for ISP [Sections B & C of the prototype] – (Presenter: Statistics Canada)
ppt presentation
11.35 – 12.10 Discussion of main terminology issues and conclusions
12.10  - 12.30 Presentation of issues regarding suitable variables to measure different service production activities [Section D of the prototype] (Presenter: Rob Pike, ONS, UK) ppt presentation
14.00 – 15.00 Discussion of main issues and conclusions regarding suitable variables
15.00 – 15.20 Presentation of the project on demand indicators for services
(Presenter: Maja Fromseier Mortensen, Statistics Denmark) ppt presentation

Papers:
A project on demand for services

A questionnaire for demand for services

15.20 – 15.40 Discussion
16.00 – 16.20 Future work on ISP manual, processes for obtaining wider country input
(Presenter: Eun-Pyo Hong, OECD)
ppt presentation

Item 3 Task force on data presentation and seasonal adjustment
Session Chair: Gian Paolo Oneto, ISTAT

16.20 – 16.40 Presentation on context: review of work to date by Task Force; outline of draft manual forwarded on 30 April 2004; relationship to other development initiatives (e.g. the comprehensive manual discussed at UNSC) (Presenter: Gian Paolo Oneto, ISTAT) ppt presentation
Paper:
Summary information on STESEG task force work on data presentation and seasonal adjustment since the beginning of 2003 (STD/STESEG(2004)4)

16.40 – 17.00 Presentation of main comments received from national agencies and international organizations on draft presentation manual forwarded on 30 April 2004
(Presenter: Denis Ward, OECD)
ppt presentation

Papers:
Draft data and metadata and reporting manual (STD/STESEG(2004)8)

Comments received from countries on the work of the task force on data presentation and seasonal adjustment

17.00 – 17.30 Discussion on comments received
17.45  Cocktail at OECD – Salle Marshall

Tuesday, 29 June

Task force on data presentation and seasonal adjustment (continued)
09.30 –  09.50 Presentation on data and metadata presentation terminology
(Presenter: Statistics Canada)
ppt presentation

Paper:
Task force proposals for standard terminologies relating to data presentation
(STD/STESEG(2004)5)

09.50 –  10.20 Discussion and conclusions on terminology
10.20 –  10.40 Presentation of growth rates (Presenter: Robert Kirchner, Bundesbank, Germany ppt presentation

Paper:
Task force recommendations on the presentation of growth rates (STD/STESEG(2004)6)

11.00 – 11.35 Discussion and conclusions on the presentation of growth rates
11.35 – 11.55 Presentation of issues on the presentation of seasonally adjusted data
(Presenter: Statistics Canada)
ppt presentation

Paper:
Presentation of seasonally adjusted series (STD/STESEG(2004)7)

11.55 – 12.30 Discussion
14.00 – 14.15 Presentation of plans for future development of manual on the presentation of data and metadata and processes for further consultation (Presenter: Denis Ward, OECD)
14.15 – 14.40 Discussion and main conclusions

Item 4 Task force on timeliness and benchmarking
Session Chair: Richard McKenzie, OECD

14.40 – 15.30 Demonstration of the STES timeliness framework developed over the past year by the taskforce, and summary of countries comments on this
(Presenter: Richard McKenzie, OECD)
ppt presentation

Papers:
The short-term economic statistics timeliness framework (STD/STESEG(2004)9)
Comments received from countries on the work of the task force on timeliness and benchmarking

15.30 – 16.10 Discussion on best methods to promote the use of the framework by national agencies, and any further work required
16.30 – 17.00 Presentation on the use of benchmarking techniques for short-term economic statistics, and Eurostat’s benchmarking software ECOTRIM
(Presenters: Richard McKenzie & David Brackfield, OECD) ppt presentation

Paper:
Promoting the use of benchmarking techniques for short-term economic statistics (STD/STESEG(2004)10)

17.00 – 17.30 Summary of participant responses and discussion of the possible future role of STESEG in promoting the use of benchmarking techniques and the ECOTRIM software

Wednesday, 30 June (Room 6)

Item 5 Presentations and discussion on future work for the STESEG 
Session Chair: David Brackfield, OECD

09.30 – 10:00 Presentation on achieving data quality and timeliness in the use of Administrative data for key short-term economic statistics
Presenter: Bente Dyrberg, Statistics Denmark ppt presentation
Presenter: Rochelle Barrow, Statistics New Zealand ppt presentation

Papers:
Using administrative data in short-term statistics: sub annual industry surveys at Statistics New Zealand (STD/STESEG(2004)11)
Administrative data used for short term business statistics at Statistics Denmark
(STD/STESEG(2004)12)

10:00 – 10.30 Discussion and possible future work on the direct use of administrative data for STES
10.30 – 10.50 Presentation of other possibilities for future STESEG work, based on comments from country papers and  recent OECD work on key issues. (Presenter: David Brackfield, OECD ppt presentation
10.50 – 11.10 Discussion on possible areas of future work

Item 6 STESEG mandate for future work in context of the OECD Committee on Statistics
Session Chair: Denis Ward, OECD
ppt presentation

11.30 – 12.00 Finalisation of future work and task force topics over the next twelve months

Paper:
STESEG draft programme of work, July 2004 - June 2005

12.00 – 12.30 Discussion on implications of the OECD Committee on Statistics