EXPERIENCE OF THE CENTRAL STATISTICAL BUREAU OF LATVIA IN ORGANIZING SOURCES FOR NATIONAL ACCOUNTS Eurostat Workshop “Supervisory and Control Systems for National Accounts Purposes” 8-9 December 2009

Content of presentation A place of Macroeconomic Statistics Department in the Latvian statistical system and within the Office The main national legal conditions for performance of statistical work The annual National Programme of Statistical Information and CSB’s Work Programme Description of the Document Storage System

Part 1 A place of Macroeconomic Statistics Department in the Latvian statistical system and within the Office

Interaction within the Latvian Statistical System Other producers of official statistics: Bank of Latvia Ministries, agencies Administrative sources Users: Bank of Latvia Ministries and their subordinate agencies Municipalities Mass media Enterprises Households EU and international statistical organisations Central Statistical Bureau Data providers: Bank of Latvia Ministries, agencies Municipalities Enterprises Households Data Collection and Processing Centres

Subject-matter departments of the CSB Business Statistics Department Trade and Services Statistics Section Investment and Real Estate Statistics Section Industrial Statistics Section Enterprise Finance and Structural Statistics Section Business Register Section Agricultural and Environmental Statistics Department Agricultural Statistics Section Environment and Energy Statistics Section Transport and Tourism Statistics Section Social Statistics Department Wage Statistics Section Employment Statistics Section Population Statistics Section Culture, Education, Science and Health Statistics Section Household Budget Statistics Section Living Standard’s Statistics Section Interview’s Coordination Section Population Census Section Price Statistics Department Consumer price Indices Section Producer Price Indices Section Macroeconomic Statistics Department Government Finance Statistics Section National Accounts Section Resource and Use Statistics Section Foreign Trade Statistics Section http://www.csb.gov.lv/csp/content/?lng=en&cat=341#

Information flows for National Accounts purposes Household surveys Statistical questionnaires Other departments of the CSB SNA Statistical questionnaires Macroeconomic Statistics Department Administrative sources & registers Bank of Latvia Financial and Capital Market Commission Statistical questionnaires Statistical questionnaires

Interdepartmental agreements and cooperation contracts In total, the CSB since 2004 has concluded up to 25 data exchange agreements and cooperation contracts with other state institutions In certain extent, all of them feed the process of compilation of national accounts, but the most important are agreements between the CSB and: Bank of Latvia State Revenue Service Financial and Capital Market Commission

Mode of gathering information for National Accounts from external sources Direct access to particular source Example: granted direct access to the Information system of the Treasury (viewing and downloading records and totals only) Snap-shot of the Registers Example: exhaustive database (files with individual records) of the Tax-payer Register of the State Revenue Service Tables prepared for National Accounts needs Example: tailor-made tables and files received from Bank of Latvia or Financial and Capital Market Commission

The main national legal conditions for performance of statistical work Part 2 The main national legal conditions for performance of statistical work

National laws Administrative procedure Law, adopted on November 14, 2001 and further amended (2003, 2004, 2006, 2008) State Administration Structure Law, adopted on June 6, 2002 and further amended (2008, 2009) Law on State Statistics of the Republic of Latvia, adopted on November 6, 1997 and further amended (1999, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009)

Law on State Statistics, Article 5. Central Statistical Bureau (1) ... is a direct administration authority subordinated to the Ministry of Economics, which is executed in the form of supervision. It is responsible for the organisation of the work of official statistics in the Republic of Latvia and for the correctness of the data it has obtained by compiling the information received from respondents. (2) ... shall perform the following functions: 3) preparation, within the scope of the financial resources of the current year, of the National Programme of Statistical Information, the questionnaire forms for official statistics. The National Programme of Statistical Information, the questionnaire forms for official statistics shall be approved by the Cabinet; 4) taking responsibility for the development of a unified classification system for economic information. The Cabinet shall approve the unified classification system for economic information and the procedures for the implementation and use thereof; 5) co-ordination of the whole flow of statistical information at the national level, as well as the mutual harmonisation of the statistical indicators to be included in State registers and other information systems;

Cabinet Regulations Annual Regulations of the Cabinet on National Programme of Statistical Information Regulations of the Cabinet on statistical questionnaires, collected by the CSB and other state administration bodies Regulation of the Cabinet on a Unified System of Classification of Economic Information

Design of statistical questionnaires (1) Each statistical questionnaire has a legal form of separate attachment to Cabinet Regulations Process of adoption of Cabinet Regulations is as follows: Often the questionnaires are accompanied with instructions on their completing, which also make a part of Cabinet Regulation and ensures clear understanding about nature of data. Preparing the draft by responsible institution Harmonization with involved ministries and institutions Adoption by the Cabinet

Design of statistical questionnaires (2) In order to: improve content of statistical questionnaires submitted by the CSB (via Ministry of Economics) for adoption in the Cabinet, to avoid duplication of requested data but without loss of information necessary for National Accounts, the Macroeconomic Statistics Department is represented in two internal permanent working groups, one – for business questionnaires, another – for household surveys

Part 3 The annual National Programme of Statistical Information and CSB’s Work Programme

National Programme of Statistical Information (1) NPSI is prepared and adopted for each calendar year NPSI’2009 consists of 30 chapters Ch 1 National Accounts Ch 2 Balance of Payments Ch 3 State Finance ... Ch 30 Business Trend Surveys Each chapter is divided into 3 parts: A statistical information that is gathered according to EU requirements B statistical information that is prepared according to regular data enquiries of international organisations C statistical information that is gathered for domestic users

NPSI (2) Each record in a chapter contains information on: Subject (specified statistical data/indicators) Responsible institution Frequency Method of acquisition of information and data sources Level of aggregation Examples 1.21 (A) Regional GVA, 2007, current prices Central Statistical Bureau Yearly Calculations, information of Treasury 6 Statistical regions and NACE 1.1 A-B, C-E, F, G-I, J-K, L-O 2.15 (C) Foreign investments in statutory capital of enterprises registered in Latvia Bank of Latvia Quarterly Surveys, questionnaires, calculations Total in Latvia, by NACE 2-digit level, by countries 3.36 Execution of budget of municipalities according to economic and functional categories The Treasury Monthly, Full observation Total in Latvia, by municipalities

Process of drafting and adoption of the NPSI Central Statistical Bureau 1st draft of the NPSI Draft Cabinet regulation on the NPSI Draft Cabinet regulation on the NPSI Ministries, social partners State Chancellery Ministries, social partners Assess-ment of the draft State Chancellery Assess-ment of the draft Cabinet of Ministers Central Statistical Bureau Cabinet regulation on the NPSI - final

Institutions involved in fulfilling of the NPSI National Accounts Balance of Payments Budget & finance Foreign Trade Prices Demograpfy & Census Education, innov. Culture Health Social Protection Living Standards Crime Business Register SBS Wages Employment Agriculture Forestry Fishing Industry Energy Construction Investments Trade & services Transport Toursim Real Estate Environment Protection Information Society Business Trends CSB BoL M’Fin M’Int M’Edu M’Cul M’Env M’Econ M’Agri M’Tran M’Just M’Reg FCMC SRS Treas Prosec Other

CSB’s Work Programme WP is prepared each year and approved by the President of the CSB. WP is a very detailed list of tasks for each production and/or support unit of the CSB. WP covers separately all stages/processes of production of every set of statistical information: preparation for surveys, collection of surveys data and processing of administrative data, controls and checks of data, imputation, processing of aggregates, analysis, estimations and publication/dissemination Each task is recorded with strict deadlines and units responsible for its execution.

Example of records in the WP No of record Unit – owner of the product Task Classification of task Source data Frequency Unit – executor Deadline Unit – receiver No in NPSI 1.8.1 Outside source Preparation of VAT declarations’ data for import into INTRASTAT register Data import VAT declarations M Application Software Delopment Section 20 Jan Foreign Trade Statistics Section 4.2 2.28.5 Extrastat & INTRASTAT data -BEC , 1st quarter 2009 Transmission of data file Custom declarations, Intrastat - 1A, Intrastat - 1B, Intrastat - 2A, Intrastat - 2B Q 3 June Section of National Accounts 4.4 32.44 Government Finance Section FISIM – 1st quarter 2009 Estima-tions CSB questionnai-res, BoL data, FCMC data 22 May 1.1 1.11 1.12

Philosophy of the WP If preparation of given statistical product involve several consecutive processes, a separate task for each of them has to be formulated WP is made in MS Excel environment in order to make use of filter function – that gives a possibility to identify workload of unit, to assess tasks in terms of length of execution, etc. Changes can be made in any time during the calendar year upon a request from the structural units Statistics Methodology and Organisation Division makes the WP and monitors the execution of tasks once a month

Draft WP’2010 Consists of more than 5.5 thousand records on different tasks Final receiver: National Accounts Section - 435 records Government Finance Section – 28 records Foreign Trade Statistics Section – 81 record Resource and Use Statistics Section - ? Executor National Accounts Section - 192 records Government Finance Section – 116 records Foreign Trade Statistics Section – 311 records Resource and Use Statistics Section – 4 records yet Macroeconomic Statistics Department makes in total ~ 82 data deliveries to Eurostat per year

Description of the Document Storage System Part 4 Description of the Document Storage System

Background information on ADS (1) In 2008, within the framework of Quality Management, a Document Storage System (ADS) was developed in the CSB Starting with 2009, each year all fundamental processes performed for each statistical survey as well as for complex projects like compilation of national accounts must be described in detail All quality indicators have to be described regardless if an official quality report is to be prepared or not The ADS provides also technical possibility to attach number of supporting documents explaining methodological questions

Background information on ADS (2) “In-house” part Project description Values of quality indicators Thezaurus FAQ of registered users ADS Administration “Public” part ADS Statistics Information on ADS Registration of users

Background information on ADS (3) There are 4 kinds of access rights to the ADS for CSB staff: Administrator Attestant User Viewer So far, total number of projects (surveys, calculations) to be described is 161, of which Theme “National Accounts” – 14 (Q’2008, Q’2009, A’2008, A’Reg’2006) Theme “Government Finance” – 10 Theme “Wages” – 11 Theme “Employment” – 4 Theme “Industry” – 7 etc.

Structure of Project Description Basic information General information Identification of data demand Project preparation Sampling Data collection Data processing Analysis of aggregates and preparation for publishing Data dissemination Additional information (internal use only) II. Quality Indicators Relevance Accuracy Timeliness and punctuality Accessibility and clarity Comparability Coherence Each indicator has to be characterised by values of quality dimensions

Sub – stages of Project description 2. General information 4. Project preparation 9. Data dissemination Time interval of data collection or fieldwork Project objective Dissemination format Periodicity of data collection Statistical units Data dissemination periodicity Data is comparable since (year) Reporting units Date of the availability of results Persons in charge of the project Data sources (CSB questionnaires, other institutions that produce official statistics and administrative data providers) Publications Classifications and nomenclatures used Data revision policy Base period Main indicators and their level of aggregation Information on collected indicators (link to questionnaires, regulations) Information on accessibility of anonymized individual data

Status of quality indicators Searching parameters Status of version Status of quality indicators To open To correct

List of ADS projects where variable is represented Variable code ESA List of ADS projects where variable is represented Variable title Variable definition Measurement unit Variable code SBS

Particular projects can be identified for search

Thank you for your attention! questions? Dace Tomase Director of Macroeconomic Statistics Department Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia Dace.Tomase@csb.gov.lv