1 Third Joint EC – OECD Workshop on Business and Consumer Tendency Surveys Brussels, November 2007 Session 7 OUTCOMES OF OECD SURVEY ON CURRENT NATIONAL DISSEMINATION PRACTICES

2 SURVEY OF NATIONAL BTS / COS DISSEMINATION PRACTICES Aims of presentation Provide brief background to the survey of national dissemination practices Summarise the main survey findings Promote discussion on possible future work (if any) on data dissemination

3 SURVEY OF NATIONAL BTS / COS DISSEMINATION PRACTICES Background information Aim of survey to provide context for current session and identify possible areas for future work on data dissemination / analysis Survey despatched on 10 September 2007 Reponses received from 30 countries (35 institutes) Austria; Bulgaria; Chinese Taipei; Croatia; Cyprus; Czech R; Denmark; Estonia; Finland; France; Germany GfK+IFO); Greece; Italy; Japan (BoJ+CO); Korea; Latvia; Luxembourg (BCL+STATEC): Malta; Netherlands; Portugal; Romania; Slovakia; Slovenia; South Africa; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; Turkey; UK (CBI+GfK); US (FRBD+UoM)

4 SURVEY OF NATIONAL BTS / COS DISSEMINATION PRACTICES Background information Collected very summary information on: Dissemination media currently used for organisation’s BTS / COS statistics Whether organisation provides analytical or descriptive text outlining main features, etc – If yes, media used to disseminate Future plans to introduce major changes to dissemination of BTS / COS statistics over next three years

5 MAIN FINDINGS (1) Media UsedAnalytical text No.% % Paper publications Internet – subscription database Internet - free Internet - other Press release CD-ROM---- Other823720

6 MAIN FINDINGS (1) Media UsedAnalytical text No.% % Paper publications Internet – subscription database Internet - free Internet - other Press release CD-ROM---- Other Generally provide less detailed data than in publications or subscriber service Includes files to government, data to respondents, interactive graphic facilities, press conferences

7 MAIN FINDINGS (2) – FUTURE PLANS 8 out of 35 institutes outlined plans to introduce major changes over next three years Improvement of graphical presentation of data Development of electronic newsletter through website Provision of more activity disaggregations Provision of more descriptive data – max., min., avg. Development of extranet portal for members – to provide data + possibility for data collection Provision of commented survey results in free monthly electronic bulletin Re-grouping separate press releases into one main release Production of an economy wide climate indicator Publication of more comprehensive database, incl. their national data on EC website

8 MAIN FINDINGS (2) – OTHER COMMENTS General need to upgrade and update communication strategy in disseminating survey data – value not fully exploited at the moment No more paper publications – focus will be on Internet dissemination (including press releases) Encourage response by providing data to users Their data are disseminated primarily by other organisations (subscribers) Press releases generally receive wide coverage. Data in it discussed widely by policy makers, media, academics and business – date of next PR given – also send to parliamentarians

9 OTHER OBSERVATIONS (1) The more “analytical” text is provided in press releases disseminated by national agencies The content, format and use of graphs varies widely Some agencies simply describe data as reported in questionnaires – simple month-on-previous month / year-on-year changes Other agencies provide more of a “story” and provide more subjective text on movements – “good”, “dynamic”, “strong”, “sharp” – others use related series (e.g. US FRBD, Germany GFK, UK GFK, Italy, Netherlands)

10 OTHER OBSERVATIONS (2) Most press releases are static – US FRBD contains active links to more detailed data, graphs Causal factors avoided in text On-line databases range from simple PDF tables, Excel spreadsheets, to more interactive databases

11 POSSIBILITIES FOR FUTURE WORK / DISCUSSION Identification of recommended practices for presentation / dissemination of data in press releases – including use of “analytical” text Other suggestions?

12 DISSEMINATION SURVEY Thank you

13 PRESS RELEASES (1) Country - Institute Links provided Bulgariahttp:// Chinese Taipeihttp:// Czech Republichttp:// Estoniahttp:// Germany – GFKhttp:// Germany - IFOhttp:// Greecehttp:// Italyhttp:// Koreahttp:// Netherlandshttp:// GB/menu/themas/dossiers/conjunctuur/publicaties/conjunctuurbericht/inhoud/default.htm?Language switch=on Portugalhttp:// ESTAQUESmodo=2

14 PRESS RELEASES (2) Country - Institute Links provided Slovak Republichttp://portal.statistics.sk/showdoc.do?docid=9686 Sloveniahttp:// South Africahttp:// Spainhttp:// UK – CBIhttp:// 5737d004c5010?OpenDocument UK - GFKhttp:// ugust2007.pdf US - FRBDhttp://dallasfed.org/data/outlook/index.html US - UoMhttps://customers.reuters.com/community/university/default.aspx?