1 1 Werner Bier and Per Nymand-Andersen European Central Bank, Directorate General Statistics CCSA Special Session, Luxembourg, 8 September 2011 Communicating statistics to frequent users One size fits all?

2 2 Welfare enhancement FACTUAL AND INDEPENDENT STATISTICS Analysis & assessment Policy options Policy decisions Policy validations Analysis & assessment Statistical and financial literacy C OMMUNICATION Professional users and citizens Policy making Communicating statistics creating a culture of stability Good statistics are much, much cheaper than wrong decisions Janez Potočnik, European Commissioner for the Environment Knowledge based society Policy accountability

3 3 One euro area One monetary policy One currency One statistics The EU 60 regional/minority languages By 40 million people A rich cultural & financial diversity Information overflow Information technology New demands and micro-statistics Budget awareness 17 euro area countries 331 million people 15 languages Does one communication strategy fits all purposes? Communicating statistics creating a culture of stability

4 4 Press releases Dissemination of statistics on ECB website (SDW) Monthly bulletin hot-lines Video & games ECB statistics conferences inviting users of statistics (policy, academia, journalists) ECB speakers at conferences and seminars Bilateral informal talks to external users and media Press briefings on new statistics with journalists 1-2 seminars per year to explain statistics to journalists ECB statistics communication activities Does one communication strategy fit all ? Statistics Data Warehouse (SDW) where all published statistics are freely available

5 5 Extracting relevant statistics in context (What?) Form of communication, using users language (How?) Further explore existing communication channels (Which?) More focused market segmentation (Who?) One size fits all ? Who are our frequent users ? Policy makers Media Financial intermediaries Research and higher education Literature tells us: tailor statistics to user groups, channels, users language!

6 6 Increase volumes, adjust search, regrouping of new statistics, use of tools and colours One size fits all ? Evolution of communicating statistics Focussed on need for technical access to statistics, IT, storage. Statistics is disseminated Ask users: work with synergies of similar user patterns

7 7 New communication initiatives Survey of user needs and functionalities (web-based and interviews) Work together with (sparring) partners from the private market Closer cooperation among international organisations, sharing tools Provide a set of best practice and recommendations of new ideas to make statistics better understood, easier accessible and reach a larger audience Task Force on accessibility of statistics: A Eurosystem/ESCB concept Statistical competence centre – one stop shop of trustworthy statistics for all (crowing out bad statistics)

8 8 New preliminary communication suggestions Preliminary ideas (i) Facilitate the access of official statistics by data vendor (Bloomberg /Thomsen-Reuters /Haver analy.) Data vendors are re-distribution multipliers of (official) statistics and reach financial intermediaries globally. Provide tools and functionalities which are familiar to and daily used by market analysts and financial researchers. Ability of users to compare statistics from multiple sources and select data and graphs within few clicks. Large and high frequency volumes (machine to machine communication facility and code mapping/translations ).

9 9 New preliminary communication suggestions Preliminary ideas (ii) Workshops and training for media Invite journalists to statistics workshops: Provide an overview of the statistics system and how it works Provide a conceptual overview of available statistics Explain the statistics, objectives, provide examples for easy understanding Demonstrate how to find statistics and to use available tools Provide contact points to statistics for further references and for (non policy) explanations and clarifications of statistics

10 New preliminary communication suggestions Preliminary ideas (iii) Press releases – include facility to select the related statistics directly from press releases Easy access to statistics and historical series Easy for users to check for a statistics story: ability to compare latest statistics with earlier values – is there a story to report this month ? Easy to find additional related statistics for further explorations Easy to compare corresponding national contributions and euro area statistics

11 New preliminary communication suggestions Preliminary ideas (iv) Common language Convert statistics into common language messages which make statistics easy understood and therefore usable for laymen Provide and assist laymen in converting statistics into common language Provide direct links from common languages and statistics language Provide statistics in multiple languages

12 One size fits all ? Conclusions Need to focus more on Communication of Statistics Ask frequent users for their needs (similar patterns) Focus on serving and supporting frequent users The more users understand statistics, the more use of statistics statistics will contribute to a culture of stability acceptance of policy decisions trust in statistics & institutions Join for common synergies in serving frequent users ! Statistics is technically disseminated and available – progress is made with incremental upgrades (web 1.0 to web 2.0), add-ons One euro area One monetary policy One currency One statistics One size fits all communication strategy?