Third International Seminar on Early Warning and Business Cycle Indicators Moscow, November 2010 Moscow, 18 November 2010 Session 5 – Data Template and analytical indicators Discussion of Papers from India, Brazil and South Korea: Country experiences developing national data hubs Discussant: Eduardo Pereira Nunes Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics - IBGE

Data Template and analytical indicators Review the country papers Proposal of a Data Template it is very important for all countries having the same kind of comparable data, at the same time. Developing a Data Template of Core Set of Short Term Statistics is crucial to countries produce same statistics and, more, to release related real, financial, fiscal and external macroeconomic data, at national and international level. Data Template is also useful for macroeconomic surveillance. Combination of Data Template with Business Cycle Tracer (BCT) could be a good option to integrate macroeconomic template with a tool of monitoring key indicators: - to give rapid alert on turning point of cycle (BCT) by using (official and no official) data `on time´, and: - to analyze possible macroeconomic unbalance (Template) related to this turning point, through updated statistics. From a National Statistical Office point of view, these tool and framework are very complementary.

Data Template and analytical indicators Data Template can be useful to explore more and better the System of Real and Financial Macroeconomic Accounts produced by SNA 2008, but not fully explored by users. Perhaps, users do not use all the SN Accounts and its data because we do not have yet an understandable and integrated system of information for every country. Gap of information and good communication and good coordination. Some countries have a very developed National Statistical System and many other have only partial information. At international level, this reality does not help users, neither to use comparable data, nor to understand some crisis, like the last Financial and Economic Crisis. Today, the G 20, IMF, ECB and other international organizations are paying more attention for this issue.

Country experiences on National Data Hubs India and Brazil stressed importance of: 1. Coordination of National Statistical System to avoid duplicated efforts and to produce all data needed; 2. Developing an International Data Hub to collect right data from each country and to facilitate dissemination of comparable national short term data; 2. Following experience of SDDS for 64 countries on real sector data, because this IMF experience of coordination was successful.

Country experiences on National Data Hubs Korean Statistical Office has already a real experience of coordination of national production of statistics, even by creating a specific law (Statistics Act) and a Portal to National Statistics, putting the key statistics in an integrated database. The KOSTAT integrates statistics and links from databases of other agencies and provides an Internet Portal with several services, such as personalized services to users and database sharing with other agencies. According to Statistics Act, statistical organizations should provide data for the construction, coordination, and integration of statistical databases. The Korean way of coordinating statistical databases is a good response to the issues put by India and Brazil.

Country experiences on National Data Hubs - India Developing data hubs for High Frequency Indicators N. Eagambaram, Central Statistical Office, India Central Statistics Office (CSO) is the coordinator of Indian Statistical System. CSO prescribes national standards, interacts with international agencies and disseminates core statistics at the national level. Central Statistics Office work program is defined by the National Statistical Commission, which is the highest national level agency and comprises the systems in the Union Ministries, including CSO and the State and Union Territory Governments. He presents a diagram on the National Statistical System and the flow of data exchange among different government agencies.

Indian statistical system and the data flow among the agencies International Agencies National Statistical Commission Public State Statistical Bureaus Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation CSO NSSOCC Other Ministries NSSO: National Sample Survey Organisation CSO : Central Statistics Office CC : Computer Centre

Country experiences on National Data Hubs - India Data on real, fiscal, financial and external sectors and on population are on the websites of the respective ministries. As India is member of SDDS, some indicators are already in the list of the SDDS. Ministry of Finance hosts all these data and is responsible for the link with the IMF. Mr.Eagambaram proposes to follow SDDS’s standardization and periodicity. However, for him, the real sector data may be provided by the National Statistical Institutes. Brazilian paper stresses that, in many Latin American (and also African) countries, National Statistical Offices produce only basic statistics and Central Banks produce National Accounts, even for real sector.

Country experiences on National Data Hubs - India National Data Hub National Data Hub has to be developed in accordance with country reality to avoid either duplication of efforts, or institutional conflicts. International Data Hub At international level, for Mr. Eagambaram, UNSD could build a Database Server (like UNDATA) and provide safe web connectivity to the NSO to update information online on Template of High Frequency Indicators. These data could be updated by the UNSD database, by using specific software. This process would allow countries to deliver the same data to the national users and UNSD. To improve comparability among countries, this system of analytical indicators should also keep the metadata and the compilation methodology.

Country experiences on National Data Hubs - Brazil For Brazilian paper one issue is: how to provide countries with a simple way of production these data, to avoid resistance or production of wrong information. For this reason, the paper of India suggests that UNSD could develop a Database Server and provide safe web connectivity to the NSI. International Data Template of HFI Should be provided by all countries. Up to date, IMF SDDS is only for 64 countries. Some other countries have another system (GDDS). Brazilian paper agrees with Indian proposal to follow SDDS’s standardization and periodicity. Brazilian authors suggest creation of an "International Data Hub”. The SDDS experience is a good example of data hub. Implementation of the SDSS was conducted with IMF technical support missions. IMF´s experts worked together with local staffs to develop basic framework. So, it is necessary to promote a strong coordination and capacity building, either on national or international levels.

Country experiences on National Data Hubs – South Korea South Korean statistical system was built to integrate the statistical database. The South Korean statistical system is a decentralized system in which the KOSTAT is the central body. In South Korea, more than 840 official statistics are produced by about 370 producers. Before this integration, each organization managed statistical data in its own way, and it was very difficult to share data, due to a lack of standardization in terms of database structure, management and application. Internet Portal to National Statistics To solve this problem the KOSTAT hosts a Internet Portal to National Statistics, incorporating the key statistics into an integrated database. The updated Korean "Statistics Act" incorporated an article on "Building the statistical database".

Country experiences on National Data Hubs – South Korea National Data Hub According to the Statistics Act, statistical organizations should provide data for the construction, coordination, and integration of statistical databases. KOSTAT developed a standard for the links, a standardized structure for the integrated database, and a standard for the metadata. Like India, in South Korea there is a Committee to discuss rules, data service policy and method to disseminate integrated Database System. This Committee promotes the cooperation among institutions. To reduce lack of cooperation among organizations and to promote better coordination on national, KOSTAT promoted capacity building through Workshops to improve understanding on this project.

Conclusion on development of national data hubs The three papers approach the "development of national data hubs" from different angles, but their aproaches are complementary. India presents the SDDS as an experience of an existing data hub; suggests that the information from the SDDS be extended by other provided by National Statistical Institutes in an international data hub, to be implemented by the UNSD. Brazil also makes reference to the SDDS as a good implementation experience, as well as a national data hub which already exists. Korea presents its very good experience in building an integrated database. Using of existing systems, as national data hubs, seems to be the most rational recommendation, as the case of the SDDS shows. But the question is still open on the indicators that are not in the SDDS and are produced by statistical institutes and other government agencies.

Conclusion on development of national data hubs Experiences of South Korea, IMF and European Union on building data hubs show that it is not an easy task to centralize, standardize, harmonize, and make national and international data comparable and available for the users in a regular way. We need strong coordination. With the support and the experience from both the UNSD and the Eurostat, for example, the NSO would congregate the other domestic producers of statistics and define which institution would host information, how data would be received, and the frequency and standardization of metadata. Even a simple framework for centralizing data requires hard work in terms of coordination and institutional arrangements. Without support and guidance, in a step by step basis, we risk of doing a large amount of work without achieving the expected result, mainly in decentralized statistical systems.

Final remarks on development of national data hubs Current initiatives in the scope of geospatial information dissemination at local, national, regional and global levels have been facing a similar problem. Issue: how to disseminate and share information produced by a large number of institutions, in a coordinated way. Response: Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI), which is seen as a framework, which allows the use of geospatial information for many applications in an efficient and flexible way. A SDI can be defined as a set of policies, laws, rules, standards, agreements, plans, programs, projects, human, technological and financial resources, appropriately integrated, to facilitate the production, access and use of geospatial data. Based on the web technology, data can be shared without the necessity of being physically stored on a central location/institution.

Final remarks on development of national data hubs This frame allows users to explore, find and use information released throughout data, metadata and services. So, the Data Hubs could be another kind of this Portal, like developed by South Korean. Brazil has a similar experience: at the national level, the National Spatial Data Infrastructure of Brazil (INDE – At the regional level, the initiatives carried by CP-IDEA (Permanent Committee for Geospatial Data Infrastructure of the Americas INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community - PCGIAP (Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia & the Pacific - And, at the global level, the United Nations Initiative on Global Geospatial Information Management (GGIM - unstats.un.org/unsd/ggim/index.html).unstats.un.org/unsd/ggim/index.html Finally, each National Data Hub could have a simple structure containing dynamic databases to facilitate the construction of an updated Macroeconomic Template Data.

Thank you!