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Background
1. The twenty-eighth session
of the United Nations Statistical Commission
considered the item "Critical problems in economic
statistics". The Commission considered problems
in the production and dissemination of timely,
relevant and accurate economic indicators, their
interpretation and use, and the public perception
of their adequacy. They included, among other
things, conceptual problems, operational difficulties
in responding to changes in the economy and
problems in dealing with the media and governmental
officials. The Commission recognized that dealing
with problems related to the production and
dissemination of timely, relevant and accurate
economic indicators, as well as with their interpretation
and use, was crucial to the continued integrity
of statistics.
2. The Commission requested
a group of countries and international organizations
to systematize the various ingredients in the
discussion and to report back to its Working
Group. The members of the so-called Expert Group
on Critical Problems in Economic Statistics
comprised:
Country members
- Australia
- Canada
- Czech Republic
- India
- United States of America
International agencies
- International Monetary
Fund
- Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development
- United Nations Statistics
Division
The representative of the
Australian Bureau of Statistics (Mr R.W. Edwards,
First Assistant Statistician, Economic Accounts
Division) was subsequently asked to chair the
Expert Group.
Deliberations
of the Expert Group
3. The Expert Group met once,
in New York, on 24 and 25 October 1995. The
Expert Group was conscious of the potential
breadth of issues arising from the discussion
at the twenty-eighth session of the Statistical
Commission, and took the view that it should
narrow the scope of its deliberations to a few
key issues that could reasonably be dealt with
in the short to medium term within the international
statistical community. The Expert Group therefore
concentrated on problems that affect user confidence
in national programmes of economic statistics.
The issues identifiedwere considered to be relevant
to a wide spectrum of countries at varying stages
of statistical development.
4. The report of the Expert
Group was submitted for discussion at the April
1996 meeting of the United Nations Statistical
Commission's Working Group on International
Statistical Programmes and Coordination. Mr
Fred Ho (Commissioner for Census and Statistics,
Hong Kong) represented the Committee on Statistics
at the meeting in his capacity as Chairperson
of the ninth session. A copy of the Expert Group's
report, updated to reflect the discussion and
decisions taken at the Working Group meeting,
is at Attachment 1. It is expected that this
document will be a background paper for the
twenty-ninth session of the Statistical Commission
which will meet in February 1997.
Future
Wor
5. It is not expected that
the Expert Group will meet again.
6. The Working Group has agreed
on a range of actions, summarized in columns
5 and 6 of Table 1 of Attachment 1. Column 7
of that table sets out the papers on the various
issues expected to be discussed at the February
1997 Statistical Commission. For most issues,
the Working Group has commissioned informal
consultation groups to develop proposals and
to report back to the Statistical Commission.
The Chairman of the Working Group (Australian
Statistician Bill McLennan) subsequently wrote
to countries informing them of the work of the
Expert Group and of the discussions and decisions
taken by the Working Group. Countries were invited
to contact convenors of the informal groups
if they were interested in participating in
the activities of the groups. A copy of the
McLennan letter is at Attachment 2.
7. The Australian Bureau of
Statistics expects to participate in a number
of the informal groups. It will be hosting,
in Canberra, a meeting of interested countries
and international agencies on capital stock
statistics on 10-14 March 1997.
Issues
for Discussion
8. The Committee may wish
to discuss the issues raised in Attachment 1.
The ESCAP secretariat would be an appropriate
conduit if there are matters that the meeting
wishes to bring to the attention of the twenty-ninth
session of the United Nations Statistical Commission.
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