DEVELOPMENT OF MEI OECD GLOSSARY DATA DICTIONARY

1
SHORT-TERM ECONOMIC STATISTICS EXPERT GROUP
(STESEG) 28 30 JUNE 2004

• DATA PRESENTATION AND SEASONAL
• ADJUSTMENT
• DATA AND METADATA PRESENTATION
• TERMINOLOGY -

2
TERMINOLOGY

• Background
• Provision of metadata by national agencies and
  I/Os essential to enable users to assess
  relevance of data to their needs.
• Metadata in international context is essential to
  compare data and practices across countries.
• Terminology is a key element of metadata

3
TERMINOLOGY

• What is terminology?
• Refers to information providing meaning to terms
  used in a particular subject.
• In context of statistics this means information
  about concepts, variables, etc.

4
TERMINOLOGY

• What information is required?
• Concept label
• Concept definition (provides meaning)
• Source (seldom provided)
• Context (appropriate use, background,
  limitations)

5
TERMINOLOGY

• How is terminology developed?
• Stovepipe approach in national agencies and I/Os

Nat. accounts
Labourmarket
Exchange rates
Int. trade
Prices
Concept A
Concept A
Concept A
Concept A
Concept A
6
TERMINOLOGY
Int. glossaries (OECD, Eurostat, MCV) Concept A
Corporate glossaries Concept A
Int. trade
Labourmarket
Nat. accounts
Exchange rates
Prices
7
TERMINOLOGY - FEEDBACK ON RECOMMENDATIONS -

• Recap on feedback
• Almost all agree on the central role of
  terminology and the need to provide clear
  standards for key data presentation concepts
• Some commented on the need to include clear
  definitions of concepts, especially growth rates
  in publications to inform users
• Some of the suggested definitions required
  rewording to make them clearer

8
(No Transcript)
9
(No Transcript)
10
(No Transcript)
11
No change
12
Do new recording practices addressed as part of
calendar adjustment represent a substantive
program change that should be addressed
explicitly in their own right?
13
Recession is a specialised term in business cycle
analysis. Possible to have economic time series
that have cycles that are not the same as
business cycle in timing. Better to use the more
general term contraction.
14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
Issue is with idea of calling a calendar adjusted
series with no identifiable seasonal variation a
seasonally adjusted series
Estimate highlights nature of series as an
analytical product based on original data and
which are subject to estimation errors
17
Is there some ambiguity in the current definition
in not accounting for fluctuations in a time
series of more than a year but less than 1½ ?
18
SUMMARY OF WRITTEN COMMENTS

• Future work

Data and Metadata Reporting and Presentation
Manual
Terminology
Growth rates
Seasonal adjustment
19
TERMINOLOGY

• Future work
• Final definitions will be incorporated into OECD
  Glossary of Statistical Terms close
  relationship with CODED
• Terminology will also link into work of the SDMX
  partnership with Eurostat, IMF, ECB, BIS, World
  Bank, UNSD
• Will be incorporated as required into the SDMX
  Metadata Common Vocabulary (MCV)