Communicating central banking statistics: Making useful sense of statistics in a dynamic world

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Nymand-Andersen, Per

Affiliations: European Central Bank, Directorate General Statistics, Kaiserstrasse 29, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: Trustworthy statistics have a welfare-enhancing effect in society and constitute a knowledge base that is fundamental to credible and sound decision-making on the part of policy-makers, researchers, advisers, analysts and the general public at large. The world of statistics is continually challenged by its remit to reflect and explain in further detail complex financial and economic phenomena, as well as their relative importance in, and impact on, today's society. This, combined with an exponential growth in the volume of data from private sources, affects the way in which official statistics are represented and communicated. This paper highlights the challenges faced by statisticians in communicating statistics in today's society. It asserts that the future of statistics communication lies in the ability of statisticians to proactively extract relevant statistics, and with this information explain the dynamics of today's financial and economic environment, in context and in a way that is tailored to the different user groups. The statistician must render the information easily understandable, presentable and user-friendly for policy-makers, market actors and frequent user groups – thereby proactively guiding laymen through an ever-increasing supply of publicly available statistics and concepts, and ensuring the necessary contribution to sound decision-making in today's dynamic society.

Keywords: Statistics, communication, decision-making, segmentation, usability

DOI: 10.3233/SJI-130785

Journal: Statistical Journal of the IAOS, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 269-280, 2013