This is based on the belief that disseminating statistics is a vital part of the statistical culture, and an obligation of a service that is financed by the taxpayer. Data on firms are those most easily financed by non-public funds. Such figures allow entrepreneurs to determine their relative positions in their sectors, evaluate competition, define development strategies and they re prepared to pay for them. For instance, few in the private sector would wish to finance statistics on poverty or social inequality even though such information is vital for a country s development. Statistics belong to all, and can be financed only by the state although earnings from sales can go at least some way to recovering production and dissemination costs.
Governments often cut funding for statistics under pressure of competing priorities.
But good quality statistics are a necessary investment in a country s development. In the USA this topic is hotly debated. On 26 September 2000 the UK Financial Times published an article by Diane Swonk, former President of the US National Association for Business Economics. She stressed that macroeconomic data can move billions across the world in a few minutes. Lack of or inaccurate data could damage a country severely.