Opinion of the European Central Bank of 24 May 2004 at the request of the Council of the European Union concerning a proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 concerning short-term statistics (COM(2003) 823 final) (CON/2004/19)
Date: 2004-05-24
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: EU statistics, economic statistics, interinstitutional relations (EU), short-term economic prospects, statistical method

15.6.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 158/3

EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

of 24 May 2004

at the request of the Council of the European Union concerning a proposal for a regulation of the
European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 concerning
short-term statistics

(COM(2003) 823 final)

(CON/2004/19)

(2004/C 158/03)

from the Council of

1. On 30 April 2004, the European Central Bank (ECB)
received a request
the European
Union for an opinion on a proposal for a regulation of
the European Parliament and of the Council amending
Council Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 concerning short-
term statistics (hereinafter the ‘proposed regulation’).

2. The ECB's competence to deliver an opinion is based on
the first indent of Article 105(4) of the Treaty establishing
the European Community. In accordance with the first
sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of the
the Governing Council has
European Central Bank,
adopted this opinion.

3. The objective of the proposed regulation is to improve
European Union (EU) short-term business statistics. In par-
ticular, the proposed regulation requires the production of
an import price index for industrial products and an
output price index for services. It also requires that certain
important economic indicators be compiled at higher
frequency and transmitted with reduced deadlines.

A. General remarks

4. The ECB has specified the short-term statistics it requires
for the purposes of conducting monetary policy (1). The
proposed regulation follows from the Action Plan on
Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) Statistical Require-
ments (hereinafter the ‘EMU Action Plan’), established at
the Ecofin Council by the European
the request of
Commission (Eurostat)
in close collaboration with the
ECB. The EMU Action Plan called for the improvement of
the statistics covered by Regulation (EC) No 1165/98. The
proposed regulation is also important having regard to the
Principal European Economic Indicators (PEEI), which
were adopted by the Ecofin Council on 18 February 2003

(1) Statistical requirements of the European Central Bank in the field of
general economic statistics, European Central Bank, August 2000.
See also the opinion of the European Monetary Institute on a
proposal for a Council regulation concerning short-term statistics
(CON/97/19).

and which include eight
indicators contained in the
proposed regulation. The ECB welcomes the existing
‘gentlemen's agreement’ between national statistical insti-
tutes and Eurostat which aims at ensuring that the PEEIs
contained in the proposed regulation will be published in
line with the PEEI targets, irrespective of the date of adop-
tion of the proposed regulation.

the utmost

5. The ECB strongly supports the proposed regulation which
includes indicators of
importance for the
assessment of the business cycle and the conduct of mone-
tary policy. Moreover, it is a major step forward towards
the establishment of essential monthly and quarterly turn-
over and output price statistics on services. The proposed
regulation reflects the joint proposals by the Statistical
Programme Committee and the Committee on Monetary,
Financial and Balance of Payments Statistics in February
2003.

6. The ECB particularly welcomes the higher frequency and
the tighter transmission deadlines for many indicators. For
the assessment of the economic situation by the ECB
timely aggregated indicators are more important
than
detailed breakdowns.

7. The ECB is also in favour of the introduction in the
proposed regulation of the breakdown of new orders and
prices by their origin, that is, within or outside the euro
area. They are needed by the ECB to allow it to distinguish
between euro area and non-euro area economic develop-
ments. The ECB agrees that this breakdown should only
be produced by those Member States which have adopted
the euro. However,
it is important that those Member
States which adopt the euro in the future will also be able
to provide sufficiently long back series at that time.

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EN

Official Journal of the European Union

15.6.2004

8. The ECB welcomes the option set out in the proposed
regulation of compiling certain euro area indicators by
means of so-called ‘European sample schemes’. In the light
of limited resources and the need to set priorities, this
helps to improve euro area statistics and, at the same
time, it may reduce the resources required at the national
level. For the same reason, the ECB supports the fact that
the proposed regulation significantly reduces the transmis-
sion requirements for small EU countries, allowing them
to focus on compiling the main aggregates.

9. Some further efforts are needed to improve the compar-
ability of existing statistics covered by Regulation (EC) No
1165/98. Though much progress has been achieved since
1998,
there are various factors that still hamper the
quality of the euro area aggregates and the comparability
of the national data (such as the different national prac-
tices for working-day and seasonal adjustment and for
revisions).

B. Specific remarks

10. The ECB is in favour of the new import price variable
(Annex, Part A)
to be compiled from 2005, and the
planned deadline for its transmission. This variable will
yield important additional information for euro area price
analysis. The ECB requires this variable in order to deter-
mine prices of industrial imports by the euro area as a
whole from outside the euro area.

11. For data on employment, hours worked and gross wages
and salaries, the proposed regulation requires quarterly
data, with a transmission deadline of three months (two
months for employment). For the purposes of the ECB,
this quarterly frequency in combination with the long
transmission deadlines is unsatisfactory. For the main euro
area aggregates,
these data should be available at a
monthly frequency and with a transmission deadline of
one month at most.

12. The ECB is pleased to note the shortened transmission
deadline and the move from a quarterly to a monthly

frequency for statistics on production in the construction
sector (Annex, Part B).

13. The ECB welcomes the planned feasibility study on the
production of a construction output prices variable. Such
a variable should supplement
the current variable on
construction costs – which is an input price index – since
the output price index is more suitable for price analysis.

14. The ECB welcomes the major improvements planned for
services statistics,
in particular the introduction of an
output price index. This index will provide a valuable
component for euro area price analysis, and will also help
to improve the quality of growth estimates in the national
accounts. Given that the PEEI publication target for the
output price index is not later than two months after the
reporting quarter, the ECB suggests the alignment of the
required transmission deadline in the proposed regulation
(three months) with the more appropriate PEEI publication
target. Moreover, the proposed regulation will set a date
up until which the list of service activities covered by
output price statistics may be modified (Annex, Part D).
As entirely new statistics are being developed this restric-
tion may be counterproductive. The coverage of services
output prices statistics should be modifiable when needed,
according to changing information requirements. The ECB
would therefore suggest deleting the deadline.

15. Regarding the services turnover variable,

the proposed
regulation shortens the transmission deadline from three
to two months, which is welcomed. The ECB also
supports
concerning
compiling services
turnover variables at a monthly
frequency.

the planned feasibility

studies

Done at Frankfurt am Main, 24 May 2004.

The President of the ECB

Jean-Claude TRICHET