and presentation of data on the money supply ( monetary aggregates ), banks'interest rates on approved credits and accepted deposits, and many other data on the banking sector ; • balance of payments statistics that includes processing and compiling data on the developments in the balance of payments in the republic of macedonia ; and • external debt statistics that includes processing and presentation of data on the foreign debt of the country. the national bank has developed all these major sets of macroeconomic statistics in line with the international recommendations and standards. the harmonization of the method of developing such statistics with the international recommendations and standards has permanently been subject to verification by international institutions and organizations, primarily by the international monetary fund, as an institution that creates the methodological standards and recommendations in the area of central banking statistics. i would like to take this opportunity to mention the report of the so - called imf rosc ( report of the observance on standards and codes ) mission, where the assessments of the central bank statistics are particularly positive, i. e. the development of the nbrm monetary and balance of payments statistics is largely harmonized with the international recommendations and standards. we are particularly focused on the given comments and recommendations for the purposes of further improvement and development of the statistics. we, however, consider that we still lack a sufficiently good statistics, but we have a good foundation for that purpose. by ascertaining this, i do not only imply to the necessity of ongoing methodological harmonization of the various statistics with the international standards and what has not been done in this light, but particularly to the satisfaction of the new needs and requirements for new statistical researches. challenges of the statistics the change in the conditions of the operating environment of the central banks brings about a change in their needs and interests in statistical data. i would therefore like to underline several events in the economy that happened over the recent several years that considerably affected the development of the statistics and that indicate the need of new statistical researches : • first, the rapidly increased role of the financial sector that significantly affected the dynamics, quality and structure of the economy in the future. for the central banks, this means an obligation to make deeper analyses in this area, requiring an availability of more detailed and relevant statistical data. here, i especially refer to more detailed data on and from other financial institutions ( investment funds, private pension funds, insurance companies, etc. ) and to the new financial instruments developed in line with the development of the financial market. • second

meet the new requirements they have to improve their knowledge and techniques continuously, and apply operational methods in accordance with the international standards and recommendations. it is a great task, which will never come to an end. therefore, in conclusion of this speech, being aware of the importance of statistics, i would like once again to emphasize the readiness of the officials in the national bank of the republic of macedonia to cooperate with every institution in the country for the purpose of improving this, i would call it, " unsubstitutional food ", for any kind of more serious economic analyses and providing fundamentals for economic decision - making of any kind.