sabine lautenschlager : highlights of european statistics by the escb – present and future speech by ms sabine lautenschlager, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the ecb conference held for world statistics day 2015 under the theme “ better data. better lives ”, frankfurt am main, 20 october 2015. * * * introduction ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure to welcome you on behalf of the executive board of the ecb and also personally to our conference to honour the second world statistics day. i am very flattered to see that the conference has attracted distinguished participants from all parts of the world. welcome and be assured that your effort to come here today has not been in vain because from what i understand you have a very interesting day lined up ahead of you. back in 2010, the united nations general assembly designated 20 october 2010 as the first world statistics day, to which the ecb already contributed. more recently, the general assembly has decided to celebrate the second world statistics day on 20 october 2015. we are excited to be hosting the second world statistics day with its theme of “ better data. better lives ”. today ’ s conference takes stock of the economic and financial statistics produced by the european system of central banks ( escb ), composed of the ecb and the national central banks of the european union member states. throughout the conference you will be able to get an idea of the richness of our statistics and to learn more about the recent enhancements made to our statistical basis in response to new demands that resulted from the financial crisis. you will not only receive examples of the wide range of statistics the escb produces to support all central banking functions, in particular monetary and macro - prudential policies, but also about the links between the micro and macro dimensions of statistics. in addition, there will be a session about the efforts in disseminating these statistics to the general public. particular thanks go to our colleagues from the national central banks for their contributions to today ’ s conference. without their invaluable contributions we would clearly not be where we are today in terms of scope, breadth and frequency of the statistics available to the whole escb, the markets and the public at large. we are also honoured that the conference is addressed by mr min zhu, deputy managing director of the international monetary fund, and mr stefan schweinfest, director of the statistics division of the united nations, via video link later today

produces other european statistics, such as the harmonised index of consumer prices ( hicp ) or gross domestic product, population and social conditions statistics, regional statistics, agricultural and fishery statistics, environmental statistics, industry, transport and energy statistics, all of which are necessary to support the various policies of the european union. any successful cooperation in the area of european economic and financial statistics therefore encompasses the national central banks and the national statistical institutes. such cooperation has been successfully pursued for more than two decades in the committee on monetary, financial and balance of payments statistics ( cmfb ), which has delivered remarkable results and built up its reputation. the cmfb ’ s achievements include the euro area accounts by sector, the work on pension schemes, revision policies and seasonal and working day adjustments. moreover, the advice of the cmfb to eurostat on complex statistical issues related to the excessive deficit procedure has received a lot of attention in the past two decades. this close cooperation between the escb and the european statistical system is at the heart of the leading role that european statistics play in international statistical initiatives, such as the g20 data gaps initiative and the imf special data dissemination standard plus initiative, in which seven out of the first eight adherents were eu member states. new demands emerging from the crisis while the development of european economic and financial statistics by the escb was already impressive before the financial crisis occurred, the ecb ’ s functions have been expanded during the crisis and this has led to new challenges and a remarkable development of escb statistics. more specifically, escb statistics had to respond to three main challenges : ( i ) from 2008, the monetary policy of the euro area had to be conducted during turbulent times and new data needs emerged for monitoring often unconventional policy measures and mitigating systemic risks. ( ii ) in addition to its primary function of maintaining price stability, the ecb had to focus more on financial stability and it received a mandate to support the statistical needs of the european systemic risk board ( esrb ). ( iii ) finally, the ecb became responsible for banking supervision on 4 november 2014 and, as a result, the statistics departments of the central banks have yet another partner to serve. one of the most important challenges arising from the financial crisis has been the dramatic increase in the need for very timely, granular data. starting with the crisis, aggregated data became less representative on their own and did not suffice to reveal the whole story. the same aggregated statistics can be the