have traditionally been crucial to monitor the health of open economies, are again becoming increasingly important, as they are key to supporting more informed decisions by policymakers to pursue the most efficient strategies. i am afraid that the statistical community is once again under strong pressure to keep statistics fit for purpose. you will need to make a tremendous effort to keep up with these developments and find solutions to the growing demand for information. this brings me back to the objective of the conference : discussing how to deal with new analytical challenges in order to keep external statistics fit for multiple needs. with this aim in mind, key conceptual and practical issues relating to international accounts will be explored over the next two days. two coordinated global initiatives illustrate the relevance of the issues on the agenda : the revision of the international monetary fund's balance of payments and international investment position manual ( coordinated with that of the un system of national accounts ) and the g - 20 data gaps initiative 3. the issues addressed by these two initiatives are manifold. the fragmentation of multinational enterprises'( mnes ) production processes across the globe and its impact on the exchange of intellectual property products, the expansion of digital trade and the greater complexity of financial flows are just a few of the challenges that complicate the work of statistical authorities around the world. it is becoming increasingly difficult to disentangle who the ultimate investors are, as they are lost in a long string of transactions around the globe. this can have serious implications for analysing financial stability in our economies. we might be more 4 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches vulnerable and more exposed to certain economies and to certain instruments than we might at first think. providing more insight into non - bank financial intermediation, climate change or the informal economy are also novel challenges for external statistics producers, but the list goes on. there are a number of interrelated issues involved, all of which require analysts to manage and receive more information from external statistics compilers, as well as more complex quality assurance processes. it seems that prioritisation will be a central issue in the practical implementation of the new editions of the statistical standards. and for this prioritisation, i believe meetings between users and compilers, such as this conference, are essential. but prioritisation is not enough. in order to provide more timely and granular information to analysts and policy - makers while keeping the burden on compilers and reporters reasonable, further modernisation and efficiency gains are essential. to gain efficiency, better use must

de espana, 8 - 9 june 2006. specific time horizon. the numbers, including the baseline scenario and risks, are owned by the policy - setting committee. the eurosystem also produces macroeconomic projections. these are based on a combination of models and experts ’ technical judgments and are owned by staff, rather than by the governing council. twice a year, in june and december, projections are produced by the staff of the eurosystem under the responsibility of the monetary policy committee, which is one of the eurosystem committees composed of senior staff from the ecb and the national central banks. the process leading to these broad exercises involves close interaction between staff of the ecb and the national central banks to ensure that the euro area projections draw on all available expertise – both at the country and euro - area levels – and reflect the consensus view of the staff. there are three main steps : first, initial assumptions underlying the exercise and covering interest rates, exchange rates, the international environment and fiscal variables are set, although they are reviewed and can be changed in the course of the exercise ; second, the projection numbers are derived and agreed upon, following a process of peer review of the individual country projections, consistency checks and integration within the euro area framework ; the third and final step is the preparation of a report for the governing council. in addition to the numbers themselves, the staff also produces a number of background analyses on relevant issues. in march and september, the projections are updated by the staff of the ecb. summary reports of both the eurosystem ’ s and ecb staff ’ s projections exercises are released on the ecb ’ s web - site on the same day that the detailed projections are presented to the governing council. they are also published later on in the ecb ’ s monthly bulletin. publication is intended to make clear the information set which is available to the governing council when taking its decisions, and not to explain the decisions themselves. due to the forward - looking orientation of the eurosystem ’ s monetary policy, forecasts constitute necessarily a very important input into the decision - making process. they are particularly useful because they are able to summarise a vast amount of information and analyses within a coherent and internally consistent accounting and economic framework. however, unlike in the case of inflation targeting strategies, they do not constitute the main vehicle around which the policy process and communication are organised. the governing council of the ecb bases its policy judgment on these and many other inputs,