business registers – while maintaining strict confidentiality standards. furthermore, it is considered best practice for a central bank to integrate the overlapping parts of the various statistics it produces and to concentrate the production of all of its statistics within a single statistical organisational unit. as far as data processing is concerned, the feasibility of a move towards the consolidated or pooled collection and production of some types of eurosystem statistics will be explored. in addition, ncbs are invited to exploit comparative advantages in their cooperation with other national statistical authorities, 11 for instance by setting up joint business registers. in this context, it is generally agreed that an enhanced exchange of confidential information between ncbs, the ecb, nsis and eurostat, strictly for statistical purposes, is indispensable in order to keep the response burden to a minimum and ensure the quality of both european and national statistics. it is therefore crucial that the updates of the two statistical framework regulations governing the collection, compilation and dissemination of european statistics – which are currently in the process of being prepared – allow the exchange of such micro - data while retaining strict confidentiality standards. 12 concerning its statistical output, the ecb is looking at ways of meeting the statistical needs resulting from the turmoil on the financial markets. first, it may be appropriate to investigate the merits and costs of further expanding the ecb ’ s centralised securities database ( csdb ), which already contains reference information for several million different securities. in view of the ongoing financial turmoil, there may be increased merit in further investment in this database, adding, in the medium term, information on the holders of such securities and more detailed information on complex structured securities, including chains of securities and tranches of securities with different ratings. 13 the distribution of labour between the ecb ’ s directorate - general statistics and eurostat is laid down in a memorandum of understanding ( http : / / www. ecb. europa. eu / ecb / legal / pdf / en _ mou _ with _ eurostat1. pdf ). council regulation ( ec ) no 2533 / 98 of 23 november 1998 concerning the collection of statistics by the ecb ( o. j. l318, 27. 11. 98, p. 8 ) and council regulation ( ec ) no 322 / 97 of 17 february 2997 on community statistics ( o. j. l52, 22. 2. 97, p. 1 ). the csdb already enables the estimation of aggregate information on total issuance

’ s monthly bulletin. see http : / / www. ecb. europa. eu / pub / pdf / other / ecbstatisticsqualityframework200804en. pdf. see http : / / www. ecb. europa. eu / stats / html / pcstats. en. html. both this commitment and the framework governing the quality of ecb statistics take due account of the european statistics code of practice for the national and community statistical authorities, while also reflecting the specific governance structure of the escb. compilation and dissemination of statistical information. similarly, the treaty states that compilers of statistics in the nsis and eurostat should also act in full scientific independence. in addition to these essential preconditions, statistics also need to be adequately explained. this applies, in particular, to one of the most important statistics for the ecb ’ s monetary policy making, namely the harmonised index of consumer prices ( hicp ). it is a well - known fact that the qualitative responses to the european commission ’ s monthly consumer survey on inflation perceptions tended to indicate an upward trend following the introduction of the euro banknotes and coins in 2002, while the hicp exhibited a fairly stable rate of change. 10 perceptions of inflation then tended to moderate, with renewed increases being observed as of mid - 2007, increases which on that occasion coincided with a rise in the annual hicp inflation rate. however useful this perception indicator is, it should be borne in mind that perceptions may be based on a partial inflation concept that places too much weight on frequent and out - of - pocket purchases such as food and petrol – for which above - average price increases have been observed – and does not take full account of other less frequent purchases and quality improvements. if only for that reason, the hicp inflation rate, which is derived from no less than 1. 7 million price observations in 200, 000 shops throughout the euro area every month gives an objective representation of the evolution of prices. the strategy for the further development of euro area statistics the ecb ’ s vision for euro area statistics envisages both product and process innovations. the former include the closing, in the near future, of some of the remaining gaps in the ecb ’ s statistics. this will involve : 1. enhancing the timeliness, completeness and consistency of the quarterly euro area accounts, so that they become available within 90 days of the end of the reference period ; 2. compiling more