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

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