own economy, but also on key partner economies. i welcome the development of the principal global indicators ( pgis ) that will be comparable for the g20 economies, including the euro area, and which are similar to the principal european economic indicators for economic and monetary union. the pgi website maintained by the imf 17 is supported by six other international organisations, including the ecb. conclusions let me conclude. evidence - based decision - making in modern economies is unthinkable without statistics. this applies a fortiori to monetary and financial stability policies. the financial crisis has revealed information gaps that we have to close while also preparing ourselves for future challenges. this is best achieved through creating a wide range of economic and financial statistics that are mutually consistent, thereby eliminating contradictory signals due to measurement issues. the main aggregates must be both reliable and timely, and, in a globalised world, they should be comparable across countries and economies. reliability and timeliness are key for statistics, but may seem to be conflicting objectives. this is more the case in the short - term, as the production frontier for compiling statistics can be enhanced in the medium term by a higher degree of automation. the effective and efficient collection, compilation and dissemination of european statistics requires a well developed statistical infrastructure, including, most importantly, a team of skilled and experienced statisticians familiar with european and international cooperation. i take tomorrow ’ s world statistics day as an occasion to remind all of us of the importance of highquality statistics. they are central to the foundations of public and private sector decisionmaking throughout our societies. thank you for your attention. see http : / / financialdatalink. sharepointsite. net / default. aspx.

growth throughout the recovery. various indicators suggest this cycle has not been disrupted by the loss of growth momentum this year. employment growth remains relatively strong, even though the latest data suggest some slowdown. the contribution of labour income to household income growth in the first half of this year was the strongest in a decade. and consumer confidence remains above its long - run average in the euro area and across most economies. perceptions about the general economic climate have declined somewhat this year, but consumers ’ assessments of their personal situation – which tend to be more correlated with consumption – have remained steady. there are three considerations that underpin our view that this cycle is resilient. first, an important force behind employment growth in the euro area is longer - term structural changes, and these are less sensitive to cyclical swings. over the past five years, employment has increased by 9. 5 million people, rising by 2. 6 million in germany, 2. 1 million in spain, 1 million in france and 1 million in italy. 2 this growth is similar to the five years before the crisis, when employment grew by 10 million people. in that period, however, close to 70 % of employment growth was “ prime age ”, meaning it came from the 25 - 54 age group. but since 2013 more than 70 % of employment growth has come from those aged 5574. this partly reflects the impact of past structural reforms, such as to pension systems. indeed, the participation rate of people aged 55 - 74 has almost doubled, from around 20 % in 1999 to 38 % in 2017. the share of women in work has also risen by more than 10 percentage points since the start of emu to almost 60 % – its highest level ever. in addition, countries that have implemented structural reforms have in general seen a rise in labour demand in recent years compared with the pre - crisis period. germany, portugal and spain are all good examples. 2 / 6 bis central bankers'speeches the second consideration that points to the resilience of domestic demand is the strong link between consumption and job growth in the euro area. consumption is much more conducive to jobs than exports, reflecting the higher labour - intensity of services, which are the bulk of consumers ’ expenditure. in contrast, exports have a higher manufacturing content and are less labour intensive. 3 this is one reason why the labour market recovery was not affected by the contraction in world trade in 2015 - 16. in fact, the continued strength of consumption may