jean - claude trichet : the development of euro area statistics from an ecb perspective speech by mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, delivered at the third ecb conference on statistics, frankfurt am main, 4 - 5 may 2006. * * * colleagues, fellow central bankers, ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure for me to address you on the occasion of the closure of the third ecb conference on statistics. with this conference, we have continued our biennial tradition of holding a dialogue between the compilers of statistics and policymakers, academics and other users on the development of statistical requirements. this tradition was started four years ago by eugenio domingo solans, the first ecb executive board member responsible for statistics, who left the ecb in may 2004 and sadly passed away soon afterwards. the subject of this conference has been financial statistics for a global economy, and i would like to use this occasion to share with you some reflections upon the four themes discussed during this conference, namely : 1. are financial statistics good enough to capture globalisation? 2. what are the challenges for national data collection in a global world? 3. which are the statistical implications of financial stability and financial integration? and finally 4. what can we say on global statistical governance? i will obviously focus on the necessary development of euro area statistics and i would like to begin with a brief review of the recent developments in these statistics. recent developments in euro area statistics an evaluation of current euro area statistics should start with three observations. first, official statistics provide the foundation for both the economic and the monetary analysis of the ecb and therefore for its monetary policy. in addition, they are indispensable for the other functions of the ecb, for other economic policy - making in europe and for a smooth functioning of the financial system. this also means that high demands are placed on these statistics. second, it is still less than a decade ago that the statistical requirements for the european economic and monetary union were agreed and that the first euro area statistics became available. it can now be concluded that the compilers of statistics in europe have gone a long way towards harmonising their national statistics and meeting the requirements in a relatively short period of time, and i would like to compliment them on this achievement. third, this progress has been possible thanks to excellent cooperation within europe ’ s statistical community, which consists of national central banks ( ncbs ), national statistical institutes ( nsis ), eurostat

and the ecb. in particular, i would like to pay tribute to the statistics committee of the european system of central banks ( escb ) and the european committee for monetary, financial and balance of payments statistics ( cmfb ) for the very fruitful role they play. in fact, since i last addressed this audience, in april 2004, significant progress has been made, although also still much remains to be done. concerning the euro area statistics compiled by the ecb, in close cooperation with the ncbs, i would like to recall some recent enhancements : • since january 2005, the euro area balance of payments has contained a quarterly geographical breakdown of the counterparties involved in transactions with residents. • furthermore, the international investment position ( i. i. p. ) statistics, which show the balance sheet of the euro area, are now available at a quarterly frequency. • in a different field, the ecb now regularly compiles a set of statistical indicators that shed light on the state of euro area financial integration in many different financial markets. • another improvement concerns the semi - annual release by the ecb of a residential property price indicator for the euro area. • the ecb ’ s publication of the quarterly government revenue, expenditure and deficit for the euro area, based on contributions from nsis, was recently complemented by fairly detailed data on government debt and the deficit - debt adjustment. • the ecb ’ s financial analysis benefits from separate statistics that are now available for securities issued at fixed and floating rates, and zero - coupon bonds. • finally, the accessibility of ecb statistics and the national breakdowns has been enhanced as the same set of tables is now available on the websites of the ecb and of most of the eurosystem ncbs, in the national languages of the central banks concerned. in addition to the financial and monetary statistics compiled by the eurosystem, the ecb makes intensive use of general economic statistics compiled by eurostat and the nsis. first and foremost, this concerns the harmonised index of consumer prices ( hicp ) for the euro area, which has continued to be both timely and reliable. in this context, the gap between inflation perceptions and actual inflation is now decreasing in many euro area countries. as you know, this gap originated when the euro was introduced and it became complex for consumers to process price information. the ecb also supports the further development work in this field, including the priority attached to compiling a reliable indicator for