Description: This course, presented by the Statistics Department, is intended to broaden participants’ understanding of the concepts, methods, and challenges of compiling CPIs. Concepts and methods introduced in the online CPIx are explored in greater detail to address actual compilation issues faced by participants. It provides an overview of the index number theory and the practical implications of choosing the index number formula at lower and higher levels of aggregation. The course covers the sources and methods for developing/validating weights; and practical applications of the methods used for sampling areas, items, outlets, and varieties. New and emerging data sources as well as new collection technologies are discussed. Frontier issues including how to better measure the digital economy are included. Linkages to the 2008 SNA are highlighted, including the related principles of scope, coverage, and valuation. The course covers the following topics: calculating elementary and upper-level indexes; methods for handling temporarily and permanently missing prices; introducing new outlets, items, and varieties; adjusting prices for quality changes; chaining and linking indexes with updated weighting structures; and meeting data users’ needs to ensure relevancy. The course follows the principles and recommendations of the CPI Manual (2020).
Target Audience: Compilers of consumer price indexes (CPIs).
Description: This course, conducted by the Statistics Department, presents a user-friendly tool developed by the department to automatically combine monetary, government, and international investment position data reported to the Statistics Department to create a distribution of claims and liabilities on a from-whom-to-whom basis—an extremely useful tool for macro-financial analysis. Once the matrix is generated, country officials should be able to use the Balance Sheet Approach (BSA) analysis to focus on overall balance sheet linkages and identify specific exposures and vulnerabilities, such as excessive reliance on external funding, leverage buildup in the corporate sector, and overreliance on the banking sector for sovereign debt placement.
Target Audience: Officials at central banks, ministries of finance and other agencies in charge of compiling monetary and financial statistics, government finance/debt statistics, and external sector statistics; and/or overseeing macro-financial analysis.
Description: The 12th Statistical Forum of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will take place in hybrid format (in person and virtually) in Washington, D.C. from November 20 to 21, 2024. The Forum is a platform for policymakers, researchers, the private sector, regulators, and compilers of economic and financial data to come together to discuss cutting edge issues in macroeconomic and financial statistics and to build support for statistical improvements. The theme of this year’s Statistical Forum is Measuring the Implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the Economy. The increased use of AI presents both opportunities and challenges, with significant economic and societal implications. However, the impact of AI on the economy and society remains an evolving field of study. To understand these implications, governments, businesses, individuals require robust and comparable statistics. The 12th Statistical Forum will explore (i) the transformative potential of AI and where its impact will most likely be felt over the short to medium term, (ii) the impact of AI on jobs and productivity, (iii) the distributional implications of AI, (iv) how AI is being used by firms (including statistical agencies) and regulated by governments, and (v) some early attempts to produce official measures of the “AI industry”, “AI investment”, and the “use of AI”. The Forum will provide participants with an opportunity to share experiences and build on topics of mutual interest through presentations and panel discussions.
Description: This course, presented by the Statistics Department, focuses on the conceptual framework of government finance statistics (GFS) as presented in the Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014 (GFSM 2014), with an emphasis on new concepts introduced in GFSM 2014. The course requires that participants are familiar with the basic GFS framework and classification system. Emphasizing the integrated GFS framework, the course addresses complex cross-cutting GFS issues, such as social protection, government employee pension liabilities, standardized guarantee schemes, contracts, leases, licenses, public-private partnerships, and public sector balance sheets. It also examines coverage of the public sector, giving special attention to borderline and complex cases. The course discusses internal and intersectoral data consistency, coordination between data-producing agencies, as well as data presentation and communication with users. The format is lectures and discussions.
Target Audience: Officials whose main responsibility, for at least three years, has been compiling and disseminating GFS and who are regularly faced with complex GFS methodological and compilation issues, such as those described below.
Description: The London Group on Environmental Accounting is a city group created in 1993 to allow practitioners to share their experience of developing and implementing environmental accounts. Members of this informal group of experts come primarily from national statistical agencies but also international organizations. The London Group generally meets annually, and the meetings provide a forum for review, comparison and discussion of work underway by participants towards development of environmental accounts. The 30th meeting of the London Group on Environmental Accounting (LG) will be hosted by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) from 30 September to 3 October 2024 in Washington D.C., United States of America. The main focus of the 2024 LG meeting will be the support of the SEEA Central Framework (SEEA CF) update. During the 29th meeting in Pretoria in September 2023, the LG already identified and discussed important issues and challenges for the update of the SEEA CF. Concrete suggestions for the issues touched by the update should be presented, discussed and subsequently proposed by the group.
Description: This course, presented by the Statistics Department and delivered in collaboration with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the European Central Bank (ECB), familiarizes participants with the methodology recommended by the Handbook on Securities Statistics, a joint undertaking of the IMF, the BIS, and the ECB, published in May 2015. The course covers definition and features of securities, securitization, and related operation; valuation and recording of securities; classification schemes and presentation tables for securities; and security-by-security databases. A practical exercise on valuation and recording of different types of debt securities complements the lectures.
Target Audience: Officials in central banks and other agencies responsible for collecting and compiling securities statistics.
Description: This course, presented by the Statistics Department, focuses on the conceptual framework of government finance statistics (GFS) as presented in the Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014 (GFSM 2014), with an emphasis on new concepts introduced in GFSM 2014. The course requires that participants are familiar with the basic GFS framework and classification system. Emphasizing the integrated GFS framework, the course addresses complex cross-cutting GFS issues, such as social protection, government employee pension liabilities, standardized guarantee schemes, contracts, leases, licenses, public-private partnerships, and public sector balance sheets. It also examines coverage of the public sector, giving special attention to borderline and complex cases. The course discusses internal and intersectoral data consistency, coordination between data-producing agencies, as well as data presentation and communication with users. The format is lectures and discussions.
Target Audience: Officials whose main responsibility, for at least three years, has been compiling and disseminating GFS and who are regularly faced with complex GFS methodological and compilation issues, such as those described below.
Source: World Bank (Data extracted on: 08 Mar 2024 )
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Organizer(s): World Bank
Description: Foundational models like large language models (LLMs) have recently commanded widespread public attention—and caution—given their transformational potential for both our economy and society. Naturally, questions loom about how these AI innovations will impact the global development research and policy landscape. If used properly by the right actors, these tools might unlock enormous troves of data and create new opportunities to improve lives around the world. The World Bank's Development Impact (DIME) department and Development Data Group (DECDG), the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA), and and the development community at the University of Chicago are excited to explore this topic at our tenth annual Measuring Development (MeasureDev) Conference, “AI, The Next Generation.” MeasureDev 2024 will feature presentations on AI that span the measurement ecosystem: from efforts to improve and expand responsible data infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and facilitate the development of a new generation of AI tools, to analysis tailoring foundational models to optimize generative AI (GenAI) including LLMs for social impact. The event will feature speakers who are shaping the way these new tools will be adopted and regulated.
Description: This course, presented by the Statistics Department, focuses on the conceptual framework of public sector debt statistics as presented in the Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014 (GFSM 2014) and the Public Sector Debt Statistics: Guide for Compilers and Users (PSDSG). The course requires that participants are familiar with the basic government finance statistics (GFS) and PSDS framework and classification system. Emphasizing the integration of stock positions and flows in the framework, the course addresses more complex issues regarding the:definition of gross and net debt in terms of debt instruments;coverage and sectorization of the public sector, with special attention to borderline and complex cases;valuation of public sector debt statistics; andconsolidation of public sector debt statistics.In addition, the course addresses a number of complex cross-cutting PSDS issues, such as government employee pension liabilities, standardized guarantee schemes, contracts, leases, licenses, public-private partnerships, and the balance sheet approach (BSA) to identify risks and vulnerabilities.The format is lectures and discussions.
Description: This course, presented by the Statistics Department, targets compilers with a certain degree of experience in the compilation and/or analysis of balance of payments and/or IIP. It aims at providing a deep understanding of the concepts, data sources and compilation techniques for balance of payments and IIP statistics and their application for addressing complex methodological issues. The course does not cover the basic balance of payments and IIP concepts. The intermediate level of the course presupposes participants’ familiarity with the basic concepts.The course consists of a series of lectures and workshops analyzing country cases with a strong data component and to allow peer learning and sharing of experiences. Recognizing the challenges in compiling data in emerging areas of user interest, the course emphasizes specific topics, such as estimating informal cross border activities and the treatment of special purpose entities. The course examines themes and challenges emerging from developments in global economy, and participants have the opportunity to discuss how these impact compilation work. Specific exercises are geared to integrating data compilation with Fund surveillance and policy advice; and to demonstrate the analytical uses of ESS.
Target Audience: Officials responsible for the compilation of external sector statistics (ESS) (balance of payments and/or international investment position (IIP)) statistics, and who are familiar with the methodology of the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Statistics Manual, sixth edition (BPM6).
Description: This course, presented by the Statistics Department, deals with identification and assessment of elementary indicators and techniques for combining them into a single index of economic activity to track national trends. Flash estimates or indexes of economic activity bring together a range of elementary indicators to give timely general measures of economic activity. These measures give policy makers useful information that complements annual and quarterly GDP estimates, which are more comprehensive but usually only available after substantial lags, and provide a more comprehensive picture than individual monthly and quarterly indicators, which are up-to-the-minute but reflect just a portion of the total economy).This course is for actual or potential compilers of short-term indicators in central banks and statistical offices and for those who collect data for monthly indicators. Participants are expected to work with their own monthly and quarterly time series during the course. These indicators will be used in the practical session as the basis for experimental estimates.
Target Audience: Officials responsible for compiling short-term or monthly economic indicators in central banks and statistical offices.
Description: This course, presented by the Statistics Department, provides participants with an introduction to the compilation of monetary statistics covering the central bank (CB) and other depository corporations (ODCs) in accordance with international standards. Course materials are based on the Monetary and Financial Statistics Manual and Compilation Guide (MFSMCG). The course discusses the principles of residency and sectorization of institutional units, the characteristics and types of financial instruments, valuation principles, and other accounting issues that are relevant to the compilation of monetary statistics. Participants also become familiar with the defining characteristics of depository corporations (DCs), notably their role as money issuers, and with the main principles on which analysis of monetary and credit aggregates is based. The course consists of lectures, and exercises covering practical aspects of compiling monetary statistics, especially the use of financial statements for filling out standardized report forms (SRFs 1SR and 2SR) and the derivation of the respective surveys for the CB, ODCs, and the consolidated DCs sector. Participants should be prepared to ask questions and discuss challenges related to MFS compilation practices. This course is an abbreviated version of the longer, introductory MFS course traditionally offered by STA in-person.
Target Audience: Central bank officials and officials from financial regulatory agencies responsible for compiling monetary statistics.
Description: The 11th Statistical Forum of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will take place in hybrid format (in person and virtually) in Washington, D.C. during November 15 to 16, 2023. The Forum is a platform for policymakers, researchers, the private sector, regulators, and compilers of economic and financial data to come together to discuss cutting edge issues in macroeconomic and financial statistics and to build support for statistical improvements. The theme of this year’s Statistical Forum is Measuring Money in the Digital Age. Digitalization is pervasive. It has impacted all aspects of life – money is no exception. There are daily accounts of the rise and fall of digital currencies, stable coins and other types of crypto assets, however there is little formal “accounting” of these new forms of money. Digitalization is also changing the way individuals and businesses interact with the financial system. As digitalization continues to impact the future of money and the exchange of value, effective policy and regulation are needed to ensure a stable and equitable financial system. The Forum will explore (i) the new forms of money and payments, (ii) the implication for financial stability and monetary policy, (iii) the impact on financial inclusion and illicit financial flows, and (iv) how we can better measure the new forms of money and payments to support policymaking. The Forum focuses on a discussion track, where participants will have the opportunity to share experiences, and build on topics of mutual interest through presentations and panel discussions.
Description: This course, presented by the Statistics Department, acquaints participants with the fundamentals of compiling and using FSIs in support of macroprudential analysis. The course covers methodological and technical issues in the construction of FSIs, as discussed in the 2019 Financial Soundness Indicators Compilation Guide (2019 FSI Guide). The course takes an interactive approach using hands-on exercises in discussing the main topics as follows: Preparation of the sectoral financial statements and compilation of FSIs for deposit takers; Regulatory framework for deposit takers; Accounting principles and data consolidation for the compilation of FSIs for deposit takers; and Overview of key points and changes in the 2019 FSI Guide.
Description: This course, presented by the Statistics Department, focuses on the conceptual framework of government finance statistics (GFS) as presented in the Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014 (GFSM 2014), with an emphasis on new concepts introduced in GFSM 2014. The course requires that participants are familiar with the basic GFS framework and classification system. Emphasizing the integrated GFS framework, the course addresses complex cross-cutting GFS issues, such as social protection, government employee pension liabilities, standardized guarantee schemes, contracts, leases, licenses, public-private partnerships, and public sector balance sheets. It also examines coverage of the public sector, giving special attention to borderline and complex cases. The course discusses internal and intersectoral data consistency, coordination between data-producing agencies, as well as data presentation and communication with users. The format is lectures and discussions.
Description: This course, presented by the Statistics Department, covers theoretical and practical aspects in the compilation of national accounts statistics based on the conceptual framework of the System of National Accounts 2008 (2008 SNA). The course consists of lectures covering advanced methodological and compilation issues of the 2008 SNA and workshops consisting of practical exercises in compiling the accounts. The main aim of the course is to train participants in developing and using more advanced compilation techniques in areas including supply and use tables (SUTs), input-output tables, price and volume measures, and thematic satellite accounts. The course starts with SNA framework and will discuss how these accounts can be extended to address specific user needs. The main lectures and workshops include: Conceptual framework of the SNA; Output of specific industries; SUTs and input-outputs tables; Price and volume measurement; Estimating consumption of fixed capital; and Thematic satellite accounts, with a focus on topics covered in the update of the 2008 SNA (e.g., informal economy, labor accounts).Emphasis is also placed on sharing country experiences among the participants.
Organizer(s): FAO World Bank United States Department of Agriculture
Description: The International Conference on Agricultural Statistics (ICAS) focuses on fostering and leveraging best practices and research in response to the changing needs and opportunities for agricultural statistics. ICAS brings together experts from around the world to share research and operational accomplishments, and to explore the latest methodological innovations by countries and development pa...
Source: World Bank (Data extracted on: 03 Feb 2023 )
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Organizer(s): World Bank
Description: Human activity has caused precipitous increases in greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, resulting in a one degree warming of average global surface temperatures over the past century. As the planet responds to rising emissions, extreme weather events are expected to become more frequent, distressing both natural and human systems. Researchers and practitioners need innovative analytical tools and data sources to understand how to mitigate the risks and impact of climate change on welfare. COP27 ended with a compromise to create a fund sourced from developed countries to remedy climate change damages in low income and fragile contexts. This adds to the panoply of climate funds and financial tools geared toward broader action on climate change and the commitment of all development institutions to align their financing with the Paris Agreement. To make sure these investments maximize well-being and protect those who are most at risk, we need to assess not only what the damages would be and who would be most vulnerable, but also what mitigation and resilience strategies are most effective. To this end, the World Bank’s Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) department and Data Analytics and Tools (DECAT) unit, the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA), and the University of Chicago’s Development Innovation Lab (DIL) will host the ninth annual Measuring Development Conference (MeasureDev). The Mitigating the Risks and Impacts of Climate Change conference will convene researchers at the frontiers of physical and social sciences and decision-makers who influence humanity’s responses to the challenges of climate change. It will showcase innovative data sources and analytical techniques to better monitor emissions and appraise efforts to mitigate their consequences. MeasureDev will feature a series of presentations, panel discussions, and lightning talks on novel applications of mobile data, satellite imagery, remote sensing technologies, and the computational approaches to make sense of the data to provide more granular, frequent, and accurate insights regarding our changing climate and actions to respond. Participants will learn about the frontiers of measurement using these approaches and gain perspectives from leading academic and industry pioneers. Researchers, graduate students, practitioners, policymakers, and industry partners are all welcome to submit to our call for speakers using this form.
Source: World Bank (Data extracted on: 03 Feb 2023 )
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Organizer(s): World Bank
Description: Advancing the World Bank’s twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity requires knowing who the poor are and where they live. By reaching the most granular levels of geographic aggregation, policymakers can significantly improve outcomes for the world’s poorest. However, survey data alone is not sufficient for targeting at the lowest levels. This is where small area estimation becomes necessary. The publication of Guidelines to Small Area Estimation for Poverty Mapping caps more than two decades of poverty mapping experience at the World Bank since the launch of an innovative method combining census and survey data to study the spatial dimensions of poverty. The guidelines build upon the lessons learned from experience and seek to guide readers on the best methods available for a variety of data landscapes.
Description: The 10th Statistical Forum of the International Monetary Fund will take place virtually and in person in Washington, D.C. during November 16 to 17, 2022. The Forum is a platform for policymakers, researchers, the private sector, regulators, and compilers of economic and financial data to come together to discuss cutting edge issues in macroeconomic and financial statistics and to build support for statistical improvements. The theme of this year’s Statistical Forum is Measuring the Tangible Benefits of Intangible Capital. In our increasingly dematerialized world intangible assets are transforming economies and driving growth. As a result, an increasing share of output, jobs, income and wealth is associated with firms where traditional tangible assets have been crowded out by intangible assets, such as marketing assets, data, and organizational capital. Yet conventional business accounting and macroeconomic accounting methods have lagged behind in valuing these forms of capital. Furthermore, the mobility of intangible assets and firms’ strategies to take advantage of worldwide tax minimization while maximizing overall profits implies growing tension between the nature and location of economic activity and its measurement system. The aim of the 10th IMF Statistical Forum is to explore how we can better measure intangible capital to better support investment policy, taxation policy and macroeconomic analysis.
Description: The Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA) promotes interagency coordination and cooperation on statistical programmes and consistency in statistical practices and development. As a forum of committed members it fosters good practices in statistical activities of international organisations, in accordance with the Principles Governing International Statistical Activities, and within the constraints of their own governance arrangements and resource envelopes. The members of the CCSA are committed to contribute actively to the development of a coordinated global statistical system producing and disseminating high-quality statistics, e.g. by facilitating the development and well functioning of regional and national statistical systems.
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Committee of the Chief Statisticians of the United Nations System
Description: The Committee of the Chief Statisticians of the United Nations System promotes coherent and integrated system-wide United Nations actions to support statistics at the national, regional and international levels, following the principles governing international statistical activities, adopted by the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities in 2005, and the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics, adopted by the General Assembly in 2015. Taking into account the comparative advantages of each member, the Committee encourages coordinated efforts by United Nations agencies and programmes in strengthening national statistical capacity through the definition of common approaches and joint interventions. The Committee supports in particular the modernization of national statistical systems and the reinforcement of their capacity to respond to new data demands for underpinning evidence-based policymaking, including the monitoring of global, regional and national development goals. Recognizing that national needs and priorities should guide the United Nations system’s efforts to support national statistical systems, the Committee supports the development and full implementation of international statistical standards in member States for the production of high-quality and internationally comparable data. The Committee promotes the coordination of the statistical programmes of the United Nations system entities with the aim of “delivering as one”, by fostering synergies, avoiding duplication and overlap, and facilitating data exchange. It promotes the adoption of common quality criteria to drive the statistical production of all agencies of the United Nations system and supports the sharing of knowledge and good practices. It also defines common United Nations positions on statistical matters, to be reported at the Statistical Commission or at other coordination bodies, such as the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities.
Source: World Bank (Data extracted on: 26 Oct 2021 )
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Organizer(s): World Bank KDI School of Public Policy and Management Korea
Description: The World Bank’s anticorruption program has been helping to strengthen transparency and make better use of the growing availability of data to develop a stronger evidence base for anticorruption. The goal is to bring high-definition transparency to policy reform with insights that reflect the nature of corruption problems and their impacts across different levels of government, sectors, and contexts. A Symposium on Data Analytics and Anticorruption will be co-hosted by the World Bank and the Korea Development Institute School of Public Policy and Management on October 25-28. The four-day event was launched last year with a Call for Papers, 26 of which were selected for the Symposium. The papers cover four thematic areas: New data-driven approaches to detecting and measuring corruption; Using new data sources and methods to measure the impacts of corruption; Using open data to assess the effectiveness of anticorruption tools, policies, and interventions; Contributing new knowledge on data access, quality, and privacy issues. The Symposium will bring together researchers working to advance anticorruption data analytics to help inform more effective policies and actions by governments for greater accountability in public administration.
Description: The Expert Group Meeting will bring together about 100 participants from international agencies, governments, and the private sector. The meeting will contribute to the evolution of the SDMX standard, in particular the ongoing development of SDMX 3.0. The event will feature a capacity-building session as well as side events including meetings of the various thematic Working Groups.
Description: This course, presented by the IMF Statistics Department, acquaints participants with the fundamentals of compiling and using financial soundness indicators (FSIs) to support macroprudential analysis. The course covers methodological and technical issues in the construction of FSIs as discussed in the Financial Soundness Indicators Compilation Guide as amended in 2007. It also incorporates planned updates to the Guide, including new FSIs for deposit takers, other financial corporations, nonfinancial corporations, and households. The core of the course is lectures on the following topics: institutional sectors and financial markets; consolidation bases and consolidation adjustments for FSIs; regulatory framework for deposit takers; accounting principles and sectoral financial statements for FSIs; core and additional FSIs for deposit takers, other financial corporations, and other sectors; peer group analysis and descriptive statistics; financial sector surveillance and FSIs; and macroprudential analysis and FSIs. Lectures are complemented by hands-on exercises, where participants work in groups to resolve practical questions of classification of financial institutional units, construction of reporting populations for FSIs, calculation of Basel solvency and liquidity ratios, production of sectoral financial statements and FSIs for deposit takers, and use of FSIs for financial sector surveillance. The course introduces templates for use in the regular reporting of FSI data and metadata to the IMF and provides guidance in accessing and using the IMF database for FSI data and metadata.
Target Audience: Officials at central banks and supervisory agencies for the financial sector who are involved in the collection, compilation, and analysis of financial soundness indicators.
Description: This course, presented by the IMF Statistics Department, is intended to broaden participants’ understanding of the theory and practice of compiling CPIs, PPIs, and XMPIs. It covers the index number theory and its practical implications in terms of the choice of the index number formula at lower and higher levels of aggregation. The course also covers methods for sampling and collecting data from retail outlets and enterprises. The role of price indexes as deflators in the 2008 SNA is analyzed, as are related principles of scope, coverage, and valuation. There are sessions on the following topics: methods for handling temporarily and permanently unavailable items; adjusting prices for quality changes, including new products, establishments, and outlets; and chaining and linking indexes with updated weighting structures. The course follows the principles and recommended practices in the CPI (2004), PPI (2004), and XMPI (2009) manuals.
Target Audience: Experienced compilers of consumer price indexes (CPIs), producer price indexes (PPIs), or export-import price indexes (XMPIs).
Description: In August 2018, the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) adopted the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (IGIF), which was jointly developed by the United Nations Statistics Division and the World Bank under a collaborative arrangement. The IGIF comprises three separate but connected documents. The Overarching Strategic Framework has been completed and adopted by UN-GGIM at its eighth session in August 2018. The Integrated Geospatial Information Framework provides a basis, a reference and a mechanism for countries when establishing or strengthening their national geospatial information management arrangements and related infrastructures, or to coordinate activities to achieve alignment between and across existing national capabilities and infrastructures. The Framework aims to translate high-level concepts to practical implementation guidance and does this by leveraging seven (7) underpinning principles, eight (8) goals and nine (9) strategic pathways as a means for governments to establish and maintain more effective geospatial information management arrangements. The Implementation Guide will provide the specific guidance and recommends actions to be taken by Member States to establish, improve or strengthen their national arrangements in geospatial information management, systems and infrastructure.
