Description: The theme of the IFC 2024 Biennial Conference, to be held at the BIS in Basel on 22–23 August 2024, is “Statistics and beyond: new data for decision making in central banks”. The programme will cover issues such as the evolving role of the central banks’ statistical function, in particular to produce official statistics and support policy-making; opportunities and challenges related to new data sources and tools, including advances in artificial intelligence and data science; and ongoing international statistical initiatives, especially the revision of the System of National Accounts (SNA) and balance of payments (BPM) manuals, the G20 Data Gaps Initiative (DGI), and the implementation of the Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange (SDMX) standard.
Description: The webinar will provide an introduction to developing a data strategy, including the contextual user need impetus for this work. The sessions will explore theoretical links between user needs, data governance, and data stewardship and will illustrate how to put theory into practice, by establishing solid data governance. The webinar will also delve into how data, throughout the various life cycle processes, can be better managed and leveraged when a solid data strategy is in place. Register for the webinar here: Registration
Description: The digital economy heavily relies on ICT for information management, enhancing productivity supported by ICT goods, services, and trade. This economy is characterized by core technologies (e.g., semiconductors, computers), enabling infrastructures (e.g., the Internet), and digitalized sectors like finance and media. Despite widespread digitalization, traditional economic metrics often overlook digital aspects. The Digital Supply-Use Tables (SUTs) framework addresses this by incorporating digital products and actors into national statistics. The 5th International Seminar aims to equip staff from developing countries' NSOs with skills to produce high-quality digital economy statistics, supporting informed policymaking and sustainable development.
Description: The Working Group aims to advance cooperation on measuring electronic commerce (e.commerce) and the digital economy and enhance the availability, quality, comparability, usability and relevance of statistics on e-commerce and the digital economy, with a view to supporting evidence-based policymaking, in particular in developing countries. The Intergovernmental Group of Experts on E-commerce and the Digital Economy, at its sixth session in May 2023, agreed on the following topics for the fourth meeting of the Working Group: a) Progress in measuring e-commerce and the digital economy: Work by relevant international organizations. b) Measuring the value of e-commerce. c) Non-survey–based measurement of e-commerce and the digital economy.
Description: Measuring and analysing the informality of jobs, economic units and productive activities continues to be a challenge for many developing countries; it hinders policymaking, as the contribution made by the informal economy is unaccounted for due to a lack of data and statistics. Bearing in mind the growing demand for a better understanding of the functioning of the informal economy and ways of measuring informal employment, the International Training Centre of the ILO in Turin (ITCILO), in close collaboration with the ILO Department of Statistics, is proud to offer this e-learning course on Measuring Informal Employment.
Source: ESCAP SIAP (Data extracted on: 07 Dec 2023 )
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Organizer(s): ESCAP SIAP ILO
Description: The causes and consequences of informal employment and employment in informal sector and their impact on achieving sustainable development continues to gain attention in national development agendas. The evidence in developing and emerging economies shows that on average more than half of the employment in non-agricultural sectors are informal and this rate can reach as high as 80% in some countries. Thereforeevery national policy targeting povertysocial protectionor decent work needs to recognise the role of the informal economy in national development. Yetthe lack of data and statistics on the informal economy hinders the capacity of countries to better inform decisions and development policies. This regional training course brings together statisticians and labour analysts from Asia-Pacific national statistical systems to discuss technical aspects and share experiences in the production and use of statistics on informality
Organizer(s): European Network for Better Establishment Statistics
Description: EESW23 is the eighth biennial European Establishment Statistics Workshop, will be held in Lisbon, Portugal, on 19-22 September 2021. It will be hosted by Statistics Portugal. The first day is devoted to short courses, followed by the traditional two-and-a-half day workshop.
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Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link
Description: Statistical businesses processes are changing over time and various national statistical systems are adopting different technologies to produce economic statistics. Some of the innovations involve use of big data tools to compile critical statistical data in a timely manner. To be able to undertake such compilations, statistical systems must adopt new business processes that integrate use of big data technology to process huge volumes of data. These processes must be integrated in the normal statistical operations across various domains with a strong emphasis on application of advanced information technology tools. Similarly, trading systems are involving and there has been a growth in digital trade during the covid-19 pandemic This webinar was designed to highlight some of the strides some of the countries had made in the setting up of innovative processes to produce economic statistics. Specifically, the objectives of the webinar were: To showcase processes required in a national statistical system in setting up big data use; To demonstrate methods to estimate domestic tourism.
Description: This Intergovernmental Group of Experts aims to strengthen the work of UNCTAD on information and communications technologies, e-commerce and the digital economy for development, so as to enhance its ability to support developing countries to engage in and benefit from the evolving digital economy, and reduce the digital divide, for the creation of more inclusive knowledge societies. The substantive agenda items for the session are as follows: How to make data work for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Working Group on Measuring E-commerce and the Digital Economy.
Description: The Working Group aims to advance cooperation on measuring electronic commerce (e-commerce) and the digital economy and enhance the availability, quality, comparability, usability and relevance of statistics on e-commerce and the digital economy, with a view to supporting evidence-based policymaking, in particular in developing countries.
Description: Report of the 12th meeting of SGRPES Meeting objectives The meeting convened with the following objectives in mind: Share information on economic statistics development in the region and associated challenges; Review progress in implementing the SGRPES 2022 work plan and identify appropriate actions to improve delivery of the programme plan; Discuss the implications of the Committee decisions and agree on specific actions to reposition the Steering Group in its work. Expected outcome Identify solutions to challenges that have affected the work programme Agree on priorities for 2023 Agree on action points on how the Steering Group can reposition itself in a streamlined restructure in the light of CST8 decisions. Meeting materials Concept note Report of the 11th meeting of SGRPES Reference information Report of the ESCAP 8th session of the Committee of Statistics:中文 | English | Français | Русский
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: This course, conducted by the IMF Statistics Department, presents a user-friendly tool developed by the department to automatically combine monetary, government, and balance of payment 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. This course is an abbreviated version of the longer, BSA course traditionally offered by STA in-person.
Description: Los efectos de la pandemia de COVID-19, se reflejan en la modificación de la estructura económica de los países. Es imprescindible conocer los sectores económicos más afectados. En este seminario se conoceran las principales características del planeamiento y ejecución de los censos económicos en Argentina, Colombia, México y Perú; las dificultades que presentaron, las soluciones, asi como retos y oportunidades a futuro.
Description: The fourth meeting of the Organizational Sprint of the United Nations Network of Economic Statisticians (Network) will focus on determining the program of work for the Network for period 2022 and 2023.
Description: The third meeting of the Organizational Sprint of the United Nations Network of Economic Statisticians (Network) aims to finalize the discussion on user consultations and identify the next steps, continue the discussion on the branding and communications strategy and develop a two-year rolling workplan for the Network to be considered in the fourth meeting of the Sprint.
Description: The second meeting of the Organizational Sprint of the United Nations Network of Economic Statisticians (Network) aims to seek agreement on the terms of reference of the Network. It also aims to initiate the discussion on the modalities of user consultations, including the country consultations through national, regional, and global user seminar/forums, and the consultations with statistical bodies under the Statistical Commission and other statistical agencies such as Eurostat, IMF, OECD and the World Bank.
Organizer(s): ECB Federal Reserve Bank of New York United States
Description: The aim of the conference is to bring together scholars to present their current research on expectations surveys, including surveys of households, firms, financial market participants, analysts, and other experts such as professional forecasters. The focus of this second joint European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York conference will be on the use of such surveys to measure and understand economic expectations, as well as how expectations feed into economic decisions with potentially wide-reaching implications for the economy and for monetary policy.
Source: ESCAP SIAP (Data extracted on: 28 Oct 2021 )
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Organizer(s): UNIDO ESCAP SIAP
Description: This course is designed to provide a strong foundation for the main pillars of SDG 9the relationship of this goal and the 2030 Agenda with ISIDincluding its contribution to building peace and prosperity for all. Target participants are government statisticians from national statistical officesMinistry of Industry and Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) who are involved in compilingdisseminating and analyzing statistics and indicators on industryinnovation and infrastructure; conducting policy for industrial growth and attracting investments into their countries.
Description: The first meeting of the Organizational Sprint of the United Nations Network of Economic Statisticians (Network) will officially launch the work of the Network, and discuss the terms of reference of the Network and the working methods of the Organizational Sprint. It will also discuss the preparation of the workplan of the Network and the feasibility of organizing other thematic sprints.
Description: Report of the 11th meeting Concept and Provisional Agenda Date and time: Day 1: Tuesday, 2 November 2021, 13.00-15.30 hrs. (Bangkok time) Day 2: Wednesday, 3 November 2021, 12.30-15.30 hrs. (Bangkok time) The objectives of the meeting were as follows: Share information on economic statistics development in the region Review progress in implementing the SGRPES 2021 work plan and agree on the SGRPES 2022 work plan Discuss potential for collaboration between SGRPES and the Steering Groupon Population and Social Statistics to advance integrated statistics (action area A of the Collective Vision and Framework for Action) Discuss SGRPES participation in global statistical community activities
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Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link
Organizer(s): European Network for Better Establishment Statistics
Description: ENBES - The European Network for Better Establishment Statistics - is pleased to invite you to submit abstracts and/or papers for the seventh European Establishment Statistics Workshop (EESW21). The workshop will be online, on 14-17 September 2021. It is (virtually) hosted by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The workshop will consist of four half days. EESW21 is a prime European opportunity for like-minded official statistics methodologists, academic researchers and private sector professionals in the fields of business, economic and other areas of establishment statistics. The main purpose of the online event is to exchange experiences, meet people, share new methods and findings, learn and get inspired from each other, and create opportunities for deeper collaboration. It will include a variety of elements as in a traditional in-person workshop, such as a poster session where participants can meet each other. Like in our previous workshops, the number of registered participants will be limited to 55 in order to facilitate interaction. Authors of accepted abstracts will have priority for registration. The production of establishment statistics has clearly been affected by COVID-19. Various adaptations to regular statistics were made, such as acceleration towards electronic data collection, adjustments for increased non-response, changes to imputation models, additional quality checks and new kinds of output. While EESW21 will not include a special session devoted to COVID-19, contributions on how production has been adapted to these new conditions are invited. Under a broad heading of Adapting establishment statistics to new conditions, the workshop welcomes contributions on all topics related to establishment statistics: sample design, data collection, response process, editing and imputation, estimation, modelling, quality assessment, data presentation and dissemination, metadata and process data for establishment statistics, cross-national statistics, and similar. In practice, not all topics can be covered within the available time.
Description: Within its recently initiated Webinar Series on Statistical Experience Sharing, SESRIC will organise a webinar on “SDG 9 Indicators” on 25 February 2021 in collaboration with the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) with the participation of official statisticians working in National Statistical Offices of the OIC countries. The webinar will be conducted through a video conferencing platform by following synchronous learning and instruction approaches designed in line with the virtual training solutions undertaken by SESRIC in order to better serve the Centre’s training activities and keep participants motivated and engaged during this time of global crisis due to COVID-19. For more information on the SESRIC Statistical Experience Sharing Webinar Series, please visit: http://www.oicstatcom.org/webinar-series.php
Description: The 10th meeting of the Steering Group for the Regional Programme for the Improvement of Economic Statistics in Asia and the Pacific is the start of a new phase of the programme after extension to 2030. The meeting discussed progress made by the programme in the second half of 2020 and approve a list of activities to be implemented during the period 2021-2023. As part of the meeting preparations, the secretariat organized pre-consultations through email prior to the meeting to solicit inputs and views from members of the Steering Group on priority activities. The meeting was convened virtually due to travel restrictions in the wake of Covid-19. Report of the 10th SGRPES meeting Evaluation Summary
Description: The Regional Programme for the Improvement of Economic Statistics in Asia and the Pacific (RPES) seeks to strengthen national capacity to deliver basic training on economic statistics. In support, ESCAP during 2018-2019 developed a recommended curriculum and training package based on the RPES Core Set of Economic Statistics. Prospective trainers from Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic, Maldives and Nepal were trained in 2019 to design and deliver training using the RPES training package. The newly trained trainers went on to use the training package to conduct a total of five national trainings in late 2019. To expand the use of the training package and share experiences with its application for national training, ESCAP Statistics Division and ESCAP-SIAP organized a regional training of trainers for (a) expert trainers from the Network for the Coordination of Statistics Training in Asia and the Pacific who plan to venture into economic statistics training; and (b) experienced economic statisticians from selected countries who plan to deliver training on economic statistics to relevant staff of their national statistical system.
Description: The Regional Programme for the Improvement of Economic Statistics in Asia and the Pacific (RPES) seeks to strengthen national capacity to deliver basic training on economic statistics. In support, ESCAP during 2018-2019 developed a recommended curriculum and training package based on the RPES Core Set of Economic Statistics.1 Prospective trainers from Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic, Maldives and Nepal were trained in 2019 to design and deliver training using the RPES training package. The newly trained trainers went on to use the training package to conduct a total of five national trainings in late 2019. To expand the use of the training package and share experiences with its application for national training, ESCAP Statistics Division and ESCAP-SIAP organize a regional training of trainers for (a) expert trainers from the Network for the Coordination of Statistics Training in Asia and the Pacific who plan to venture into economic statistics training; and (b) experienced economic statisticians from selected countries who plan to deliver training on economic statistics to relevant staff of their national statistical system.
Description: The COVID-19 pandemic is posing unique challenges to policymakers across the globe. This requires quick and effective action. In times like these, having the right data at the right time is crucial to making informed policy decisions. The aim of the workshop is to shed light on several dimensions of high-frequency data and their use in our policy process, in the light of the COVID-19 crisis and the ongoing digital transformation of our economies.
Description: Based on the topic approved by the Trade and Development Board at its sixty-eighth executive session and the decision to establish a working group on measuring e-commerce and the digital economy, the substantive agenda items for the fourth session are: Digital platforms and value creation in developing countries: Implications for national and international policies. Working group on measuring e-commerce and the digital economy.
Description: The Friends of the Chair group on economic statistics was created by the Statistical Commission during its fiftieth session to undertake an assessment of the efficiency, effectiveness and responsiveness of the current system of economic statistics. The fourth (virtual) meeting of the Friends of the Chair Group on Economic Statistics will discuss how the economic statistics system of the national statistical system should adapt to cater to changing user needs and demands in the light of COVID-19, affirm the objectives of the Group in the light of COVID-19 and the workplan of the Group for the year 2020.
Description: The 9th meeting of the Steering Group for the Regional Programme for the Improvement of Economic Statistics in Asia and the Pacific marks 10 years since the Programme was approved by the Committee on Statistics in 2010. The Steering Group, due to Covid-19 convened virtually on 19 June 2020 to finalize and agree on the above matters. The secretariat organized pre-consultations through email prior to the meeting to solicit inputs and views from members of the Steering Group to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of the virtual session. Report of the 9th SGRPES meeting (final) Attendance and Evaluation summary Programme Concept Note MS Teams Meeting - Technical Guidance Meeting documents Document 1: Celebrating a Decade of Action (RPES Survey) Document 2: Future Programme Project Matrix Document 3: Terms of Reference Reference information Document 4: Report of the 8th meeting of SGRPES Document 5: Capacity for producing economic statistics in the Pacific, SPC, May 2020 Document 6: Report on the Capacity Screening of Economic Statistics in Asia and the Pacific, 2017 Document 7: Draft monitoring framework for the Collective Vision and Framework for Action Example Programme results and products: Training package on economic statistics Replication studies Asia-Pacific Statistics Week 2020
Description: The ongoing pandemic has led several national statistical offices in Asia and the Pacific to conduct rapid assessment surveys on the impact of COVID-19. Some of these surveys have taken the form of knowledge, attitude and practices assessments, while others have collected more comprehensive information on the social and/or economic impact of the pandemic. This third session of the Stats Café, organized by ESCAP, ILO and UNICEF, was aimed at exchanging experience and lessons from conducting rapid assessment surveys, of both households and businesses, on the impact of COVID-19. The Stats Café session covered: Rapid assessment surveys of businesses Rapid assessment surveys of households Capturing impacts on employment and unpaid work The Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building rapid support to help countries respond Additional resources: ILO's COVID-19 and Labour Statistics ILO - Specific guide on content for rapid surveys Australia - Business surveys Australia - Infographic for its business survey Australia - Household impacts survey Malaysia infographic of results from their business survey United Kingdom - Latest questions for Business Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) Survey respondents United Kingdom - Business Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) Survey questions Articles Chair Gemma Van Halderen is the Director of Statistics Division in ESCAP. Her work is to improve the use of statistics for evidence-based decision making and to develop and disseminate quality statistics for inclusive, sustainable and resilient societies in the ESCAP region. Gemma has extensive experience with the global statistical system through the UN Statistical Commission and UN Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management. Panelists John Shepherd is the General Manager leading the Industry Statistics Division, Australian Bureau of Statistics, responsible for developing, compiling, analysing and disseminating statistical information across a range of sectors including Agriculture, Environment, Building and Construction, Transport, Tourism, Financial Institutions, Innovation and Technology, etc. The Division is focussed on working with its partners to provide a strong information base for policy development and evaluation. John joined the ABS in June 2019 after a lengthy career at the Australian Taxation Office, leading significant change programs and projects focused on improving the client experience. Hataichanok Chinauparwat is currently the Director of Statistical Forecasting Division of the National Statistical Office of Thailand (TNSO). Her responsibilities include overseeing the production of indexes and indicators on social and economic aspects, the compilation and integration of statistics from various agencies, including dissemination, and statistical information services. In earlier roles Hataichanok was the Inspector responsible for coordinating the work of Thailand’s Provincial Statistical Offices and the Director of the Statistical System Management Division. She has worked as a statistician for 25 years, specializing in survey design, in particular sampling techniques. Elisa Benes works as Senior Statistician in the LFS Methodology Team at the ILO Department of Statistics in Geneva. She has extensive experience in conceptual development, household survey methodology and mixed testing methods. She led the adoption of the 19th ICLS standards on statistics of work, employment and labour underutilization, and is co-leading ILOs LFS testing work to issue practical survey guidance. Prior to joining the ILO she worked in social, demographic and gender statistics in the UN Statistics Division and at UNECE, and as a survey manager in the private sector and academia. Talip Kilic is a Senior Economist at the World Bank Development Data Group; a member the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) team; and a core team member for the World Development Report 2021 on Data for Better Lives. His research focuses on poverty, agriculture, and gender in low- and middle-income countries, as well as survey methodology to improve the quality, timeliness and policy-relevance of household and farm surveys. In the latter line of work, objective measurement, including through sensor deployment; research on policy implications of non-classical measurement error in survey data; and integration with geospatial, census, administrative and mobile data are of interest to him. Q&A moderator Jan Smit is the Regional Adviser on Official Statistics for the 2030 Agenda at ESCAP’s Statistics Division. He works with national statistical offices and other entities comprising national statistical systems in Asia and the Pacific to strengthen their capacity to produce data and statistics for the Sustainable Development Goals. An economist by training, Jan earlier held various other positions at ESCAP in statistics development and in programme management. --------------------- >> See others Asia-Pacific Stats Café series
Description: The Friends of the Chair group on economic statistics was created by the Statistical Commission during its fiftieth session to undertake an assessment of the efficiency, effectiveness and responsiveness of the current system of economic statistics. The Group is heading into its second and final year. In its preparation of the work plan for the second year, the group took stock of the rich discussions amongst the members of the group during the first year. The wealth of information provided through the consultations with the various working groups involved in the domain of economic statistics and through regional consultation seminars were also valuable input to define the work plan for 2020. The third meeting of the Friends of the chair group will consider the proposed deliverables and activities of the work programme 2020 to trial new working methods for the update of the system of economic statistics.
Source: ESCAP SIAP (Data extracted on: 26 Nov 2019 )
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Organizer(s): ESCAP SIAP ESCAP UNSD Statistics Bureau of Japan
Description: The Management Seminar aims to strengthen the leadership and management capabilities of the heads of national statistical offices (NSOs) by providing a forum to discuss, exchange views and share experiences. The theme of this year’s seminar is "Future of Economic Statistics". The seminar will draw on the experience of participants in identifying present level of production and use of official economic statistics in countries in the region and further expectation in terms of production of new economic and related indicators.
Description: The 50th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission established a Friends of the Chair Group (FOCG) on Economic Statistics. The Commission requested that the Friends of the Chair Group convene meetings over the next year to discuss whether the current planned updates meet the needs of a future state of the system of economic statistics and whether gaps exist. The Commission also asked the Friends of the Chair Group to examine whether the current governance and infrastructure supporting the system of economic statistics is sufficient to meet the need for an increasingly responsive and comprehensive system of economic statistics. The Friends of the Chair Group has been asked to report back at the 51st session of the United Nations Statistical Commission. This second meeting will be used to: evaluate the feedback received from various fora via the global user consultation of statistical groups; define the system of economic statistics; articulate any changes needed to the governance arrangements and statistical operations and infrastructure of the system; tasks and responsibilities for 2020 and agree on the content of the report to the 51st session of the United Nations Statistical Commission.
Description: This is an event related to the tenth meeting of the Statistical Conference of the Americas and will be held at ECLAC headquarters. Organized jointly by ECLAC, the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Description: The Asia-Pacific Economic Statistics Week is designed as an annual forum of regular substantive exchange that is in sync with the capacity development agenda of the region defined by the Regional Programme on Economic Statistics. The Asia-Pacific Economic Statistics Week 2019 (APES 2019) will take place in Bangkok, Thailand, from 17-21 June 2019, under the theme of Integrating economic statistics in monitoring Agenda 2030. Link to seminar website.
Description: This High-Level Seminar on the Future of Economic Statistics offers an opportunity to interact, exchange and learn from leading economists, statisticians and academics in the fields of economic policy, data and statistics. Bringing together economists and statisticians in debate and discussion, and thus providing the collaboration necessary between the two disciplines should ensure a robust dialogue on economic statistics that are responsive and relevant, particularly in a rapidly changing policy and data landscape. Renewed interest in economic policy and statistics has been initiated by the UN Secretary‐General, who recently requested the formation a UN network of economists, led by the UN Chief Economist, to better address the issues of sustainable development. The Seminar will seek a collaborative Asia and Pacific region response to the need for economic statistics that support evidence‐based policy making within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This response may call for a step‐change in the conceptual framework of economic statistics combining measures of economic activity on trends in technological breakthroughs, demographic and social change, urbanization, globalization and digitalization with broader measures on equitable and sustainable economic performance.
Description: The 50th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission established a Friends of the Chair Group (FOCG) on Economic Statistics. The Commission requested that the Friends of the Chair Group convene meetings over the next year to discuss whether the current planned updates meet the future state of the system of economic statistics and whether gaps exist. The Commission also asked the Friends of the Chair Group to examine whether the current governance and infrastructure supporting the system of economic statistics is sufficient to meet the need for an increasingly responsive and comprehensive system of economic statistics. The Friends of the Chair Group has been asked to report back at the 51st session of the United Nations Statistical Commission. This first meeting will be used take stock of the current systemof economic statistics and identify a possible future state, discuss whether the governance and infrastructure currently in place is sufficient to address future priority needs. The expected output of the meeting will include a stock take of priorities, infrastructure and governance which in turn can be shared in various regional fora throughout the year for additional input and vetting.
Description: Substantive agenda items The value and role of data in electronic commerce (e-commerce) and the digital economy and its implications for inclusive trade and development. Working Group on Measuring E-commerce and the Digital Economy.
Description: Leading up to the opening of the 50th Session of the UN Statistical Commission, this year's Friday Seminar on the Future of Economic Statistics offers a unique opportunity to interact, exchange and learn from leading economists, statisticians and academics in the fields of economic policy, data and statistics. The renewed interest in economic policy, data and statistics has been initiated by the UN Secretary-General, who recently asked to proceed immediately with the implementation of a UN network of economists led by the UN Chief Economist. This seminar is timely and fully supports this initiative. The seminar will seek a collaborative response to the need for economic statistics that support evidence-based policy making within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This response may call for a step-change in the conceptual framework of economic statistics combining measures of economic activity that reflect globalization and digitalization trends with broader measures of equitable and sustainable economic performance. It is expected that these broader measures can inform policy actions that can help foster economic growth, people’s well-being, inclusive societies and sustainable use of the environment as set out by the sustainable development agenda. To debate the broader purpose of economic statistics in the future, we need to assess the users’ demands, as well as the capacity and capability of our statistical systems to provide the required data and statistical services.
