The National Institute of Statistics Romania will be hosting the 104th Conference of the DGINS (Directors General of the National Statistical Institutes) on 10-11 October in Bucharest.

Online registration until xx June 2018. (or "online registration to open soon")

The annual conference represents the principal forum for discussing strategic issues and current developments in the ESS.

This year, the DGINS conference features a statistical session focusing on the topic of "New statistical opportunities and production models deriving from digitalisation of societies and Big Data" .

More information
 

The EU is a net importer of one of Valentine's day symbols – fresh cut roses. In the first 10 months of 2017, the EU exported roses worth €62 million to non-EU countries, and imported ten times more — 624 million — from outside the EU.

Main exporter is The Netherlands: The Netherlands (roses worth €43 million exported to non-EU countries in the first 10 months of 2017, or 70% of the total extra-EU exports of roses) was the top EU exporter of roses. It was followed at a distance by Lithuania (€7 million, 11%), Germany (over €5 million, 8%) and Latvia (below €5 million, 7%). 

Also, did you that

• EU's roses are sent mainly to Russia and Switzerland,
• The Netherlands is also the main importer of roses, and
• Half of EU's imports of roses come from Kenya

Happy St Valentine day!

The Central Statistics Office publication, “Trade Statistics November 2017”, provides data on the movement of goods, exports and imports, between countries. Trade in Goods statistics in this publication are a combination of Customs-based non-EU trade statistics and the Intrastat survey of Irish traders involved in trade with other EU member states.

Mr Francisco Lima was appointed as President of Statistics Portugal in January 2018.

During the UN Statistical Commission in March in New York, ISI organises the side event "Statistical Capacity Building: How Statistical Offices Can Work With Statistical Societies" on Wednesday 7 March. Speakers:  John Pullinger (UK), Heli Mikkelä  (Finland), Rinsenga Maluleke (South Africa), Helen MacGillivray (Australia).

The ISI is in a unique position as worldwide body of statisticians that is not part of any inter-governmental system, and reaches out to statisticians who are not part of the official statistics community. The ISI aims to support the establishment and growth of national statistical societies, which can help foster the development of statistics.

Outline of the event

Panel discussion: Chair: Stephen Penneck, Vice president, ISI

Panelists: John Pullinger National Statistician, former President of the Royal Statistical Society, UK
To talk about GSS support for the Official statistics section, consultations, StatsUG, user groups, etc

Heli Mikkelä, Deputy Director General,, Statistics Finland
To talk mainly about the ISLP but also about other links and benefits

Risenga Maluleke Statistician General, Statistics South Africa
To give a developing country perspective

Helen MacGillivray President of the ISI and former President of the Statistical Society of Australia
To give an international perspective. How the ISI can help.

Swiss Consumer Price Index in January 2018 - Consumer prices fell by 0.1% in January

The consumer price index (CPI) fell by 0.1% in January 2018 compared with the previous month, reaching 100.7 points (December 2015=100). Inflation was 0.7% compared with the same month of the previous year. These are the results of the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).

The decrease of 0.1% compared with the previous month is due in particular to the decrease in prices for outpatient hospital medical services. Prices for air transport also declined, along with prices for clothing and footwear, in particular because of sales. In contrast, prices for overnight stays in hotels,heating oil and electricity increased.

At an international seminar held last November in Mexico, one of the main topics was ‘The measurement of economic activities on digital platforms’. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) was there to explain how it mapped out the Dutch internet economy by applying innovative big data research methods in a collaborative project with Google and Dataprovider. The approach and method received a lot of international recognition.

A new release in the ECB Statistics paper series has just been published -  "Yield curve modelling and a conceptual framework for estimating yield curves: evidence from the European Central Bank’s yield curves”.

The European Central Bank (ECB), as part of its forward-looking strategy, needs high-quality financial market statistical indicators as a means to facilitate evidence-based and sound decision-making. Such indicators include timely market intelligence and information to gauge investors’ expectations and reaction functions with regard to policy decisions. The main use of yield curve estimations from an ECB monetary policy perspective is to obtain a proper empirical representation of the term structure of interest rates for the euro area which can be interpreted in terms of market expectations of monetary policy, economic activity and inflation expectations over short-, medium- and long-term horizons. Yield curves therefore play a pivotal role in the monitoring of the term structure of interest rates in the euro area. 

Statistics Netherlands has in-house expertise in various fields of statistical science which have raised interest among the international community. Statistics Netherlands Director General Mr Tjark Tjin-A-Tsoi visited Statistics Canada to ratify further collaboration on Thursday 8th of February 2018. In 2016, Statistics Canada already launched an Innovation lab based on the Dutch format. Vice versa, Statistics Netherlands has been interested in the Canadian security system for protection of micro data. 

On the picture: Anil Arora (left) of Statistics Canada and Tjark Tjin-A-Tsoi (right) of Statistics Netherlands, signing off on further cooperation.

In this edition

• Get the latest developments about the revision of the European Statistics Code of Practice, the ESS priorities beyond 2020 and Smart Statistics and Big Data.
• Meet Aija Žigure, President of the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia who gives the Latvian perspective on the implementation of the Vision.
• Read the interview with Thomas Burg, Quality manager, Statistics Austria on QUAL@Vision 2020 - Statistics Austria’s perspective.
• Facts and Figures about the ESS Vision 2020 portfolio.

... and much more.