Discussion of the papers by Carol S. Carson and Denis Trewin

Abstract

Carson treats three key areas from the world of finance where she sees major challenges for statisticians. They are:- the collection of comprehensive and timely data dealing with foreign direct investments; - the collection of comprehensive and timely data on public debt; and - the construction of financial soundness indicators of the financial sector. Any of these three challenges can be looked at from a variety of viewpoints: per commercial sector, per country, per geographical region and on an international level. Depending on this level, there is a vast set of organizations with interests in these issues, such as Eurostat, UNCTAD, the World Bank, etc. It is rather natural that the IMF considers itself as an umbrella organisation for dealing with these topics.

The paper by Dennis Trewin focuses on the role played by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in providing accurate and qualitative information that is crucial for financial markets such as consumer and producer prices, capital expenditure, labor force and especially housing price indices. He puts major emphasis on quality requirements, concretized in six elements: Relevance, Coherence, Timeliness, Interpretability, Accessibility and Accuracy. Trewin's approach relies heavily on his personal experience within the Australian Bureau of Statistics, but his views could and should be applicable to any other national or international statistical service.