Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1179052
24.10.19 14 NEWS Keith Grech The importance of official statistics 2 0 October has become synonymous with European Statistics Day which emphasises the importance of offi- cial statistics in society, and compliments the United Nations World Statistics Day, celebrated every five years. Statistics day was inaugurated by these international institutions with the ob- jective of illustrating the importance of official statistics and its usefulness in the process of decision making. However, the publication of official statistics is possible thanks to the will- ingness of data owners, namely individ- uals, households, undertakings and gov- ernment agencies that have trust in the National Statistics Office (NSO). Public policy studies attribute this underlying trust to the independence of the statis- tical offices. Statistics as part of the human decision-making process Statistics has become part of what political scientists refer to as explicit knowledge. It is articulated knowledge, expressed and recorded as words, num- bers, codes, mathematical and scientific formulae. Explicit knowledge involves processes to compile, store and communicate. Its existence complements tacit knowl- edge, the human ability to relate infor- mation with experience, thinking skills, commitment and deed. e combination of explicit and tacit knowledge forms the basis of sound judgment. The role of official statistics Official statistics is by its very nature a public good, a good that is used by all and sundry. As no commercial undertakings will get involved in the production of of- ficial statistics due to lack of financial re- turns, it must be financed through public funding – taxes. Departing from this theoretical defi- nition, the process of official statistics is to collate information on several areas that affect our day to day lives and pres- ent them in a manner that everyone can understand, relate to and use in different decision-making environments. A look at the release calendar of the Nation- al Statistics Office (nso.gov.mt) reveals that it publishes a statistics news release almost every working day on topical so- cial, economic and business themes. As time goes by, publication deadlines between releases are becoming shorter to meet the demands of users. To date all news release deadlines have been re- spected. is is thanks to the tenacity of NSO employees and the effectiveness of its senior management. e official statistics process is execut- ed to an agreed working programme, ratified at a local and international level, and produced according to a stringent quality charter which is independent from any form of interference being po- litical or otherwise. In this process, the Malta Statistics Au- thority serves as a guardian to safeguard the independence of the National Sta- tistics Office as prescribed in the Malta Statistics Authority Act. As a sign of autonomy of statistical institutes, governments across Europe, including the Govern- ment of Malta, signed a decla- ration on the Commitment on Confidence in Statis- tics, ensuring that official statistics are produced in line with international methodologies and that statistical institutes are provided with adequate resources to meet their objectives and communicate their outputs while protect- ing the identity source of all statistical data providers. What does the future hold? A. Organisation structure A 2018 publication by Eurostat by the name Power from Statistics: data, in- formation and knowledge tried to an- swer this pertinent question. One of the papers within this publication was au- thored by the former Director General of Eurostat, Walter J. Radermacher who referred to the need to separate the man- dates of the different actors of statistics: Statistical Authority: Political responsi- bility and accountability; Director General: Personal responsibil- ity for the production process; and Chief Statistician: Co-ordinator of the Statistics System. Within our local context, the role of the regulator is entrusted to the Malta Sta- tistics Authority and the National Statis- tics Office is responsible for both co-or- dination and the production process of official statistics. B. Access to relevant data sources Nobody can hold back progress and the future of statistics relies on timely access to big data, independent from its origi- nating source being the public or private sector. e term Big Data was coined in the recent past, as a result of information technological developments, that per- mit extremely large data sets to be ana- lysed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relat- ing to human behaviour and interactions. Data that is extremely important for the timeliness of official statistics is be- ing generated and held by either gov- ernment or enterprises. However, access to such data sources is only the start-off point. e tapping of these data sources needs to be accompanied by statisticians with abilities and tools to perform these processes. Data produced through modelling is already happening and possibly will become standard prac- tice in the future. Moving from traditional data process- ing methods to the use of big data is not without its pitfalls. Hence the need to draft quality methods for big data pro- cesses is already within the hands of our methodologists. C. Rethinking educational and work practices: Economists, statisticians, mathema- ticians and information technology students are in short supply in the pub- lic and private sector alike. Marketing strategies to attract more students into these subject areas are essential. Ideal- ly courses in these areas are associated with practical job experience opportu- nities. e strong association between study and the workplace is important to encourage young students to choose these subjects. D. Deciphering information Statistics is essentially a public good and will remain so in the foreseeable fu- ture. Nowadays, special interest groups and firms have identified niches where they can publish specific statistics with the prospect of influencing the national agenda. With the declining costs in commu- nication and the speed that informa- tion can reach the final user, the need to educate the general public on how to read statistics is increasing in its importance. Furthermore, these alter- native information data sources, may not be stringent enough to satisfy methodological rules and code of practice which a National Statistics In- stitute must follow. ese data satellites still do not have the capacity or trust to match the outputs of Na- tional Statistical Institutes. Moreover, the strength of our National Statistics Office lies in the fact that it forms part of the European Statis- tical System. e long and outstanding col- laboration of national statisti- cal systems has also led to the formation of a global statistical system whose members use a common lan- guage to share their experiences and to promote official statistics at the global level. One of the major achievements of offi- cial statistics at the global level has been the development of international meth- ods and standards, which have ultimate- ly enabled an international data collec- tion and sharing platform through the application of such methods and stand- ards at the national level and the subse- quent production of comparable data at the regional and international levels. Conclusion is year's maxim is 'Look at the facts – Better Data, Better Lives'. To achieve better quality data we require the co-op- eration of everyone; households, firms and government. On the other end, the compiler is obliged to process the raw information according to ethical and data protection parameters. e drive behind statisticians is re- vealing links within social and business environments which provide decision makers with explicit knowledge to better lives. e correct application of statistics supports the development of policy- ori- ented strategies for job creation, entre- preneurship, creativity and innovation. Keith Grech is head of the Malta Statistics Authority Secretariat • keith.grech@gov.mt