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Third Joint EC – OECD Workshop on Business and Consumer Tendency SurveysBrussels, 12-13 November 2007

Session 7

OUTCOMES OF OECD SURVEY ON CURRENT NATIONAL

DISSEMINATION PRACTICES

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SURVEY OF NATIONAL BTS / COS DISSEMINATION PRACTICES

Aims of presentation

• Provide brief background to the survey of national dissemination practices

• Summarise the main survey findings

• Promote discussion on possible future work (if any) on data dissemination

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SURVEY OF NATIONAL BTS / COS DISSEMINATION PRACTICES

Background information

Aim of survey to provide context for current session and identify possible areas for future work on data dissemination / analysis

• Survey despatched on 10 September 2007

• Reponses received from 30 countries (35 institutes)

Austria; Bulgaria; Chinese Taipei; Croatia; Cyprus; Czech R; Denmark; Estonia; Finland; France; Germany GfK+IFO); Greece; Italy; Japan (BoJ+CO); Korea; Latvia; Luxembourg (BCL+STATEC): Malta; Netherlands; Portugal; Romania; Slovakia; Slovenia; South Africa; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; Turkey; UK (CBI+GfK); US (FRBD+UoM)

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SURVEY OF NATIONAL BTS / COS DISSEMINATION PRACTICES

Background information

Collected very summary information on:

• Dissemination media currently used for organisation’s BTS / COS statistics

• Whether organisation provides analytical or descriptive text outlining main features, etc – If yes, media used to disseminate

• Future plans to introduce major changes to dissemination of BTS / COS statistics over next three years

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MAIN FINDINGS (1)

Media Used Analytical text

No. % No. %

Paper publications 24 69 19 54

Internet – subscription database 5 14 4 11

Internet - free 18 51 8 23

Internet - other 13 37 14 40

Press release 28 80 24 69

CD-ROM - - - -

Other 8 23 7 20

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MAIN FINDINGS (1)

Media Used Analytical text

No. % No. %

Paper publications 24 69 19 54

Internet – subscription database 5 14 4 11

Internet - free 18 51 8 23

Internet - other 13 37 14 40

Press release 28 80 24 69

CD-ROM - - - -

Other 8 23 7 20

Generally provide less detailed data than in publications or subscriber service

Generally provide less detailed data than in publications or subscriber service

Includes email files to government, data to respondents, interactive graphic facilities, press conferences

Includes email files to government, data to respondents, interactive graphic facilities, press conferences

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MAIN FINDINGS (2) – FUTURE PLANS

• 8 out of 35 institutes outlined plans to introduce major changes over next three years

• Improvement of graphical presentation of data

• Development of electronic newsletter through website

• Provision of more activity disaggregations

• Provision of more descriptive data – max., min., avg.

• Development of extranet portal for members – to provide data + possibility for data collection

• Provision of commented survey results in free monthly electronic bulletin

• Re-grouping separate press releases into one main release

• Production of an economy wide climate indicator

• Publication of more comprehensive database, incl. their national data on EC website

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MAIN FINDINGS (2) – OTHER COMMENTS

• General need to upgrade and update communication strategy in disseminating survey data – value not fully exploited at the moment

• No more paper publications – focus will be on Internet dissemination (including press releases)

• Encourage response by providing data to users

• Their data are disseminated primarily by other organisations (subscribers)

• Press releases generally receive wide coverage. Data in it discussed widely by policy makers, media, academics and business – date of next PR given – also send to parliamentarians

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OTHER OBSERVATIONS (1)

• The more “analytical” text is provided in press releases disseminated by national agencies

• The content, format and use of graphs varies widely

• Some agencies simply describe data as reported in questionnaires – simple month-on-previous month / year-on-year changes

• Other agencies provide more of a “story” and provide more subjective text on movements – “good”, “dynamic”, “strong”, “sharp” – others use related series (e.g. US FRBD, Germany GFK, UK GFK, Italy, Netherlands)

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OTHER OBSERVATIONS (2)

• Most press releases are static – US FRBD contains active links to more detailed data, graphs

• Causal factors avoided in text

• On-line databases range from simple PDF tables, Excel spreadsheets, to more interactive databases

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POSSIBILITIES FOR FUTURE WORK / DISCUSSION

• Identification of recommended practices for presentation / dissemination of data in press releases – including use of “analytical” text

• Other suggestions?

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DISSEMINATION SURVEY

Thank you

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PRESS RELEASES (1)

Country - Institute

Links provided

Bulgaria http://www.cepd.gov.tw/encontent/m1.aspx?sNo=0009267&key=&ex=%20&ic=&cd=

Chinese Taipei http://www.cepd.gov.tw/encontent/m1.aspx?sNo=0009267&key=&ex=%20&ic=&cd=

Czech Republic http://www.czso.cz/eng/csu.nsf/informace/akpr102507.doc

Estonia http://www.ki.ee/uudised/index.html

Germany – GFK http://www.gfk.com/group/press_information/press_releases/001784/index.en.html

Germany - IFO http://www.cesifo-group.de/portal/page/portal/ifoHome/a-winfo/d1index/10indexgsk

Greece http://www.iobe.gr/media/oik_syg/july_2007.pdf

Italy http://www.isae.it/inglese/bpg/publication_view.asp?InfoID=11458&iabspos=2&vjob=vcat,13&vtkid

Korea http://www.nso.go.kr/eng2006/e01___0000/e01b__0000/e01ba_0000/e01ba_0000.html

Netherlands http://www.cbs.nl/en-GB/menu/themas/dossiers/conjunctuur/publicaties/conjunctuurbericht/inhoud/default.htm?Languageswitch=on

Portugal http://www.ine.pt/portal/page/portal/PORTAL_INE/Destaques?DESTAQUESdest_boui=6016579&DESTAQUESmodo=2

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PRESS RELEASES (2)

Country - Institute

Links provided

Slovak Republic http://portal.statistics.sk/showdoc.do?docid=9686

Slovenia http://www.stat.si/eng/novica_prikazi.aspx?ID=1224

South Africa http://www.ber.ac.za/ber/index.aspx

Spain http://www.mityc.es/Coyuntura/DatosDetalladosEspana/NotaIndustria/NotaIndustria.htm

UK – CBI http://www.cbi.org.uk/ndbs/Press.nsf/0363c1f07c6ca12a8025671c00381cc7/cfa88ea2dc49b6a68025737d004c5010?OpenDocument

UK - GFK http://www.gfknop.com/imperia/md/content/gfk_nop/newsandpressinformation/ccb/ccbpressreleaseaugust2007.pdf

US - FRBD http://dallasfed.org/data/outlook/index.html

US - UoM https://customers.reuters.com/community/university/default.aspx?