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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?