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Central Statistical Office Poland

TOWARDS AN INTEGRATED

ECONOMIC STATISTICS PROGRAMME

Halina Dmochowska

Beijing, July 2005

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Legal Basis

• Law on Official Statistics 1995

• EU regulations on statistics

• annual „Programme of statistical surveys of official

statistics” – approved by the Council of Ministers;

results of these surveys = official statistics data

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Characteristic Features of the Polish Statistical System

• fully respects the principles of the UN official statistics,

• meets the requirements of the EU acquis communautaire,

• is a centralized system:

the CSO President is the central agency of public administration

in the field of statistics, appointed by the Prime Minister for 6

years term of office;

16 regional statistical offices are subordinated to the CSO

President;

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Characteristic Features of the Polish Statistical System

the role of other entities is supplementary but essential,

among others, in the following areas:

− monetary and financial statistics (the National Bank

of Poland, the Ministry of Finance),

− environmental statistics (the Ministry of Environment),

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Characteristic Features of the Polish Statistical System

• Statistical Council - advisory and opinion-making body to

the Prime Minister, appointed for 5 years term of office,

17 Members – representatives of the main users groups:

− government ministries

− local authorities

− National Bank of Poland

− organizations of employers

− trade unions

− experts in the field of social science and economic

science (academics)

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Main Tasks of the Statistical Council

• submits to the Council of Ministers a draft annual

programme of statistical surveys prepared by the President

of the CSO

• evaluates execution of the programme

• recommends on new surveys and methodological activities

and other significant issues of the development of official

statistics

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Programme of Methodological Activities

• internal document of the CSO – supplement to the

„Programme of statistical surveys…”

• covers preparatory work on methodology of new

surveys or modernization of the existing surveys, pilot

surveys, experimental work etc.

These activities get ahead of the „Programme of

statistical surveys…” by about 1-3 years and are an

effective tool of coordination in the preparatory stage of

building in the programming process.

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Following Users’ Needs Is the Main

Goal when Preparing the Programme

Consultations with users before designing the

programme last approximately 6 months every year.

About 100 institutions and organizations represent

the most important groups of users:

• ministries and other government bodies

• local government administration

• trade unions

• organizations of employers

• social organizations

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Statistical Infrastructure – Tool of Integration

• national official registers (maintained by CSO)

register of the national economy entities – REGON

territorial register – TERYT

The use of ID number is required by law, especially in information

systems of public administration and contacts of every unit with

external environment

• statistical business register – created in the CSO and used

exclusively for statistical purposes

• statistical standards – definitions, classifications, nomenclature,

statistical units

There is a legal obligation to use these standards.

The CSO is responsible for development of majority of them.

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The Register of National Economy Entities (official register) – REGON

• created in the 1970’s, it operates, at present, under the

Law on Official Statistics of 1995

• the following legal units are obliged to make an entry to

the register:

legal persons

organizational units not having legal personality

natural persons conducting economic activity

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Data on National Economy Entities Included in the Official Register - REGON

• name and address of the entity’s seat and, for natural

persons, name and surnames, place of residence and

identification number in the population records,

• legal form and form of ownership,

• conducted activity, of which a kind of predominant activity,

• date of creation, launching, suspending or terminating the

economic activity,

• name of registration office, name of register and the

identification number granted by the office,

• number of employees and, for agricultural holdings, total area

and the area of arable land,

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Data on National Economy Entities Included in the Official Register - REGON

• information on local units of each entity:

name and address,

conducted activity,

date of creation, launching, suspending and

terminating the economic activity,

number of employees,

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Data on National Economy Entities Included in the Official Register - REGON

All entities are obliged to inform of any changes in the

characteristic features covered by the register, excluding

information on the number of employees and, for

agricultural holding, the area of land.

Changes in the official register can be introduced

exclusively:

• on the motion of the entity concerned, or

• on the basis of data in other official registers or result

of updating questionnaire

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Statistical Register of National Economy Entities

(used in the organization of statistical surveys)

• created on the basis of the official register – REGON,

• scope of data:

harmonized with the EU legal requirements,

units: enterprise, local unit, group of enterprises,

characteristic features not included in the official register REGON,

e.g. revenues.

• updated on the basis of different sources i.e. statistical surveys results,

administrative sources,

• advantages:

better updated sample frames for statistical surveys,

cost effectiveness,

improvement in the quality of results.

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Data Sources for Official Statistics

• statistical surveys results

• administrative sources

– government bodies and local governments are obliged to grant

access for statistical authorities to the information gathered in

their systems; details are described in the „Program of statistical

surveys…”

– President of the CSO is obliged to specify the needs of statistics

and to submit justified proposals to adjust administrative registers

to be used also for statistical purposes

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Forms of Using Administrative Sources

• direct, main data source,

• statistical surveys - supplementary source of missing

information,

• instrument of quality control of data from statistical

surveys,

• auxiliary variables at imputation of missing data,

• additional variables used in indirect estimation technique

for small domains,

• data source for updating the statistical register.

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Advantages of Using Administrative Sources

• lowering the respondents’ burden,

• lowering costs of obtaining information,

• improving the quality of surveys’ results and estimates,

• opportunities of obtaining information on full populations

and for small domains,

• opportunities of integration of statistical surveys results

and administrative systems,

• improving the quality of administrative systems,

• increasing the integrity and cohesion of those systems.

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Administrative Registers Used in Statistics (examples)

• population register

• tax system (PIT, CIT, VAT)

• customs system (SAD, used in foreign trade statistics)

• social insurance system

• geodesy information system

• environment monitoring

• information systems of the National Bank of Poland, Polish Securities and Exchange Commission, Insurance and Pension Funds Supervisory Commission

Administrative sources/registers have been used in 80 of 209 statistical surveys included in the Programme of Statistical Surveys – for 2004 i.e. 40%.

Intensive work is in progress in this area, in close cooperation with gestors of the registers.

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Conditions of Using Administrative Sources

• legal

• methodological

• organizational

• financial

• technological

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Census of Economic Activity – Case of Poland

• idea of the census emerged in the middle of the 90-ties to meet

users needs concerning entrepreneurship at that stage

of transformation of the economy;

draft law on economic census

• at that time, annual surveys covered:

whole population of enterprises employing 6 and more persons

sample of the smallest units (which represented very dynamic,

changing population, difficult to have updated in the REGON

register).

• administrative registers/records in their initial period were not

available for statistical purposes

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Main Targets of the Economic Census

• obtain basic information for updating the register and create survey

frames for sample surveys

• get data on localization and structure of economic activity of the whole

population of enterprises active at the moment of the census

• verify the data on the size and results of economic activity, improve

statistics used in national and regional accounts

• collect information describing new entrepreneurs and their

professional characteristics

Coverage: NACE A (excl. individual agricultural holdings), B, C, D, E,

F, G, H, I, J (banking and insurance – excl.), K, M, N, O.

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Organisation of the Census

• supervision and coordination on the national level – President of

the CSO

• organisation and supervision on the regional level – regional

statistical offices

• organisation and supervision on the local level – local authorities

• to minimize costs, it was planned to conduct census

by enumerators – in enterprises employing up to 20 persons

by mail – as a supplement to regular statistical questionnaires

– for units employing more than 20 persons.

Economic census had never been conducted because of budget

limitations.

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Next Steps

• threshold of employment was raised up to 9 persons for the sample surveys on micro-enterprises

• statistical register has been created

• statistics was given the access to selected administrative records/registers

• SBS has been implemented according to EU requirements; available data on:

current register variables

kind of activity

localization of activity

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System of Annual Surveys of Non-financial Enterprises – Today

• exhaustive survey on enterprises with 10 and more

persons employed

• sample survey (4-5%) of small units (below 10 persons

employed)

The scope of collected information depends on:

• the size of enterprise

• the accounting system used by the enterprise

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System of Annual Surveys of Non-financial Enterprises – Today

In general – apart form the size of enterprise and the accounting system the following information is collected annually:

• basic data on the unit (name, address, activity status)

• employment and wages and salaries

• main financial results of activity

• fixed assets

• investment outlays

• localisations of economic activity and its basic description

• a list of kinds of activity conducted (NACE - class level)

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Short-term Economic Statistics Scheme

monthly quarterly semi-annually

national accounts X

financial situation of the enterprisesabove 49 persons employed above 9 persons employed

XX

output of industry and construction X

selected market services X

retail trade X

employment, unemployment X X (LFS)

prices X

foreign trade X

balance of payments (NBP) X

state budget (MoF) X

business and consumers tendency surveys (industry, construction, retail trade, services and households)

X

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Concluding Remarks

Polish experience gained in the period of transformation shows that

the integrated approach in creation of the economic statistics system

was supported by the following factors:

− in relationship with the external environment:

• legal solutions and based on them procedures of planning

statistical surveys which ensure the participation of

representatives of main users’ groups and administrative data

providers in preparation of the draft programme of statistical

surveys of the official statistics,

• implementation of statistical standards as an element of

standardization of the state information system.

• agreements between the CSO and gestors of administrative

data (in specific cases), as well as, working groups appointed

to prepare especially important projects,

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Concluding Remarks

− in statistics:

• giving the highest importance to the work on national

accounts and related subjects comparing to branch

economic statistics – NA driven process,

• activities aimed at improving the quality of statistical data

and connected, in particular, with the use of

administrative sources,

• modernization of statistical data dissemination system

(including the efforts to achieve the integration of the

surveys’ results).