## BPM7 Chapter 20/2025 SNA Chapter 21. Communicating and Disseminating Economic Statistics: Annotated Outline

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**Canonical URL:** [BPM7 Chapter 20/2025 SNA Chapter 21. Communicating and Disseminating Economic Statistics: Annotated Outline](https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/data/statistics/bmp7/chapters/ao-sna-ch-21-bpm-ch-20.pdf)

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### I. Introduction
- Aim: provide principles, guidelines and innovative approaches for producers of macroeconomic statistics to improve how those statistics are communicated to increase comparability, understanding and user experience.
- Communication is a critical part of presenting statistical information to ensure a wide range of users properly understand, comprehend analytical usefulness and draw correct conclusions.
- Producers should develop statistical systems to disseminate comprehensive, timely and reliable data; dissemination is a key component of the production chain and requires a clear communication policy and data dissemination strategy.
- Chapter structure: nine sections—Introduction (Section I); communication policy and dissemination strategy (Section II); communication with users—principles and standards (Section III); communication with suppliers (Section IV); statistical confidentiality (Section V); taxonomies and metadata (Section VI); a framework for measuring alignment with the economic accounting statistical standards (Section VII); prominence of net measures compared to gross measures (Section VIII); and examples of the use of easier to understand terminology for users (Section IX). See the Schematic Overview for details.

### II. Communication Policy and Dissemination Strategy
- Core principle: production, analysis and dissemination of official statistics must be transparent and accessible.
- Communication channels: websites, regular press releases, statistical reports and emails.
- Additional topics to be covered:
  - links to media and users;
  - objectives of a dissemination strategy to meet users’ needs and to provide maximum access to official statistics.
- Concise reflection, with references to existing guidance, on:
  - communication with policy and media relations;
  - publication policy, including a release calendar to promote transparency;
  - revision policy—to explain why revisions are necessary, help improve quality and lay out in advance when revisions are expected;
  - regular analysis of press coverage and feedback;
  - user satisfaction surveys to aid continuous improvement;
  - different digital formats, use of XML and/or other machine-readable formats;
  - communication narratives/terminology to target different user groups;
  - sharing more metadata linked to and via the alignment frameworks (see Section VII);
  - reference to the National Summary Data Pages (NSDPs) that most countries have in place to disseminate economic statistics;
  - links to the Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM) and guidance on integrated economic statistics (such as the UN Guidelines on Integrated Economic Statistics) to draw out links and roles between official statistical producers, their communication/media teams, and users.
- Responsibility: preparations of all official statistics publications should ensure clear, understandable headline messages extracted from sound data, methods and analyses; statistical producers must ensure messages are clearly described, often in a non-technical manner, while technical/methodological features can be provided in accompanying documents.
- The section will reflect the results of testing of the CMTT Guidance Notes.

### III. Communication with Users - Principles and Standards
- Official statistics should be reliable, objective and relevant for decision making; UN Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics (2013), particularly Principle 1, is key for communication.
- Existing information, good practices and dissemination standards will be referenced to establish good dissemination practices.
- Importance of understanding user types and needs to steer messaging; communicate in language understood by users who may lack technical expertise in National and International Accounts or references like the SNA or BPM.
- Balance between local language publication and reaching an international audience via a more widely used international language is advised.
- Topics covered: types of users (including the media and indirect users); equal treatment of users regarding access to macroeconomic statistics in advance of publication; guidance on treatment of sensitive data (not for public use); distinctions between “freely available via regular releases and publications” and “bespoke analyses” (which may be paid for).

### IV. Communication with Suppliers
- Effective communication with data suppliers is essential; suppliers may not be users but are key stakeholders for data collection.
- Use of language suppliers can understand is essential to collect data that enable compilation according to economic accounting statistical standards, either directly or appropriately adjusted.
- Coverage of types of suppliers, links to suppliers, and usefulness of providing statistics that directly result from supplier-provided data.

### V. Statistical Confidentiality
- Most official statistics producers collect data under legislation for statistical purposes only; statistics cannot be disseminated, sold, or published in a way that permits identification of particular businesses or households.
- Need for appropriate data confidentiality policies, anonymization techniques and disclosure checking procedures before publication.
- Confidentiality should not be used as a general reason to withhold information; goal is to maximize dissemination as a public good while meeting confidentiality obligations.
- Approaches to achieve greater access: data labs, data access agreements for statistical or research purposes allowing researcher access to micro data.

### VI. Taxonomies and Metadata
- Producers must communicate data quality, timeliness, frequency, and reference period of products (GN CM.3); provide information about substance of releases and sources of revisions, including whether revisions reflect changes in methods, coverage adjustments, source data changes, or presentational changes (GN CM.3).
- All statistical products should be accompanied by explicit documentation on quality and methodology.
- Drawing from GN CM.3 outcomes and testing, guidance to a coherent taxonomy to communicate:
  - (a) releases and vintages of data;
  - (b) release calendars;
  - (c) revision policies;
  - (d) quality and types of statistical products.
- This section will include references to Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) standards.
- Note: satellite accounts (recommended in GN CM.3 to be referred to as “supplementary accounts” or “thematic accounts”) are discussed briefly in BPM6 Annex 2.1; Annex will be dropped in BPM7 since the topic will be covered in 2025 SNA Chapter 38, Thematic Accounts.

### VII. A Framework for Measuring Alignment with the Economic Accounting Statistical Standards
- Rationale: users need assurance that cross-country comparisons use the same basis and consistent implementation of standards; varying degrees of choice and variation in implementation produce differing degrees of ‘alignment’.
- Content: an alignment framework (from GN CM.1) that countries can use to assess alignment of national macroeconomic statistics to the economic accounting statistical standards; provides a simple self-evaluation tool that producers can share with users in an easily digestible format.
- Structure: built around key building blocks—concepts, accounting rules, methods, classifications and resulting accounts and/or tables produced and published.
- Additional coverage:
  - benefits of an alignment framework;
  - description of the dashboard approach and reflection of results from testing of GN CM.1;
  - broader ways to assess level of compliance and data quality;
  - links to where alignment frameworks for respective accounts will be available online.
- Limitations: framework is voluntary and based on self-assessment.
- Acknowledgement of existing frameworks and tools, including the IMF Data Quality Assessment Framework.

### VIII. Prominence of Net Measures Compared to Gross Measures (pending final conclusions on the forthcoming GN CM.4)
- Describes:
  - (a) the need to increase prominence and use of net measures;
  - (b) the need to reduce the use of the term “gross” to those areas laid out in the SNA;
  - (c) references made in full, for example, acquisitions less disposals, lending less borrowing, etc. rather than using the phrase “net”.
- Conceptual point: growing interest in "net" aggregates; conceptually "net" aggregates are more appropriate than "gross" counterparts because they more reflect actual costs borne in production.
- Measurement challenge: difficulties in arriving at comparable net aggregates across countries due to measurement issues.
- SNA update: improved articulation of differences between consumption of fixed capital (produced assets) and depletion of natural resources (non-produced assets) recorded within production costs; conceptual advantage of using "net" measures such as net domestic product and net national income is clearer and should be encouraged as headline-based indicators, while users may still be interested in "gross" counterparts for particular purposes.
- Cross-references: section will cross-reference parts elsewhere in the SNA to avoid duplication.

### IX. Examples of the Use of Easier to Understand Terminology for Users (pending final conclusions on GN CM.2)
- Problem: economic accounting statistical standards contain many technical descriptions and labels that aid producers but are often not user-friendly for non-technical users.
- Proposal: without changing technical definitions, provide limited examples of user-friendly terms for producers to consider when engaging non-technical users; examples based on testing with a range of users as part of GN CM.2 and are proposals producers could consider (allowing for translation differences).
- This section will reference the technical glossary.
- Note: chapter does not address other GN CM.2 proposals relating to changes in standard terminology to introduce cross-domain consistency (e.g., aligning on “revenues” and “expenses” instead of “resource” and “use” or “credit” and “debit”); those proposals are being tested and, if adopted, would be reflected throughout the manuals.

### Schematic Overview
- I Introduction
- II Communications Policy and Dissemination Strategy
- III Communication with Users - Principles and Standards
- IV Communication with Suppliers
- V Statistical Confidentiality
- VI Taxonomies and Metadata
- VII A Framework for Measuring Alignment with the Economic Accounting Statistical Standards
- VIII Prominence of Net Measures Compared to Gross Measures
- IX Examples of the Use of Easier to Understand Terminology for Users
- References: GNs CM.1, CM.2, CM.3 and CM.4; SNA; BPM; GFS; UK Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence, “Public Understanding of Economics and Economic Statistics,” ESCoE Occasional Paper No. 03, November 2020; UN Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics (2013)

### Key Stakeholders Consulted
- SNA and BPM editors
- IMF Statistics Department GO and FI
- Members of CMTT

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/data/statistics/bmp7/chapters/ao-sna-ch-21-bpm-ch-20.pdf_