## _cr10343 - 1. DQAF July 2003—Summary Results ## Source details **Canonical URL:** [_cr10343 - 1. DQAF July 2003—Summary Results](https://www.imf.org/-/media/websites/imf/imported-full-text-pdf/external/pubs/ft/scr/2010/_cr10343.pdf) ## Other formats - [Markdown version](/-/media/websites/imf/imported-full-text-pdf/external/pubs/ft/scr/2010/_cr10343.pdf.md) - [Structured JSON version](/-/media/websites/imf/imported-full-text-pdf/external/pubs/ft/scr/2010/_cr10343.pdf.json) --- ### Overall assessment - Australia's statistics are generally of a high quality; the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has been among the pace-setters in methodology development and adoption. - Legal/institutional basis: - Census and Statistics Act, 1905 provides legal basis. - Australian Bureau of Statistics Act, 1975 establishes ABS as the central statistical agency. - Primary ABS responsibilities: national accounts, consumer price index (CPI), producer price index (PPI), government finance statistics (GFS), balance of payments and international investment position statistics (BOP/IIP). - Other agencies: - Commonwealth financial statements compiled by the Department of Finance and Deregulation (DoFD). - Monetary statistics by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). - Migration to new manuals completed or largely completed: - System of National Accounts, 2008 (2008 SNA) - Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, sixth edition (BPM6) - Government Finance Statistics Manual, 2001 (GFSM 2001) - Monetary and Financial Statistics Manual, 2000 (MFSM 2000) - Caution: comparisons with past ROSC exercises should be treated cautiously because Australia migrated early and set a higher assessment bar. ### SDDS observance and flexibility - Subscriber since April 1996; started posting metadata on DSBB in September 1998; met SDDS specifications in July 2001. - In observance of SDDS for coverage, periodicity, timeliness, and advance release calendars. - Flexibility options used (selected): - Production index periodicity: disseminates quarterly (SDDS requires monthly). - Production index timeliness: disseminates no later than one quarter after the reference quarter (SDDS: 6W, 1M encouraged). - CPI and PPI periodicity: quarterly (SDDS requires monthly). - Targeted flexibility for central government operations: three-month lag for last month of old fiscal year and two-month lag for first month of new fiscal year, conditional on quarterly general government dissemination with a one-quarter lag. ### Key challenges, resource pressures, and recent events - Migration to new methodologies was multi-year and largely successful but left some “loose ends.” - All Commonwealth agencies subject to a 1.5 percent annual efficiency dividend. - ABS funding relative to other agencies improved because ABS is exempt from additional whole-of-government departmental efficiencies savings over FY 2010 to FY 2013. - Human resources: - Unusual loss of expertise from retirements. - Salaries below median for public institutions in Canberra historically; recent measures partly addressed gaps. - Staff turnover as high as 30 percent for household survey interviewers. - Cost-saving measures: - ABS introduced a 24 percent cut in the sample size for the labor force survey; user concern led to restoration of the sample. - Quality incidents: - September 2009 Quarterly National Accounts (QNA) had to be rereleased to correct compilation errors; December QNA was issued successfully. - Remaining unresolved analytical issues: divergent paths of GDP estimates; perceived disconnect between employment growth and production-based GDP, though hours worked reconciles series. ### Prerequisites of quality and assurances of integrity - Legal safeguards: - Census and Statistics Act, 1905 (Part III, paragraph 9) empowers the Statistician to collect statistical information. - Australian Bureau of Statistics Act, 1975 grants the Statistician substantial independence; dismissal only on grounds of misbehavior, incapacity, or bankruptcy and only by vote in the same session of both houses of parliament. - Statistics Determination Act, 1983 specifies confidentiality and conditions for disclosure. - Pre-release access: limited ABS lock-up; any prior access fully disclosed publicly; national accounts provided to designated Treasury officials mid‑afternoon the day before release under lock-up. - From 2008-2009 adoption: Australian Accounting Standard Board 1049 requires adoption of ABS GFS across government financial statements where it does not conflict with Australian accounting standards; reconciliation required where differences exist. - RBA: monetary statistics disseminated by RBA; banking sector data collected by APRA under APRA Act, 1998; RBAA (Reserve Bank of Australia Act, 1959) does not include explicit mandate for monetary statistics dissemination. ### Methodological soundness — major points and deviations - National accounts: - Essentially fully migrated to 2008 SNA. - Annual and quarterly accounts compiled in current prices and chain volume measures. - Some categories not yet fully estimated: value of growing crops, databases, valuables, illegal activities. - Interest accrual and valuation of certain debt instruments deviate from 2008 SNA (creditor approach for interest on securities; debt other than securities recorded at fair value). - CPI: - Follows an acquisitions approach; analytical living-cost indices (outlays approach) published for subpopulations. - CPI target population restricted to six State capitals plus Darwin and Canberra representing 64 percent of households. - HES covers all households but CPI weights and price collection restricted to main cities. - Treatment of deposits and loans a recognized measurement issue. - PPI: - Published PPIs cover minimum requirements for manufacturing, construction and mining but not services comprehensively (about 37 percent of services covered based on 2001-2002 IO data). - ANZSIC06 used; improves concordance with ISIC. - GFS: - Produced on nationally derived concepts harmonized with GFSM 2001; differences reconciled where they exist. - Scope consistent with GFSM 2001, but lacking stocks-and-flows breakdown between domestic and foreign financial assets/liabilities and between banks and nonbanks. - Monetary statistics: - RBA adopted MFSM and IMF standardized report forms. - Institutional coverage could be improved to include money-market corporations and cash management trusts. - Repos recorded as loans (not fully BPM6 consistent). - National/foreign currency split at requested detail not available for most items; all certificates of deposit allocated to broad money due to lack of sectorization. - BOP/IIP: - Compiled on BPM6 basis but several divergences: - Securities collateralized under repo arrangements treated as outright purchases/sales (not BPM6 loan treatment). - Transactions between residents in foreign securities and between nonresidents in domestic securities included in BOP. - Sign convention differs from BPM6. - Some misclassifications (e.g., Asian Bond Funds treatment inconsistent between reserve template and BOP/IIP). ### Accuracy, reliability, and source data issues - General: sound practices on source data, assessment, statistical techniques, and revision studies; periodic reviews across agencies. - National accounts source data: - Many source statistics are good. - Annual Integrated Collection (AIC) suffers from small sample size and limited product detail. - Quarterly Business Indicators Survey, retail survey, Labor Force Survey are key inputs. - Household Expenditure Survey (HES): - HES sample size approximately 7,000 households; diary of two–week expenditures; respondents appear once (not continuous). - HES now conducted every six years (vs. international guideline of five years); current HES reference year 2003–2004 implies weights will be approximately seven years old before updating. - ABS reviewing frequency of weights updating as part of 16th Series review. - Monetary statistics source data limitations: - Lack of national/foreign currency split at required detail. - Holdings of certificates of deposit not sectorized; total allocated to broad money. - Revisions and validation: - Revision analysis routinely conducted; long-term chain-volume re-referencing in September quarter issue; periodic formal revision studies published. ### Serviceability, periodicity, and timeliness (selected) - National accounts: periodicity and timeliness follow SDDS; timeliness about two months after reference quarter. - CPI: published quarterly within a calendar month of reference period (does not conform to SDDS monthly periodicity); under 16th Series review which considers monthly CPI. - PPI: produced quarterly and published within four weeks of the end of the reference period (SDDS requires monthly). - GFS: - Quarterly and annual GFS meet SDDS periodicity requirements; quarterly general government data exceed SDDS timeliness. - Central government operations: monthly dissemination with targeted timeliness flexibility used for year-end months. - Monetary statistics: disseminated monthly on last business day of following month (SDDS requirement: one month); RBA weekly balance sheet published within two working days (SDDS: two weeks). ### Accessibility, dissemination practices, metadata, and user assistance - Agencies provide user-friendly websites and substantial free data via ABS and RBA websites; customized additional data charged. - Publications generally include abundant metadata though not always customized for different user types. - National accounts series available back to September 1959; CPI all-items series back to 1948; many datasets accompanied by methodological notes. - Contact persons identified at front of most ABS data releases; RBA provides general contact point (no unit-specific contact in tables). - Advance release calendars and simultaneous release practices in place; limited pre-release access under lock-up arrangements (ABS lock-up up to two hours; Treasury receives certain national accounts mid-afternoon the day before release). - Some DoFD releases occasionally subject to internal clearance causing non-punctual release. ### Staff recommendations (selected, cross-cutting and sectoral) - Cross-cutting: - Review deviations from current international standards; provide mapping for internationally comparable estimates. - Review periodicity of data categories where flexibility options used under SDDS. - Ensure staff management and succession planning in data-producing agencies. - National accounts: - Make alternative presentations strictly following 2008 SNA on accrual of interest and valuation of loans. - Improve sample size and product detail of Annual Integrated Collection; update HES more frequently; review PPI usability for national accounts deflation. - Consumer Price Index: - Examine costs/benefits of producing a national CPI and sub-indices monthly. - Examine costs/benefits of conducting HES more regularly to update CPI weights more frequently. - Assess impact of restricting weights and price collection to six State capitals plus Darwin and Canberra (representing 64 percent of households); examine options for CPI covering all domestic territory. - Consider costs/benefits of replacing CPICC with COICOP or providing both. - Producer Price Index: - Assess user needs for monthly PPI data; examine costs/benefits of producing key PPIs monthly to meet SDDS. - Examine costs/benefits of producing outstanding service PPIs; review compilation of deflators in national accounts. - Government finance statistics: - Extend transactional coverage to include domestic/foreign and bank/nonbank breakdowns available in quarterly financial accounts. - Improve timeliness of monthly GFS (Central Government Operations) to remove reliance on targeted flexibility. - Review deviations from GFSM 2001; consider full adoption of classifications and concepts. - Consider re-disseminating quarterly general government data after benchmarking to present a time series consistent with annual data. - Monetary statistics (specific): - Obtain from APRA systematic split between transactions in national currency and foreign currency. - Collect data for proper sectorization of holders of certificates of deposit; consider survey of money market operators and identify holdings by financial corporations reporting to APRA. - Conduct consultations outside the financial sector to identify needs of academics, media, international investors. - Expand institutional coverage to money-market corporations and cash management trusts. - Balance of payments and IIP (specific): - Consider publishing additional datasets fully complying with international standards and provide conversion to BPM5 for international users. - Enhance ABS–RBA consultations to avoid classification differences; align reserves data and reserve template with international standards regarding repos. - Publish or reclassify data currently available but not published or erroneously classified per BPM6. - Investigate assumption that all portfolio equity investment abroad is through investment funds; separately show dividends on equity excluding investment fund shares and better estimate reinvested earnings attributable to investment fund shareholders. - Consider adopting BPM6 sign convention and publish remaining maturity of external debt by sector. *Source: DQAF July 2003—Summary Results (excerpt).* ### 1. DQAF July 2003—Summary Results ..................................................................................11 ### _cr10343 - 1. DQAF July 2003—Summary Results ### Overall assessment - Australia’s statistics are generally of a high quality; the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has been among the pace-setters in methodology development and adoption. - Institutional framework: Census and Statistics Act, 1905 provides legal basis; Australian Bureau of Statistics Act, 1975 establishes ABS as the central statistical agency. - ABS responsibilities: compilation and dissemination of national accounts, the consumer price index (CPI), the producer price index (PPI), government finance statistics (GFS), and balance of payments and international investment position statistics (BOP/IIP). - Other agencies: Commonwealth financial statements compiled by the Department of Finance and Deregulation (DoFD); monetary statistics by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). - Australia has migrated to: - System of National Accounts, 2008 (2008 SNA) - Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, sixth edition (BPM6) - Government Finance Statistics Manual, 2001 (GFSM 2001) - Monetary and Financial Statistics Manual, 2000 (MFSM 2000) - Caution: comparisons of this Data ROSC with past exercises for other countries should be treated cautiously because Australia has set a higher assessment bar by migrating early to new manuals. ### SDDS observance and flexibility - Australia has been a subscriber to the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) since April 1996. - Started posting metadata on the Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB) in September 1998; met SDDS specifications in July 2001. - Australia is in observance of the SDDS, meeting specifications for coverage, periodicity, timeliness, and dissemination of advance release calendars. - Flexibility options used: - Periodicity of the production index data category: compiles and disseminates quarterly data (not monthly as required). - Timeliness of the production index category: disseminates the index no later than one quarter after the reference quarter (not within six weeks as required). - Periodicity of the consumer and producer prices data categories: compiles and disseminates quarterly data (not monthly as required). - Targeted flexibility for timeliness of central government operations: three-month lag allowed for the last month of the old fiscal year and a two-month lag for the first month of the new fiscal year, provided quarterly general government data are disseminated with a one-quarter lag. ### Key challenges, resource pressures, and recent events - Migration to new methodologies was a multi-year undertaking and largely successful, but left some “loose ends.” - All Commonwealth agencies subject to a 1.5 percent annual efficiency dividend. - ABS funding relative to other agencies improved because ABS is exempt from additional whole-of-government departmental efficiencies savings over FY 2010 to FY 2013. - Human resources: unusual loss of expertise from retirements; salary scale below median for public institutions in Canberra. - Cost-saving measures: ABS introduced a 24 percent cut in the sample size for the labor force survey; user concern led to restoration of the sample. - External review by DoFD led to some replenishment of funding, but ABS continued to find savings via staffing reductions to increase salaries in line with public service wage movements. - Quality incidents: September 2009 Quarterly National Accounts (QNA) had to be rereleased to correct compilation errors; December QNA was issued successfully. - Some unresolved analytical issues remain (e.g., divergent paths of various GDP estimates; users perceived disconnect between employment growth and production-based GDP, though growth in hours worked reconciles the series). ### Pre-requisites of quality and assurances of integrity - Legal and institutional safeguards: - Census and Statistics Act, 1905 (Part III, paragraph 9) empowers the Statistician to collect statistical information. - Australian Bureau of Statistics Act, 1975 (ABSA) grants the Statistician substantial independence; dismissal only on grounds of misbehavior, incapacity, or bankruptcy and only by vote in the same session of both houses of parliament. - Statistics Determination Act, 1983 sets out confidentiality provisions and conditions for disclosure. - Limited prior access to data in a lock-up; any prior access fully disclosed to the public. - DoFD: Commonwealth monthly and annual financial statements compiled under the Financial Management and Accountability Act, 1997; Charter of Budget Honesty Act, 1998 strengthens GFS compilation integrity. - From 2008-2009 onwards, Australian government adopted Australian Accounting Standards Board 1049 requiring adoption of ABS GFS across government financial statements where it does not conflict with Australian accounting standards; reconciliation required where differences exist. - RBA: monetary statistics disseminated by the Reserve Bank of Australia (Reserve Bank of Australia Act, 1959 does not include specific provision for this); banking sector data collected by Australian Prudential Regulation Agency under the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority Act, 1998. ### Methodological soundness and deviations - Australia is essentially fully migrated to 2008 SNA and BPM6, and has adopted GFSM 2001 and MFSM 2000. - National accounts: annual and quarterly accounts essentially on the new basis; some categories not yet worked out (value of growing crops, databases, valuables, illegal activities). - CPI: issues include treatment of deposits and loans; CPI target population restricted to the six State capitals plus Darwin and Canberra, which together cover only 64 percent of the population; Household Expenditure Survey (HES) covers all households but use of expenditure data for weights is restricted to the main cities; same geographic restriction applies to price collection. - PPI: published PPIs cover minimum requirements for manufacturing, construction and mining, but not services; use of ANZSIC06 improves concordance with ISIC. - Classifications: CPICC and COICOP have conceptual differences, but reasonable concordance at higher aggregation levels enabling international comparisons with manipulation of lower-level data. - GFS: produced on nationally derived concepts and presentational framework; where differences from GFSM 2001 exist, source data are detailed enough to allow linkage; scope consistent with GFSM 2001, but lacking stocks-and-flows breakdown between domestic and foreign financial assets and liabilities, and between banks and nonbanks. - Monetary statistics: RBA adopted MFSM and IMF standardized report forms; institutional coverage could be improved to include money-market corporations and cash management trusts. - BOP/IIP: recording of repos not in line with BPM6 and 2008 SNA recommendations; creditor approach used for interest on debt securities; use of fair value for debt other than securities noted. ### Accuracy, reliability, and source data issues - General: statistics demonstrate accuracy and reliability; sound practices regarding source data, assessment of source data, statistical techniques, and revision studies; periodic reviews conducted across agencies. - National accounts source data: - Many source statistics are good. - Annual Integrated Collection suffers from small sample size and limited product detail. - Household Expenditure Survey (HES) frequency: now conducted every six years (versus international guideline of five years); ABS reviewing frequency of weights updating as part of its ongoing 16th Series review and considering options for more frequent updating. - Monetary statistics source data limitations: - Lack accuracy in splitting transactions in national currency versus foreign currency at requested detail. - Holdings of certificates of deposits issued by banks are not sectorized; total outstanding amount allocated to broad money. ### Institutional professionalism and transparency - All agencies follow a Code of Conduct and the precepts of the Australian Public Service stressing professionalism and integrity. - Choice of techniques is based solely on statistical considerations. - No pre-release of information except limited ABS lock-up access which is explained to the public. ### Implementation status and outlook - Some recommendations in Section III (not reproduced here) can be implemented quickly without significant additional resources; others will require staff and financial resources. - Key ongoing priorities implied by the assessment: - Tidy remaining methodological “loose ends” from migration to new manuals. - Address resource and succession-planning constraints at the ABS. - Explain and quantify deviations from international standards and provide means to map or convert series to earlier bases (2003 SNA, BPM5) for international comparability. - Improve source data accuracy and institutional coverage where indicated (monetary statistics, BOP/IIP). *Source: DQAF July 2003—Summary Results (excerpt).* ### 14. The serviceability of Australia’s statistics is in many cases excellent, as a result of ### 14. The serviceability of Australia’s statistics is in many cases excellent, as a result of ### Serviceability: periodicity, timeliness, and flexibility - Australia maintains five flexibility options within the SDDS. - For a number of series Australia disseminates on a quarterly basis while the SDDS mandate is for monthly. - The CPI is disseminated on a non-monthly basis; the ABS is undertaking the 16th Series review which is explicitly considering a monthly CPI. - The RBA and some sector users contend that a monthly CPI would: - provide better timeliness for monetary policy operations; - provide greater availability of data points enabling better analysis of turning points. - The ABS is one of only two OECD country statistical institutions that do not compile a monthly index; this is an issue in the 16th Series review. - Timeliness is generally good and in some cases significantly exceeds SDDS requirements, but Australia still uses flexibility options on timeliness: - The production index is disseminated not later than one quarter after the reference period, as against the six-weekly requirement with one month encouraged. - Australia uses the option of less timely dissemination of central government operations at year end available to countries using the GFSM 2001 methodology. - Consistency checks are not always applied appropriately across datasets. ### Accessibility: dissemination practices, metadata, and user assistance - All disseminating agencies have developed user-friendly websites and provide substantial free data via the ABS website for covered areas; customized additional data are charged. - Publications generally include abundant metadata, though not always well customized for different types of user and not for all data categories. - Data releases include analytic descriptions of developments. - National accounts data are available with series back to September 1959. - The CPI release covers a range of indices with explanation of factors contributing to inflation. - The PPI release covers the headline figure and a range of sub-indices. - Contact persons for assistance are identified at the front of most ABS data releases. - For GFS: - Consistent data series on an accrual basis are available from 1998-1999. - Some cash-based data are available from the ABS from 1961-1962. - The DoFD provides a contact point for further assistance. - The RBA ceased its hard-copy statistical publication in January 2010. - It provides a wide range of monetary data covering a long time period on its website. - Metadata are provided in an accompanying methodological note. - The RBA does not identify a contact person for further assistance but has a general contact point for users. - All agencies provide a catalog of publications concerning the data and disseminate information about future data release dates, although the DoFD on occasion has not released data on the specified date as administrative and internal clearance procedures determine the actual release date. ### Assessment methodology and scope of this exercise - An assessment of the quality of six macroeconomic datasets—national accounts, the consumer price index, the producer price index, government finance, monetary, and BOP/IIP statistics—was conducted using the DQAF, July 2003. - Results are presented at the level of the DQAF elements using a four-point rating scale. - Assessments of prerequisites of data quality and assurances of integrity (Dimensions “0” and “1”) are presented in Tables 2a–c. - Assessments for methodological soundness, accuracy and reliability, serviceability, and accessibility (Dimensions “2” to “5”) are shown in Tables 3a–f. - The analysis was carried out on the basis of a self-assessment by the compiling agencies, discussions during the mission, and an informal users’ survey. ### Summary results (Table 1) — key observed practices and ratings (selected highlights) - Key to symbols: O = Practice Observed; LO = Practice Largely Observed; LNO = Practice Largely Not Observed; NO = Practice Not Observed; NA = Not Applicable. - Dimension 0. Prerequisites of quality: - 0.1 Legal and institutional environment: O for all datasets. - 0.2 Resources: LO for National Accounts, CPI, PPI, Government Finance; O for Monetary Statistics; LO for BOP/IIP. - 0.3 Relevance and 0.4 Other quality management: generally O, with LO in some dataset entries. - Dimension 1. Assurances of integrity: - 1.1 Professionalism, 1.2 Transparency, 1.3 Ethical standards: O for all datasets. - Dimension 2. Methodological soundness: - 2.1 Concepts and definitions: O for all datasets. - 2.2 Scope: O for National Accounts and BOP/IIP; LO for CPI, PPI, Government Finance, Monetary Statistics. - 2.4 Basis for recording: LO for National Accounts and BOP/IIP; O for CPI, PPI, Government Finance, Monetary Statistics. - Dimension 3. Accuracy and reliability: - 3.1 Source data: LO for National Accounts; O for CPI, PPI, Government Finance, BOP/IIP; LNO for Monetary Statistics. - 3.2 Assessment of source data through 3.5 Revision studies: O across datasets except noted exceptions. - Dimension 4. Serviceability: - 4.1 Periodicity and timeliness: O for National Accounts, Monetary Statistics, BOP/IIP; LNO for CPI; LO for PPI and Government Finance. - 4.2 Consistency: O across most datasets, LO for Government Finance. - 4.3 Revision policy and practice: O across datasets. - Dimension 5. Accessibility: - 5.1 Data accessibility, 5.2 Metadata accessibility: O across datasets. - 5.3 Assistance to users: O across datasets except LO for Monetary Statistics. ### Agency-level observations (selected points from Tables 2a–2c) - Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS): - Legal basis: established under the Australian Bureau of Statistics Act, 1975 (ABSA); Census and Statistics Act, (1905 provides authority for collection and dissemination). - Statistician appears before the Senate Estimates Committee roughly twice a year. - Resources are generally adequate but under strain due to loss of expertise, recruitment and retention issues, an ambitious program to adopt new methodologies, and GFC-related issues; new statistical activities requiring resources are linked to obtaining earmarked funding. - Advisory arrangements: Australian Statistics Advisory Council; Economic Statistics User Group. - Professionalism: Statistician appointed for seven years (with eligibility for reappointment) and cannot be removed other than on grounds of misbehavior, incapacity, or bankruptcy. - Transparency: all statistics made available simultaneously at 11:30 a.m. on the day of release; pre-embargo access for a small number of ABS publications for up to two hours under “lock-up” arrangements; national accounts provided to designated officials in the Treasury the day prior to release under lock-up arrangements. - Ethical standards: staff subject to the Code of Conduct in the Australian Public Service Act. - Department of Finance and Deregulation (DoFD): - DoFD is responsible for compilation and dissemination of monthly and annual financial statements of the Commonwealth Government; AOFM manages monthly securities debt data. - Governing legislation includes the Financial Management and Accountability Act, 1975 and the Charter of Budget Honesty Act, 1998; from 2008-2009 the Australian government adopted Australian Accounting Standard Board 1049. - Resources are broadly commensurate with needs; an efficiency dividend applies each year reducing budgets marginally. - Relevance: ongoing contacts with key users internally and externally. - Transparency: detailed concepts, sources, and methods in Australian System of Government Finance Statistics: Concepts, Sources, and Methods available on the ABS website; no pre-release of data; releases subject to internal clearance processes. - Ethical standards: staff subject to Australian Public Service Values and Code of Conduct. - Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA): - RBA ceased hard-copy statistical publication in January 2010. - Provides wide range of monetary data and methodological metadata on its website. - Does not identify a contact person for further assistance; maintains a general contact point for users. *Source: IMF staff assessment text (provided content).* ### 0. Prerequisites of quality ### 0. Prerequisites of quality ### 1. Assurances of integrity - Legal and institutional environment - The Reserve Bank of Australia Act, 1959 (RBAA) does not include a specific mandate for the dissemination of official monetary statistics for Australia, although the RBA has performed this role for many years. - The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has responsibility for supervision, and authority under The Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act, 2001 to collect data from the sector. - The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority Act, 1998 (APRA Act) provides APRA with the legal authority to provide protected data collected under the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act, 2001 to the RBA. - A Memorandum of Understanding, (1998 between the RBA and APRA sets out the respective responsibilities of the two agencies, and mandates the sharing of information pursuant to their objectives. - Under the RBAA and the Banking Act, (1959 data are published by the RBA only at an aggregate level. - Confidentiality of data is protected at all times by the RBA in accordance with the provisions of the APRA Act, with access to individual banks’ data only given to staff with specific need to know for their statistical duties. - Resources - Human, computing, and financing resources are adequate to collect, compile, and disseminate monetary statistics. - Significant amounts of training are provided to new staff. - Salaries are adequate, and staff turnover is manageable. - The RBA has an annual performance management program. - Resources used to compile the statistics are routinely assessed, at least once a year, and evaluated against alternatives. - Relevance - Data users have detailed information on developments and changes to the monetary statistics through the RBA website. - Feedback is encouraged through publicized communications, such as the RBA media office. - The RBA meets with APRA and the ABS on a six-monthly basis to discuss data issues such as new reporting forms and response burden. - The RBA is in regular contact with industry groups and companies across the country to gain feedback and information on economic issues, but users outside the industry are not surveyed or consulted. - The RBA is actively involved in identifying potential new data requirements and evolving its data provision to meet its needs. - Other quality management - All staff are aware of the emphasis on achieving the highest level of quality. - The importance of quality is emphasized, and management is responsible for achieving quality. - Professionalism - There is a high emphasis on professionalism at the RBA. - Most staff have university degrees in economics. - Recruitment is open and competitive. - Extensive on-the-job training is provided to new staff. - The compilation of monetary statistics relies on comprehensive accounting data for all transactions and positions by reporting institutions. - Staff are encouraged to undertake research and analysis. - Staff contributions to speeches and publications are recognized. - Transparency - All legal documents constituting the basis of the RBA’s statistical activities are available from the RBA website. - Information on statistical sources is also available on the website. - Major methodological changes are announced prior to their implementation and in the media release when the relevant dataset is posted on the website. - There is a biweekly briefing of the Treasury on recent credit developments; this briefing sometimes involves unpublished preliminary estimates. - Ethical standards - The RBA Code of Conduct provides strict guidelines for all staff, mandating honesty and integrity in all dealings. - Staff are required to be mindful of the confidentiality and sensitivity of the information that they handle, and to avoid any conflict of interest. - Staff are made aware of the Code of Conduct upon recruitment and thereafter at least annually. - The Code of Conduct is encapsulated in the form used as a support for the discussion of goals during the annual performance appraisal cycle. ### National Accounts — Methodological soundness, Accuracy and reliability, Serviceability, Accessibility - Concepts and definitions - The overall structure of the national accounts follows the 2008 SNA. - Scope - Annual and quarterly GDP are compiled at current prices and in chain volume measures. - Sector accounts are published annually and financial accounts are published quarterly. - Input-output tables are released about 3½ years after the reference year. - Detailed estimates are not available for all categories: including the value of growing crops, databases, valuables, and illegal activities, but information on these categories is included in higher level GDP aggregates. - Classification/sectorization - Economic activities are classified according to the ANZSIC06, which is consistent with the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) rev4 at the divisional level. - COICOP and Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG) are used to classify household and government final expenditure, respectively. - Nonprofit institutions are included in the household sector. - Interest on securities is recorded on the basis of the creditor approach. - Basis for recording - The valuation of GDP, expenditure, and imports and exports is in accordance with the SNA. - Transactions are recorded on an accrual basis as far as possible. - The accrual of interest and the valuation of debt instruments other than securities deviate from the 2008 SNA standards. - Gross recording is generally followed, but intrasectoral property income, financial flows, and financial stocks are consolidated in the sector accounts. - Source data and assessment - Annual GDP is estimated according to the income, expenditure, and production approaches. - The business register that produces survey frames for most economic collections is built up from units known to the Australian Tax Office and a population maintained by the ABS. - Many source statistics are good, but the Annual Integrated Collection suffers from a small sample size and limited product detail. - The HES is conducted with six-year intervals. - The Quarterly Business Indicators Survey provides useful information. - Source data approximate national accounts definitions and are generally timely. - Appropriate measures are used to validate source data. - Statistical techniques, assessment and validation - The estimates are compiled at a sufficient level of detail. - Double deflation is used for about a third of the activities. - Headline GDP is calculated as the average of the three independent measures. - Quarterly data are benchmarked on the annual data. - Quarterly series are seasonally adjusted. - Supply-and-use tables are used to verify the independent data sources. - Discrepancies are followed up if material. - Revision analysis is carried out as part of the regular quality assessment of published data. - Periodicity, timeliness, consistency, and revisions - Periodicity and timeliness of the national accounts follow the SDDS requirements. - Various statistical discrepancies are shown, thus giving an indication of the inconsistency of the estimates. - Consistent time series for key aggregates are maintained back to 1959. - Consistency is maintained between the quarterly and annual series. - The national accounts statistics are reconcilable with the BOP and GFS. - Banking and insurance data are reconcilable with prudential supervision data. - Revisions to previously published data can be made with each issue of the quarterly national income, expenditure and product accounts following fixed procedures. - Long-term revisions to the level of chain volume measures are made in the September quarter issue when all chain volume series are rereferenced to the new financial year. - Periodic formal studies of revisions are conducted and published. - Data and metadata accessibility; assistance to users - Data are published on the Internet. - The ABS website gives free access to a wide range of information, including all ABS publications from 1998 onwards in Adobe Acrobat, and partially in spreadsheet or database formats. - Requests for customized data may incur a charge. - Data are accompanied by analysis and are presented clearly. - Publications provide the dates on which the next two issues will be published. - The data are made available to all users at the same time. - Strict embargo procedures are in place. - Publications include notes with metadata. Many stand-alone detailed metadata publications are released. - No publication covers the current methodology of the quarterly estimates. - The revisable character of data is not clearly indicated. - Client contact details are included on the front page of publications. A referral service channels enquiries to relevant officers. - The ABS website contains links to all data releases together with the terms and conditions of supply. ### Consumer Price Index — Methodological soundness, Accuracy and reliability, Serviceability, Accessibility - Concepts and definitions - The CPI follows an acquisitions approach. - Some analytical living cost indices based on an outlays approach for subpopulation groups such as pensioner households are also published. - The treatment of deposits and loans is an issue for some users, but international guidelines are not prescriptive and the measurement issues are not unique. - Scope - The CPI is restricted to six State capitals plus Canberra and Darwin (representing 64 percent of households). - More minor departures include the exclusion of second-hand goods, tourist expenditures, and institutional households. - Classification/sectorization - The Australian CPI Commodity Classification (CPICC) groups items together that are substitutable. - It is conceptually different to the COICOP but there is a broad correlation which facilitates international comparisons. - Basis for recording - Recording follows international best practice. - Consumption expenditures are measured and purchaser prices collected, net of discounts but including Goods and Services Tax (GST) and any additional charges, such as delivery costs. - Purchase price relates to the price at time of acquisition. - Source data and assessment - The HES is now conducted only every six years. The current weights will thus be seven years old before being updated. - Studies suggest that the potential upward bias in the CPI may not be significant. - The ABS is considering the frequency of updating of weights as part of its 16th Series review. - Price collection is also restricted to the main cities. - The HES is reconciled with other data and adjusted for underreporting. - There is interactive editing in the field using hand-held computers and ongoing sample maintenance for outlets and items. - Statistical techniques and validation - A Laspeyres-type index is computed mostly using the geometric mean elementary aggregates. - Appropriate techniques are used for quality adjustment and for the imputation of missing prices. - Internal consistency checks and comparative analysis with selected PPI items and market expectations are regularly conducted. - Revision studies, periodicity and timeliness - The CPI would only be revised in “exceptional” circumstances, i.e., when “significant” errors are found, although such circumstances have so far never occurred. - The CPI does not conform to the SDDS requirement for periodicity. It is published quarterly. - The CPI is released within a calendar month of the end of the reference period. - The periodicity of the CPI is one of the issues under consideration in the 16th Series review. - Consistency and accessibility - The CPI is part of a family of indices within a national accounts framework. - A consistent all-items series goes back to 1948. - All data which are of publishable quality are available free of charge from the easily navigable ABS website together with the associated metadata. - The CPI release is available to all at time of first publication in electronic and paper form. - Pre-release embargoed access for two hours under lock-up conditions is given to selective government officials. This arrangement is publicized. - The ABS puts all CPI methodology on its website and in detailed technical notes accompanying the release of statistics. The metadata are extensive. - Client contact details are included on the front page of publications. A referral service channels enquiries to relevant officers. ### Producer Price Index — Methodological soundness, Accuracy and reliability, Serviceability, Accessibility - Concepts and definitions and scope - The ABS publishes quarterly input and output PPIs for selected industries plus economy-wide indices using a stage of production framework. - Indices generally conform to international standards. - Published PPIs cover the minimum requirements of manufacturing, construction and mining but PPIs for some services are not available. - Classification/sectorization and basis for recording - ANZSIC06 results in some loss of international comparability, but ANZSIC and ISIC broadly correspond. - Specification pricing at market prices is used. - Ex-factory prices are used for output indices and prices including nondeductable taxes, transport and trade margins are used for input indices. GST is excluded. - Purchase price relates to the price at time of collection—where this is no production period, producers are asked the current production cost. - All PPIs are produced on a gross basis. - Source data and assessment - Indices are reviewed periodically. - More regular input-output data will lead to more frequent updates. - New products are introduced independent of the timing of weight updates. - Judgmental sampling is used. There is some continuous sample maintenance based on industry feedback. - There are no PPIs for a significant proportion of services. - Statistical techniques, validation and revisions - A Laspeyres-type index is computed. Elementary aggregates use the weighted average of price relatives and, for some services, the geometric mean. - Appropriate quality adjustments and imputations are used. - Results are assessed against other price indices and industry sources, also coherence with national accounts. - Revisions are rare. The index is corrected and the publication is reissued as soon as is practical. - Periodicity, timeliness, consistency, and accessibility - PPIs are produced quarterly, as against the SDDS requirement for monthly indices. - The indices are published within four weeks of the end of the reference period. - The all items PPI is consistent internally when aggregated from different levels of the classification. - All publishable PPIs and related material are put on the website free of charge. - Pre-release embargoed access for half an hour under lock-up conditions is given to selected government officials for briefing purposes. This arrangement is publicized. - PPI methodology is put in the public domain via the ABS website and various paper publications. - Client contact details are included on the front page of publications. A referral service channels enquiries to relevant officers. ### Government Finance Statistics — Methodological soundness, Accuracy and reliability, Serviceability, Accessibility - Concepts and definitions and scope - The overall structure of GFS follows nationally developed concepts, definitions, and presentational frameworks, based on 1993 SNA and harmonized with GFSM 2001. Differences are fully reconciled. - The GFS scope is consistent with GFSM 2001, but some components of the statements are incomplete due to the lack of a breakdown between domestic and foreign financial assets. - A breakdown between holding gains and volume changes for State and local governments is also not available. - Classification/sectorization and basis for recording - Sectorization is in accordance with the GFSM 2001. Full data are compiled for the public sector and sub-sectors. - Flows generally follow market prices, stock data are valued according to accounting standards, indicating market prices for traded instruments and nominal value for nontraded. - Accrual accounting, and appropriate grossing/netting is used. - Source data and assessment - Annual data are now sourced from accounting records harmonized with GFS reporting requirements. Full institutional and geographical coverage is reached. - For quarterly data, sample surveys supplement these data sources, primarily for local governments and public nonfinancial corporations. - Source data are routinely assessed against other sources. Automated procedures monitor and validate data, while staff assess data for trend deviations, misreporting, and consistency. - Statistical techniques, validation and revisions - Statistical techniques for aggregation and consolidation are embedded in the electronic system. - Sound statistical techniques are used to estimate missing data. - Quarterly data are annually benchmarked to final outcomes, but the focus is only on the data most important from a national accounts perspective. - Preliminary data are replaced with more accurate data when these become available. - Processes and procedures are well organized and documented. - Regular assessments and validations against entity level financial statements, annual reports, budget documentation, and mid-year reviews take place. The media are monitored. - The annual data are not subject to major revisions. Revisions to quarterly data are documented as part of the output clearance process. - Periodicity, timeliness, consistency, and accessibility - Quarterly and annual GFS meet SDDS periodicity requirements. - Quarterly general government data exceed SDDS timeliness requirements. - For central government operations, Australia avails itself of a targeted flexibility option. - Monthly central government debt data exceed the SDDS requirements. - Annual GFS are consistent within the dataset and over time. - Quarterly GFS data as published do not sum to the annual data. - Consistency with the national accounts is compromised due to some documented differences in concepts and methodology between national accounts and GFS. - Since GFS do not distinguish between domestic and foreign, and bank-nonbank financing, assessment of consistency with BOP and monetary data cannot be made. - Reconciliations with national accounts and financial statements are routinely made. - Revisions to quarterly data are made as required. Quarterly data for previous years are benchmarked to final annual data for national accounts purposes. Although available in the database, the revised benchmarked quarterly data are not disseminated. - ABS GFS data for the latest reference period are released in quarterly and annual publications. Ten-year consistent time series are disseminated. - Historic data starting in 1962 are available on request. - Monthly financial statements for the Commonwealth are released for the latest period. These data are not available in a time series, comparable data are available to the public in archived publications, albeit not in time series format. - Comprehensive sources and methods documents, and SDDS summary methodologies, are published and updated regularly. All data publications provide brief notes on the data. - Metadata are appropriately cross referenced and well publicized. Metadata are highly technical and could benefit from summaries adapted to needs of various audiences (e.g., journalists). - Client contact details are included on the front page of publications. A referral service channels enquiries to relevant officers. *Source: _cr10343 - 0. Prerequisites of quality* ### 2. Methodological soundness ### 2. Methodological soundness ### Monetary statistics — concepts, scope, classification, and valuation - Concepts and definitions: Monetary statistics broadly follow the main principles of the MFSM 2000. - Surveys: Monetary statistics include a central bank survey, an Other Depository Corporations (ODC) survey, and a (total) depository corporations survey. A survey for financial corporations other than depository corporations is not available. - Scope: Coverage includes central bank (RBA), domestically conducted transactions with residents and nonresidents of commercial banks, building societies, and credit unions. Data on money-market corporations and cash management trusts are not included in monetary statistics, although they are included in other financial aggregates disseminated by the RBA. Issuance of coins and some transactions with the IMF are recorded in Treasury books. - Classification/sectorization: Sectorization and classification available for most items are completely aligned with the MFSM 2000. - Basis for recording: - Items denominated in foreign currency are converted in national currency at the end of period spot exchange rate. - Credit and loans data are gross. - Repurchase transactions are recorded as loans and not as transactions on securities. - Market or fair value is extensively applied, but not systematically as valuation practices are those provided for by the Australian Accounting Standards 139. ### Monetary statistics — source data, compilation, and quality assurance - Source data: Data on RBA and ODCs are based on their end-of-month comprehensive balance sheets. The national currency/foreign currency split is not available at the requested level of detail for most items. All certificates of deposit are allocated to broad money in the absence of proper sectorization of holdings. - Assessment of source data: Source data from ODCs are carefully reviewed by APRA when lodged. The RBA runs macros on source data to detect abnormalities. Requests for clarifications are sent to individual respondents via APRA. - Statistical techniques: There are no imputation processes for missing data. Adjustments are applied and advertised to the public when calculating growth rates. - Assessment and validation: Main monetary aggregates are cross checked with other financial aggregates prepared by the RBA and with quarterly flows of funds compiled by the ABS. - Revision studies and policy: - There is no revision cycle and no revision studies for monetary statistics as they are deemed final when disseminated. - More up-to-date information from data providers are incorporated as soon as possible. - Monetary statistics are deemed final when first released. Data are revised only when respondents submit updated source data, when errors in treatment are detected, or when methodological minor change is applied. Revision of data is only reported at the same time the data are released. Important methodological changes are advertized before data produced under the new methodology are released. ### Monetary statistics — periodicity, timeliness, consistency, and accessibility - Periodicity and timeliness: - Monetary statistics are disseminated monthly, on the last business day of the following month (SDDS requirement: one month). - The RBA weekly balance sheet—in the same format as the end-of-month balance sheet—is prepared for each Wednesday and published within two working days. (SDDS requirement: two weeks). - Consistency: - Consistency is met within the dataset. - Since bank financing is not available in GFS, consistency with net claims on the government cannot be assessed. - The consistency check between “net foreign assets” in the monetary statistics and corresponding measures in external sector data is not conducted at this stage. - Data accessibility: - Monetary statistics were published in the RBA Monthly Bulletin, but this publication has been discontinued as of January 2010. - Monetary statistics tables can be downloaded from the RBA website in Excel format. Each table includes one spreadsheet with long-term data series, one spreadsheet with methodological notes, and one spreadsheet with indications on breaks in data series. - Monetary statistics are posted on the RBA website together with a media release. A perpetual “Publication Schedule” is posted on the RBA website. - There is no privileged early access to the data. The press is not briefed in advance of the data release. - Metadata and assistance: - Detailed methodological notes accompany data series tables automatically. - Information on a contact point is not provided with the tables. All requests must be submitted to RBA “Contact Us – General” email address and are forwarded by the Media Office to the relevant expert for follow up. ### Balance of Payments and International Investment Position (BOP/IIP) — methodological soundness ### Concepts, scope, classification, and basis for recording - Concepts and definitions: The ABS compiles BOP/IIP statistics on the basis of BPM6. - Scope: All quantitatively relevant resident-nonresident transactions and positions are broadly covered in the BOP/IIP. - Classification/sectorization — noted divergences from international standards: - Securities collateralized under repo arrangements are treated as outright purchases/sales. - Transactions between residents in foreign securities and between nonresidents in domestic securities are included in the BOP. - The sign convention differs from BPM6. - Holding companies are classified to the sector representing the major economic activities. - The treatment of repos in reserve assets is not fully in line with international standards. - Asian Bond Funds are recorded differently between the reserve template (which is in line with IMF recommendations) and the BOP/IIP. - In one instance an asset that was rightly taken from the reserve template was not properly reclassified in the BOP/IIP. - Basis for recording: Generally in line with BPM6. Other investment debt is recorded at fair value. Interest on securities is recorded on the basis of the creditor approach. ### Source data, compilation practices, and validation - Source data: Source data generally come from comprehensive data collection systems based primarily on surveys and administrative data. Maintenance of survey frames is conducted on an ongoing basis. Source data for some BPM6 standard components and memorandum items are not available; consequently, all receipts of portfolio equity income is attributed to investment fund shareholders. - Assessment of source data: Extensive consistency checks are undertaken, including self verification by reporting agents, within the BOP/IIP datasets, and in relation with other ABS information. - Statistical techniques: The ABS uses sound compilation procedures to compile BOP/IIP data. - Assessment and validation: Intermediate results and outputs are routinely assessed, validated, and improved. - Revision studies: The ABS publishes data on revisions in ad hoc papers and maintains explanatory metadata. ### Periodicity, consistency, dissemination, and user access - Periodicity and timeliness: Periodicity and timeliness of the BOP/IIP data exceed the SDDS requirements. - Consistency: - BOP/IIP data are consistent over time. - A full reconciliation between BOP and IIP is available quarterly. - BOP/IIP data are fully consistent with the rest-of-the-world sector of the national accounts. - Consistency between BOP/IIP and monetary statistics is checked regularly. - Comparison with international data is hindered where ABS data diverge from international standards and data presentations. - Revision policy and practice: Data are provisional when first released. The ABS aims to incorporate more accurate data in the estimates for each period. Summary revision tables are included in the quarterly BOP/IIP publication. - Data accessibility: - Disseminated data are in principle based on BPM6, but there are significant divergences. - Data are published in hard-copy and electronic form; all information can be downloaded free of charge from the ABS website. - Each issue of the quarterly BOP/IIP publication announces the release dates for the following three issues. Data are released simultaneously to all parties. - Metadata accessibility: A publication on BOP/IIP concepts, sources, and methods is available free of charge at the ABS website. It currently covers BPM5 methodology and is being updated in the course of 2010. Additionally, an information paper is available with extensive information on the implementation of BPM6. - Assistance to users: Client contact details are included on the front page of publications. A referral service channels enquiries to relevant officers. The ABS website contains links to all data releases together with the terms and conditions of supply. ### Identified methodological and data issues (concise) - Monetary statistics lack national/foreign currency split at requested detail for most items. - All certificates of deposit are allocated to broad money due to lack of proper sectorization of holdings. - Market/fair valuation practices follow Australian Accounting Standards 139 and are not systematically applied across all items. - BOP/IIP contains several deviations from BPM6 in classification and sign conventions, differing treatments of repos and reserve template items, and attribution of portfolio equity income to investment fund shareholders. ### Staff recommendations (selected, cross-cutting and sectoral) - Cross-cutting: - Review deviations from current international standards, at least to provide mapping for internationally comparable estimates. - Review the periodicity of data categories, particularly where flexibility options have been taken under the SDDS. - Ensure staff management and succession planning in data-producing agencies. - National accounts: - Make (as an alternative presentation) national accounts series available that strictly follow the 2008 SNA in matters such as the accrual of interest and valuation of loans. - Improve the sample size and product detail of the Annual Integrated Collection; update the HES more frequently; review the PPI to improve usability for national accounts compilation. - Consumer Price Index: - Examine costs and benefits of producing a national CPI and sub-indices on a monthly basis. - Examine costs and benefits of conducting a HES more regularly to facilitate more frequent updating of CPI weights. - Assess the impact on the CPI of restricting expenditure weights and price collection to the six State capital cities plus Darwin and Canberra, and examine options for compiling a CPI covering all domestic territory. - Consider costs and benefits of replacing the Australian expenditure classification CPICC with the internationally standard COICOP, or other options to deliver both. - Producer Price Index: - Assess user needs for monthly data and examine costs and benefits of producing a limited number of key PPIs monthly to meet the ROSC requirement. - Examine costs and benefits of producing outstanding PPIs for services and review compilation of deflators in the national accounts. - Government finance statistics: - Extend transactional coverage of GFS to include breakdowns of domestic/foreign and bank/nonbank stocks and flows available in quarterly financial accounts. - Improve timeliness of monthly GFS (Central Government Operations) dissemination to eliminate the need for the targeted flexibility option. - Review deviations from GFSM 2001 and consider adopting classifications and concepts fully. - Consider re-disseminating quarterly data for general government after benchmarking to attain a time series consistent with annual data. - Monetary statistics (recommendations specific): - Obtain, from APRA, source data presenting systematically the split between transactions in national currency and those in foreign currency. - Collect data for proper sectorization of holders of certificates of deposit issued by banks; consider a survey of money market operators and identify holdings by financial corporations reporting to APRA. - Conduct consultations outside the financial sector to better identify needs of academics, media, international investors, etc. - Expand institutional coverage of monetary statistics to money market corporations and cash management trusts. - Balance of payments and IIP (recommendations specific): - Consider publishing additional datasets that fully comply with international standards for classification/sectorization and provide conversion to BPM5 presentation format for international users. - Enhance consultations between the ABS and RBA to avoid classification differences; consider aligning reserves data in the BOP/IIP and the reserve template with international standards regarding repos. - Publish or reclassify data that are currently available but not published or erroneously classified in the prescribed manner of BPM6. - Investigate the assumption that all portfolio equity investment abroad is through investment funds, with a view to separately showing dividends on equity excluding investment fund shares and better estimating reinvested earnings attributable to investment fund shareholders. - Consider using the sign convention as required under BPM6. - Consider publishing remaining maturity of external debt by sector given high international demand for these data. *Source: 2. Methodological soundness — _cr10343* ### Appendix Table 4 ### Appendix Table 4 ### SDDS Coverage, Periodicity, and Timeliness — Overview - Table compares SDDS requirements with Australia’s reporting across data categories. - Italics indicate encouraged categories. - Note on periodicity and timeliness codes reproduced exactly: - (D) daily; (W) weekly or with a lag of ## week(s) from the reference date; (WD) working days, or business days; (M) monthly or with a lag of ## month(s); (NLT) not later than; (Q) quarterly or with a lag of ## quarter(s); (A) annually; (SA) semiannual; and (...) not applicable. - Footnote 1/ reproduced exactly: - 1/ Given that the data are broadly disseminated by private means, the timeliness with which official data are disseminated is not time critical. ### Real Sector — Compliance, Periodicity, Timeliness, Comments - National accounts - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: Q - Australia Periodicity: Q - SDDS Timeliness: 1Q - Australia Timeliness: NLT 1Q - Production index/indices - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: M - Australia Periodicity: Q - SDDS Timeliness: 6W - Australia Timeliness/Comment: (1M encouraged) NLT 1Q Periodicity flexibility, timeliness flexibility - Forward-looking indicators (encouraged data category) - SDDS: M or Q - Australia: M or Q - Employment - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: Q - Australia Periodicity: M - SDDS Timeliness: 1Q - Australia Timeliness: 31D - Unemployment - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: Q - Australia Periodicity: M - SDDS Timeliness: 1Q - Australia Timeliness: 31D - Wages/earnings - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: Q - Australia Periodicity: Q - SDDS Timeliness: 1Q - Australia Timeliness: 7W - Consumer price index - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: M - Australia Periodicity: Q - SDDS Timeliness: 1M - Australia Timeliness/Comment: NLT 1M Periodicity flexibility - Producer price index - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: M - Australia Periodicity: Q - SDDS Timeliness: 1M - Australia Timeliness/Comment: NLT 1M Periodicity flexibility ### Fiscal Sector — Coverage, Periodicity, Timeliness, Comments - General government operations - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: A - Australia Periodicity: Q - SDDS Timeliness: 2Q - Australia Timeliness: 3M - Central government operations - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: M - Australia Periodicity: M - SDDS Timeliness: 1M - Australia Timeliness: 4W - Comment: Targeted timeliness - Central government debt - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: Q - Australia Periodicity: M - SDDS Timeliness: 1Q - Australia Timeliness: 3W ### Financial Sector — Coverage, Periodicity, Timeliness, Comments - Analytical accounts of the banking sector - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: M - Australia Periodicity: M - SDDS Timeliness: 1M - Australia Timeliness: 1M - Analytical accounts of the central bank - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: M (1W recommended) - Australia Periodicity: W - SDDS Timeliness: 2W (1W encouraged) - Australia Timeliness/Comment: NLT 1W - Interest rates - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: D - Australia Periodicity: D - SDDS Timeliness: 1/ D - Stock market: share price index - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: D - Australia Periodicity: D - SDDS Timeliness: 1/ D ### External Sector — Coverage, Periodicity, Timeliness, Comments - Balance of payments - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: Q - Australia Periodicity: Q - SDDS Timeliness: 1Q - Australia Timeliness: NLT 1Q - Official reserve assets - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: M (W recommended) - Australia Periodicity: M - SDDS Timeliness: 1W - Australia Timeliness: 1W - Reserves template - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: M - Australia Periodicity: M - SDDS Timeliness: 1M (1W encouraged) - Australia Timeliness: 1M - Merchandise trade - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: M - Australia Periodicity: M - SDDS Timeliness: 8W (4–6W encouraged) - Australia Timeliness/Comment: NLT 1M - International investment position - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: A (Q recommended) - Australia Periodicity: Q - SDDS Timeliness: 3Q (1Q encouraged) - Australia Timeliness: NLT 1Q - External debt - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: Q - Australia Periodicity: Q - SDDS Timeliness: 1Q - Australia Timeliness: MLT 1Q - Exchange rates - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: D - Australia Periodicity: D - SDDS Timeliness: 1/ D ### Addendum - Population - Coverage: Yes - SDDS Periodicity: A - Australia Periodicity: Q - SDDS Timeliness: ... - Australia Timeliness: 6M *Appendix Table 4, as reproduced in the source PDF.* ### 1. DQAF (July 2003): Summary of Results for National Accounts ........................................39 ### 1. DQAF (July 2003): Summary of Results for National Accounts ### Prerequisites of quality — legal and institutional environment - Legal basis and responsibilities - The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) collects and disseminates statistics under: - Census and Statistics Act, (1905 (CSA) - Australian Bureau of Statistics Act, 1975 (ABSA) - Associated ministerial determinations - The CSA entitles the Statistician to determine statistical information to be collected (within subject matters in the Statistics Regulations), with two exceptions: the requirement to conduct a Census every five years and to compile statistics on the number of people in each State at the end of each quarter. - The Assistant Treasurer can direct the Statistician, in writing, to collect statistical information relating to a particular matter specified in the Statistics Regulations, but cannot direct the Statistician to cease a particular collection nor instruct how to collect information. - Section 6 of the ABSA: “to constitute the central statistical authority for the Australian Government and, by arrangements with the Governments of the States, provide statistical services for those Governments.” - No legal provisions apply specifically to the compilation of national accounts beyond general terms applying to all statistical areas; ABS has assumed the task of compiling the national accounts. - Accountability and transparency - The Statistician is obliged to appear before the Senate Estimates Committee roughly twice a year and answer questions publicly on ABS work; the Committee can call for follow-up responses and call other agencies such as the Audit Office. - Data sharing, coordination, and consultation - ABS compiles many source statistics internally (business surveys, price statistics, external relations, government finance statistics, labor market statistics), but also uses external administrative datasets where legal provisions require agencies to provide access. - ABS seeks coordination via committees, informal contacts, and extensive consultations prior to changes in production. - Confidentiality and access - The CSA requires that information not be published in a manner likely to enable identification of a person or organization; a statistical officer cannot be required to divulge Census form information to a court or tribunal. - Section 13 determination enables the Statistician to disclose specific classes of information, with limits to prevent identification. - ABS culture emphasizes confidentiality and has declined requests when disclosure might jeopardize confidence. - Respondents are informed of confidentiality to support response quality. - Legal mandate for reporting and response rates - The CSA enables the Statistician to request or direct completion of forms and sets penalties for failure. - Directives and penalties are applied rarely; response rates are high, usually around 90 percent. - Example: response rate for the retail business survey in 2008-2009 was 96 percent. ### Resources - Staffing and skills - The national accounts program has 67 people deployed directly. - Many professional staff have at least one degree, usually in statistics or a related social science; several have advanced degrees. - Staff turnover has increased recently, with turnover as high as 30 percent for household survey interviewers. - Recent retirements and resource-imposed downsizing have led to significant loss of expertise. - Training, mobility, and retention - Skills base maintained through internal and international formal training, on-the-job training, recruitment policies, and staff exchanges; staff encouraged to attend and present at conferences. - Salaries have been below the median for public sector positions, contributing to turnover. - Management committed to succession planning and rotation of staff. - IT, facilities, and financing - Office accommodation and working environment conform to mandated Australian Public Service standards. - IT resourcing and support provided through local deployment of specialists and ABS corporate systems support. - Funding for work programs set centrally; new work needs external funding or offsets. There is some user-funded work accepted only in limited amounts. - No headroom for additional commitments without specific funding; a review found no room to increase IT support without additional funding. - Efficiency measures and budget pressures - ABS budget subject to an efficiency dividend requiring marginal reductions each year. - 2009 retrenchment of 90 middle-management staff and attrition of more junior staff to fund a pay increase; the increase “held the line” but did not fully address wage disparities. - A cutback required led to a 24 percent reduction in the size of sample of the labor force survey to meet cumulative cost pressures and an additional one-off efficiency dividend. - External review by the Department of Finance and Deregulation (DoFD) led the Government to provide additional funding to offset some effects, allowing most program cuts to be reinstated; efficiency requirement remained. - ABS has redistributed certain activities from Canberra to State offices depending on expertise and staff turnover. - Institutional arrangements for resource use - ABS has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) regarding provision of statistics; ABS pays APRA to add lines for statistical purposes to APRA forms. - An MoU with the DoFD is under preparation. - All ABS staff have a performance discussion every six months. - The Economic Statistics Strategy Co-ordination Committee (ESSCC) reviews national accounts program operations periodically. ### Relevance - User engagement and monitoring of relevance - ABS arrangements for priorities and feedback include: - Australian Statistics Advisory Council (ASAC) as an independent advisory body on priorities and performance. - Economic Statistics User Group representing key economic constituents. - External contacts at senior levels and working-level briefings with agencies and users. - Media coverage and commentary provide continuous feedback. - Cross-topic user groups - Other user and reference groups (productivity, government finance, trade in services, financial statistics, and price indices) monitor important components feeding into national accounts. - Major methodological decisions and consultation - Major decisions, e.g., migration to the System of National Accounts, 2008 (2008 SNA), involved discussions with advisory bodies. - Decision to move simultaneously across new methodologies reflected guidance from advisory bodies. *Source: _cr10343 - 1. DQAF (July 2003): Summary of Results for National Accounts* ### 0.4 Other quality management ### 0.4 Other quality management ### 0.4.1 Processes are in place to focus on quality - ABS Mission Statement: “We assist and encourage informed decision-making, research and discussion within governments and the community, by leading a high quality, objective and responsive national statistical service”. - ABS Corporate Plan sets values: integrity, relevance, service, access for all, professionalism, and trust of providers; specifies these values in more detail. - ABS objectives include: - An expanded and improved national statistical service; - ABS services that are timely, relevant, responsive, and respected for their integrity and quality; - Informed and increased use of statistics; - A key contributor to international statistical activities that are important to Australia or our region; - An organization that builds capability to continually improve its effectiveness; - The trust and cooperation of our providers; - The ABS is a respected and strongly supported organization. - ABS maintains and publishes information on each collection, including information on the quality of the collection. - All ABS publications are subject to an internal clearance process. ### 0.4.2 Processes are in place to monitor the quality of the statistical program - Considerable resources devoted to methodology with an overarching mandate to monitor quality of the statistical work program. - Commonwealth Register of Surveys of Businesses (Statistical Clearing House) at http://www.nss.gov.au/nss contains metadata describing survey development, design, and procedures for many ABS collections. - External scrutiny referenced (see 0.3.1 in source). ### 0.4.3 Processes are in place to deal with quality considerations in planning the statistical program - Economic statistics work program coordinated via line management and cross-cutting groups; prime internal group: ABS Economic Statistics Strategy Coordinating Committee. - External coordination referenced (see 0.3.1 in source). ### 1. Assurances of integrity ### 1.1 Professionalism - Legal and institutional safeguards: - Under the ABSA, the Statistician and ABS form an independent statutory authority for the purposes of the Public Service Act, 1999. - The Statistician is appointed by the Governor-General for a period not exceeding seven years (with eligibility for reappointment), and cannot be removed other than on grounds of misbehavior or incapacity, or by becoming bankrupt. - The ABSA does not specify qualifications required for appointment as Statistician. - Role and approvals: - The Statistician is largely free to decide which statistics the ABS should produce. - Any new proposal for collection of information for statistical purposes must be laid before both Houses of the Parliament before implementation, unless the collection is voluntary. - Professional culture and staffing: - Recruitment is meritocratic and transparent in line with Australian public sector policies. - Professional qualifications are required; professional enhancement is encouraged. - ABS staff are in high demand elsewhere in the public sector and often move to such posts. - Decisions and misuse: - Choices of sources, statistical techniques, and dissemination are informed solely by statistical considerations. - ABS has authority to comment on erroneous interpretation and misuse of its statistics; ABS responses to media articles are available on the ABS website. ### 1.2 Transparency - Public availability: - Terms and conditions for collection, processing, and dissemination are widely made available to the public, particularly via the Internet. - Copies of government legislation (including the CSA and the Australian Bureau of Statistics Act) can be obtained from http://www.publications.gov.au or http://www.comlaw.gov.au/. - The ABS website http://www.abs.gov.au/ is the most complete source for legal provisions, ABS work program, corporate plan, annual report of the ASAC, SDDS information, and information about individual statistics. - Pre-release access: - ABS policy: all statistical releases made available on the website to government, commercial, and private users simultaneously from 11:30 a.m. (Canberra time) on the day of their release. - Prior to 11:30 a.m., ABS statistics are confidential and “under embargo.” - On 1 February, 2008, new pre-embargo access arrangements introduced allowing authorized ministerial staff and Government officials access up to two hours prior to official release time to prepare briefings for key Ministers. - Authorized lockup attendees must remain in a secure room managed by ABS staff, are prohibited from communicating information outside the room until the embargo is over, and must sign security undertakings which include provision for prosecution under the Crimes Act, 1914 for breaches. - A number of Commonwealth Treasury officials have pre-release access to Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product (ABS cat. no. 5206.0) mid-afternoon on the day before its release. - Policy on pre-embargo access is clearly set out on the ABS website in the Section “About us.” - Identification of products: - ABS products include the ABS logo and a catalog number. - Any ministerial commentary is released by Ministers or their Offices, independently of ABS statistical releases. - Advance notice of methodological change: - ABS policy to provide advance notice to users about major changes in methodology, source data, and statistical techniques, usually via regular publications prior to changes taking effect. - For national accounts, notice was given in Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product (ABS Catalog No. 5206.0); one-off publications explained the change toward adoption of the recommendations of the 2008 SNA well in advance. ### 1.3 Ethical standards - Staff conduct: - All staff are subject to the Code of Conduct under Section 13 of the Australian Public Service Act, 1999. - ABS Corporate Plan includes 12 rules of conduct that employees are expected to adhere to. - Staff are made aware of ethical standards at induction and must sign an undertaking to abide by them. - Periodic reminders via in-house webpage announcements, bookmarks, etc. ### 2. Methodological soundness ### 2.1 Concepts and definitions - The overall structure of Australia's national accounts follows the 2008 SNA. - Deviations from this standard are well documented and publicly available on the ABS website. ### 2.2 Scope - Australian national accounts cover a broad set of tables and accounts and include the ISWGNA minimum requirements for SNA implementation: - Annual value added and GDP at current and constant prices by activity; - Annual expenditures of GDP at current and constant prices; - Annual value added components at current prices by activity; - Sequence of accounts for the total economy (up to financial accounts) with an annual frequency; - Annual rest-of-the-world accounts (up to net lending). - ISWGNA recommended regular compilations include: - Quarterly value added and GDP at current and constant prices by activity; - Quarterly expenditures on GDP at current and constant prices; - Annual supply-and-use tables (note: annual supply-and-use tables are not published). - Additional compiled data include: - Quarterly financial accounts for sectors and the aggregate value of the other changes in assets; - Annual balance sheets; - Annual State accounts (restricted State data are available on a quarterly basis; data for smaller regional areas than states or territories are not published); - Symmetric industry-by-industry input-output tables; - Annual tourism satellite accounts; - A satellite account for nonprofit institutions (irregular). - Pension schemes: - A table showing liabilities of and associated flows of all pension schemes (funded or unfunded, including social security) is not yet produced pending international discussion on format. - Definition and special cases: - Definition of the economy follows SNA guidelines; some flows/stocks relating to external territories not measured for practical reasons (omissions insignificant for totals). - Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA): 50 percent of petroleum production project in the JPDA is considered part of the Australian economy. - Included in the accounts: territorial enclaves in the rest of the world; free zones/bonded warehouses/factories operated by offshore enterprises under customs control; persons living in Australia who work part of the year in another country. - Production boundary follows 2008 SNA and includes in principle activities such as: - Own-account production of all goods for own final consumption; - Research and development on own account; - Output of goods for own-account fixed capital formation; - Production of entertainment, literary, or artistic originals; - Production of computer software; - Illegal output sold to willing buyers. - Practical limitations: - Estimates for some activities may not, or only partially, be made (e.g., currently no estimates for illegal output activities such as prostitution and illicit drugs). - Data include estimates for “backyard production” and hidden activities known as the “cash-economy.” - Problems exist in data collection for recording entertainment, literary, and artistic originals. - Asset coverage: - Assets recorded mostly follow 2008 SNA and include: natural resources; weapon systems that meet the general definition of assets; expenditure on research and development; mineral exploration and evaluation (whether successful or not); originals and copies of intellectual property products; financial derivative contracts regardless whether traded on or off exchange; pension entitlements on employers’ pension schemes, whether funding exists or not. - No separate estimates are made for: valuables and historical monuments; work in progress on cultivated biological resources (crops, vineyards, cultivated fish, etc.); goodwill and marketing assets; and databases. - No estimates made for value of land under roads. - 2008 SNA recommendations regarding contracts, leases, and licenses that can be treated as assets have been implemented but estimates are constrained by source data problems. ### 2.3 Classification/sectorization - 2008 SNA used to classify: - Institutional units (nonprofit institutions serving households are included in household sector; only highest level institutional sectors published except public corporations distinguished as subsectors of nonfinancial and financial corporations); - Transactions and accounts (labels sometimes differ; Australian system does not incorporate a production account); - Other flows. - Industry and product classifications: - Economic activities classified using ANZSIC06 broken down by division for all industries, with additional breakdowns for agriculture, forestry and fishing; mining; manufacturing; electricity, gas and water; and transport and storage. ANZSIC06 is consistent with ISIC Rev. 4 at this level. - For products, the Input-Output Product Classification (IOPC) is employed (industry of origin headings with detailed product items shown under each heading). - COICOP is used for household final consumption expenditure (quarterly estimates published at a more aggregated level: 17 categories). - A classification strongly related to COFOG is used for government final consumption expenditure (available annually). - International transactions in goods classified according to SITC Rev. 4 (from September quarter 2008); balance of payments taxonomy followed for internationally traded services. - Issues and changes from 2008 SNA implementation: - Largely adopted new guidance on treatment of “special purpose entities”; impact generally low. Deviation: classification of holding companies in predominant sector of subsidiaries rather than always allocating to financial corporations sector (decision made after consultation with major users). - Recommendations on financial sector led to a review and closer compliance with more subdivisions and improved data sources; no methodological changes needed. - Principles refined in response to government accounting standards did not require change in Australian national accounts; central bank output treated as nonmarket services consumed by government. - Clarifications on super dividends, capital injections into public enterprises, treatment of public-private partnerships, and restructuring agencies required no change. - Treatment of ancillary units as separate establishments required no changes. - Implementation of 2008 SNA rules on employee stock options constrained by data sources. - 2008 SNA expansion on “intellectual property products” led to changes in ABS asset classification. - 2008 SNA suggestion to present capital services in a supplementary table for market producers is met by an ABS table as part of productivity analysis. - Modified measurement of nonlife insurance services implemented via smoothing procedures on claims; no extreme events yet requiring recording of capital transfers to damaged parties. - 2008 SNA refinements to FISIM were already introduced in Australia; several details of FISIM calculation remain subject to international debate. - Expanded treatment of remittances from persons abroad led to review of methods and better estimates. - Universal application of principle of change in ownership of goods implemented (merchanting and goods sent for processing changes) with low impact for Australia; some data quality issues still examined. - Clarifications on transactions between general government and public corporations and accounting for securitization vehicles required no changes (securitization vehicles are not used by Australian government units). - Clarified treatment of several classes of loan and new treatment for standardized guarantees (e.g., export credit guarantees and student loan guarantees) implemented by ABS for major known items. *Source: _cr10343 - 0.4 Other quality management* ### 2.4 Basis for recording ### 2.4 Basis for recording ### 2.4.1 Market prices are used to value flows and stocks - Output is valued at basic prices derived from market transactions or, absent such transactions, estimated by reference to market prices for analogous goods or services, or as the sum of costs incurred. - Expenditure aggregates are compiled at purchasers’ prices. - Where market prices are not observable: - Imputations are made (example: imputed rent on owner-occupied dwellings calculated using comparable rental values for similar dwellings). - Flows may be valued at cost (example: nonmarket services). - Treatment of taxes: - If levied, sales and excise taxes are included in the valuation of intermediate consumption. - The Goods and Services Tax (GST), a value added-type tax, is usually excluded from intermediate consumption because it is deductible. - Intermediate consumption of input-taxed industries, such as financial services and the ownership of dwellings, is shown including value added tax. - If applicable, the deductible part of the GST is excluded from the valuation of final uses. - Corrections are made when transfer prices are detected; transfer prices are difficult to trace. - Trade valuation: - Total imports and exports are valued on a free on board (f.o.b.) basis. - Information on insurance and freight for merchandise imports up to the Australian port of entry is available from customs documents. - Foreign currency and stock valuation: - Transactions in foreign currency are converted using the mid-point exchange rate prevailing in the market at the moment they take place. - Stocks are valued at market prices where available; where not available, imputations are made (for example by reflating cost-based estimates using appropriate price indices). - The ABS records debt instruments other than securities at fair value, in contrast to nominal value recommended by the SNA. - Interest on securities: - In variation with the SNA, interest on securities is recorded following the creditor approach, substituting current market interest rates for contractual interest rates. ### 2.4.2 Recording is done on an accrual basis - Transactions are recorded on an accrual basis as far as possible; where material, timing adjustments are made to source data to better reflect accruals accounting. - Sources for government transactions apply accrual accounting. - Accrued but not used vacation leave is recorded as an asset of households in the balance sheets. - Treatment of large capital items produced to order: - For building and engineering construction, the buyer is assumed to take ownership of the item in accordance with progress payments made. - For machinery and equipment, change of ownership is almost invariably recorded at the time the asset is received by the buyer. - In principle, the change of ownership should be recorded as output progresses, but some simplifications of the pure accrual principle are applied. ### 2.4.3 Grossing/netting procedures are broadly consistent with internationally accepted standards, guidelines, or good practices - Transactions between production units within the same enterprise are recorded on a gross basis in the calculation of value added. - Adjustments are made to unwind netting or consolidation inappropriate for this purpose in some source data. - Survey and administrative data design and quality assurance aim to minimize netting of values by respondents beyond that permitted by commercial accounting standards. - SNA grossing/netting rules are followed in other respects, except: - The sector accounts consolidate intrasector property income, financial transactions, and financial stocks. - The ABS argues consolidation provides aggregates more analytically useful than simple summation without impacting the balancing items in the various accounts. --- ### 3. Accuracy and reliability ### 3.1 Source data #### 3.1.1 Source data are obtained from comprehensive data collection programs that take into account country-specific conditions - A well-designed data collection program exists for national accounts source material. - Business registers and sampling: - A business register became operational in 2002. - The vast majority of businesses are in the Australian Tax Office (ATO)-maintained population; remaining businesses are in the ABS-maintained population. - Most businesses obtain an Australian Business Number (ABN) and are included on a government register of businesses. - The ATO-maintained population is efficient and comprehensive for sampling larger producing units; small units and units under ATO thresholds are estimated through regression methods. - A disadvantage: changes made by the ABS to economic classification of units cannot be fed back to the ATO due to confidentiality constraints. - The ABS-maintained population comprises enterprise group, enterprise, and the type of activity unit; it is updated through personal visits to the largest units, a mail survey, and a press watch. - Reporting unit concepts: - The most commonly used producing unit is the management unit. - Some statistics use the establishment unit (Australian establishment differs from the SNA establishment). - Deviations from SNA units imply some loss of precision in allocation of production by economic activity, likely small at the macroeconomic level. - Survey program and frames: - The ABS uses the business register for a comprehensive survey program; the Business Surveys Register of the Statistical Clearing House contains metadata that describe survey development, design, and procedures. - Sample frames are updated quarterly and refreshed regularly. - Samples for annual statistics have become quite small relative to desired precision. - Survey questionnaires follow sound design principles; post enumeration testing is not always applied. - ABS enterprise and household surveys are in most cases compulsory; response rates are generally high due to intensive follow-up. - Household surveys: - A Household Expenditure Survey (HES) is conducted regularly, with frequency of at least once every six years; this frequency is insufficient to capture quickly changing patterns in some item categories. - No ongoing household expenditure surveys exist for interim updating of benchmark data. - Sample frames for household surveys are based on the five-annually Census of Population and Housing. - Government finance and price indices: - Comprehensive government finance statistics on an accrual basis cover central, State, and local governments and include defense-related expenditures and data on capital stocks. - Some adjustments are needed before GFS data can be incorporated into national accounts. - Most CPI components can be used directly; in domains such as Medicare and education CPI does not generate satisfactory indices and national accountants must construct more appropriate indices. - The PPI does not cover several product types national accounts would like to deflate, particularly services. - Other price indices used: international trade prices index, building and construction price indices, Australian petroleum statistics produced by the Department of Industry and Resources. - Sources for annual GDP (production approach rely mostly on four sources): - Annual Integrated Collection (AIC) - Government finance statistics - Data on financial statistics collected by APRA - Information from the tax system - The AIC primarily serves the national accounts; it provides detailed data on income, expenses, balance sheets, and employment. - Supplementary data: Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE), State Mines, various surveys on construction and engineering, Household Expenditure Survey. - Main sources for expenditure approach: retail survey, government finance statistics, Quarterly survey of private capital expenditure, balance of payments statistics. - Quarterly accounts rely foremost on the Business Indicators Survey, the monthly retail survey, the Labor Force Survey, government finance statistics, and the balance of payments; supplemented by various other indicators. - ABS maintains periodic meetings with the business community and contacts with main users such as the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), academics, ATO, and APRA. - The ABS participates actively in setting international standards. #### 3.1.2 Source data reasonably approximate the definitions, scope, classifications, valuation, and time of recording required - ABS business surveys and government finance statistics are designed to collect data consistent with SNA definitions to the extent permitted by provider load issues and commercial accounting standards. - ABS negotiates with administrative data providers to conform to accounting standards and where practical to implement SNA-based concepts. - Remaining issues: - GFS serve purposes beyond national accounts, resulting in deviating accrual measures, varying valuation of government debt and interest, and different values for consumption of fixed capital. - APRA data do not cover financial institutions outside its regulation; ABS must collect data on missing units. - Timing problems: some businesses report on intervals other than the statistical/financial year ending June 30. - Valuation issues occur frequently in reported value data for minerals and other commodities. - No satisfactory indicators on education are available for the quarterly accounts. - Topics requiring attention: - Cost-cutting measures and reporting-burden concerns have negatively influenced pertinence of some source data, notably the AIC; the AIC sample size is seen as insufficient. - The AIC does not provide a comfortable level of product detail to compile supply-and-use tables. - Some benchmark surveys are quite old. - The PPI lacks sufficient coverage, particularly in services, and is considered a weakness. - The HES could be updated more frequently, for instance by a relatively small rolling survey to detect changes in consumption behavior. #### 3.1.3 Source data are timely - ABS quarterly and annual data collections are scheduled to produce results in time for input into annual and quarterly national accounts processing. - Late reporting may occur for the first estimates of the quarterly accounts in agriculture and a few other sources, requiring coverage imputations. *Source: _cr10343 - 2.4 Basis for recording* ### 3.2 Assessment of source data ### 3.2 Assessment of source data ### 3.2 Assessment of source data — key findings - Source data—including censuses, sample surveys, and administrative records—are routinely assessed for coverage, sample error, response error, and nonsampling error; results of assessments are monitored and made available to guide statistical processes. - ABS’s quarterly and annual data collections are subject to formal clearance processes that monitor quality aspects of data collection; formal clearance documentation is made available to national accounts staff. - Discussions of assessment results are held quarterly to address quality questions. - Quality declarations are available for many ABS data releases. - Where formal clearance processes do not exist (e.g., many administrative sources), contacts are maintained with compilers (notably ATO and APRA) to address data concerns. - Newly-received data are checked for consistency with the time series. ### 3.3 Statistical techniques — compilation methods and practices - Data compilation procedures in the Australian statistical system are sound; the ABS Methodology and Data Management Division supports compiling agencies with expert advice on design, collection, compilation, and analysis. - Sound methods are used for adjustments for underreporting of income and for transactions in the cash economy. - GDP is calculated according to three approaches: the production, expenditure, and income approaches. The ABS shows the differing results explicitly in the quarterly accounts for the most recent year; differences in other years are removed in a balancing exercise. - In the quarterly national accounts: - No current price estimates of GDP are made according to the production approach. - No volume measures of GDP are published following the income approach. Production approach — principal points: - Annual accounts breakdown by economic activities: 63 (publication level is 21 activities). - Reliance on fixed ratios more than five years old is limited, though in categories such as transportation some ratios may go back much longer than five years. - Output of owner-occupied dwellings is calculated on the basis of rentals tenants would pay for similar accommodation, using an inventory model on the stock of dwellings and rent information from the CPI. - Inventory data are used to estimate output and intermediate consumption; the perpetual inventory method is used to estimate consumption of fixed capital. - Where source data are on a cash basis, efforts are undertaken to bring data to an accrual basis; government finance source data are already on an accrual basis. - Volume measures of GDP in annual accounts usually start with double deflation (SNA-preferred), but subsequent analysis often shows unacceptable results—likely due to inadequacies in available price indices. - About one third of the volume measures of annual GDP is calculated using the double deflation method. - Quarterly volume measures of GDP make little use of double deflation; only agriculture uses it in both annual and quarterly accounts. - The output indicator method is most commonly used for quarterly GDP: extrapolating reference year estimates of current price gross value added using movements in a volume indicator of output. Output indicators are often composites of several output statistics. - The input indicator method (extrapolation using labor input measures such as hours worked) is used mainly for general government dominated industries (Public administration and safety, and Education). - Volume measures of taxes and subsidies on products are estimated by applying base-year tax rates to the volume taxed or subsidized; trade margins volume is estimated by applying base-year trade margins as a percentage of sales to current-year sales volume. - GDP volume measures are compiled using successive multiplication of chain links each derived using a Laspeyres-type formula. Expenditure approach — principal points: - The expenditure approach is derived independently for household final expenditure, gross fixed capital formation, change in inventories, and exports minus imports. - Household final consumption expenditure compiled at the two- or three-digit level of COICOP. - Government final consumption expenditure is compiled as one single item (can be broken down by COFOG). - Gross fixed capital formation is compiled by both activities and type of assets; inventories similarly compiled though not published cross-classified. - Reliance on fixed ratios older than five years in expenditure is considered limited. Other quarterly compilation techniques: - An appropriate benchmark technique, similar to the Denton technique, is used to combine annual estimates with quarterly indicators. - The quarterly compilation system derives quarterly series from seasonally unadjusted source data. - Australia has adopted (with minor changes) the X-12 ARIMA package from Statistics Canada as its standard method of seasonal analysis of quarterly series. - Calendar effects, where measurable, are estimated using regression techniques; estimated seasonal and calendar influences together provide combined adjustment factors for seasonal adjustment. - Concurrent seasonal adjustment is applied each quarter, causing revisions to previous seasonal factors. ### 3.4 Assessment and validation of intermediate data and statistical outputs - Intermediate results are validated against other information: - Intermediate quarterly results are compared with performance indices from the Australia Industry Group, sentiment indices, and forecasts by institutions including the Deutsche Bank. - Intermediate annual results are compared with quarterly accounts, independent sources on compensation of employees, and external sources on agricultural production. - Statistical discrepancies disclosed by internal checks are followed up if material. - A quarterly supply-use model is used to reconcile production and expenditure estimates; annual supply-use balancing eliminates discrepancies between production, income and expenditure methods for all but the most recent year. ### 3.5 Revision studies - In 2006 a comprehensive study of national accounts revisions among OECD countries was conducted; Australia participated and ranked in the middle of the group. No similar broad study has been undertaken since. - The impact of revisions of initial estimates is subject to routine review, but a formal account of lessons learned from these exercises is not made. - Adequate documentation of compilation stages and revisions (including reasons for change) is particularly well kept for the quarterly accounts. ### 4 Serviceability — periodicity, timeliness, and consistency Periodicity and timeliness: - Periodicity of the quarterly national accounts is quarterly in accordance with SDDS requirements. - Timeliness of the quarterly accounts is about two months after the end of the reference quarter; this meets SDDS requirements. Consistency within and across datasets: - Quarterly accounts include explicit statistical discrepancies to equate sums of components of expenditure and industry chain volume measures with the "headline" chain volume measure of GDP; current price estimates include discrepancies to equate income and expenditure component sums with the "headline" GDP estimate. - Discrepancies between all three methods are made explicit in the most recent year of the annual accounts and in the annual accounts for the years prior to 1994/95. - Other statistical discrepancies shown: - A discrepancy to reconcile the sum of saving and capital transfers with the sum of capital accumulation and net lending. - A discrepancy (errors and omissions) to reconcile net lending with net financial transactions. - Historically discrepancies have been quite small. All three GDP methods showed the same trend up to the global financial crisis (GFC); after the GFC the expenditure approach remains clearly higher than the income and production approaches—an explanation has not yet been found. - The formal requirement that value (change) = volume (change) × price (change) is consistently maintained. - GDP in input-output tables is consistent with the annual accounts for the relevant year; quarterly accounts are made consistent through benchmarking with published annual accounts. - Time series availability: - Consistent time series for key aggregates are maintained back to 1959/60. - Most annual data available from 1973/75. - Subdivisions in the quarterly accounts available from 1977/78. - Unusual changes in economic trends are explained in analytical text included in the publication and database. - National accounts rest of world data are consistent with BOP/IIP data. - National accounts and government finance statistics are in principle reconcilable though there are differences; data for public enterprises in government finance statistics are not equal to those in national accounts due to different data sources. - Implicit price deflators are comparable with published consumer and producer price indices; labor measures are reconcilable with published labor market statistics; aggregates relate to published business survey data. - Analytical series movements (productivity measures, average compensation per employee, imports to stocks ratios, inventories to sales ratios, etc.) can be used to check reasonableness. ### 4.3 Revision policy and practice - Revisions to annual estimates normally follow a three-year cycle at the end of which the data are no longer subject to change; this is when input-output tables for that year are prepared. The scheme is applied flexibly; further changes can occur in the fourth and later years. - No fixed schedule exists for introducing major revisions. - Revisions to previously published quarterly data can be made with each issue of the quarterly national accounts, though most revisions occur in the September quarter issue. - Long-term revisions to the level of chain volume measures are made in the September quarter issue when chain volume series are re-referenced to a new financial year (this does not affect estimates of movements in volume series). - Typical revision limits for quarterly releases (periods affected by changes in method or underlying source data): - September quarter: 16 quarters - December quarter: five quarters - March quarter: six quarters - June quarter: seven quarters - Seasonally adjusted and trend data can be revised for some earlier periods as a result of revisions to original data for the specified periods above. - Revisions of any importance are always explained. - Publications do not indicate whether data are subject to later revisions; tables likewise do not indicate revision status. Each quarterly release contains a table of revisions undertaken for that release; reasons for significant revisions are disclosed on page 2 of the quarterly releases. - Statistical publications explain revisions but databases made available to users do not include those explanations. - ABS intends to make formal studies and analyses of revisions, but this has been done only occasionally. ### 5 Accessibility — data and metadata dissemination Data accessibility: - National accounts data are published in a sufficiently clear manner and accompanied by analysis that includes charts and tables. - Datasets are usually published with a large level of detail; further detail is available from spreadsheets. - The first page of the quarterly accounts highlights key figures and key points; the annual accounts publication begins with an extensive analysis. - Relevant series are disseminated in seasonally-adjusted form. - National accounts are essentially released on the Internet, ensuring simultaneous availability to professional users and facilitating redissemination; more comprehensive series are available in electronic format. - No charges apply except when a customized request involves special work by the ABS. - The ABS website allows free access to: - All ABS publications from 1998 onwards in Adobe Acrobat format; - Over 2,000 spreadsheets of economic and social data; - Multi-dimensional datasets in SuperTABLE format; - 2001 Census Basic Community Profiles to the Statistical Local Area (SLA) level in Excel spreadsheet format; - Summary information including Main Features, and information on upcoming releases. - Precise release dates for the next two quarters' national accounts are published in the quarterly Australian National Accounts; the release of annual data follows a strict preannounced schedule. - Data are released simultaneously to all users. The press may have access before release in a locked facility at the ABS; outside contact is only possible at the end of the embargo, which normally is 11:30 a.m. Canberra time. - A longer pre-embargo access is provided to Treasury officials to ensure briefings for the Treasurer are available at time of release; these officials are subject to isolation until the embargo expires. - Customized data may be provided electronically as a special data service; clients are charged on the basis of the number of data cells provided. Metadata accessibility: - Very comprehensive sources and methods documents are published and updated regularly and typically include: - Information on concepts, definitions, classifications, data sources, compilation methods, statistical techniques, and other methodological aspects and procedures. - Departures from internationally accepted standards, guidelines, or good practices. - Metadata on surveys are easily accessible from the Commonwealth Register of Surveys of Businesses (Statistical Clearing House). - The SDDS/GDDS metadata, SDDS summary methodologies, and related descriptions are reviewed and updated regularly. - All metadata are readily accessible via the Internet and cross-referenced in data releases. - Because accounts underwent an extensive revision with the introduction of the 2008 SNA and updated industry classification (ANZSIC06), the publication Australian National Accounts: Concepts, Sources and Methods has not yet been updated to incorporate all new features. - A document describing in detail the methodologies followed to compile the quarterly accounts is lacking. - Levels of detail are adapted to intended audiences: the publication Australian National Accounts: Concepts, Sources and Methods is detailed; simplified presentations are occasionally released in the “Spotlight on...” series; summary metadata are provided with data releases. *Source: _cr10343 - 3.2 Assessment of source data.* ### 5.3 Assistance to users ### 5.3 Assistance to users ### 5.3.1 Contact points and user support - Prompt and knowledgeable service and support are available to users of statistics. - Client contact details are included on the front page of the quarterly and annual publications. - The ABS national information referral service channels enquiries to relevant officers. - Assistance to users is not monitored or reviewed periodically (e.g., to gauge the time of response to e-mail requests). - Limited material is available to raise awareness on the use of statistics (e.g., for schools and research). - A schools program is in place and media training is given. ### 5.3.2 Catalogs, publication access, and charges - The ABS website www.abs.gov.au contains links to all ABS data releases, descriptive material, and terms and conditions of supply. ### Related assessment points and context (from Accessibility element) - In the Data Quality Assessment Framework summary, element 5.3 Assistance to users is assessed as O (Practice Observed). *Source: _cr10343 - 5.3 Assistance to users* ### 0.3 Relevance ### 0.3 Relevance ### 0.3.1 Monitoring relevance and practical utility - The ABS has arrangements to establish priorities and receive feedback, including: - ASAC as an independent body advising on priorities and performance on the statistics work program generally. - Economic Statistics User Group representing key economic constituents for more specific advice and feedback. - Briefings and working-level discussions occur with individual agencies and users. - Media coverage and commentary on price releases provide continuous feedback. - The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is subject to periodic reviews involving a formal public consultation process and a CPI Advisory Group. - The Australian Statistician initiates CPI reviews and determines topics to be covered. - The 16th Series review of the CPI was announced in December 2009. - The review sends its recommendations to the Australian Statistician for consideration. - The methodological development of the CPI is not constrained by its use in indexation. ### 0.4 Other quality management #### 0.4.1 Processes to focus on quality - ABS Mission Statement: "We assist and encourage informed decision-making, research and discussion within governments and the community, by leading a high quality, objective and responsive national statistical service" — explicitly mentions various dimensions of quality. - ABS Corporate Plan sets values and objectives relevant to quality management. ABS values include: - integrity, relevance, service, access for all, professionalism, and trust of providers. - ABS objectives include: - An expanded and improved national statistical service; - ABS services that are timely, relevant, responsive and respected for their integrity and quality; - Informed and increased use of statistics; - A key contributor to international statistical activities that are important to Australia or our region; - An organization that builds capability to continually improve its effectiveness; - The trust and cooperation of our providers; - The ABS is a respected and strongly supported organization. - ABS maintains and publishes information on each collection it conducts, including information on the quality of the collection. - All publications produced by the ABS are subject to an internal clearance process. #### 0.4.2 Processes to monitor quality of the statistical program - ABS devotes considerable resources to methodology with an overarching mandate to monitor quality of the statistical work program generally. - The Commonwealth Register of Surveys of Businesses (Statistical Clearing House) at http://www.nss.gov.au/nss contains metadata describing survey development, design, and procedures for many ABS collections. - For external scrutiny, see 0.3.1 (consultative arrangements and feedback mechanisms). #### 0.4.3 Processes to address quality in planning the statistical program - ABS coordinates the economic statistics work program, including quality decisions, via line management and cross-cutting groups, the prime internal group being ESSCC. - For external coordination see 0.3.1. ### 1 Assurances of integrity #### 1.3 Professionalism / 1.1.1 Impartial production - Under the ABSA, the Statistician and ABS form an independent statutory authority for the purposes of the Public Service Act, 1999. - There is specific legal provision that the ABS enjoys statistical independence. - The Statistician is appointed by the Governor-General for a period not exceeding seven years (with eligibility for reappointment) and cannot be removed other than on the grounds of misbehavior or incapacity, or by becoming bankrupt. The ABSA does not mention the qualifications necessary to be appointed Statistician. - The Statistician is largely free to decide which statistics the ABS should produce, but any new proposal for collection of information for statistical purposes must be laid before both Houses of the Parliament before implementation, unless the proposal is for voluntary collection. - Professional culture: recruitment is meritocratic and transparent in line with Australian public sector policies. - ABS Code of Conduct is derived from the Australian Public Service Commission code of conduct. - Professional qualifications and/or relative experience are required; professional enhancement is encouraged. - ABS staff are in high demand elsewhere in the public sector and internationally and often move to such posts. #### 1.1.2 Decisions informed solely by statistical considerations - The ABS’s choices of sources and statistical techniques, and decisions about dissemination, are informed solely by statistical considerations. #### 1.1.3 Right to comment on erroneous interpretation and misuse - The ABS has authority to comment on erroneous interpretation and misuse of its statistics and does so when appropriate. - ABS responses to media articles are available on the ABS website. ### 1.2 Transparency #### 1.2.1 Terms and conditions publicly available - Terms and conditions for collection, processing, and dissemination are widely made available to the public, particularly via the Internet. - Copies of government legislation, including the CSA and the ABSA, are available from http://www.publications.gov.au, http://www.comlaw.gov.au/ or http://www.comlaw.gov.au/. The ABS website http://www.abs.gov.au/ is the most complete source for terms and conditions, including legal provisions, ABS work program, corporate plan, annual report of the ASAC, information about the SDDS, and information about individual statistics. #### 1.2.2 Internal governmental access prior to release - ABS policy and practice: all statistical releases are made available on the website to government, commercial, and private users simultaneously from 11:30 a.m. (Canberra time) on the day of release. - Prior to 11:30 a.m., all ABS statistics are treated as confidential and regarded as being “under embargo”. - On 1 February, 2008, new pre-embargo access arrangements were introduced: - Authorized ministerial staff and Government officials may access a small number of ABS publications up to two hours prior to official release time to prepare briefings for key Ministers. - Authorized persons attending a lockup must remain in a secure room managed by ABS staff and are prohibited from communicating information outside the room until embargo is over. - Attendees at the lockup must sign security undertakings including provision for prosecution under the Crimes Act, 1914 for breaches. - The policy on pre-embargo access is set out on the ABS website in the section “About us.” #### 1.2.3 Products clearly identified - ABS products include the ABS logo and a catalog number. - Any ministerial commentary is released by Ministers or their Offices, independently of ABS statistical releases. #### 1.2.4 Advance notice of major methodological changes - ABS policy is to provide advance notice to users about major changes in methodology, source data, and statistical techniques, usually in regular publications for periods before changes take effect. ### 1.3 Ethical standards #### 1.3.1 Staff behavior guidelines - All staff are subject to the Code of Conduct as covered in Section 13 of the Australian Public Service Act, 1999. - A specific ABS code of conduct does not exist, but the ABS Corporate Plan includes 12 rules of conduct expected of employees. - Staff are made aware of ethical standards at induction and must sign an undertaking to abide by them. - Staff are periodically reminded of standards through in-house webpage announcements, bookmarks, etc. ### 2 Methodological soundness #### 2.1 Concepts and definitions - The CPI generally follows internationally accepted concepts and definitions as specified in the international CPI Manual (2004) and for the 1993 (and 2008) SNA and in the resolution passed at the Seventeenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians in Geneva in December 2003. - Minor and/or internationally common exceptions to the 1993 SNA include: - exclusion of illegal goods and services; - exclusion of expenditure weights for gambling and prostitution; - exclusion of expenditure by institutional households; - exclusion of expenditure on second-hand goods. - Another relatively minor exclusion, common in CPI practice, concerns own-account final consumption (required by the 1993 and 2008 SNA and the CPI Manual). - ABS publishes the national CPI based on an acquisitions approach as the key general measure of inflation in Australia. - Some analytical cost of living indices based on an outlays approach for sub-population groups (e.g., age pensioner households, which include mortgage interest payments) are also published. - Differences between acquisitions and outlays approaches: - Owner-occupied housing costs: acquisitions approach takes price of new houses; outlays approach includes interest on mortgages and other service costs. - Financial services and credit: acquisitions approach includes charges for arranging loans but excludes interest; outlays approach treats a loan as a “product” and the interest differential charged as the “price.” - CPI review history: - Last comprehensive review undertaken in 1997 resulting in the 13th Series. - Two minor reviews: 2000 (14th Series) and 2005 (15th Series) limited to updating expenditure weights. - A major review is underway with the 16th Series CPI to be implemented in respect of the September quarter 2011 in October 2011. - The 16th Series review includes formal consultative mechanisms involving key users and the public, seeking written submissions and public hearings, with objectives to update item weights, reassess scope and coverage, and consult on other methodological issues. #### 2.2 Scope - The CPI reference population is all metropolitan private households; the fixed expenditure basket represents these households. - Overall CPI scope is broadly in accordance with international practice and recommendations in the international CPI Manual and with 1993 SNA, the main exception being exclusion of non-metropolitan households. - HES sample covers the whole of Australia, but CPI weights are restricted to the six State capital cities plus Canberra and Darwin, which constitute the CPI reference population and represent just 64 percent of private households. - Prices are collected continuously each quarter from the six State capital cities plus Darwin and Canberra. - Metadata for the CPI outline goods and services covered; relatively minor exclusions noted in 2.1.1 are generally for practical measurement reasons. - Exclusion of second-hand goods: second-hand goods are entirely excluded from the Australian CPI rather than only transfers within the household sector (e.g., sales of ex-fleet cars are not covered). - Institutional households (residents of old people’s homes, student hostels, prisons, hospitals, etc.) are excluded from the Australian CPI. - In terms of weights, the Australian CPI falls short of the “domestic” concept favored in the ILO Manual on Consumer Price Indices for a macroeconomic indicator. - The HES includes persons present for one year or more in Australia (excluding foreign diplomatic and military personnel stationed in Australia) but does not enumerate short term tourists. - Conceptually, the CPI scope does not extend to foreign diplomatic and military personnel stationed in Australia nor short term tourists. - The domestic concept measures inflation in the territory; in practice, HES-derived weights and price collection are restricted to the six State capital cities plus Canberra and Darwin per the defined scope. #### 2.3 Classification / sectorization - The Australian CPI uses a demand-based commodity classification (CPICC) based on household utility and substitutability, which differs from the international COICOP classification. - Example: In CPICC, restaurant meals are grouped with “food” as substitutes to eating at home; in COICOP, restaurant meals are grouped under “Restaurants and Hotels” as a service. - At higher levels there is a broad correspondence between CPICC and COICOP. - Two advantages of using COICOP: 1. Facilitates international comparisons on a like-for-like basis. 2. Aligns the CPI more closely with the dissection of household final consumption expenditure in the Australian National Accounts. - In the 15th Series CPI, CPICC divides the basket into 11 major groups: - Food - Alcohol and tobacco - Clothing and footwear - Housing - Household contents and services - Health - Transportation - Communication - Recreation - Education - Financial and insurance services - These groups are divided into 33 subgroups and 90 expenditure classes; index numbers for groups and subgroups can be analyzed separately and their individual effects assessed. - Despite classification differences, there is reasonable concordance at higher levels facilitating international comparisons on a comparable basis. *Source: _cr10343 - 0.3 Relevance* ### 2.4 Basis for recording ### 2.4 Basis for recording ### 2.4.1 Market prices are used to value flows and stocks - Consumption expenditure is valued at observed purchase prices (market prices), which include applicable taxes, such as Goods and Services Tax (GST), less discounts on products. - Discounted prices are recorded only when the discounts are not discriminatory and can be obtained without difficulty. - The Australian CPI excludes: - items on clearance (disappearing goods at unusually heavily discounted prices), - second-hand goods (e.g., used car prices are excluded). - If an outlet does not display prices, the price may be obtained by asking the respondent. - ABS collectors are trained to obtain only the transaction price; list and quoted prices are verified with the respondent to confirm they are typical transaction prices. - For price collection from websites, quality assurance is carried out prior to introducing this mode of collection; respondents are sometimes contacted to ensure no misinterpretation of prices. - Prices for tradesman services are derived from unpublished data collected for the purpose of compiling the quarterly Labour Price Index (ABS Catalog No. 6345.0). - Product specifications and price-determining transaction terms (e.g., whether delivery or service costs are reflected) are recorded to ensure consistent pricing and to facilitate identification of quality changes. ### 2.4.2 Recording is done on an accrual basis - The CPI is a quarterly index; pricing is undertaken on a continuous basis to reflect the situation for the quarter as a whole. - An individual item at an individual outlet or service provider is generally priced only once a quarter for non-volatile items. - Advantages of continuous price collection over a quarter from an ABS perspective: - It is more consistent with some other economic statistics, most particularly the national accounts. - The price of some items can be expected to change regularly over time during the collection month or can be particularly volatile. Spreading collection over the month is practical and cost-efficient. For volatile items the ABS collects prices more frequently. - Practical operational advantage: more even workload and avoidance of problems associated with point-in-time collection. - Some items are priced only once a year when prices are generally reviewed annually (examples given: council rates and football match entry fees). - General approach: price each item as frequently as necessary to ensure reliable measures of quarterly price change. - Pricing is based on an acquisitions approach: - Most acquisitions occur at the time of payment, so price movements are recorded then. - When payment and acquisition do not coincide, prices are recorded when the good or service is acquired, not when payment is made, consistent with valuation on an accrual basis as required under the 1993 SNA. - Examples where acquisition and payment differ (and ABS treatment): - Goods and services invoiced periodically after consumption (such as electricity and telecommunications and home-delivered newspapers): price movements are introduced from the date the price change is effective; providers are approached regularly for current charges and dates of effect. - Goods and services paid for with loans (e.g., motor vehicles): the price recorded is the full transaction price at the time of acquiring the product; method and timing of payment are irrelevant under an acquisitions approach. - Goods and services regularly paid for in advance (e.g., airfares, club memberships, and magazine subscriptions): for index calculation the price is included when the good or service is actually acquired (e.g., date of the flight, commencement date for a magazine subscription) and not the date payment is made; prices are collected at the time payment would normally be made (example: domestic airline ticket typically paid about a month before departure). ### 2.4.3 Grossing/netting procedures and specific scope issues - Second-hand goods - The exclusion of prices of second-hand durable goods (such as cars) from the Australian CPI is noted. - Theoretical rationale per SNA: net expenditure (purchases less sales) is required; sales and purchases by households may more or less cancel on aggregate. No evidence is presented that this is the rationale for Australia’s exclusion. - Dealer margins: according to the SNA, dealer margins would be in scope for second-hand goods; practical issues in obtaining weights and prices can challenge index compilers. - The CPI Manual outlines four net-expenditure scenarios: - Directly from another household: net expenditure is zero; purchases should be excluded from a CPI. - From another household via a dealer: purchases should be included with a “net” weight reflecting the difference between buying and selling price (the dealer’s service). - Directly from another sector (another enterprise or from abroad): appropriate “net” weight is household purchases from these sectors less any sales to them. - From an enterprise or from abroad via a dealer: appropriate “net” weight is household purchases from dealers less household sales to dealers plus the aggregate value of dealers’ margins on the products they buy from and resell to households. - Consequence of net weights: price changes for second-hand goods sold directly from one household to another carry a zero weight; other sales do not. - The exclusion of second-hand goods in the Australian CPI does not comply with international best practice and can only be justified if the net weight is insignificant; this needs to be tested. - Financial services - Inclusion of financial services in the Australian CPI resulted from the 15th Series review of the CPI; ABS committed to developing a price index for financial services. - A research program commenced in 1998 to develop such a measure. - Objective: construct a price index covering services acquired by households related to acquisition, holding and disposal of financial and real assets, reflecting changes in total cost of any service (both fees charged directly and indirect charges via interest rate margins). - Examples of potential financial services: financial advice; currency exchange; services by fund managers, life insurance offices and superannuation funds; stock-broking services; real estate agency services. - ABS methodology for deposit and loan facilities: - Uses samples of customer accounts covering a full 12 months activity and current period pricing schedules. - Calculates the annual amounts payable at current prices for a full year’s activity for each of several thousand individual customers. - Pricing includes a component for indirect charges charged through interest rate margins. - Methodology is consistent with SNA requirements. - SNA valuation guidance for financial intermediation services output: - For financial assets involved in intermediation (such as loans): value of services to the borrower per monetary unit on account is the margin between the rate payable by the borrower and a reference rate. - For financial liabilities involved in intermediation (such as deposits): value of services to the lender per monetary unit on account is the margin between the reference rate and the rate payable by the enterprise to the lender. - The value of actual or explicit financial intermediation service charges levied. - Practical measurement issues: - Identifying the reference rate (the service-free or pure interest rate) is very difficult. - Risk of volatility or negative measures of service value if the reference rate lies above the lending rate or below the deposit rate. - The ILO Manual on CPIs recommends as practical expediency using an average of borrowing and lending rates (mid-point favored). - Practical measurement issues associated with the Australian approach are common to other countries and warrant further investigation, consultation with other CPI compilers, and attention to evolving international standards. ### Key technical references and precise items cited in the text - CPI is a quarterly index. - Labour Price Index: ABS Catalog No. 6345.0. - 1993 SNA referenced for accrual valuation and financial intermediation treatment. - 15th Series review of the CPI prompted inclusion of financial services. - Research program for financial services index commenced in 1998. - ILO Manual on CPIs recommended practical expedient for reference rate. *Source: _cr10343 - 2.4 Basis for recording* ### 2.1 Source data ### _cr10343 - 2.1 Source data ### Expenditure weights (Household Expenditure Survey and CPI weights) - Primary source for CPI weights: four-digit CPICC expenditure data from the Household Expenditure Survey (HES). - HES sample size: approximately 7,000 households. - HES data collection method: diary of personal expenditures in which residents aged 15 years and older record their expenditure over a two–week period. Respondents appear only once (survey is not continuous; no rotating sample). - An interview questionnaire collects household characteristics, expenditures common to all members, and irregular or infrequent expenditures. - HES used in the 15th Series CPI: reference year 2003–2004. - ABS supplements diary data by a supplementary recall survey for large value (often durable) items purchased infrequently. - ABS adjustments: records are taken as reported; ABS makes adjustments for known cases of underreporting, especially alcohol and tobacco, by reference to tax information. - Weight updating practice: - Continuous sample reviews/maintenance at unpublished levels update weights to reflect contemporary expenditure patterns; sources and methodologies are subject to rigorous quality standards including a peer review program. - Complete review of weights at the published level and above is only undertaken when new HES expenditure information becomes available. - Historically, HES conducted every five years; timing recently changed to six-yearly intervals. - Weights used in the current CPI are for the reference year 2003-2004; this implies weights in the current Australian CPI will be approximately seven years old before being updated. - Identified issue: aging of weights can cause upper-level substitution bias when consumers shift purchases across expenditure classes in response to price changes. - Indicative ABS research: continuous sample review system suggests upward bias from aging weights may not be significant enough to cause a measurement problem. - International guidance: The ILO Resolution on CPIs strongly recommends updating weights at least every five years. - ABS action: reviewing frequency of weights updating as part of its 16th Series review and considering a number of options. ### Price collection: coverage, methods, and sample selection - Geographic coverage: prices collected continuously during each quarter from the six State capital cities plus Darwin and Canberra. - Price collection method: most prices collected by personal visits to selected outlets by trained ABS price collectors who observe marked prices and discuss discounts, special offers, and volume-selling items on the day. - Data capture: price collectors record information on handheld computers facilitating interactive real-time editing based on price history of that item in that shop. - Price collectors monitor market developments (market shares, quality changes) to maintain sample representativeness and make quality change assessments. - ABS argument on national coverage: historically argued a CPI covering all of Australia is not feasible due to substantial additional cost; supported by a study constructing spatial price indices for food based on about two hundred Australian cities and towns over the period from 1960 to 1990 showing relative prices between regions remained fairly constant over time in the absence of major structural change. - Note: plausibility of the historical study needs re-examination given time elapsed and narrow coverage; possibility of using external market-research data for re-examination. - Internet prices: some data captured on the Internet, but Internet prices from domestic Internet retailers only, e.g., Amazon, are not observed. ### Sample design, item and outlet selection, and documentation - Price collection timing: most products priced quarterly within the reference quarter; a small number are collected annually when prices change only once a year. - Regional indices: compiled for the six State capital cities plus Darwin and Canberra; a weighted average of eight capital cities (Australian) CPI is compiled. - Item selection: purposive to represent full range of types and varieties bought by the CPI population group; extensive consultations with retailers, manufacturers, importers, government authorities, and professional and trade associations inform selection. - Factors for item selection: expenditure weight of class; degree of homogeneity; disparate price movement influences; likelihood of continued availability; definability and clarity of description. - Item specifications prepared centrally include brand name, material composition, model number, style, size, and type of packaging. - Outlet selection: purposive; outlets identified for each item including supermarkets, department stores, hotels, electricity and gas shop fronts, schools; no formal stratification by geographical area or shop type. - Sample stratification: prices sample stratified by city and expenditure group/class; lack of formal stratification by outlet type is not considered highly problematic. - Price collectors: work full time on the CPI; central price collection is done by head office staff using telephone or Internet sites. - Sample maintenance: respondent samples reviewed regularly to remain representative; events like company takeovers, new retailers, new outlets, or new shopping complexes can prompt sample changes. - Documentation gap: limited detailed documentation and guidance on selection criteria; recommendation for a quality management system covering all aspects of price collection and index compilation to ensure integrity and reduce risk of errors. ### Timeliness and temporal accuracy - Price collection timing: most CPI data are collected at a set time in the reference Quarter. - Publication timeliness: CPI is published within a calendar month of the end of the reference period. - The source data reasonably approximates the definitions, classification, valuation, time of recording, and scope required for the Australian CPI. ### Assessment of source data quality, validation, and error handling - Routine assessment: CPI price data are routinely assessed for validity when entered into handheld computers; large divergences from previous prices prompt confirmation requests to the price collector. - Outlier detection: after transmission to head office, prices changing by a percentage outside upper and lower bounds (which vary according to the price history of that product) are identified as outliers for further investigation. - Outlier handling: ABS does not specifically quantify the number of outliers but considers the number to be low; outliers (including unexpected zero price movements) are verified by discussion with the price collector or, in exceptional circumstances, the outlet; no prices are rejected unless proven incorrect. - ABS quantification: ABS quantifies the number of quality adjustments, price imputations, and out of stocks by expenditure class. - Centrally collected prices are checked similarly to field-collected prices. - Sampling error and purposive samples: because price surveys and outlet selections are purposive, it is not possible to calculate sampling errors; broad-based estimates for purposive samples are possible using linearization and other techniques. - HES standard errors: standard errors are reported for the HES estimates used for CPI expenditure weights. *Source: _cr10343 - 2.1 Source data (IMF content unit).* ### 3.3 Statistical techniques ### _cr10343 - 3.3 Statistical techniques ### Data compilation and editing procedures - Data editing comprises three steps: - The detection of possible errors and outliers. - The verification of data and collection of corrected data. - The treatment of the data i.e., application of correction/edit. - Error detection is performed as soon as possible after collection by: - Examining price movements and checking those that exceed predefined limits or appear unrealistic. - Real-time editing using hand-held computers prompting price collectors when there is a large difference between quarters for the same item in the same shop. - Further validation checks in the CPI computer system supported by a program which identifies outliers. - Recontacting outlets when there is a large difference in price level or change compared with similar items in other shops or when observations are inconsistent with other knowledge. - Responsibilities and monitoring: - ABS price collectors and supervisors provide information about reasons for extreme price movements or levels and why they accepted a price quote as valid. - ABS staff monitor sample size for sampled items; items are replaced when the sample size for the item declines sufficiently. ### Treatment of missing observations and item replacement - ABS strategies to minimize missing observations: - Continuous review to maintain relevance of the sample of items priced. - Examination of common patterns as part of longer-term maintenance of price samples, items, and locations. - Imputation approaches when a price cannot be observed: - Temporarily out-of-stock items: price is imputed normally using the average change of prices for the same product collected in other outlets; adjustments made only if reliable information indicates directional movement. - Products with no close substitutes: estimate movement where reliable market data exist or impute movement from an upper level (related) component. - Carry-forward of previously observed price is rarely employed and is used only when there is reason to believe the price has not changed or in exceptional circumstances to avoid bias from outliers. - Annual observation treatment: - For annual price observations not observed in their reference period, the ABS carries forward the previous period price until observed again; if missing in the fourth quarter (the annual observation point) the quarterly/monthly methods are applied. - Replacement policy: - Sampled items from an outlet are considered for replacement if prices are missing for consecutive observation points; if observations are not available for several pricing periods (i.e., two or more), investigation of a suitable replacement is carried out and replaced promptly with a similar outlet or item. - Seasonal items: - Observed only when available; when out of season, observed price is imputed from the upper aggregate component movement. - Aggregate weights: - Aggregate weights are constant through the year for all 90 CPICC expenditure classes and for the corresponding groups. ### Quality adjustment methods - Conceptual basis: - Quality is based on consumer utility; quality change measured by reference to expected value to the consumer. - Explicit methods used: - Expert judgment. - Direct comparison (no quality change and adjustment to the price). - Proportional quantity adjustment for small changes in package size. - Option prices where price of the feature is obtained from manufacturer or wholesaler. - Hedonic regression for PCs. - Hedonic methods considerations: - Require large databases with a wide range of product characteristics; seldom available and involve substantial development and maintenance costs. - Need periodic reestimation to avoid biased estimates. - ABS applies hedonic methods only where they add significantly to statistical integrity (most likely for hi-tech high turnover goods). - Implicit quality adjustment: - Not the default method; the CPI computer system does not automatically apply overall mean imputation or similar methods without instruction. - Implicit methods assume difference in quality between varieties/models simultaneously available is equal to the difference in price between models. - May be cost-effective and could free resources for explicit methods where implicit methods are ineffective; further research into implicit quality adjustment could be beneficial. - If replacement product differs in quality and no information to quantify difference, assumptions must be made about proportion of price difference due to quality. ### Index calculation, aggregation, and weighting - Elementary index formulas: - Predominantly the Jevons formula is used at the elementary (product) level where the sample is generally homogeneous. - In very few cases the Dutot formula may be applied (e.g., education samples where households have significant substitution limitations). - Price relatives are calculated using the geometric mean; the ratio of the current period’s geometric mean of price relatives to the previous period’s geometric mean provides the change in the average price for the elementary aggregate. - Jevons is preferred for avoiding problems associated with Dutot and Carli and is arithmetically well behaved and stable. - Aggregation to higher levels: - A Laspeyres-type index formula is used for aggregation, reflecting that basket reference period weights are available rather than current-period weights. - Weight updating and chaining: - Weight reference period was last updated in 2005 using results from the 2003-2004 Household Expenditure Survey; when new weights were introduced the new index was linked to the old index by chain linking. - Chain linking constructs a continuous price series by multiplying together price indices constructed under different baskets or weighting regimes; it is a standard and accepted part of CPI construction. - Chaining is generally not recommended at intervals less than annual due to potential bias with seasonality or cycles; the ABS practice of chaining on updating of weights is consistent with international practice. - Frequency of HES and weights: - Household Expenditure Survey (HES) is currently scheduled to be conducted at six-yearly intervals. ### Validation, assessment, and revisions - Validation of intermediate results: - Index results are reviewed and assessed against available information. - Quarter on quarter changes in the headline CPI and sub-indices are compared with earlier quarters and checked. - Statistical confrontation of similar sub-series in CPI and PPI is conducted routinely each quarter. - National Accounts Branch uses CPI data in their analysis and processing, providing confrontation of outputs post release. - CPI results are compared with other ABS statistics and market expectations. - Investigation of discrepancies: - Unusual or unexpected movements arising from large movements in particular sectors or cities are thoroughly investigated before publication. - For unexpected prices, price collectors may be asked to re-evaluate reported price data. - All imputed prices are investigated. - ABS calculates indices for each capital city plus Darwin and Canberra to assess geographical differences and quality assure data. - Revision policy and studies: - The CPI is revised only in “exceptional” circumstances, i.e., when “significant” errors are found; such a situation has never occurred. - Studies and analyses of revisions are carried out routinely and used internally to inform statistical processes. ### Serviceability: periodicity, timeliness, and consistency - Periodicity: - The Australian CPI has always been compiled on a quarterly basis. - Quarterly compilation falls short of the SDDS requirement and the ILO resolution preference for monthly compilation. - The CPI Review Advisory Group decided to continue quarterly compilation with timeliness of no later than one month after the end of the reference quarter. - The RBA supported introduction of a monthly index in its submission to the 16th Series Review; ABS is considering its position given resource constraints and cost. - Timeliness: - The CPI is typically released on the fourth Wednesday after the end of the reference quarter, depending on public holidays, but no later than the last Wednesday of the month after the end of the reference quarter; this meets the SDDS timeliness requirement. - Internal consistency: - Within an expenditure base period, the CPI is fully consistent in aggregation; higher-level indices can be calculated from constituent series using the basic Laspeyres-type formula. - A fixed-base arithmetic aggregator is used; indices are consistent in aggregation. - Base periods and series history: - With the exception of the Financial and insurance services group, the base of each index: 1989–90 = 100.0 is used for the overall CPI, major groups, and subgroups. - The Financial and insurance services group uses a base of June quarter 2005 = 100.0. - Changes in weighting patterns have been made at approximately five-yearly intervals. - The Australian CPI is currently in its 15th Series; the 1st Series was compiled in 1960. - At the All Groups level, index numbers are available back to September quarter 1948. - The Financial Services subgroup begins in the September quarter 2005. - Consistency with other data sources: - CPI is largely consistent with other price statistics and national accounts; differences in concept are known and CPI indices can be reconciled at higher levels with corresponding national accounts series. - Market reports, media articles, and other external sources are used to confront reported price data throughout analysis and compilation. - Statistical confrontation of similar series in CPI and PPI is conducted routinely each quarter; National Accounts Branch confrontation typically occurs after CPI release and discrepancies are thoroughly investigated. *Source: _cr10343 - 3.3 Statistical techniques* ### 4.3 Revision policy and practice ### 4.3 Revision policy and practice ### 4.3.1 Revisions follow a regular and transparent schedule - CPI data would only be revised in “exceptional” circumstances. - If discrepancies are identified, the index is restored to the correct level in subsequent quarters. The reasons for the discrepancies are investigated and measures are instituted to prevent a recurrence of the error. - Historically, the CPI has not been revised. Revisions would only be made when a “significant” error occurs. “Significant errors” are those which, in the opinion of the Branch head and Division head responsible for the CPI, are of sufficient magnitude that, if not corrected, would seriously misrepresent the rate of inflation and lead to damaging miscalculations by major users. - There are no guidelines on what would constitute an error of sufficient magnitude to seriously misrepresent the rate of inflation and lead to damaging miscalculations by major users. Any decision to correct the published CPI would only be taken with the agreement of the Australian Statistician. ### 4.3.2 Preliminary and/or revised data are clearly identified - Preliminary estimates of the CPI are not made. - If a revision to the CPI was considered necessary, the ABS policy on revisions to official statistics in general would require the entire release to be reissued and the incorrect version withdrawn to ensure that the correct data was available to users. - The reissued version would carry a notice to users, alerting them to the corrections, explaining the circumstances and consequential impacts on other outputs. - The revised series would be clearly annotated with an “r” in the publication and a cell comment (“Revised”) in the time series spreadsheets. For a Major Economic Indicator, such as the CPI, a media release would be issued to alert the public to the revision. ### Key observations on revision practice - Revisions are rare and only made when a “significant” error occurs. - There are no written guidelines on what constitutes a “significant” error and no written procedures. - Recommendation included later: Review and compile operational guidelines for revisions to the CPI. These should be clearly documented, including the decision-making process and under what circumstances the CPI should be revised. The guidelines should be understood by staff and should also be published for transparency. ### 5. Accessibility (selected points relevant to revisions and dissemination) ### 5.1 Data accessibility - All data which are of publishable quality are available free of charge from the ABS website together with the associated metadata. - The CPI release gives the headline figure, sub-indices, and an explanation of the main factors contributing to inflation. It also includes a number of analytical series, e.g., a series excluding volatile items. Back-series and methodological notes are also available to users. A full history of time series data can be downloaded for free from the ABS website. - Data are published, free to download, as a time series with various levels of detail, including spreadsheets. Levels of detail include the weighted average of eight capital cities (national level) and individual capital city by: - All groups, - Group level, - Subgroup level, - Expenditure class. - Additional analytical information is provided such as: - Tradable/nontradable items, - Exclusion measures (e.g., CPI excluding volatile items). - No aspect of the CPI is seasonally adjusted. However the ABS produces seasonally adjusted measures of underlying inflation (trimmed mean and weighted median) consistent with the RBA developed seasonal adjustment methodologies. - All data, the key figures and analyses, along with all tables, are also posted on the ABS website at 11:30 a.m. Canberra time on the day of release. - The CPI is released under “lock up” conditions to selected government officials to prepare briefing notes for Ministers. The ILO resolution on CPIs states that the CPI should be “made available to all users at the same time.” ### 5.1.2 Dissemination media and format - The CPI media release is published in conjunction with the quarterly CPI publication and the full set of data on the ABS website free of charge and disseminated by e-mail to press agencies and other subscribed parties. - The publication covers over 30 pages and provides the headline figures, detailed analysis and comment, extensive additional tables, contributions to the quarterly change in inflation, and extensive technical notes. - Details of methodology and sources are released in Australian Consumer Price Index: Concepts Sources and Methods 2009 (Catalog No. 6461.0). A Guide to the Consumer Price Index 2005 (ABS Catalog No. 6440.0) provides information more suited to the casual user. Copies of both publications and the quarterly CPI publication are available free to download on the ABS Internet website. ### 5.1.3 Preannounced schedule - Each quarterly CPI publication announces the publication dates for the subsequent four quarters. The method of calculating the publication date is given to provide transparency. Users are given forewarning of any methodological change or rebasing. ### 5.1.4 Simultaneous release to all users - All data, the key figures and analyses, along with all tables, are posted on the ABS website at 11:30 a.m. Canberra time on the day of release. All data on the ABS website is free to download. - The CPI data are released simultaneously to all interested parties through the quarterly publication Consumer Price Index (ABS Catalog No. 6401.0). - Pre–embargo release at 9:30 a.m. on the day of release is given to the Treasury, Treasurer's Office, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and some other Commonwealth departments for purposes of preparing ministerial briefings. Lockup arrangements apply whereby no staff can leave or communicate information outside the room until after the 11:30 a.m. embargo. - The statistical press notice is entirely separate from policy statements by ministers or officials. ### 5.2 Metadata accessibility - A great deal of specific information on CPI definitions and methods is available free of charge on the ABS website, including analytical and background papers. The CPI press releases also include metadata on sources and definitions. ### 5.3 Assistance to users - The ABS National Information Referral Service (NIRS) is the first point of contact for queries relating to the Consumer Price Index. Trained ABS staff respond to simple queries and screen more technical queries. Technical queries which the NIRS staff cannot respond to are referred to staff in the Prices Branch. Significantly more complex queries, including requests for media interviews, are referred to the Director, Consumer Price Index Section. - Contact details for NIRS are advertised on the CPI pages of the ABS website and on all printed CPI related products. NIRS maintains a database including CPI questions from users and the associated answers. The timeliness and quality of assistance to users is routinely monitored by the ABS. - Web articles are accompanied by the names of the authors. Questions on these articles are answered by the spokesman if possible, otherwise by the authors. ### Recommendations (related to revisions, metadata, and accessibility) - Review and compile operational guidelines for revisions to the CPI. These should be clearly documented, including the decision-making process and under what circumstances the CPI should be revised. The guidelines should be understood by staff and should also be published for transparency. - Review the guidelines for the imputation methods for missing prices, in particular the practice, albeit limited, of carrying forward prices which cannot be observed in a particular quarter. This can result in bias. - (Other recommendations in the source cover broader CPI practices such as examining monthly compilation, HES frequency, geographical coverage, classification standards, scope for foreign visitors, internet purchases, and inclusion of second-hand goods; these are documented in the source.) *Source: _cr10343 - 4.3 Revision policy and practice* ### 0.2 Resources ### 0.2 Resources ### Staff, facilities, computing resources, and financing - Staff resources are "broadly commensurate with the requirement to produce quarterly PPIs for the indices currently published." - Capacity constraints: - Development and routine publication of outstanding PPIs for services, or a move to monthly production and publication, would only be feasible with government funding of the additional costs or cuts in statistical outputs elsewhere in the ABS. - "While overall resources are considered to be roughly commensurate with the needs of the present programs, there is no headroom for additional commitments." - A review of IT capacity found "there would be no room to increase support in the event of additional demands." - Skills maintenance and staff development: - Skills base maintained through internal and international formal training, on-the-job training, appropriate recruitment policies, exchange of staff with other countries and international agencies. - ABS encourages program staff to attend and present papers at domestic and international conferences and to exchange experiences with other countries. - All professional staff are suitably qualified and will have either a tertiary qualification or relative experience. Qualifications will usually be in the field of statistics or a related social science. Several staff have attained advanced degrees. - Staff turnover and retention: - Staff turnover has increased recently; contributing factors include a generational shift to a cohort more accustomed to job moves, recent retirements, and downsizing in the last years. - Downsizing has led to "a significant loss of expertise." - Salaries have been below the median for public sector positions, although "a recent salary award has made up for much of the gap." - With turnover as high as "30 percent, for instance, for household survey interviewers," significant staff time is devoted to training, adding to resource pressures. - Management is committed to succession planning and rotation of staff. - Workplace and IT: - Office accommodation and the working environment conform to mandated Australian Public Service standards. - IT resourcing, support, and training are ensured through local deployment of specialists to the prices program and by ABS corporate systems support. - Funding arrangements: - Funding for individual work programs in the ABS is set centrally. New work needs to be externally funded or offset by savings. - There is some user-funded work; a limited amount is accepted on the basis that it will cover all costs including overhead. - The ABS is not the sole supplier of official statistics; when the Statistician declines a request, other agencies sometimes produce statistics themselves and the ABS works with them to ensure comparability. - The ABS argues that "any further commitments that it is given be fully funded." ### Measures to ensure efficient use of resources - Efficiency dividend and budget management: - The budget is subject to an efficiency dividend, reducing the budget each year to promote increased efficiency. - The ABS is exempt from the additional whole-of-government departmental efficiencies savings over the forward estimates period. - Problems emerged when wage increases were not aligned with the policy; in 2009 the ABS responded by downsizing and reducing activities, including a "24 percent reduction in the size of sample of its labor force survey." - Reaction to cuts led to intervention by the Australian Statistics Advisory Council (ASAC) and a partial replenishment of resources. - Application of the efficiency dividend reportedly takes considerable management time. The ABS may face a similar decision point in about two years regarding additional efficiencies or further provision of resources. - Outsourcing and Memoranda of Understanding: - Certain activities have been outsourced from Canberra to the States based on relative labor costs and local expertise. - Financial arrangements include a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA); the ABS pays APRA for costs incurred in collecting and quality assuring data required by the ABS. - An MoU with the DoFD is under preparation. - Performance management and oversight: - All staff have a formal performance discussion every six months. - The Economic Statistics Strategy Co-ordinating Committee (ESSCC) reviews the operation of the prices program periodically. ### Relevance and user feedback - User engagement and advisory structures: - The Australian Statistics Advisory Council (ASAC) provides independent advice on priorities and performance of the statistics work program generally. - The Economic Statistics User Group represents key economic constituents and provides more specific advice and feedback. - The ABS routinely seeks and receives feedback from key users of the PPI, in particular the RBA and the Commonwealth Department of the Treasury. - Media coverage and commentary on prices releases provide continuous feedback. - Senior- and working-level contacts: - Prices-specific contacts at a senior level are undertaken; briefings and discussions at the working level occur with individual agencies and users. ### Quality management and assurance - Quality focus and institutional framework: - The ABS Mission Statement: "We assist and encourage informed decision-making, research and discussion within governments and the community, by leading a high quality, objective and responsive national statistical service." - The ABS Corporate Plan sets values and objectives relevant to quality management, including integrity, relevance, service, access for all, professionalism, and trust of providers. - ABS objectives include: - "An expanded and improved national statistical service;" - "ABS services that are timely, relevant, responsive and respected for their integrity and quality;" - "Informed and increased use of statistics;" - "A key contributor to international statistical activities that are important to Australia or our region;" - "An organization that builds capability to continually improve its effectiveness;" - "The trust and cooperation of our providers;" - "The ABS is a respected and strongly supported organization." - Documentation, clearance, and methodological oversight: - The ABS maintains and publishes information on each collection it conducts, including information on the quality of the collection. - All publications produced by the ABS are subject to an internal clearance process. - The ABS devotes considerable resources to methodology with an overarching mandate to monitor the quality of the statistical work program generally. - The Commonwealth Register of Surveys of Businesses (Statistical Clearing House) contains metadata describing survey development, design, and procedures for many ABS collections. - The ABS coordinates economic statistics work programs and quality decisions via line management and cross-cutting groups, prime internal group being the ESSCC. - Advance notice and transparency: - It is ABS policy to provide advance notice to users about major changes in methodology, source data, and statistical techniques, usually via regular publications before changes take effect. - Terms and conditions for collection, processing, and dissemination are widely made available to the public, primarily through the ABS website http://www.abs.gov.au/. - Pre-release access and embargo: - All statistical releases are made available on the website simultaneously to government, commercial, and private users at "11:30 a.m. (Canberra time) on the day of their release." - Prior to 11:30 a.m., all ABS statistics are treated as confidential and regarded as being "under embargo." - On "1 February, 2008," new pre-embargo access arrangements enable access to a small number of ABS publications by authorized ministerial staff and Government officials "up to two hours prior to the official release time." - Authorized persons attending a lockup must remain in a secure room managed by ABS staff, are prohibited from communicating information outside the room until the embargo is over, and are required to sign security undertakings which include provision for prosecution under the "Crimes Act, 1914" for breaches. - Professionalism, independence, and ethical standards: - Under the ABSA, the Statistician and ABS form an independent statutory authority for the purposes of the Public Service Act, 1999. - The Statistician is appointed by the Governor-General for a period "not exceeding seven years (with eligibility for reappointment)" and cannot be removed other than for misbehavior, incapacity, or bankruptcy. - The Statistician is largely free to decide which statistics the ABS should produce; any new proposal for collection for statistical purposes must be laid before both Houses of the Parliament before implementation, unless the proposal is voluntary. - The ABS Code of Conduct is derived from the Australian Public Service Commission code; staff are made aware of ethical standards at induction and sign an undertaking to abide by them. - The ABS has authority to comment on erroneous interpretation and misuse of its statistics; ABS responses to media articles are available on the ABS website. ### Methodological soundness (overview relevant to resources) - International standards: - The PPIs produced by the ABS follow internationally recognized guidelines, e.g., the PPI Manual (2004) and the SNA. - Scope and coverage implications for resource needs: - ABS produces both input PPIs and output PPIs and publishes quarterly PPIs for different selective sectors/narrowly defined components at ANZSIC Division, Subdivision, Group, and Class levels. - Small and large companies are included in the sample population for goods PPIs; the main deficit is in services where coverage of all Divisions is yet to be achieved. - From the September quarter 2009, manufacturing indices have been presented on a gross sector basis, widening the scope of output and input indices as described in the source. - The ABS also compiles quarterly Import and Export price indices (MPI and XPI), which are important extensions of domestic PPIs and feed into producer input and output indices. - Focus of the report: - "The main focus of this report is on the total sales (output) PPI. Import price indices are not reviewed here in any detail and export prices are only of interest as they affect the nature of the total sales PPI." *Source: _cr10343 - 0.2 Resources* ### 2.2 Scope ### _cr10343 - 2.2 Scope ### Scope and consistency with international standards - The defined scope of the PPIs compiled by the ABS is consistent with internationally accepted guidelines and meets the two main uses of PPIs—as deflators in National Accounts, and as short-term indicators of inflationary trends. - The ABS views non-market activities as outside the scope of PPIs (examples: general government services such as national defence and the value of owner-occupied dwellings). ### Coverage and gaps - Current PPI coverage: - PPIs produced by the ABS cover the minimum requirements of manufacturing and mining. - Service PPI development commenced in 1995 with first publication in the March Quarter of 2000. - Currently about 37 percent of all services are covered (based on 2001-2002 Input/Output data). - Operational constraints and planning: - There are no targets or timetables for filling the coverage gaps. - An inability to fully fill positions with suitably skilled staff delayed the services program; recent recruitment and skilling up is expected to allow progress in the coming year. - The PPI Section has an initial prioritized list of service PPIs to be developed, but discussions with the National Accounts Branch have not been finalized. - Research resources have been diverted to higher priority work (e.g., the CPI review), slowing some PPI development. - ABS is exploring whether CPI service pricing could be used, with conceptual differences accounted for, as a relatively cheap way to address some coverage gaps. - Future development priority will combine service weight significance and solvable methodological issues (“low hanging fruit”). ### Major PPIs released by the ABS (by type and pricing role) - Stage of Production (SOP) Producer Price Indices - Presented by stage of production, industry of origin, and destination within the economy. - Manufacturing Industries Producer Price Indices - Materials Used in Manufacturing Industries (MUMI)—an input price index. - Articles Produced by Manufacturing Industries (APMI)—an output price index. - Construction Industry Producer Price Indices - Materials Used in House Building—an input price index. - Selected output within the Construction Industry—an output price index. - Mining Industries Producer Price Indices - Materials Used in Coal Mining—an input price index. - Service Industries Producer Price Indices (selected outputs) - Transport, postal, and warehousing—an output price index. - Information media and telecommunications—an output price index. - Rental, hiring, and real estate service—an output price index. - Professional, scientific, and technical services—an output price index. - Administrative and support services—an output price index. - Public administration and safety—an output price index (this index is not currently published). - Accommodation and food services—an output price index. - Other services—an output price index. - Copper Materials Price Indices - Copper Materials Used in the Manufacture of Electrical Equipment—an input price index. - International Trade Price Indices - Import Price Index (IPI)—an input price index. - Export Price Index (EPI)—an output price index. ### Service PPIs: detailed status by ANZSIC 2006 divisions - Developed and published indices for selected outputs primary to: - Division H – Accommodation and food services. This index is not currently published. - Division I – Transport (freight only), postal, and warehousing. Sub-indices are published for nine out of 14 subdivisions. - Division J – Information media and telecommunications. Sub-indices are produced for two out of 10 subdivisions. - Division L – Rental, hiring, and real estate services. Sub-indices are produced for five out of seven subdivisions. - Division M – Professional, scientific, and technical services. Sub-indices are produced for six out of 11 subdivisions. - Division N – Administration and support services. Sub-indices are produced for three out of five subdivisions. - Division O – Public administration and safety. Sub-indices are produced for one out of four sub-divisions. - Division S – Other services. Sub-indices are produced for one out of nine subdivisions. - No service PPIs exist for: - Division K – Financial and insurance services. - Division P – Education and training. - Division Q – Health care and social assistance. - Division R – Arts and recreation services. ### Classification and sectorization - Indices are constructed according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC). - ANZSIC was developed as a regional adaptation of ISIC (Revision 4). - ANZSIC is used: - In output and stage of production PPIs to classify commodities primary to a particular industry (industry-of-origin role). - In input price indices to classify the industry of a purchaser (industry-of-consumption role). - Consistency issues: - Different versions of ANZSIC have been used in parallel, creating loss of consistency within the PPI family (component indices versus economy-wide indices). - Once suitable weighting data are available, all indices will be on the same basis. - Compared with ANZSIC 1993, ANZSIC 2006 has a closer concordance with ISIC; the latest version has closer concordance and no conceptual differences. ### Basis for recording: valuation and pricing bases - Market prices: - Prices collected are actual transaction prices (producers’ or purchasers’ prices, as appropriate). - Prices are collected in Australian dollars (AUD). - Prices exclude excises and Goods and Services Tax (GST). - Pricing bases and practices: - PPI covers a range of pricing bases measuring price changes for both sales and purchases. - Where possible, the ABS collects prices on more than one pricing basis (e.g., producer price and purchaser price) and decomposes components such as delivery costs. - For imported products, purchasers’ price is termed “cost, insurance and freight” (c.i.f.), and the export/import pricing basis is “free on board” (f.o.b.). - Foreign currency import and export prices are converted to Australian dollars at the average exchange rate of the foreign currency in the reference period, with regional lags based on shipping time applied for imports. - Acceptance of non-transaction prices when necessary: - If transaction prices are not available and cannot be estimated, intracompany transfer prices are accepted. - Mixed prices (average prices over a range of qualities or averaged customer prices) are accepted when necessary. - The PPI for services requests two types of prices depending on sector: average rates (comparable with mixed prices) and model prices (comparable to ordinary PPI market prices). - Transfer prices are included only when price behaviour is confirmed to represent true market transactions. - Reuse and component sharing: - ABS reuses equivalent components in price indices with similar pricing bases (e.g., APMI and EPI reuse entire components). - Note: f.o.b. is not strictly the same as the basic price; transport from producer to Australian port is included in f.o.b. but excluded in basic price where separately invoiced. - The implicit assumption underlying reuse is that transport costs from producer to ship move proportionally with export f.o.b. price; ABS may be advised to periodically test these assumptions and sensitivity. ### Recording basis and frequency - Recording basis: - Recording is on an accrual basis; prices are market transaction prices as recorded at the time of collection. - Pricing frequency: - Most items are priced once per quarter using point-in-time pricing. - Volatile products may be collected monthly or more frequently (example: a series of crude oil prices is collected daily). - Usual practice is to collect prices from all respondents in each pricing quarter, but exceptions exist for stable products or long-production items. - If a transaction did not occur on the specified date, respondents provide details as near as possible to the specified date or estimate “what the cost would be if the product was produced today.” ### Grossing/netting procedures - All producer price indices are compiled on a gross basis following the classification change from ANZSIC 1993 to ANZSIC 2006. - This gross-basis compilation also applies to transactions between companies within the same enterprise or sector. ### Accuracy and reliability — source data, weights, and price collection - Weights: - Items included in indices are weighted on the basis of estimated annual values of production from input-output data. - Indices are reviewed when new input-output data are available (up to now about every six years). - Most, but not all, PPIs currently use Input/Output data from 2001-2002 following an updating of weights in September 2009 which coincided with the introduction of ANZSIC06. - The prolonged timescale for updating weights raises concerns about representativeness. - More up-to-date weights are now available, and updated Input/Output data will be available annually (previously this was not the case). - ABS has yet to decide the frequency with which weights will be updated or when an update will next be done. - International trade price indices (ITPI) weighting practice: - Current weighting basis for the import price index was derived from the average value of import items during 2008-2009. - Export price index has used the average value of export items during 2007-2008 and 2008-2009. - These weights were revalued to reflect link period (June quarter 2009) price levels. - Using this methodology, long-term chain linked series can be constructed over time on a consistent reference base while using annually refreshed weights. - The reference base for each index series continues to be 1989-90 = 100. - Weighting and classification transitions: - The September 2009 update combined new weights and a revised ANZSIC, complicating analysis; ABS back-cast revised series using one-to-one mapping where available and ratio estimates where necessary. - Price collection methods: - Company selection is purposive based on individual contacts, manufacturing and trade organizations, and other soft information. - Tailored mail questionnaires are used for data collection, supplemented by telephone collection and use of price lists and auction results. - Product specifications are agreed with the data supplier to uniquely define a product and ensure comparable pricing across periods (priced to constant quality). - Model specifications are used where goods/services are made-to-order or one-off (examples: ships, buildings, many business services). - Pricing captures quantity data, volume discounts, other discounts (including trade discounts), transport terms, and transaction currency. - ABS uses personal interviews at sample enrolment to address identification and measurement challenges and to clarify discount practices. - Firms are encouraged to report product discontinuations or description changes; ABS will telephone or visit to agree new specifications and obtain quality adjustment advice. - PPIs use some third-party data on a fairly limited scale (e.g., for construction and trade). ### Source data adequacy and timeliness - Source data conformity: - Key weighting sources for PPIs are national accounts input-output tables (supply table and product detail tables). - Key weighting sources for ITPI are detailed product-level statistics on international merchandise trade compiled from Australian Customs submissions. - Prices used in indices are those reported by data suppliers in the relevant collections (producers’ or purchasers’ prices). - Mixed and intercompany prices are accepted when unavoidable but are not considered a major nonconformity. - Timeliness: - ABS PPIs meet the timeliness requirement of the SDDS. - Price data are collected throughout the reference quarter for compiling that quarter’s PPIs and the National Accounts and are published within four weeks of the reference period. - The publication date is set 12-months in advance, and is always the fourth Monday (or Tuesday if the Monday is a public holiday) following the end of the reference period. - The PPIs are published on the Monday prior to the release of the CPI, which is released on the fourth Wednesday following the end of the reference period. *Source: _cr10343 - 2.2 Scope* ### 3.2 Assessment of source data ### 3.2 Assessment of source data ### 3.2.1 Source-data assessment and monitoring - Source data considered: censuses, sample surveys, and administrative records are routinely assessed for coverage, sample error, response error, and non-sampling error; results of assessments are monitored and made available to guide statistical processes. - PPI is a purposive survey; common measures of statistical (sampling) error are not applicable to the PPI. - ABS quantifies the number of quality adjustments, imputations, and out of stocks, by index. - Outliers and zero price movements: - Prices considered outliers are queried with providers; some zero price movements are included. - No prices are rejected unless proven incorrect; in exceptional circumstances ABS staff may visit the data provider. - Outliers are identified by ABS commodity experts using expert judgment; large divergences from previous prices trigger confirmation requests to data providers. - Data-collection staff responsibilities: - Trained to detect anomalous results, follow up immediately with data providers, submit reports/comments to analysts. - Analysts provide editing notes to senior Section staff, including counts of quality adjustments and imputed/estimated prices for each index. - External sources and sample maintenance: - Market reports, media articles, and other external sources are used to confront reported price data. - Ongoing sample maintenance ensures the sample of items/specifications is kept up to date. - Confrontation and clearance: - Statistical confrontation between relatable items in PPI and CPI is conducted routinely each quarter; discrepancies are thoroughly investigated by both teams. - Confrontation across PPIs, National Accounts, and International Accounts (monthly merchandise trade) for selected commodity data is done prior to finalization each quarter. - Clearance procedures include a clearance meeting reviewing results in detail by senior Section staff and the Branch head; comprehensive clearance documentation provided to Branch head, First Assistant Statistician and Deputy Australian Statistician each quarter. ### 3.3 Statistical techniques (compilation and quality adjustment) - Index calculation and quality adjustment use internationally accepted techniques. - Elementary aggregates: - Constructed by grouping individual goods and services into homogeneous products/transactions. - Use weighted average of price relatives and, for some services, the geometric mean. - The use of weighted average of price relatives is described as more of a historical legacy; no recent examination of substitutability within elementary aggregates has been made beyond routine sample maintenance. - Aggregation and chaining: - A modified-Laspeyres price index formula is used to aggregate elementary aggregates. - Price relatives are combined using weights representing value share in the base period. - Price updating is applied to the value aggregate associated with the elementary aggregate. - To incorporate newly weighted structure, a link period is chosen, value data price-updated to the link period, and the new structure chained onto the existing index. - Treatment of missing observations: - If an enterprise reports multiple products and one price is missing: determine group price change from available prices; missing price imputed by other available prices within the elementary aggregate. - If an enterprise does not respond but others in the commodity group do: calculate price relative from responding enterprises and impute all price items of the missing enterprise. - If all information missing from an elementary aggregate: use quarter-to-quarter price changes from a higher group for imputation; weighted arithmetic mean price for known groups for quarters m and m-1 used to calculate index change. - For missing values for seasonal products in agricultural groups: a carry-forward price is used until new seasonal prices become available. - New product specifications and company weights: - New specifications introduced when reporting company indicates importance. - Company weights generally not adjusted except when company indicates considerable deviation from known weight. - Methods for adjusting new vs replaced items: - Methods include quantity adjustments, option prices, production cost adjustments, expert judgment, and linking. - General approach: ask reporting firm what replaced product would sell for in current period or what new product would have sold for in prior period. - Hedonic methods: - Hedonic models employed only for computers and are shared with the CPI. - The producer price indices use a form of hedonic index referred to as the “consecutive two-period chained time dummy double imputation hedonic price index” for personal computers. - Process: matched-model price index applied for personal computers sold between consecutive periods, combined with a consecutive-period time dummy price index (produced by regression techniques) to measure price changes for discontinued and newly introduced goods. - Note: other agencies’ experience indicates importance of re-estimating hedonic function regularly to avoid downward bias from out-of-date over-valuation of old features. - Quality adjustments: - Quality adjustments are made as required to ensure PPI is produced to constant quality. ### 3.4 Assessment and validation of intermediate data and statistical outputs - Input editing and validation: - Standard input editing procedures (automatic querying and verification of significant/unexpected moves) supplemented by independent industry data and discussion with national accounts users. - Checking focuses on price history from the data provider and differences between providers for similar products. - Investigation thresholds: - Default position for most PPIs: quarterly price movements of +/- 5 percent are investigated; limits adjusted for volatile prices or exceptional index contributions. - For a few selected commodities the default setting is +/- 10 percent. - For Service PPIs the default setting is +/- 5 percent. - Validation reports: - Highlight exceptionally large price changes, notification of products with change in unit quantities, system problem information, cases with no price changes, and nil shipments. - Data confrontation: - Undertaken for international trade price indices (e.g., petrol and coal prices) involving International Accounts and National Accounts representatives. - After publication, compilers provide national accounts with output editing notes analyzing drivers of index change. - Output editing and follow-up: - Indices subject to standard output editing; unexpected results receive closer scrutiny and follow-up. - ABS industry experts engage closely with data suppliers and external industry experts. - Cross-series confrontation: - Routine quarterly confrontation of comparable items in PPI and CPI; discrepancies investigated. - PPI data also confronted with ABARE and LME data where applicable. ### 3.5 Revision studies and revision policy - Revision frequency and policy: - ABS does not publish preliminary estimates updated next quarter; index numbers are “final” and subject to revision only to correct an error, not to incorporate new data. - Revisions due to errors are rare and made only if the effect is significant; if significant errors identified, the index is restored to the correct level in subsequent quarters. - Reasons for discrepancies are investigated and measures taken to prevent recurrence. - Systematic study of revisions: - Given rarity of revisions, there has been no systematic study of past revisions resulting from errors. - Transparency and guidelines: - ABS rules for correcting an error are not prescriptive and not particularly transparent (e.g., no published definition of what constitutes a “significant” revision or clear procedural guidelines on publication timing and back-casting). - Published precedents: - March quarter 2006 PPI was reissued to correct processing errors in a contributing index; entire release reissued, incorrect version withdrawn, reissued version carried notice explaining corrections and consequential impacts. - Revised series annotated with “r” in publication and cell comment (“Revised”) in time series spreadsheets. - Decision authority: - Revisions judged “significant” by Branch head and Division head responsible for PPI; any decision to correct published PPI taken with agreement of the Australian Statistician. *Source: 3.2–5.1 sections of the provided Price Statistics (Producer Price Index) text.* ### 5.2 Metadata accessibility ### _cr10343 - 5.2 Metadata accessibility ### 5.2 Metadata accessibility — documentation and detail - Documentation on concepts, scope, classifications, basis of recording, data sources, and statistical techniques is available. - Differences from internationally accepted standards, guidelines, or good practices are annotated. - Details of methodology and sources are released in Producer and International Trade Price Indices: Concepts, Sources and Methods 2006 (Catalog No. 6429.0). Copies of these publications are available free to download on the ABS Internet website (http://www.abs.gov.au). - Data are available in both summary and detailed form. - The front page of the quarterly PPI publication carries a summary of key figures and key points to facilitate redissemination of information in the media. - Cross-reference: See also 5.1.2. ### 5.3 Assistance to users — contact points and catalogs - Queries are screened through ABS staff trained to handle straightforward queries and to refer more complex ones. - More complex queries, including requests for media interviews, are referred to the Director, Producer Price Indices Section. These details are advertised on the PPI pages of the ABS website and on all printed PPI-related products. - Current publications and other products released by the ABS are listed on the website: - By catalog number - By release date - By topic, and - By title - The ABS issues a daily Release Advice on the website which details products to be released in the week ahead. ### Data Quality Assessment Framework (July 2003): Summary results for the Producer Price Index (Compiling Agency: Australian Bureau of Statistics) - Key to symbols: NA = Not Applicable; O = Practice Observed; LO = Practice Largely Observed; LNO = Practice Largely Not Observed; NO = Practice Not Observed; SDDS = Complies with SDDS Criteria. - Table assessments and selected comments (as reported): - 0.1 Legal and institutional environment: X - 0.2 Resources: X — "Increasing the frequency of the PPI to monthly and compiling indices for the missing Services PPIs would require additional funding which is not in the ABS’ current baseline." - 0.3 Relevance: X - 0.4 Other quality management: X - 1.1 Professionalism: X - 1.2 Transparency: X - 1.3 Ethical standards: X - 2.1 Concepts and definitions: X - 2.2 Scope: X — "There is a deficit of PPIs for services." - 2.3 Classification/sectorization: X - 2.4 Basis for recording: X - 3.1 Source data: X - 3.2 Assessment of source data: X - 3.3 Statistical techniques: X - 3.4 Assessment and validation of intermediate data and statistical outputs: X - 3.5 Revision studies: X — "The PPI is only revised when there is an error. There are no routine revisions." - 4.1 Periodicity and timeliness: X — "The PPI is quarterly. No demand has been identified for monthly indices. The SDDS stipulates monthly indices." - 4.2 Consistency: X - 4.3 Revision policy and practice: X — "Revisions are rare and are only made when a “significant” error occurs. There are no written guidelines on what constitutes a “significant” error and no written procedures. The index is corrected and the publication is reissued as soon as is practical." - 5.1 Data accessibility: X - 5.2 Metadata accessibility: X - 5.3 Assistance to users: X ### Recommendations (as listed) - Assess user needs for monthly data. If there is a demand, examine the costs and benefits of producing a limited number of key producer price indices on a monthly basis to meet the SDDS requirement for monthly indices and taking into account the needs of users. - Consider the costs and benefits of replacing the Australian industrial classification ANZSIC with the internationally standard ISIC. Investigate options including a move to ISIC, reviewing ANZSIC so there is further correspondence between ANZSIC and ISIC, or a classification system that is structured to deliver both. Implications for the coding of all source data also need to be considered. Use the same and most up-to-date version of ANZSIC (ANZSIC 2006) for all PPIs including the Stage of Production PPIs. (This latter recommendation only applies if ANZSIC continues to be used.) - Examine the costs and benefits of producing the outstanding PPIs for services and produce and resource a prioritized work program which takes into account added value including the gain in coverage, the methodological and data issues associated with each service industry and user needs. This represents a more systematic continuation of the work being undertaken by the ABS. - Review the compilation of deflators in the national accounts. This review should cover both conceptual issues and issues of practical measurement. The aim would be to make better use of the data collected by Prices Division. - Introduce a more systematic review of index construction to identify priority areas for improvements to current indices. A prioritized and funded program of index improvement would be the key output. This program would identify those of the current indices that are in most need of further investment. It would cover data sources as well as detailed methodology. This would result in a more transparent program of index development which should be shared with users. ### Government Finance Statistics — prerequisites of quality (selected points) - Legal basis and institutional roles: - The ABS collects and disseminates statistics under the Census and Statistics Act, 1905 (CSA), the Australian Bureau of Statistics Act, 1975 (ABSA), and associated ministerial determinations. These documents are widely available to the public, including from the ABS website (http://www.abs.gov.au), http://www.comlaw.gov.au/, and http://www.publications.gov.au/. - The ABSA establishes the ABS as an independent statutory authority and defines functions and appointment/removal of the Australian Statistician. The Act established the Australian Statistics Advisory Council (ASAC). - The CSA entitles the Statistician to determine what statistical information is to be collected, within bounds of subject matters specified in the Statistics Regulations. The Assistant Treasurer can direct the Statistician, in writing, to collect statistical information relating to a particular matter specified in the Statistics Regulations, but cannot direct cessation of a collection nor instruct on how to collect it. - Section 6 of the ABSA: "to constitute the central statistical authority for the Australian Government and, by arrangements with the Governments of the States, provide statistical services for those Governments." - Other agencies and coordination: - The ABS is the largest collector of official statistics; there is plurality of data providers including State governments and agencies such as the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics. - The ABS has MOUs with each State and Territory Treasury and the Commonwealth Grants Commission; MOUs are usually agreed for three years and are being renegotiated. Intention to develop an MOU with the Commonwealth DoFD once renegotiation is complete. - From 2008-2009 onwards, the Australian government adopted the Australian Accounting Standard Board 1049 - Whole of Government and General Government Sector Financial Reporting (AASB 1049). - Note: AASB 1049 has replaced Australian Accounting Standard 31- Financial Reporting by Government (AAS 31) for the whole of government reporting. - Reconciliation to the key GFS aggregates and an explanation for differences between statistical basis and accounting standards are required where differences remain. - Data sharing and systems: - ABS seeks coordination through committees, MOUs, formal meetings, and informal contact; changes in production are preceded by extensive consultations. - Working relationships of the ABS Public Finance Section are firmly established; procedures ensure adequate data sharing and coordination with source agencies and users (e.g., National Accounts Branch). - GFS data serve as input data for the Australian National Accounts. Public Finance Section and National Accounts Branch are both located in the ABS Central Office with regular meetings. - Data sharing for GFS compilation is facilitated by the financial information management systems of Commonwealth and State Departments of Treasury and Finance, which generally include GFS coding according to the economic type framework (ETF). Where codes are not provided, ABS derives them via business rules or manual intervention. - A separate ABS Section (in Brisbane) collects local government data; coordination and assistance are well established. - Confidentiality and access: - The CSA protects confidentiality by requiring that information not be published in a manner likely to enable identification of a particular person or organization. A statistical officer cannot be required to divulge or communicate to a court or tribunal any information contained in a Census form. - The CSA provides for the Minister to make determinations providing for release of certain classes of information which would not otherwise be permitted; personal or domestic information may not be disclosed in a manner likely to enable identification. - The current determination under Section 13 of the CSA enables the Statistician to disclose specified classes of statistics, subject to identification safeguards, and to disclose information with consent or where statistics are already public. - The ABS maintains a strong culture of confidentiality and has on occasion declined requests from other parts of government to protect provider confidence. - Annual GFS unit record data for both the general government and public corporations are made available to the Commonwealth Grants Commission (CGC) under a consent arrangement signed by each State and Territory Government. - Access to data within the Public Finance System is allocated at the jurisdiction level; only staff working on a specific jurisdiction’s data are given access to unit data for that jurisdiction. - GFS source data are destroyed either through shredding of paper documentation or through the ABS secure waste destruction program. ABS computer systems have IT security that prevents unauthorized external access and undergo six monthly IT Security audits. - Reporting and response: - The ABS is aware of response burden and seeks to minimize duplication and response effort. - Administrative and survey data for GFS are collected under the CSA. The timetable for supply of quarterly and annual GFS data to the ABS is outlined in the MOU with State and Territory Treasuries. - The ABS does not publish data for individual jurisdictions until it has been released by the jurisdiction. Quarterly data for individual State and Territory Treasuries are published with a one-quarter lag; data at the total State and local government level are released each quarter. - Forms for GFS collections are tested with respondents prior to finalization. Public Finance has a dedicated phone number for assistance. A letter is sent each quarter outlining the importance of the data collection. Working relationships and persuasion are primarily used to encourage response. - Administrative data collected by the DoFD are collected under the Financial Management and Accountability Act, 1997 and the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act, 1997; these Acts set reporting requirements and regular contact with reporters ensures adherence to deadlines. - All data for the compilation of Commonwealth securities debt are derived from the computerized debt management system and are not dependent on responses from other units. *Source: _cr10343 - 5.2 Metadata accessibility* ### 0.2 Resources ### 0.2 Resources ### 0.2.1 Staff, facilities, computing resources, and financing are commensurate with statistical programs - Staff and facilities are generally thought to be commensurate with the needs of the existing work program, but not sufficient to resource any substantial increase in activities. - Skills maintenance through internal and international formal training, on-the-job training, recruitment, and staff exchanges. - Encouragement for program staff to attend and present papers at domestic and international conferences and to exchange experiences with other countries. - Office accommodation and the working environment conform to mandated Australian Public Service standards. - IT resourcing, support, and training are ensured through local deployment of specialists to the prices program and by ABS corporate systems support. - Funding for individual work programs is set centrally; new work needs to be externally funded or offset by savings. Some user-funded work is accepted if it covers all costs including overheads, but the Statistician accepts only a limited amount. - The ABS is not the sole supplier of official statistics; when the Statistician turns down a request another agency may produce the statistics itself; the ABS works with such agencies to ensure comparability but does not act as an inspector of official statistics. - Many professional staff have at least one degree, usually in statistics, economics, accounting, finance, or commerce; several have advanced degrees. - Recent increases in staff turnover, retirements, and downsizing have caused a significant loss of expertise; salaries are below the median for public sector positions. Management emphasizes work-life balance and pursues succession planning and rotation of staff. - Resource planning horizon incorporates the current financial year (July through to June) and the three out years. - For preparation of Commonwealth financial statements and debt data, staff, computing, and financing resources are integrated into the operational activities of the respective organizations. Key Public Finance Section staffing and systems - Public Finance Section composition: - 12 staff in the compilation team; - five staff in the Systems, Client Servicing and Quality team; - two staff in the Research and Development team; - plus a Director. - Local Government unit: average of 4.6 staff. - At times some positions may not be filled for short periods due to delays in recruitment. - Currently seven of the 11 junior staff have less than five months experience in GFS. - A program of weekly training is in place; the Section relies heavily on on-the-job training. - IT-systems allow receipt, processing, and dissemination of data; system has many legacy components. - Re-engineering of the Public Finance systems will commence in 2010-2011 to align with ABS corporate infrastructure. ### 0.2.2 Measures to ensure efficient use of resources are implemented - ABS budget is indexed like other Government agencies and subject to an efficiency dividend; ABS is exempt from additional whole-of-government departmental efficiency savings over the forward estimates period. - Wage disparities emerged between ABS salaries and those in other Commonwealth agencies for comparable skills; cost pressures prevented addressing the gap, contributing to higher staff turnover. - In 2009 the ABS retrenched 90 middle-management staff and allowed attrition of more junior staff to fund a pay increase—an internal management decision that “held the line.” - A 24 percent reduction in the size of sample of its labor force survey was decided to meet cumulative internal cost pressures and an additional one-off efficiency dividend. - An external review by the DoFD led the Government to provide additional funding to offset some cost pressures, while the efficiency dividend requirement remained in place. - ABS maintains an office in each Australian State and Territory and has redistributed certain activities from Canberra to regional offices depending on local expertise and/or lower staff turnover. - A Memorandum of Understanding with the DoFD is under preparation. - All staff have a formal performance discussion every six months. ### 0.3 Relevance - Monitoring arrangements for relevance and user feedback include: - ASAC as an independent advisory body on priorities and performance. - Economic Statistics User Group representing key economic constituents. - Regular senior-level contacts and working-level briefings with the DoFD and individual agencies. - Media coverage and commentary on GFS releases provide continuous feedback. - Major methodological decisions (migration to 2008 SNA, adoption of GFSM 2001) involved advisory bodies; decision to move simultaneously across new methodologies reflected advisory guidance. - MOU under negotiation with Treasuries proposes a biannual meeting of GFS stakeholders. - GFS Research and Development Team members attend meetings of stakeholders such as the Australian Accounting Standards Board and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. - The Local Government Unit engages with users to meet needs for Local Government finance statistics in roads and culture policy areas. ### 0.4 Other quality management Processes focusing on quality - ABS Mission Statement emphasizes quality dimensions: “We assist and encourage informed decision-making, research and discussion within governments and the community, by leading a high-quality, objective, and responsive national statistical service.” - ABS Corporate Plan lists values: integrity, relevance, service, access for all, professionalism, and trust of providers. - ABS objectives include: - An expanded and improved national statistical service; - ABS services that are timely, relevant, responsive, and respected for their integrity and quality; - Informed and increased use of statistics; - A key contributor to international statistical activities that are important to Australia or our region; - An organization that builds capability to continually improve its effectiveness; - The trust and cooperation of our providers; - The ABS is a respected and strongly supported organization. - ABS maintains and publishes information on each collection, including quality information. The ABS Data Quality Framework (Cat.no.1520.0) outlines seven quality dimensions of "fitness for purpose." - All publications are subject to an internal clearance process. Processes to monitor and plan for quality - ABS devotes considerable resources to methodology with an overarching mandate to monitor quality of the statistical work program. - ABS coordinates economic statistics work program and quality decisions via line management and cross-cutting groups; prime internal group is the ABS Economic Statistics Strategy Coordinating Committee (ESSCC). - All ABS economic collections are required to have an active program of quality improvement and report to the ESSCC. ### 1. Assurances of integrity Professionalism - Under the ABSA, the Statistician and ABS form an independent statutory authority for the purposes of the Public Service Act, 1999. - The Statistician is appointed by the Governor-General for a period, not exceeding seven years (with eligibility for reappointment), and cannot be removed other than on grounds of misbehavior or incapacity, or by becoming bankrupt. - The Statistician is largely free to decide which statistics the ABS should produce; any new proposal for compulsory collection must be laid before both Houses of Parliament before implementation unless voluntary. - Recruitment is meritocratic and transparent under Australian public sector policies; the APS Code of Conduct applies and ABS has its own values. - ABS staff are in high demand elsewhere in public sector and internationally. Independence of methodological and dissemination choices - ABS choices of sources, statistical techniques, and dissemination decisions are informed solely by statistical considerations. - For the DoFD, dissemination decisions are informed by legal requirements and statistical considerations. - ABS has authority to comment on erroneous interpretation and misuse of its statistics and does so when appropriate; ABS responses to media articles are available on the ABS website. DoFD monitors media and comments when needed. Transparency - Terms and conditions under which statistics are collected, processed, and disseminated are widely available to the public, in particular through the Internet. - Copies of government legislation, including the CSA and the ABSA, are readily available from websites. The ABS website is the most complete source for terms and conditions, work program, corporate plan, ASAC annual report, information about the SDDS, and dataset information. - Detailed information on concepts, sources, and methods used in compiling GFS can be found in Australian System of Government Finance Statistics: Concepts, Sources and Methods (Cat.no.5514.0), available on the ABS website. - Additional information on government financial statements can be attained from accounting standards, notes to financial statements, annual reports, and other publications of the DoFD and AOFM. Pre-release access and embargoes - ABS policy: statistical releases are made available on the website to all users simultaneously from 11:30 a.m. (Canberra time) on the day of release; prior to 11:30 a.m. statistics are confidential and “under embargo.” - On 1 February, 2008, new pre-embargo access arrangements allowed authorized ministerial staff and Government officials access to a small number of ABS publications up to two hours prior to official release to prepare briefings. - Authorized persons attending a lockup remain in a secure room managed by ABS staff, are prohibited from communicating information outside until the embargo is over, and must sign security undertakings including provision for prosecution under the Crimes Act, 1914 for breaches. - A number of Commonwealth Treasury officials have pre-release access to Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product (ABS cat. no. 5206.0) mid-afternoon on the day before its release. - For GFS, data for an individual jurisdiction are made available to that jurisdiction for review as part of quality control and reconciliation. - Policy on pre-embargo access is set out on the ABS website in “About us.” - There is no pre-release of data of the DoFD and AOFM; these data are subject to internal clearance procedures. Identification of products and advance notice - ABS products include the ABS logo and a catalog number; ministerial commentary is released by Ministers or their Offices independently. - ABS policy to provide advance notice of major changes in methodology, source data, and statistical techniques via publications, information papers, and notes in publications. - Notices were given when accrual accounting was adopted and with implementation of the 2008 SNA treatment of Defense Weapon Platforms in GFS. - The ABS GFS Concepts, Sources and Methods document will be updated after the GFSM 2001 has been revised. Ethical standards - All staff are subject to the Code of Conduct as covered in Section 13 of the Australian Public Service Act, 1999; a specific ABS code of conduct does not exist but the ABS Corporate Plan includes 12 obligations for employees. - Staff are made aware of ethical standards at induction and must sign an undertaking to abide by them; periodic reminders are provided via in-house webpages and bookmarks. ### 2. Methodological soundness Concepts and definitions - ABS produces annual and quarterly GFS for general government and the public sector using nationally developed concepts, definitions, and presentational framework, based on the 1993 SNA and broadly in line with GFSM 2001. - System integrates stocks and flows and recognizes two types of economic flows: transactions and other flows (revaluation and other changes in the volume of assets). - Major aggregates and balancing items fully agree with GFSM 2001 concepts and definitions; some minor differences exist in terminology, concepts, and definitions at the detailed level, some merely presentational. - Where differences exist, ABS source data are sufficiently detailed to allow linkages to the standardized presentation of GFSM 2001; some differences result from ABS decisions made prior to final release of GFSM 2001, or harmonization with accounting standards, long-standing national practices, and practical considerations. - A comparison of differences is described in Australian System of Government Finance Statistics: Concepts, Sources and Methods (Cat.no.5514.0). - The DoFD compiles monthly financial statements for the Commonwealth following accounting standards largely harmonized with the statistical framework; remaining differences between financial statements and ABS GFS are fully reconciled and explained in publicly available documents. *Source: _cr10343 - 0.2 Resources* ### 2.2 Scope ### _cr10343 - 2.2 Scope ### Institutional and territorial scope - ABS GFS cover the complete public sector of Australia and are compiled for each jurisdiction at the general government sector level, reflecting nonmarket activities of: - the Commonwealth Government, - individual State and Territory Governments, - multi-jurisdictional units (mainly public universities), - local governments. - Data on market activities of Public Non-Financial Corporations (PNFCs) and Public Financial Corporations (PFCs) are also compiled to allow consolidation for the Public Sector. - Data are published individually for the Commonwealth Government, for each State and Territory Government, and combined for local governments in each State and Territory (except the Australian Capital Territory where there is no separate local government). - Government controlled corporations separately identify and cost noncommercial activities and are compensated transparently by controlling governments; ABS reallocates material nonmarket activities reported in corporate financial statements back to general government. - Annual data are derived from comprehensive and final audited administrative data; quarterly data are published only for the current financial year and preliminary quarterly data are replaced in the next issue if revised information becomes available. Quarterly data are benchmarked to final annual outcome data; revised quarterly data are not published but are available from the database upon request. - Practical undercoverage may exist for a few small units (mainly small commodity marketing boards, some public hospitals, schools, and small statutory authorities) due to insignificance relative to collection cost; ABS takes steps to ensure undercoverage does not increase over time. - ABS Cash Flow Statement separately identifies notional cash flows for finance leases which impact the ABS surplus/deficit measure; the GFSM 2001 surplus/deficit measure can be derived. - Statement of Other Economic Flows is presented within an integrated ABS Statement of Stocks and Flows; breakdown into revaluations and other volume changes exists for the Commonwealth but is not currently available for State and Local Government. ### Transactional scope and alignment with GFSM 2001 - ABS GFS transactional scope broadly covers economic stocks and flows of the Public Sector in tables similar to GFSM 2001, with some presentation and terminology differences. - Comparison of statements: - GFSM 2001 "Statement of Government Operations" = ABS "Operating Statement" - GFSM 2001 "Statement of Sources and Uses of Cash" = ABS "Cash Flow Statement" - GFSM 2001 "Statement of Other Economic Flows" = data included in ABS integrated "Statement of Stocks and Flows" - GFSM 2001 "Balance Sheet" = ABS "Balance Sheet" - Some GFSM 2001 disaggregations are not fully presented in ABS statements (for example, certain foreign/domestic asset and liability breakdowns). ### Classification and sectorization - Institutional identification and sectorization follow the 1993 SNA and Australia’s Standard Institutional Sector Classification of Australia (SISCA) within SESCA. - Australian GFS compile a Financial Statement at General Government level for each jurisdiction; consolidation of general government, PNFC, and PFC accounts per jurisdiction is referred to as “whole-of-government” account. - For national presentation, subsectors include a subsector for multi-jurisdictional units (e.g., public universities); for international comparability these are reported as extra-budgetary central government units. - National classifications are consistent with GFSM 2001, with documented terminology differences at detailed levels. - ABS revenue analytical structure (five categories) vs GFSM 2001 (four categories): - Taxation Revenue - Sales of goods and services - Property income - Other current revenue - Capital Revenue - ABS does not have a separate GFSM 2001 category for “Social Contributions” because Australia does not have Social Security Funds. - ABS does not separately present “Grants”; these are included in “Grants and subsidies” within “Other current revenue.” At detailed levels, grants to other government units (as in GFSM 2001) can be identified. - ABS expense analytical structure (six categories) vs GFSM 2001 (eight categories): - Employee expenses (uncapitalized) - Non-employee expenses - Depreciation - Current transfers - Capital transfer - Property expense - ABS uses the accounting concept of depreciation (due to lack of administrative data on economic consumption of fixed capital); consumption of fixed capital is estimated independently for national accounts. - Net acquisition of nonfinancial assets is calculated as gross fixed capital formation less depreciation plus changes in inventory and other transactions in nonfinancial assets. ABS nonfinancial asset categories: - Nonfinancial produced assets - Nonfinancial nonproduced assets - Other assets (not elsewhere classifiable) - Financial assets disaggregation in integrated Statement of Stocks and Flows: - Cash and deposits - Investments, loans and placements - Accounts receivable - Advances outstanding - Equity - Liabilities disaggregation: - Deposits held - Proceeds from advances - Borrowing - Accounts payable - Provisions that are in the nature of liabilities (include superannuation liabilities) - Other liabilities - ABS Cash-Flow Statements distinguish financing for policy purposes and liquidity purposes separately, enabling a time series for the cash-based surplus/deficit measure back to 1961-62 following adoption of accruals-based GFS. - ABS presentation differs from GFSM 2001 in not disaggregating domestic and foreign by standardized classes of financial instruments and in not identifying counterpart transactions required to calculate bank and nonbank financing and stock positions. - Functional classification uses Government Purpose Classification (GPC) based on 1993 SNA COFOG; differences vs GFSM 2001 include reorganization under Economic Affairs and the placement of Environmental Protection under “housing and community amenities” in GPC. ### Basis for recording - Valuation: - Flows generally valued at market prices. - Stock data are valued according to accounting standards at the source data level; traded instruments generally at current market prices; instruments without observable markets recorded at nominal value. - ABS uses the debtor approach for stocks of financial assets and liabilities. - All data are reported in local currency with foreign currency transactions converted using exchange rates prevalent at the time of the transaction. - Recording basis: - Conceptual basis is accruals-based: transactions recorded when economic value is created, transformed, exchanged, transferred, or extinguished. - In practice, ABS relies on accruals-based accounting records as initial source; where accounting information is not on GFS accruals basis, ABS adjusts or Treasuries provide adjustment journal entries. - Examples of adjustments include tax effect accounting and certain provisions. - Routine tax refunds: no adjustments currently made; recorded when liability for payment is determined rather than at time of original economic event. Nonroutine refunds, especially large litigation cases, are reassigned to appropriate periods. - Grossing/netting: - Australian GFS follow GFSM 2001 “gross” and “net” recording guidelines. Corrective transactions and repayments are netted against original transactions where practically possible. ### Source data, coverage, and timeliness - Source data characteristics: - Annual data largely sourced from administrative records harmonized with GFS reporting requirements; comprise aggregate and unit-level accounting data. - GFS source data are provided by the DoFD and each State and Territory Government under the Census and Statistics Act, 1905; also serve as source data for national accounts. - Where GFS data cannot be provided centrally, ABS undertakes direct collection (quarterly surveys and annual census for local governments; quarterly general government data for South Australia; quarterly surveys for Universities and PNFCs of specified jurisdictions). - For PNFCs, quarterly data are available centrally from Queensland, Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and Australian Capital Territory Treasuries. - Annual unit record data for councils supplied by State Grants Commissions/Departments of Local Governments (GC/DLGs). - GFS institutional units are matched to the ABS Business Register; GFS compilers submit updates quarterly. - Geographic coverage includes Commonwealth and State/Territory Governments of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory, and the Australian Capital Territory. Economic territory includes Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island. Under SESCA08 Norfolk Island is conceptually within scope but no plans to extend coverage given population of only 2100. - Data collection and processing: - Data collected via electronic transfers from Treasuries and standard/tailored forms; forms are field tested and reviewed annually. - Data from Commonwealth (DoFD), State and Territory Treasuries, and State GC/DLGs obtained through electronic transfer; some source data require mapping to ABS classifications automatically or manually. - Problems with material gaps or incomplete transmissions are addressed via telephone/email consultation with Treasury contacts; longer-term issues addressed in MOU with Treasuries. - Qualitative information on sources is regularly sought; international standards (IMF GFSM 2001, 2008 SNA) are monitored for changes; Public Finance Section consults with data-supplying agencies on chart of accounts updates and other changes. - Approximation to required definitions: - Source data closely approximate ABS GFS methodology due to harmonization of accounting standards with GFS requirements. - Forms designed to collect data on ABS GFS basis; where data are not fully compliant ABS adjusts based on additional information collected. - Limitations in source accounting systems mean some GFSM 2001 breakdowns cannot be provided in source file format (e.g., current/capital transfer breakdowns at the Commonwealth level). Manual intervention is used when possible; some GFSM 2001 breakdowns (e.g., foreign/domestic assets and liabilities) are not available in ABS source data. - All sources provide sufficient detail to allow consolidation at various general government and public sector levels. - Timeliness: - Final audited annual files are generally provided four months after the end of the financial year; ABS works with jurisdictions when audited accounts delays occur. - Quarterly files are provided 30 days after the end of the reference quarter. - Local Government quarterly data are provided by a sample of councils eight days after the end of the reference quarter, with validated weighted estimates provided to the Public Finance Section 30 days after the end of the quarter. - Annual Local Government unit record data are provided by Departments of Local Government/Grant commissions five to eight months after the end of the financial year, with edited data files provided to the Public Finance Section six to eight months after the end of the financial year. - Reporting deadlines are set out in MOUs for State and Territory Treasuries; form-based collections use letters and reminder contacts to ensure timely delivery. *Source: _cr10343 - 2.2 Scope* ### 3.2 Assessment of source data ### _cr10343 - 3.2 Assessment of source data ### 3.2 Assessment of source data - Source data—including censuses, sample surveys, and administrative records—are routinely assessed for coverage, sample error, response error, and nonsampling error; results of assessments are monitored and made available to guide statistical processes. - Automated procedures facilitate monitoring of internal consistency and accuracy of data reported by individual government sector units: - Embedded micro-editing of inputs: unit-level edits (classification edits, legality edits, code combination edits, code existence edits, and level of coding edits). - Intrasector edits and aggregation edits. - Tests of internal consistency of each institution’s data (e.g., cross checks). - Data inconsistencies and out-of-trend values are confirmed with reporting units via a verification process; variances and reasons for variances are documented. - Source data are analysed for misreporting, with emphasis on temporal consistency. - Input editing checks routinely identify data anomalies. - Regular data quality meetings analyse and assess data accuracy. - GFS compilers address accuracy questions through direct contacts with reporting agencies. - Source data are assessed by checking across alternative sources during input editing when compiling GFS data. - Annual source data derived from audited accounting records benefit from a rigorous audit process mandated by law; Commonwealth accounting records are also subject to monthly clearance processes that include: - Comparison against the profile of the budget. - Question and answer sessions with relevant general managers and ministers. - Preparation of commentaries on variances to usual patterns of revenue collection and spending. ### 3.3 Statistical techniques - Compilation procedures aim to minimize manual processing errors (coding, editing, tabulation). - No uniform accounting system across individual government units in Australia; electronic transfer formats vary across jurisdictions. - Public Finance Section adapts broad compilation procedures to accommodate individual submissions with jurisdiction-specific issues and limitations. - Treatment of missing data: - Historical data and budget information are used to provide best estimates for preliminary GFS. - Imputation is performed first, then reviewed and manually updated with final data if necessary. - No preliminary annual data are published as audited reports are used; quarterly data are preliminary for some jurisdictions and replaced by final data in the subsequent period. - Data correction and documentation: - Data are corrected if more accurate data become available. - Material differences are recorded as revisions; revisions are clearly documented. - Compilation procedures are documented and updated after each processing period. - Quarterly versus annual reconciliation and benchmarking: - Quarterly data are never reconciled to the annual data for publication purposes because annual data are published 10 months after the end of the financial year. - Quarterly data are only published for the current financial year (except the September quarter where the previous financial year is published). - A benchmarking exercise is primarily undertaken for national accounts to reduce discrepancies between annual and quarterly data for the previous three years. - Data adjustments and transformations: - Adjustments and transformations are kept to the minimum due to close approximation of source data to ABS GFS. - Adjustments are documented; significant adjustments justified during clearance. - When necessary, additional sources used: annual reports, historical data, forward budget information, other government announcements. - Techniques used include grossing up, reclassifying, time adjustment, valuation adjustment, data imputations, consolidation adjustments, etc. ### 3.4 Assessment and validation of intermediate data and statistical outputs - Validation of intermediate results: - Intermediate results and statistical outputs are regularly assessed and validated against other data (annual reports, forward budgets, mid-year estimates, government announcements). - The Quarterly Economic Statistics Tactical Review Committee (QESTRC) considers consistent treatment of specific concepts and data across the ABS macroeconomic program. - Assessment and investigation of statistical discrepancies: - GFS components are tested against other statistical series (e.g., correlation with population and price movements) as part of the clearance process. - Reconciliation of reported financial flow data on nonfinancial and financial assets and liabilities with changes in corresponding stock data. - Classification edits and intrasector edits performed by ABS GFS compilation staff to check validity of classification codes and identify imbalances. - Aggregate edits applied after unit and intrasector edits and amendments. - Procedures to establish classification/sectorization errors or omissions; fluctuations due to these are investigated. - Public Finance Research and Development Team investigates classification/sectorization issues; required changes communicated to relevant Commonwealth, State, or Territory jurisdiction and methodology documented. - Investigation of statistical discrepancies and other indicators: - Statistical outputs are checked horizontally and vertically to integrate stocks and flows and assess other economic flows. - After micro-editing, aggregation, derivation, consolidation, and estimation are undertaken; macro-editing examines outputs for consistency with historical patterns and known economic developments. - Values outside expected ranges are identified and investigated. - Structured process to monitor economic events reported in the media; events captured in internal GFS briefings describing background and expected impact on GFS data. - Assessment includes identification of differences between source (DoFD and State and Territory Treasuries) and ABS GFS data; differences are compared and resolved or reconciled through verification with relevant entities. - Identification and reconciliation documentation retained as part of clearance documentation for each quarterly and annual GFS reference period. - Public Finance and Local Government Sections do not undertake comparisons or reconciliations with data of other countries. - A data clearance process is undertaken for data delivered to national accounts. ### 3.5 Revision studies - Annual GFS: - Derived from audited administrative records and therefore not subject to revisions other than minor corrections and adjustments, or revisions to historical data due to methodological changes (example: adoption of the 2008 SNA treatment of Defense Weapon Systems). - Quarterly and benchmarking revisions: - ABS GFS are mainly revised when quarterly data for local governments are benchmarked after final annual data become available; these revisions are mainly in the context of national accounts. - Documentation on revisions includes: - (a) identification of the main aspects of the source data leading to the revisions; - (b) the reasons for the revisions; and - (c) the direction and magnitude of the revisions. - Documentation is kept as part of normal clearance records for each reporting period. - Significant revisions to previously published data are noted in subsequent data releases. - Findings from analyses of revisions are used to improve compilation of ABS GFS. ### 4 Serviceability #### 4.1 Periodicity and timeliness - Periodicity standards: - Australia meets SDDS periodicity standards: - Central government operations data are published monthly (by the DoFD). - General government operations data are published annually by the ABS. - Australia exceeds SDDS periodicity standards: - Central government debt data, broken down by instrument, currency, and maturity are published monthly (by AOFM) while the standard requires only quarterly dissemination. - General government data are published quarterly (by the ABS) although quarterly general government data are an encouraged category of data for SDDS purposes. - Australia also exceeds dissemination standards for central government by monthly dissemination of a full suite of financial statements for the Commonwealth Government, based on AASB 1049 (income statement, balance sheet, and cash-flow statement). - Timeliness standards: - Australia does not fully meet SDDS timeliness in some respects: - Central government operations data are disseminated four weeks after the end of the reference month, except for June and July. Australia is availing itself of a targeted timeliness flexibility option where a three-month lag is allowed for the last month of the fiscal year and two-month lag for the first month of the new fiscal year, provided quarterly general government data are disseminated with a one-quarter lag in accordance with the SDDS encouraged requirement for the GFSM 2001. - Annual general government operations data are disseminated 10 months after the end of the reference period, while the standard requires dissemination within two quarters after the end of the reference period. (However, quarterly data are disseminated, which exceeds the standard: the sum of quarterly data serve as preliminary annual data within the SDDS timeliness requirement for annual data.) - Australia exceeds SDDS timeliness standards: - Quarterly general government operations data are disseminated two months after the end of the reference period, while the standard encourages dissemination within one quarter after the end of the reference period. - Monthly central government securities debt data, broken down by instrument, currency, and maturity are published within three weeks after the end of the reference period, while the standard requires dissemination within one quarter after the end of the reference period. #### 4.2 Consistency - Internal consistency: - ABS GFS statistics are internally consistent; concepts, definitions, and classifications are the same for annual and subannual GFS. - ABS GFS are closely reconciled to budget documents of all governments, annual reports of nonbudget units, and audited financial statements. - Quarterly GFS data published two months after the reference period do not sum to annual GFS data published 10 months after the reference period. - Quarterly data are only reported for the current fiscal year (except the September quarter when data for all quarters of the previous financial year are published). - Quarterly data are benchmarked to annual data primarily for national accounts purposes—revised data are available in the ABS database but revised quarterly series are only disseminated on request. - ABS publishes a Statement of Stocks and Flows annually; Commonwealth Government publishes a statement of other economic flows for the general government sector allowing disaggregation of other economic flows into price and volume effects and reconciliation with changes in stocks. - Temporal consistency: - Annual GFS data, compiled on accruals basis, are available from 1998-1999 to 2007-2008. - Some cash-based GFS data are available as a time series from 1961-1962 to 1997-1998 (historical cash series are not published but some data may be available on request). - When significant source data, methodological, or conceptual changes are made, historical series are reconstructed back to 1961-1962 where appropriate and possible (example: in the September 2009 quarter, Defence Weapons Platforms were capitalized in ABS GFS and time series were revised accordingly). - Consistency with other frameworks: - GFS data are compiled on a GFSM 2001 basis and are not fully consistent with national accounts due to conceptual and methodological differences; reasons for differences are well documented and reconcilable. - Main reasons for differences between ABS GFS and Australian national accounts include: - Recognition of Commonwealth personal and income taxes in GFS is based on the taxation liability method (TLM) (taxes recognised the earlier of when an assessment of a tax liability is made, or when a cash payment is received). For GST and some other taxes the economic transactions method (ETM) is used. The ETM is used in the Australian national accounts. - National accounts estimate consumption of fixed capital as an economic measure based on expected economic life and current replacement costs; GFS depreciation is based on Australian Accounting Standards. - National accounts use FISIM for financial intermediary services while GFS records interest payments and receipts. - National accounts include capitalized expenditure for selected intangible nonfinancial assets whereas in GFS some of this may be recorded as operating expenses. - 2008 SNA change: recognition of expenditure on Research and Development (R&D) as capital formation implemented in national accounts in September 2009; reflected in ABS GFS after GFSM 2001 update. - Balancing adjustments related to economic indicators are made to national accounts while ABS GFS are based on administrative records. - Limitations for reconciliation with other domains: - In ABS GFS, data on transactions with nonresidents are not available from GFS source data, so reconciliation with Balance of Payments data is not possible (some information sharing on significant external transactions). - ABS GFS do not identify financing transactions with bank and nonbank sectors separately, so consistency and reconciliation with monetary data is not possible. #### 4.3 Revision policy and practice - Revision schedule and practice: - Revisions are made to quarterly GFS data for the current financial year as required, usually due to new or updated source information. - Quarterly data for quarters of previous financial years are replaced with data benchmarked to final annual data for national accounts purposes; these revised data are not published but are available from the database on request. - Final data are published in Government Finance Statistics, Australia (Cat. no. 5512.0) approximately 10 months after the reference period. - Annual GFS data may be subject to minor revision in subsequent years. - Identification of preliminary and revised data: - Preliminary annual GFS data are not published in Australia as audited reports are considered final. - If annual data revisions occur, a note will appear with the revised data. - Some quarterly data may be preliminary (e.g., based on estimates); a general note in the publication states that revisions are made to quarterly GFS data each quarter as required. - Revised data are generally footnoted in the ABS publication where significant (example: historical review of New South Wales GFS in 2008-2009 identified as such in the publication). - Public availability of revision studies: - The ABS has not undertaken any studies of revisions to GFS data. *Source: _cr10343 - 3.2 Assessment of source data* ### 5. Accessibility ### 5. Accessibility ### 5.1 Data accessibility - Statistics presentation and scope - ABS GFS are disseminated in millions of Australian dollars, covering all levels of Australian Governments, and are presented for subsectors and consolidated for the general government of each jurisdiction, general government for all levels of government, and the total public sector. - GFS are disseminated on a quarterly and annual basis. - Annual data are presented for both the current reference period and as a 10-year time series. - The quarterly publication time series is for the current financial year only; it shows the current reference period for Australia, the Commonwealth, and total Australian State and Territory and Local Governments. - Data for individual States and Territories, and Local Government for each State are published with a one-quarter lag. - Monthly financial statements for the Commonwealth, and debt data are released for each period; these data present the outcome of the reporting period, cumulative amounts for the fiscal year, compared with estimates for the year and an annual profile of outcomes. - Australia's fiscal year is from July 1 to June 30. - Historical data are available from archived documents on the website; some historical GFS back to 1961-62 are available on request (prior to 1998-99, GFS were compiled on a cash basis and are released with caveats). - Dissemination media and format - ABS website gives free access to several publications related to ABS GFS data: - Quarterly publication: Government Finance Statistics (Cat. no. 5519.0.55.001) - Annual publications: Government Financial Estimates, Australia (Cat. no. 5501.0.55.001); Government Finance Statistics, Australia (Cat. no. 5512.0); Taxation Revenue, Australia (Cat. no. 5506.0); Government Finance Statistics, Education, Australia (Cat. no. 5518.0.55.001) - Longer time series are available on request and incur a fee. - Commonwealth financial statements and debt are disseminated on the websites of the DoFD and AOFM in several monthly/quarterly and annual reports. - Release schedule and timeliness - Each quarterly issue of Government Finance Statistics, Australia, Quarterly (Cat. no. 5519.0.55.001) includes specific dates for release of data for the two following quarterly issues. - The release calendar on the ABS website shows the expected release dates for the next six months. - For central government operations, the monthly media release Australian Government Monthly Financial Statements includes a notice informing the public that upcoming release dates are disseminated on the IMF’s Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB). - Adherence to release dates is not always punctual, due to changes that may occur as a result of the internal clearance procedure of the financial statements. - Simultaneous availability - ABS GFS data are released simultaneously to all interested parties on the ABS website using the publications listed above. - The ABS uses an embargo system; the standard release time is 11:30 a.m. (Canberra time), and this embargo is printed on the publications. - Commonwealth financial statements and debt data are disseminated on DoFD and AOFM websites and are released to all parties simultaneously after clearance by respective authorities. - Non-routine data requests - Some ABS GFS data are available on request, back to 1961-62 (with caveats for pre-1998-99 cash-basis data). - Publications advertise the existence of unpublished data and provide contact person, phone number, and email address of relevant officers in the Public Finance Section. - Detailed queries on Local Government data are referred to the Local Government Section. - Commonwealth reporter-provided data are held in confidence and not released on an individual basis. ### 5.2 Metadata accessibility - Documentation coverage - A comprehensive Concepts, Sources and Methods document is published and updated after changes are applied to ABS data compilation practices. - The document describes: concepts, definitions, classifications, data sources, compilation methods, statistical techniques, departures from internationally accepted standards, survey source details (response rates, survey monitoring, nonsampling errors), survey features (method, sample frame, sample design, selection, estimation and imputation techniques), nature of administrative data sources, and main linkages with related major data systems. - The only 2008 SNA change implemented in ABS GFS is the capitalization of Defense Weapons Platforms; ABS GFS metadata will be updated for this change and comprehensively reviewed after changes from broader revisions to GFSM 2001 have been implemented. - Information on 2008 SNA can be obtained from the information paper Implementation of new international statistical standards in ABS National and International Accounts (Cat. no. 5310.0.55.002). - Metadata dissemination and cross-references - The SDDS metadata, SDDS summary methodologies, and other related descriptions are reviewed and updated regularly and are readily accessible from the ABS website; their availability is cross referenced in data releases and catalogs of publications. - Additional methodological information is available from other ABS publications on sectorization, running surveys, technical notes, and research documents. - Methodology and sources are released in explanatory notes with each data publication. - Metadata on accounting and budgetary systems underlying financial statements are widely available; adoption of AASB 1049 was widely publicized and descriptions of adoption of accrual accounting and the Commonwealth reporting framework are available from the DoFD and AOFM websites (these documents contain glossaries of terms and information on accounting rules, classifications). - Audience adaptation - Metadata are fully explained and allow a high degree of transparency with regards to compilation practices, but they are highly technical and may be too complex for nontechnical users. - A summary of information adapted to the needs of nontechnical users may be helpful. ### 5.3 Assistance to users - Contact points and user support - The Public Finance Section in the ABS has dedicated staff who are client contact officers; their email addresses and telephone numbers, as well as the email of the Public Finance Section, are advertised in all GFS publications. - The contact details of the ABS' National Information Referral Section are provided in all publications. - For Commonwealth financial statements and debt data, contact names and telephone numbers are disseminated in published statements; DoFD and AOFM websites also have central contact points. - Catalogs, charges, and access - The catalog of ABS publications can be accessed using publication date, topic, catalog number, or title. - Any changes to release dates and availability of data are advertised on the ABS website. - All electronic publications are available free of charge. - When unpublished data are requested, a quote for the cost of the service is dispatched and work does not commence until the user accepts the quote; some hard-copy publications are available for a fee. - For Commonwealth financial statements and debt data, lists of publications are included on respective websites and historical publications can be acquired from electronic archives; all data are considered public information and are therefore available free of charge. ### Data Quality Assessment Framework — Accessibility summary - Table 4 assessments (selected elements and comments) - Element 4.1 Periodicity and timeliness: Assessment LO; comment: Targeted flexibility options for monthly central government data ― annual general government data only available 10 months after the reference period. - Element 4.2 Consistency: Assessment LNO; comment: Published quarterly data do not add to annual because benchmarked data are not published. Consistency with BOP and monetary statistics cannot be checked, while well-known documented differences with national accounts exist. - Element 5.1 Data accessibility: Assessment O - Element 5.2 Metadata accessibility: Assessment O - Element 5.3 Assistance to users: Assessment O - Other assessments and comments (selected): Resource strains have been imposed on the ABS by changing to new standards and coping with the global financial crisis. There has been a significant loss of expertise. Some components of statements are incomplete since stocks and flows of financial assets and liabilities are not split between domestic/foreign and bank/nonbank in the ABS’s GFS system; however, these splits are published in the Financial Accounts, Australian National Accounts (Cat. No. 5232.0). ### Recommendations - Extend the transactional coverage of GFS to include a breakdown of domestic/foreign and bank/nonbank stocks and flows of financial assets and liabilities, available in the quarterly financial accounts dataset. - Improve the timeliness of the monthly GFS data (General Government Operations) dissemination so as to eliminate the need for the targeted flexibility option. - Review deviations from GFSM 2001, and consider adopting the classifications and concepts fully so as to further increase consistency with other macroeconomic datasets and attain international comparability. - Consider the costs and benefits of additional work to redisseminate quarterly data for general government after benchmarking so as to attain a publicly disseminated quarterly time series consistent with annual data. - Consider measures to ensure that resources are commensurate with ambitious work plans. - Ensure succession planning so as to eliminate constraints resulting from high staff turnover. - Investigate the quantitative impact of differences in methodology used in GFS and national accounts, so as to inform compilers and users of the materiality of these differences. - Continue with efforts to ensure that all State and local government source data are received timely enough for use in GFS and national accounts compilation. - Examine the possibility to improve the clearance process for monthly data, so as to ensure that these data are disseminated punctually in accordance with the advance release calendars. - Consider the dissemination of metadata, adapted to the various levels of needs of a range of audiences. *IMF staff report: "Accessibility" section (Government Finance Statistics assessment).* ### Section 13 of Reserve Bank Act, 1959 also directs that “the Governor and the Secretary to ### _cr10343 - Section 13 of Reserve Bank Act, 1959 also directs that “the Governor and the Secretary to ### Governance and legal framework - Section 13 of Reserve Bank Act, 1959: “the Governor and the Secretary to the Department of the Treasury shall establish a close liaison with each other and shall keep each other fully informed on all matters which jointly concern the Bank and the Department of the Treasury.” - Governor and Deputy Governor appointment: appointed by the Treasurer for terms of up to seven years, and are eligible for reappointment. - RBA governance: two boards — the Reserve Bank Board (responsibility for monetary policy and financial stability) and the Payments System Board (responsibility for matters relating to the payments system). - Reserve Bank Board composition: nine members — three ex officio members (the Governor (Chairman), the Deputy Governor (Deputy Chairman) and the Secretary to the Treasury) and six external members, who are appointed by the Treasurer for terms of up to five years. - Section 17(1) of the Reserve Bank Act: members of the Board may not be a director, officer, or employee of an authorized deposit-taking institution for the purposes of the Banking Act, 1959. - Key legislation referenced: Reserve Bank Act, 1959; Reserve Bank of Australia Act, ,1959 (RBAA) (text as provided); Australian Prudential Regulation Authority Act, 1998 (APRA Act); Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act, 2001; Freedom of Information Act, 1982; Banking Act, 1959; Corporations Act, 2001; Crimes Act, 1914; Australian Securities and Investment Commission Act, 2001. ### Institutional roles, coordination, and data sharing - APRA responsibility: prudential supervision of the financial sector under the APRA Act and authority to collect data under the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act, 2001. - RBA role: compiles and disseminates monetary statistics; RBAA does not include a specific mandate for dissemination of official monetary statistics though RBA has performed this role for many years. - 1998 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between RBA and APRA: - Paragraph 6: “APRA gathers a wide range of prudential data on the institutions which it supervises” - Paragraph 7: “information available to one which is relevant to the responsibilities of the other will be shared as requested.” - Paragraph 9: requires APRA and the RBA work together to avoid duplication in collection of information to minimize reporting burden. - Operational coordination: - A team at APRA collects and prepares balance sheet data and transfers them via a secured data feed to the RBA. - RBA has a team explicitly responsible for compiling monetary statistics and a team responsible for dissemination. - Under the 1998 MOU a joint Co-ordination Committee was established, chaired by the Assistant Governor (Financial Systems) of the RBA and mandated to meet at least monthly; Committee tasks include statistical collections, joint research, and participation in international fora. ### Reporting timetables and compliance - Submission schedule: on the 10th business working day of each month, authorized deposit-taking institutions (banks, building societies, and credit unions) and registered financial corporations are required to submit to APRA a snapshot of their balance sheet as at the end of the previous month. - Timetable management: timetables provided to all parties; any potential adherence issues must be acknowledged immediately. - Reporting mandate and penalties: - Reporting by financial institutions to APRA is mandatory. - Penalty for late submission: 50 penalty points, i.e., $5,500 for each day a submission is late (Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act, 2001). - APRA acts as intermediary between institutions and RBA; respondents contact APRA for assistance. ### Confidentiality, access control, and dissemination - RBA legal obligations on confidentiality set out in Section 79A of the Reserve Bank Act, 1959: - Clause 1: defines terms (e.g., "financial institution," "officer," "protected document," "protected information"). - Clause 2: deals with confidentiality and penalties. - Clauses 3-10: set circumstances and authority for release of protected information/documents. - Clause 9: protected documents/information are exempt documents for purposes of Section 38 of the Freedom of Information Act, 1982. - Data disclosure practices: - Monetary statistics provided by RBA to the public at an aggregated level in line with the Freedom of Information Act, 1982. - Data relating to individual institutions are not published by the RBA but are provided to the RBA from APRA in accordance with the APRA Act, 1998. - Access controls and security: - Individual data records viewable only by staff requiring information for statistical duties; access to database and electronic communication requires manager approval; access lists reviewed regularly. - Hard-copy data guarded in locked filing systems; hard copies shredded as soon as possible. - Electronic and premises security prioritized; multiple back-up systems including real-time network back-up, emergency power generators, and an off-site Business Resumption Site. - Disclosure oversight: RBA Code of Conduct and media policy govern staff access and external commentary; only senior authorized staff may speak to media. ### Resources, IT systems, and staffing - Staffing for monetary statistics: 2.5 full-time staff employed at the RBA to compile monetary statistics and other financial aggregates; additional resources allocated to database administration. - Training and turnover: - Significant training for new staff; scheduled turnover managed to ensure continuity; senior team members have slower turnover. - None of the RBA staff currently involved in compilation of monetary statistics has attended the Monetary and Financial Statistics course offered by the IMF. - Compensation: salary levels competitive; wage increases matched to general industry trends and indexed to price level developments. - Computing environment and software: - RBA uses in-house software built on commercial products SQL server 2000 and Visual Basic 6. - APRA electronically delivers data into an RBA storage database; further processing and analysis performed using Excel spreadsheets. - Database updated several times per business day. - Facilities and contingency: - RBA head office and related sites (Business Resumption Site and State Offices) have good facilities; accessible to users including those with disabilities. - Multiple back-up systems and tested Business Resumption Site where operations are fully transferable. ### Relevance, user engagement, and dissemination practices - Public access: statistics freely accessible online from the RBA website; online statistical tables include notes clarifying usefulness, level of detail, timeliness, and periodicity. - User feedback and liaison: - Feedback encouraged through publicized communication channels (e.g., RBA media office). - RBA meets with APRA and ABS on a six-monthly basis to discuss data collection and respondent burden issues. - RBA is in regular contact with industry groups and companies to gain user feedback and economic information. - RBA does not conduct user surveys beyond correspondents in the financial sector to identify broader needs (academics, media, etc.). - International engagement: RBA attends international conferences and maintains relations with APRA and ABS; active in identifying new data requirements and evolving statistics to meet user needs. ### Quality management and assurance - Commitment and processes: - Quality emphasized across RBA; managers accountable; internal audits regularly undertaken. - Query generation system automatically identifies unusual data movements for APRA follow-up validation. - Stock-and-flow comparisons for individual institutions performed regularly to ensure data consistency. - International standards: RBA follows IMF Monetary and Financial Statistics Manual, 2000 and Monetary and Financial Statistics: Compilation Guide, 2008 “as closely as practically possible.” - Monitoring and revisions: - Internal monitoring and evaluations of revisions and timeliness are ongoing. - If reporting institutions identify errors or methodological changes, RBA requires submission of evaluation of historical revisions to assess impact on time series. - APRA provides instructions and guidance to ensure common understanding of data requirements. - Quality in planning: - Quality improvements identified during monitoring are prioritized in planning; actions requiring additional resources would be documented and presented for further evaluation. ### Professionalism and editorial control - Codes and conduct: - Code of Conduct for RBA board members and RBA staff Code of Conduct apply to Governor, Deputy Governor, and staff. - Recruitment subject to Reserve Bank Act, 1959 – Part VII, regulations, and other Commonwealth and State legislation; RBA committed to equal opportunity. - Staff qualifications and development: - Most staff in RBA Economic Group are university graduates in economics; staff often recruited through RBA Cadet and Graduate Development Program. - Extensive on-the-job training; desk manual for monetary statistics regularly updated. - Research and analysis reviewed by peers; staff encouraged to seek feedback and recognized in publications and speeches. - Communication and misuse handling: - Media policy centralizes external commentary; RBA Information Department monitors media coverage and paid media service supplements monitoring. - Misuse or erroneous interpretations in media are rare; on occasion senior staff follow up with journalists; there has never been a situation requiring a media retraction. *Source: _cr10343 - Section 13 of Reserve Bank Act, 1959 also directs that “the Governor and the Secretary to (PDF content provided).* ### 1.2 Transparency ### 1.2 Transparency ### Terms and conditions for statistical activities - All legal documents constituting the framework for RBA statistical activities are accessible on the RBA website. - Statistics compiled by the RBA are no longer published in hard copy in the monthly Bulletin, as the RBA moved to electronic dissemination in January 2010. - The new quarterly Bulletin published in hard copy includes articles illustrated with tables and charts, where the data sources are mentioned, enabling users to visit the relevant source data-producing agency website for further information and historical data. - Data produced by the RBA are mainly disseminated via its website in Excel spreadsheets, and each data column has the data source clearly labeled. - Under the Section “Copyright,” the RBA website states: - “You may download, display, print, or reproduce material on this website in unaltered form for your personal, noncommercial use or within your organization, with proper attribution given to the RBA. Other than for any use permitted under the Copyright Act, 1968, all other rights are reserved.” - Data from several sources are provided on this site; data from non-Reserve Bank sources may not be reproduced without the consent of the external source. Examples of copyright holders and permissions cited: - Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data: copyright resides with the Commonwealth of Australia and are used with permission. - Australian Property Monitors (APM) data: copyright resides with Australian Property Monitors Pty Limited; State and Territory governments hold copyright in the government-sourced data on dwelling prices supplied by APM. - The Reserve Bank’s website contains links to other organizations; the Reserve Bank does not provide any warranty or take responsibility for the content of those external sites. - “Requests for any further authorization in regard to the use of information on this site should be addressed to the Media Office.” ### Internal governmental access to statistics prior to release - A bi-weekly briefing is prepared for the Treasury providing comments on recent credit developments. - In some cases such comments are conducted on unpublished preliminary estimates. This prior access is generally known. ### Identification of statistical products - Products of the RBA statistical unit are clearly identified: data columns on disseminated spreadsheets have data sources labeled. - Data from non-RBA sources on the site are identified and subject to their own copyright and permission restrictions. ### Advance notice of methodological and data changes - All methodological changes are announced prior to their release in the RBA Bulletin and in the statistics media release as they occur (example cited: Revisions to Housing Credit Growth in July 2005). ### Ethical standards for staff - The RBA Code of Conduct outlines strict guidelines for staff behavior; primary requirement is honesty and integrity in all dealings. - Staff who deal with the public should do so openly and fairly; they should show no favour towards friends or relatives or otherwise misuse their position. - Staff should not gain benefit from privileged information they possess as a result of employment at the Bank. - Staff involved in the Bank’s dealings with a firm should not transact in shares or other obligations of that firm at any time when it could reasonably be expected that the value of such assets would be sensitive to the public release of information known to the staff member. - Staff are generally permitted to manage personal financial affairs but must avoid conflicts between private interests and duty to the Bank and take special care in personal dealings in financial instruments. - New staff are made aware of the RBA Code of Conduct when recruited. At least annually, the Bank circulates the policy and asks that it be read and understood. - The Code of Conduct is encapsulated in the form used as support for the discussion of goals during the annual Performance Appraisal cycle; the form is signed by staff to acknowledge awareness. - Failure to follow the Code can lead to disciplinary action, including possible dismissal, and in certain circumstances may lead to civil or criminal penalties in accordance with corporations’ law or regulatory rules applicable in various jurisdictions. ### Methodological soundness — concepts and definitions - The RBA publishes monthly measures of the supply of money and credit, referred to as Financial Aggregates, which include: - Monetary aggregates of currency on issue, current deposits with banks, other deposits of the private nonbank sector with banks, and borrowings from the private sector by nonbank depository corporations; and - Credit (loans, advances, and bills discounted) to the private nonfinancial sector (and public trading enterprises) by all financial intermediaries. - The RBA moved towards adoption of the IMF’s Monetary and Financial Statistics Manual, 2000 (MFSM 2000) and implemented IMF standardized report forms; monetary statistics are posted on the RBA website under “Statistics/ Money and Credit Statistics/Monetary Statistics (IMF Framework)” for international comparisons. - Compilation process for monetary statistics includes: - A central bank survey based on a comprehensive central bank balance sheet covering all central bank accounts; - An Authorized Deposit-taking Institutions survey for depository corporations other than the central bank covering banks, credit unions, and building societies (money-market corporations and cash management trusts are not included); - A total depository corporations survey that consolidates the central bank survey and the other depository corporations survey to present money supply and counterparts. - At this stage, monetary statistics compiled by the RBA do not include a sub-sectoral survey of financial corporations other than depository corporations. - Depository corporations survey main aggregates: broad money aggregate and its sources—net foreign assets, net claims on the central government, credit to the domestic economy (nonfinancial corporations, State and local general government, households, financial corporations other than depository corporations), nonmonetary resources and capital accounts of the depository corporations, other items net, and adjustment for central bank and other depository corporations positions (ODCs) discrepancy. ### Methodological soundness — scope - The depository corporations survey covers: - the central bank, - 57 banks, - 11 building societies, and - 109 credit unions as of end-March 2010. - Money-market corporations and cash management trusts are not included in the depository corporations survey at this stage, although their shares are noted to fulfill the most common definition of broad money; RBA includes data on money-market corporations and cash management trusts in some data series posted on its website under “Financial Aggregates.” - Some financial positions with the IMF are recorded in the central bank balance sheet (SDR holdings and IMF accounts 1 and 2) and some are recorded in the Treasury books (subscription to the IMF, SDR allocation, and loans to the IMF). - Central bank data cover transactions for headquarters, the four State offices, and the Canberra branch within Australia. - For banks, credit unions, and building societies, balance sheets used as source data relate to domestically conducted transactions with residents and nonresidents; transactions by overseas branches and subsidiaries of banks are not included. ### Methodological soundness — classification and sectorization - Reporting forms are developed by APRA in consultation with the ABS and the RBA; sector definitions in reporting forms reflect the sectorization in the 1993 SNA. - APRA Instructions Guide sector definitions (example: APRA ARF320.0 Statement of Financial Position pages 7 through 15) closely mirror the 1993 SNA. - Delineation resident vs rest-of-world/nonresident: rest-of-the world consists of all nonresident units with economic links to Australian resident units; concept of residence based on economic territory. - Considered as rest of the world/nonresident: - Foreign branches and foreign subsidiaries of Australian enterprises; and - Residents of Norfolk Island and other external territories of Australia. - Resident units grouped into institutional sectors/sub-sectors as shown in the MFSM 2000: - Financial corporations (central bank, other depository corporations, other financial corporations); - Nonfinancial corporations (public nonfinancial corporations, other nonfinancial corporations); - General government (central government, State government, local government, social security funds); - Households; - Nonprofit institutions servicing households. - Classification of financial instruments based on liquidity and legal characteristics per MFSM 2000: monetary gold and SDRs, currency and deposits, securities other than shares, loans, shares and other equities, insurance technical reserves, financial derivatives, and other accounts receivable/payable. - Detailed asset classification in APRA Instructions Guide (example: APRA ARF320.0 Statement of Financial Position pages 16 through 75): - One-digit asset level: cash and liquid assets; trading securities; investment securities; acceptances of customers, loans and advances; other investments; fixed assets; intangible assets; other assets; and memorandum asset items. - One-digit liabilities level: due to clearing houses; due to financial institutions; acceptances; deposits; other borrowings; income tax liability; provisions; bonds; notes and long-term borrowings; creditors and other liabilities; loan capital and hybrid securities; memorandum liabilities items; and shareholder equity. ### Methodological soundness — treatment of repurchase agreements - Refinancing by the central bank to banks is in the form of repurchase agreements (repos); the securities used remain in the books of the commercial bank and the central bank records the repo as a loan of cash rather than an outright purchase of securities. - APRA ARF 320.0 Statement of Financial Position (Domestic Books) item code BSL10640 spells out guidelines for recording securities repurchase agreements, citing accounting treatment when the transferee effectively receives a lender’s rate of return and underlying risks/rewards are not transferred. - Credit unions and building societies (CUBS) report through APRA ARF 323.0 Statement of Financial Position (Licensed ADI) in item code BSL10640 with coincident instructions. - Securities repurchase agreements are also reported on the asset side under “Trading Securities” for banks and CUBS; amounts payable to counterparties with whom stock has been lent or sold are recorded in “Securities sold under agreements to repurchase.” ### Basis for recording — valuation and recording practices - Financial assets valuation follows AASB 139 classification: - Assets classified as “held for trading and available-for-sale” and derivatives are measured at fair value or market price for assets with liquid markets. - Assets classified as loans and receivable and held to maturity are valued at amortized cost. - Monetary gold is valued at market prices in the central bank accounts. - Loans are valued at current book value (outstanding principal amount at its original cost plus any accrued interest) without adjustment for expected loan losses; loan-loss provisions are recorded under a separate item in depository corporations balance sheets. - Shares and other equity on the asset side are valued as provided by AASB 139; shares and other equity on the liability side are valued as net worth. - Financial transactions are recorded when there is a change of ownership, on the basis of prices at which assets and liabilities are bought and sold; transactions are recorded when new securities are issued and securities are redeemed. - Valuation adjustments (including holding gains and losses on instruments) are presented in the valuation changes item. - All financial assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies are converted to national currency at end of month spot exchange rate. - Recording is done on an accrual basis; interest on financial assets or liabilities is treated as accruing continuously during the accounting period. - Interest arrears are included in the outstanding obligation if recorded on an accrual basis prior to becoming past due; after becoming overdue, interest continues to be included in the value of the outstanding obligation. - Arrears for fees or charges associated with off-balance-sheet instruments are included in accounts receivable/payable on the balance sheet. - Derivative contracts are reported on the balance sheet under AASB 139; fees for options are recorded as receivables and the option contract as a derivative liability. - Transactions are normally recorded at the time they occur (simultaneous recording), but this depends on banks’ accounting and transaction capturing systems; sometimes banks backdate transactions. ### Grossing/netting procedures - Data on loans used for monetary statistics compilation are on a gross basis. - Claims and liabilities of banks on the same counterpart are generally not netted and are recorded on a gross basis; netting is permitted if prerequisites in Australian accounting standards (AASB 139, AASB 132, AASB 7) and relevant prudential standards are met. - Whenever data are presented on a net basis for analytical usefulness, underlying gross data are also shown in accordance with MFSM 2000 principles (examples: “net foreign assets” shown with claims on nonresidents and liabilities to nonresidents; “net claims on the central government” shown with claims on central government and central government deposits). - The depository corporations survey is obtained by canceling outstanding claims and liabilities between all depository corporations while preserving presentation of stocks and flows that are claims on (and liabilities to) financial corporations subsectors other than depository corporations, other resident sectors, and nonresidents. *Source: _cr10343 - 1.2 Transparency* ### 3.1 Source data ### _cr10343 - 3.1 Source data ### Source data collection, coverage, and reporting arrangements - Source data are obtained from comprehensive data collection programs that take into account country-specific conditions. - The RBA maintains an up-to-date record of all reporting institutions through its storage database, regularly updated with data transfers from APRA. - APRA’s website provides a list of all reporting institutions compiled in accordance with the Banking Act, 1959 and regularly maintained by APRA. - The monetary statistics compiled for Australia currently cover the central bank, banks, credit unions, and building societies; data are systematically collected each month by APRA and made available to the RBA. - Money-market corporations and cash management trusts are not included in monetary statistics at this stage, though such data are available at APRA and the ABS and are included in the RBA financial aggregates release of credit to the private sector and broad money. - APRA is responsible for developing and maintaining reporting forms in consultation with the ABS and the RBA; forms are field tested and reviewed as needed to incorporate new international accounting standards and national regulatory requirements (example: September 2007—new reporting requirements for implementing the Basel II Capital Framework in Australia). - Reporting forms incorporate sufficient detail in sectorization of counterparties and the nature of financial assets, but do not provide the split between transactions in national currency and transactions in foreign currency at the requested level of detail (elementary cells for deposits include one single amount summing national and foreign currency deposits; total foreign currency deposits are provided as a single memorandum item). - Data available on APRA forms cover all balance sheet items for ODCs (banks, credit unions, and building societies). - APRA can amend reporting forms at any time under the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act, 2001, in consultation with the ABS and the RBA. - The RBA and APRA maintain close communication prior to changes in reporting obligations (example: two large commercial banks merged at the end-2009; extensive discussion to minimize statistical impact). - The RBA liaises with major banks regularly; RBA does not hold periodic meetings with market participants specifically for monetary statistics and does not hold meetings with users beyond immediate financial-sector interlocutors. ### Fit to statistical concepts, valuation, and recording - The central bank and the ODCs apply advanced international accounting standards; source data meet valuation and time-of-recording requirements. - Source data broadly fulfill needs for sectorization of institutional units and identification of asset nature. - Limitations: no split by currency of transactions at requested detail; no sector data on holders of certificates of deposits—total outstanding certificates of deposits are allocated to broad money. ### Timeliness and data transfer - Source data are sufficiently timely to allow dissemination of monetary statistics in conformity with the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS). - APRA provides the RBA with a daily-updated list of financial institutions that have not reported in a timely manner and employs rigorous follow-up procedures. - If the monthly dissemination deadline is imminent, the RBA can contact respondents directly after APRA authorization. - Data are transferred electronically between the APRA database and the RBA database; the APRA database is maintained and updated on a real-time basis, and the RBA database is updated several times each day. ### Assessment, validation, and quality control - Both the RBA and APRA monitor submitted data for consistency with previous entries; the RBA runs automatic checking macros to identify abnormalities in reporting behavior for banks, registered financial corporations, credit unions, and building societies. - Automated queries generated by macros are recorded along with institution responses; data inconsistencies and out-of-trend values are confirmed with respondents. - When reporting forms change, APRA and the RBA hold regular consultations to assess the magnitude of impacts on data items. - APRA and the RBA have an agreed monthly schedule for managing the data query process; the RBA may initiate follow-up processes through APRA as needed. - The source data used for the monthly ODC survey are sufficiently reliable that supplementation with secondary-party information is not needed. - ABS quarterly flow-of-fund accounts provide a useful cross-check of stock-and-flow data. - Main aggregates from the depository corporations survey are cross-checked with other RBA financial aggregates. - The RBA has established procedures for querying abnormal activity (misreporting, classification errors, omissions) observed in institutions’ balance sheets. - The RBA reconciles monthly flow data (e.g., ABS Lending Finance ABS 5671.0 and Housing Finance ABS 5609.0) with changes in sectoral balance sheets representing stock of loans. ### Statistical techniques, adjustments, and seasonal treatment - The data-collection process is automated from respondents through APRA to the RBA database. - There are no imputation processes for nonrespondents to monetary statistics. - Adjustments are applied when calculating growth rates for RBA measures of credit and broad money; adjustments are advertised in statistical tables on the series break sheet. - All financial assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currency are converted into national currency at the end-of-month spot exchange rate. - Seasonal adjustment is conducted using the X-12-ARIMA Seasonal Adjustment Program; seasonal factors are re-estimated each month and adjustments are consistent with the IMF Monetary and Financial Statistics Compilation Guide (pages 184-190). ### Revision practices and studies - Monetary statistics are deemed final when first released; revisions are incidental and occur when respondents update submissions to APRA or from re-estimation of seasonal factors each month. - Monetary statistics are not subject to formal revision cycles; studies and analyses of revisions are not conducted because revisions are incidental and not systematic. - Revisions, if any, are noted in the monthly media release posted with statistical tables. ### Periodicity, timeliness of dissemination, and consistency - Monetary statistics (central bank survey, ODC survey, and depository corporations survey) are released monthly on the RBA website. - A weekly summary of the central bank balance sheet is released at 4:30 p.m. every Friday with data as of the previous Wednesday. - Monthly central bank data are disseminated within two weeks after the end of the reference month (in line with SDDS). - Monthly ODC data are disseminated within one month of the end of the reference month (in line with SDDS). - Monetary statistics are published with time series beginning January 2007. - The current monetary statistics dataset has been established recently and has not been subject to changes in source data, methodology, or techniques; RBA policy is to back cast where reasonably possible when such changes are introduced (example: Revisions to Housing Credit Growth in July 2005—series reconstructed back to 1997). - All statistical tables include methodological notes and documentation on series breaks; breaks are documented when the impact on the reference aggregate is $A300 million or more. - Prominent aggregates are disseminated in seasonally adjusted form: currency; M1; M3; broad money; and sector credit. - Consistency limitations noted: other financial corporations survey is not available at this time, so consistency checks with central bank and ODC surveys cannot be undertaken; consistency checks of “net foreign assets” with balance of payments and IIP statistics are not carried out at this stage; “bank financing” not available in government finance statistics, so a consistency check with “net claims on the government” cannot be performed. ### Accessibility, dissemination formats, and user access - Monetary statistics (IMF Framework) are published by the RBA as three tables (D11, D12 and D13) with end-month data and without seasonal adjustment. - Financial aggregates statistics are published by the RBA in original and seasonally adjusted terms for month end; a media release with links to statistical tables and charts is posted monthly. - Broad money breakdown provided: Currency; M1; M3; Broad money (definitions reproduced in the statistical release). - Breakdown of credit to the private sector available: owner-occupier housing; investor housing; personal credit; and business credit. - The media release provides commentary explaining recent movements; charts summarizing statistical information are available on the RBA website monthly. - The RBA moved to concurrent seasonal adjustment of financial aggregates data in 2006, re-estimating seasonal factors each month using X-12-ARIMA. - Dissemination schedule: monetary statistics (IMF Framework) are released on the third Thursday of each month (11:30 a.m. AEST) for data as of the last business day of the preceding month. - The RBA releases data simultaneously to all users; the press is not briefed in advance. - All items in monetary statistics are available under the “Money and Credit Statistics” heading on the RBA “Statistical Tables” web page; time series including the most recent data are freely available. - The RBA does not generally provide customized tabulations to the public but provides monthly data in requested formats to the IMF, the Commonwealth Treasury, and the BIS; public enquiries are directed to appropriate statistical agencies when relevant. - Additional freely available RBA releases include monthly board minutes, quarterly Statement of Monetary Policy, quarterly Bulletin, biannual Financial Stability Review, research discussion papers, conference and workshop material, education material, and speeches. *Source: _cr10343 - 3.1 Source data* ### 5.2 Metadata accessibility ### _cr10343 - 5.2 Metadata accessibility ### Documentation and methodological coverage - The monetary statistics tables are each accompanied by methodological notes featuring concepts, definitions, classifications, data sources, and other relevant methodological aspects and procedures. - The RBA procedures are broadly consistent with the principles outlined by the IMF in the Monetary and Financial Statistics Manual, 2000 and the Monetary and Financial Statistics: Compilation Guide, 2008. Departures from the IMF standards are briefly documented. - Data on the central bank are provided by the RBA Financial Administration Department based on the RBA accounting system and end-of-period general balance of accounts. - The majority of the data used to construct the other depository corporations survey (Authorized Deposit-taking Institutions Survey) are collected by APRA under powers set out in the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act, 2001. - By the tenth business day of each month, banks, building societies, credit unions, and registered financial corporations are required to submit to APRA a snapshot of their balance sheets as at the end of the previous month. - APRA electronically transfers the data through to the RBA into a database that facilitates easy transition of information between the two organizations. - ABS data are provided in a user-friendly format that is easily transferred into the RBA system; the RBA makes clear to users that the financial aggregates data are sourced from APRA. - The RBA regularly reviews and updates the information provided for the IMF SDDS metadata and IMF SDDS summary methodology and posted on the IMF Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board. - When monetary statistics are released publicly, a media release is posted on the RBA website under “Latest News,” with links to statistical tables; each table has specific methodological notes. Metadata and summary methodology are also available through the IMF SDDS website. ### Accessibility and dissemination formats - Metadata on monetary statistics and financial aggregates are available only in electronic form on the RBA website and the IMF SDDS website; no hard-copy document is made available to the general public. - Research Discussion Papers (RDP) and feature articles providing more detailed information are publicly available on the RBA website. Examples cited: - Research Discussion Paper: “Credit and Monetary Policy: An Australian SVAR” by Leon Berkelmans. - Measuring Credit, RBA Bulletin September 2009. - Consumer Credit and Household Finances, RBA Bulletin June 1999. - Housing Loan Approvals and Housing Credit Growth, RBA Statement of Monetary Policy, February 2004. ### Assistance to users and user contact - All statistical releases include contact details to the RBA Media Office (address, telephone number, facsimile number, and email); the Media Office redirects enquiries to appropriate staff. - The RBA website provides a “Contact Us” quick link with Media Office details and additional information such as a toll free number. - The RBA website includes a Section devoted to educational purposes with resources for teachers and students, and coordinates (with the UNSW Economics Society) an Economics Competition for university students. - Since January 2010, all the RBA data are available in an online format with direct access points on the home page to “Statistics,” “Publications,” “Media Releases,” and “Speeches.” - The RBA has invested in improving the website interface to make it easier to use and more accessible for users with disabilities. - The RBA seeks to respond to data enquiries as soon as feasible, balancing timeliness and accuracy. ### Cataloging, archives, and charges - Historical media releases are archived and accessible on the RBA website. - The RBA maintains an online archive of media releases and publications; users who cannot find documents can contact the Media Office for assistance. - The RBA website contains a customized Google search with a specific search feature for statistics and customized search boxes for key publications. - All statistical data released on the RBA website are free of charge and obtained through the “Statistics” link on the RBA’s website home page. - The RBA website offers a path for users to order printed copies of publications; prices for various papers and conference volumes are available for a clearly specified fee. ### Data Quality Assessment Framework — highlights (July 2003) - 0.3 Relevance: LNO — “There is no survey on the needs of users outside the financial sector.” - 2.2 Scope: LNO — “Money-market corporations and cash management trusts are not covered in the depository corporations survey.” - 3.1 Source data: LNO — “Most items in bank balance sheets do not present the split between national currency/foreign currencies at the requested level of detail. Holdings of certificates of deposits issued by banks are not sectorized by holder sectors and the total amount is allocated to the broad money aggregate whatever the holder sector.” - 5.3 Assistance to users: LNO — “In the statistical tables posted on the website there is no indication of contact point in the relevant units.” ### Recommendations (from the assessment) - Obtain from APRA source data presenting systematically the split between transactions in national currency and transactions in foreign currency. - Collect data for a proper sectorization of holders of certificates of deposits issued by banks; such sectorization can be obtained through a survey of money-market operators. A first step would be to identify all holdings by financial corporations reporting to APRA. - Conduct consultations outside the financial sector to better identify the needs of academics, media, international investors, etc. - Expand the institutional coverage of monetary statistics to money-market corporations and cash management trusts. - Submit applications for staff participation in the IMF monetary and financial statistics courses. ### Balance of Payments and IIP — governance, legal framework, and resources (selected points) - Legal authority: ABS collects and disseminates statistics under the Census and Statistics Act, 1905 (CSA), the Australian Bureau of Statistics Act, 1975 (ABSA), and associated ministerial determinations. - The CSA generally empowers the Statistician to determine collections; the Assistant Treasurer can direct collection of particular matters but cannot direct how to collect or to cease a collection. - The ABSA tasks the ABS to constitute the central statistical authority and to coordinate official bodies to avoid duplication and attain compatibility. - The ABS compiles many source statistics for BOP/IIP itself and uses administrative datasets where provided under taxation, customs, and prudential supervision legislation. - Coordination: ABS uses committees and informal contacts to ensure coordination among data-producing agencies; changes in production are preceded by extensive consultations. - Confidentiality: The CSA protects confidentiality; current Section 13 determination allows the Statistician to disclose certain classes of statistics subject to limits. The ABS maintains a strong culture of confidentiality and has on occasion declined data requests to preserve provider trust. - Reporting compliance: The CSA enables the Statistician to request or direct responses and sets penalties; directives are applied rarely. Response rates cited: - Survey of international trade in services (2008-2009): 93-94 percent. - Survey of international investment (2008-2009): 86-88 percent. - General business survey response rates: usually around 90 percent. - Resources and staffing: - Staff turnover has increased, with turnover “as high as 30 percent.” - In 2009 the ABS retrenched 90 middle-management staff and allowed attrition of more junior staff to fund a pay increase. - Sample cutback: a 24 per cent reduction in the size of the labour force survey sample was implemented to meet cost pressures. - Funding: new work needs to be externally funded or offset by savings; additional resources would be useful given new standards and the global financial crisis. - Training and skills: many professional staff have at least one degree; skills maintained via training, recruitment, and exchanges. - Governance: The Economic Statistics Strategy Coordinating Committee (ESSCC) reviews the international accounts program periodically. - Cost-sharing and agreements: - ABS has an MoU with APRA regarding the provision of statistics; the ABS pays APRA for the costs incurred in collecting and quality assuring data required by the ABS. - The ABA has an Agency Heads Agreement with the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service. *Source: _cr10343 - 5.2 Metadata accessibility (excerpt).* ### 0.3 Relevance ### 0.3 Relevance ### 0.3.1 Relevance and user feedback - The ABS monitors the relevance and practical utility of statistics to meet users’ needs through multiple arrangements: - Australian Statistics Advisory Council provides independent advice on priorities and performance for the statistics work program. - Economic Statistics User Group represents key economic constituents and provides dataset-specific advice. - Senior-level contacts and working-level briefings occur between the ABS and agencies (example: Australian Customs and Border Protection Service). - Media coverage and commentary on international accounts releases provide continuous feedback. - User and reference groups for trade in services, financial statistics, and price indices monitor components feeding into BOP/IIP statistics. - Major decisions (for example, migration to BPM6) involve discussions with advisory bodies; the decision to move simultaneously across new methodologies reflected guidance from those advisory bodies. ### 0.4 Other quality management #### 0.4.1 Processes to focus on quality - ABS Mission Statement: “We assist and encourage informed decision making, research and discussion within governments and the community, by leading a high quality, objective, and responsive national statistical service.” - ABS Corporate Plan values: integrity, relevance, service, access for all, professionalism, trust of providers. - ABS objectives include: - An expanded and improved national statistical service; - ABS services that are timely, relevant, responsive, and respected for their integrity and quality; - Informed and increased use of statistics; - A key contributor to international statistical activities that are important to Australia or our region; - An organization that builds capability to continually improve its effectiveness; - The trust and cooperation of our providers; - The ABS is a respected and strongly supported organization. - ABS maintains and publishes information on each collection, including quality information. - All ABS publications are subject to an internal clearance process. #### 0.4.2 Quality monitoring processes - The ABS devotes considerable resources to methodology with an overarching mandate to monitor quality of the statistical work program. - The Commonwealth Register of Surveys of Businesses (Statistical Clearing House) at http://www.nss.gov.au/nss contains metadata describing survey development, design, and procedures for many ABS collections. - External scrutiny channels: see 0.3.1 arrangements. #### 0.4.3 Quality considerations in program planning - Coordination of the economic statistics work program, including quality decisions, is via line management and cross-cutting groups. - Prime internal group: ABS Economic Statistics Strategy Coordinating Committee. - External coordination: see 0.3.1 arrangements. ### 1. Assurances of integrity #### 1.1 Professionalism - Legal and institutional arrangements: - Under the ABSA, the Statistician and the ABS form an independent statutory authority for the purposes of the Public Service Act, 1999. - The Statistician is appointed by the Governor-General for a period not exceeding seven years (with eligibility for reappointment) and can be removed only on grounds of misbehavior, incapacity, or bankruptcy. - ABSA does not specify qualifications required for the Statistician. - Any new proposal for collection of information for statistical purposes must be laid before both Houses of Parliament before implementation, unless voluntary. - Professional culture and staffing: - Recruitment is meritocratic and transparent per Australian public sector policies. - ABS staff are subject to the Code of Conduct of the Australian Public Service Commission; ABS also has its own values and encourages professional enhancement. - ABS staff are in high demand across the public sector. - Independence of methodological decisions: - Choices of sources, statistical techniques, and dissemination decisions are informed solely by statistical considerations. - Authority to correct misuse: - ABS has authority to comment on erroneous interpretation and misuse; ABS responses to media articles are available on the ABS website. #### 1.2 Transparency - Public availability of terms and conditions: - Terms and conditions for collection, processing, and dissemination are widely made available, particularly via the Internet. - Copies of government legislation (including the CSA and the ABSA) can be obtained from http://www.publications.gov.au or http://www.comlaw.gov.au. - The ABS website http://www.abs.gov.au/ is the most complete source for legal provisions, ABS work program, corporate plan, annual report of the ASAC, information about the SDDS, and information about individual statistics. - Internal governmental access prior to release: - ABS policy: all statistical releases are made available simultaneously to government, commercial, and private users from 11:30 a.m. (Canberra time) on the day of release. - Prior to 11:30 a.m., all ABS statistics are treated as confidential and regarded as being “under embargo.” - On February 1, 2008, new pre-embargo access arrangements permit authorized ministerial staff and Government officials access up to two hours prior to official release time to prepare briefings. - Authorized lockup attendees must remain in a secure room managed by ABS staff, are prohibited from communicating information outside the room until the embargo is over, and must sign security undertakings with provision for prosecution under the Crimes Act, 1914 for breaches. - Pre-embargo policy is posted on the ABS website in the “About us” section. - Identification of ABS products: - ABS products include the ABS logo and a catalog number. - Ministerial commentary is released independently by Ministers or their Offices. - Advance notice of major methodological changes: - ABS policy is to provide advance notice of major changes in methodology, source data, and statistical techniques, usually in regular publications before changes take effect. - For international accounts, notice is given in Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia (ABS Catalog No. 5302.0). - For BPM6, one-off publications explained changes well in advance of implementation. #### 1.3 Ethical standards - Staff behavior guidelines: - All staff are subject to the Code of Conduct as covered in Section 13 of the Australian Public Service Act, 1999. - No specific ABS code of conduct exists, but the ABS Corporate Plan lists 12 obligations employees have to the ABS. - Staff are made aware of ethical standards at induction and sign an undertaking to abide by them; periodic reminders are provided via in-house webpages, bookmarks, etc. ### 2. Methodological soundness #### 2.1 Concepts and definitions - The overall conceptual framework and classification structure of Australian BOP and IIP statistics largely follow the sixth edition of the IMF's BPM6 and the 2008 SNA. - The ABS chooses to diverge from international guidelines and standards in a number of instances; these divergences are described in Chapter 5 of the Information Paper: Implementation of New International Statistical Standards in ABS National and International Accounts (Catalog No. 5310.0.55.002). #### 2.2 Scope - Scope coverage: - Australia's BOP and IIP broadly cover all resident-nonresident transactions significant for the Australian economy. - External territories regarded as part of the Australian economy: Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Norfolk Island, the Australian Antarctic Territory, Heard and McDonald Islands, the Territory of Ashmore Reef and Cartier Island, Coral Sea Islands, and Australia's territorial enclaves overseas. - Norfolk Island transactions (population 2,100) will not always be captured due to administrative complexities and measurement difficulties; impact on overall economic performance is considered insignificant as large transactions will be identified and included. - Data omissions and planned investigations: - ABS does not collect information on employee stock options (ESOs) that should be included under compensation of employees and financial derivatives; past studies and the small value of compensation of employees in Australia’s international accounts imply these transactions are expected to be insignificant. The ABS intends to investigate the possibility of starting to collect these data. - Two components of primary income, “rent” and “taxes and subsidies on products and production,” are not measured due to lack of data sources but are expected to be insignificant. #### 2.3 Classification/sectorization - General conformity: - Classification/sectorization broadly follows BPM6 and the 2008 SNA, with extensions for domestic user requirements. - More detailed commodity classifications are provided for the goods account. - Debt transactions are published with more detailed sector classification than required by BPM6, plus additional geographical allocation detail. - ABS publishes remaining maturity of external debt, broken down by currency. - Mission recommendation: ABS should additionally publish remaining maturity of external debt by sector due to high international demand for these data. - Divergences from BPM6 and BPM5: - Repos: ABS treats (reverse) repos as outright purchase/sale of securities with an obligation to sell/buy-back similar securities; any difference between repurchase price and market price is recorded as a forward contract (financial derivative). This contrasts with BPM5 and BPM6 treatment of repos as collateralized loans (or deposits). - Reserve data and reserve template: reserve-related liabilities from repurchase agreements are netted off against reserve assets in the BOP/IIP and reserve template, inconsistent with BPM6 and the International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity Guidelines for a Data Template, and inconsistent with ABS treatment of repos as outright securities transactions. Section IV of the template indicates inclusion of securities borrowed or acquired under reverse repo, though they are correctly excluded from Section I. - Reclassifications vs transactions: BPM6 recommends domestic transactions causing changes in external securities holdings be recorded as reclassifications in the IIP (other changes account); ABS treats issuers as implicit counterparties to secondary trading and records these exchanges as international transactions rather than reclassifications. This affects gross transactions in the financial account but not net transactions. - Holding companies: BPM6 and 2008 SNA recommend sectoral classification of holding companies as captive financial institutions and money lenders; ABS maintains established practice of classifying them according to major economic activities of controlled entities. - Sign convention for financial account: ABS retains BPM5 approach where total transactions of the BOP plus errors and omissions add to zero; ABS does not adopt the new BPM6 sign convention. In the IIP, ABS keeps consistency with its sign convention (assets positions negative, liabilities positive). - Incomplete BPM6 implementation items expected to be addressed: - Outright purchases and sales of results of R&D are recorded in capital account instead of charges for use of intellectual property in services account. - Interest before FISIM is not shown as a separate memorandum item (FISIM and interest after FISIM are shown, allowing calculation). - Memorandum items on residual maturity of reserve-related liabilities are not published in the IIP nor in Section 2 of Australia’s reserves template. - Noted misclassifications: - Asian Bond Funds 1 and 2 are recorded differently in the reserve template and the reserve data as published in the BOP and IIP. In the reserve template they are recorded in Section I.A.(5), Other reserve assets, other; in the BOP/IIP they are currently recorded under Other reserve assets, securities, equity and investment fund shares. Consistency requires recording them under Other reserve assets, other claims in the BOP/IIP. - One instance where an asset taken from the reserve template was not properly reclassified in the BOP/IIP. #### 2.4 Basis for recording - Valuation and recording practices: - Valuation rules generally follow international standards and guidelines. - Loans and deposits are recorded at fair value. - Goods valuation: ABS uses the f.o.b. value as determined by customs’ information rather than the f.o.b. value reported by importers, as it is expected to better reflect true (f.o.b.) market value. - Departure from BPM6: In the IIP, other investment debt instruments are valued at fair value rather than nominal value (BPM6 recommends nominal value with memorandum items if fair value differs); ABS prefers fair value as a better market reflection. - Interest accrual approach: Both 2008 SNA and BPM6 recommend debtor approach (interest accrues at contractual rate agreed at issue); ABS follows the creditor approach (interest accrues at current market interest rate) as it reflects market reality and aligns with market valuation of debt. - Recording basis: - Recording is done on an accrual basis as far as possible; timing and valuation adjustments are made to source data where material to better reflect accruals accounting. - Dividends: In accordance with BPM6, dividends are recorded when shares go ex-dividend; reinvested earnings are recorded on a current operating profit basis. - Current metadata state dividends are recorded on the declaration date, intended to reflect the ex-dividend date; recommendation: change metadata terminology to “when the shares go ex-dividend” for international comparability. - Grossing/netting procedures: - All transactions are collected on a gross basis, except financial derivatives within the reserve assets functional category, which are recorded on a net basis (assets minus liabilities), in line with international standards. *Source: _cr10343 - 0.3 Relevance (Balance of Payments Statistics)* ### 3. Accuracy and reliability ### 3. Accuracy and reliability ### 3.1 Source data - Source data are obtained from comprehensive data collection programs that take into account country-specific conditions. - Data sources used by the ABS for BOP and IIP compilation: - ABS business surveys conducted solely or primarily for BOP/IIP purposes. - Other ABS surveys useful for BOP and IIP purposes but not designed primarily for them. - Surveys by other government agencies. - Administrative data sources, including: - Customs declarations for international merchandise trade statistics as the basis for trade in goods. - Passenger cards for traveler numbers in trade in services. - Reporting on reserve assets by the central bank. - Reporting by the DoFD and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) on the government’s external transactions and positions. - Survey design and frame maintenance: - Questionnaires are constructed using sound design principles and field tested. - Desktop error analysis and respondent visits minimize nonsampling error. - Separate business frames are maintained for each collection; frames are updated using taxation data, the Australian Business Register, profiling from the ABS business register, media reports, coverage surveys, and other ad hoc sources. - Specific administrative and survey practices: - Passenger information from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and visa numbers for students are used; passenger card data are sufficient for BOP concepts. - Stratified random samples are used for the survey of international trade in services. - The international investment survey employs a threshold collection strategy; weighted estimates are produced for trade in services; international investment aggregates include adjustments for activities below the threshold. - Reserve assets data are collected from the RBA. - ABS meets regularly with data providers, users, and regulators and monitors the financial press and international fora. - Assumptions due to absence of data sources: - All construction enterprises operating in Australia are considered residents of Australia on the assumption that all construction in Australia by nonresidents concerns projects with a duration of longer than one year. - Dividends on equity excluding investment fund shares credits are not recorded separately on the assumption that all portfolio equity investment is in investment funds; this affects the size of dividends and reinvested earnings attributable to investment fund shareholders. - Foreign direct investment is presented on a gross assets and liabilities basis. Directional basis data (inward and outward direct investment) are also available. The ABS assumes the ultimate controlling parent of domestic direct investment enterprises is located abroad as there are no tax incentives for round tripping. ### 3.1.2 Source-data conformity with standards - Overall: Source data largely use definitions, scope, classifications, valuation, and time of recording as set out in international standards. - Goods: - Primary source: ABS international merchandise trade statistics from customs declarations. - Customs data are supplemented by monthly and quarterly surveys to adjust timing, coverage, and valuation to BPM6 requirements, including progressive change of ownership where appropriate. - Customs data also underpin imports and exports of goods for manufacturing services and repairs. - Transportation services: - Primary sources include customs declarations (freight on imports) and a quarterly survey of resident and nonresident transport operators or agents. - Travel services: - Credits: administrative sources on foreign visitors split by purpose combined with a quarterly sample survey of foreigners departing Australia and a survey of nonresident students’ expenditure in Australia. - Debits: administrative data sources and an ongoing household survey of returned Australian travelers. - Government services: administrative information and historical information from foreign embassies. - Most other services: business survey designed for BOP purposes (survey of international trade in services); some partly modeled using regulatory information (e.g., insurance and pension services). - Primary income: - Compensation of employees: traveler surveys, administrative sources, and information from Australian embassies. - Investment income: threshold survey of government and business enterprises (international investment survey), also used for financial account and IIP compilation. - Secondary income: - General government transfers: administrative information. - Transfers of other sectors: administrative sources and regulatory information. - Capital account: - General government transfers: administrative information. - Transfers of other sectors: monitoring of media. - Acquisition/disposals of nonproduced, nonfinancial assets: administrative records for purchases and sales of embassy land and a survey of business enterprises transacting in intangible assets. - Financial account: - Direct, portfolio, financial derivatives, and other investment measured through the survey of international investment activity; BOP transactions reported within the IIP reconciliation format. - Portfolio equity liabilities: collected through a census of resident nominees (custodians) reporting on a security-by-security basis. - Other portfolio assets and liabilities: recorded at a “fairly disaggregate” aggregate level. - Reserve assets: reported directly by the central bank. - International investment survey captures opening and closing positions for the quarter in a full reconciliation statement, enabling fully reconciled financial account and IIP data and separate information on price, exchange rate, and other volume changes; investment income is also captured. ### 3.1.3 Timeliness of source data - ABS quarterly data collections scheduled to produce results in time for quarterly BOP and IIP processing. - Due dates for reporting are advised on survey front pages; responses generally accepted for: - two weeks (international investment) after the due date, - seven weeks (international trade in services) after the due date. - Intensive follow-up occurs between due date and close-off for acceptance. - Survey of international trade in services information is not available in time for the quarterly publication to which the data refer; most recently published services data are estimated via extrapolations and incidental data, with survey results introduced through revisions in the subsequent issue. ### 3.2 Assessment of source data - Quality monitoring and verification: - ABS quarterly collections subject to formal clearance processes; documentation made available to senior managers; results discussed. - Quality assessments are available or being made available for many ABS data releases. - Verification procedures identify atypical responses at input and output stages; confirmations with respondents and maintenance of records assist interpretation. - Data confrontation within ABS between the Balance of Payments and National Accounts Divisions and with trade price indices; other ABS collections (e.g., capital expenditure) used to confront BOP and IIP components. - Component-specific assessments: - Goods: Adjustments to customs declarations for BPM6 coverage/classification/timing/valuation; merchandise trade data validated consistent with BOP use; significant transactions verified; comparisons with press, company, and port authority information. - Services: Various validations; media monitoring and confrontation with reported values. - Primary income: Verification of income flows against outstanding investment positions; cross-border investment income compared with published accounts of major corporations and totals from other ABS surveys; confronted within an investment income matrix of instrument by sector income flows. - Secondary income: General government aid transfers validated against official aid reports; withholding tax receipts monitored against underlying cross-border transactions with anomalies adjusted. - Capital account: Aid transfers validated against official aid reports; coverage and valuation for acquisition less disposal of intangible assets monitored against resident counterpart information. - Financial account and IIP: Wide variety of verification processes; self-verification by reporting units as data are collected within the reconciliation model for the IIP; confrontation with total balance sheet positions and financial transactions from other ABS collections and prudential reporting; routine comparison with company and press reports. ### 3.3 Statistical techniques - Data compilation practices: - Adjustments to unit record data when extreme values cannot be verified; information on adjustments is maintained. - Weights in sample surveys for trade in services are number-raised (Horritz-Thompson) applied at the stratum level. - In the international investment survey, coverage adjustments in threshold collections are carried forward using reported mean values from small-size strata to adjust strata below the threshold through price changes in the other changes account (transactions for strata below the threshold are assumed to be zero). - Electronic forms used in the international investment survey to minimize coding and data-entry errors. - Seasonal and statistical analysis: - Seasonal analysis performed for up to 250 current account time series, exceeding international data standards. - About 110 current price seasonally adjusted series are published quarterly. - About 140 volume and price series for goods and services are seasonally adjusted. - Seasonal reanalysis is undertaken concurrently, with a more in-depth annual review. - Specific models used for estimates: - Manufacturing services: customs data identify goods crossing the border for processing; fees for manufacturing services currently set at 30 percent of the export value, based on limited empirical data. - Travel services: estimated monthly using monthly passenger-card information combined with quarterly estimates of per capita expenditure. - Transport freight debits: estimated monthly based on monthly merchandise trade imports (value of cost, insurance, and freight less free on board); country estimates available annually based on shipping/airline agents’ commissions by country. - FISIM: model using actual investment data to estimate FISIM with a currency breakdown for position data. - Reinvested earnings: model to reconcile reinvested earnings with the market value of direct investment positions via an adjustment in price changes. - Nonlife insurance and pensions: model developed to estimate transactions and positions in nonlife insurance (especially freight and reinsurance) and pensions; covers all BOP and IIP items related to these activities in line with BPM6 guidelines (life insurance expected to be insignificant). ### 3.4 Assessment and validation of intermediate data and statistical outputs - Validation of intermediate results: - All data submitted by businesses in surveys or administrative sources are subject to rigorous editing procedures. - Data confronted with regulatory prudential information, company reports, and financial press information where available. - Investigation of statistical discrepancies: - Aggregates assessed for plausibility and may trigger further investigation of individual business data. - Assessments include alignment with concepts and confrontation within the BOP framework and accounting identities. - Reliability and accuracy tests include validating implied rates of return from investment income and IIP data; relationships between passenger transport and travel services; and relationships between freight transport and trade in goods. - Accounting tests check relationships between changes in the valuation of financial derivatives and underlying hedged instruments. - Checks ensure deposit liabilities are recognized only in deposit-taking sectors and that equity liabilities denominated in the domestic currency have zero impact from exchange rate changes. - External information is compiled prior to the investment income, financial account, and IIP compilation to form an “expectation” to confront against survey results. - Investigation of discrepancies and other indicators: - Ongoing program to confront reported data and aggregates to identify and remove causes of statistical discrepancies, including consistency across macroeconomic accounts for large transactions. - Financial account compilers monitor errors and omissions to detect biases and trends in magnitude. - Occasional bilateral comparisons with New Zealand for trade in goods and services at relatively aggregated levels; ad hoc bilateral comparisons with other countries are undertaken by DFAT and provided to ABS for further investigation. ### 3.5 Revision studies - The ABS conducts routine studies and analyses of revisions that inform statistical processes. - Relevant publications and documentation: - ABS publication Quality of Australian Balance of Payments Statistics (ABS Catalog No. 5342.0, issued in 1996) includes extensive information on revisions and is available on the ABS website. - Additional internal documentation maintained on the extent of revisions, major causes, and application methods. - Analysis of revisions to the current account balance is published in the ABS Annual Report, available on the ABS website. ### 4 Serviceability — 4.1 Periodicity and timeliness - Periodicity: - External sector statistics are disseminated in line with the SDDS standards. - Australia exceeds SDDS periodicity requirements for the IIP (published quarterly). - Additional ABS data exceeding SDDS requirements: - IIP data for all partner countries available on a calendar year basis by selected country (using the directional principle for direct investment) at broad aggregates of primary income, financial account transactions, and positions of foreign investment in Australia and Australian investment abroad. - More detailed component series available for portfolio investment assets consistent with the Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey requirements. - Additional publications beyond BPM6 requirements: - (i) foreign investment assets and liabilities (transactions and positions) published by industry on a quarterly basis, - (ii) data on direct investment transactions and positions by industry published on an annual basis (consistent with OECD requirements for direct investment). - Partner country data for the goods component of the BOP are available from merchandise trade statistics. - BOP standard components for services available annually for 47 partner countries and country groups on both a calendar and financial year (July-June) basis. - Timeliness: - External sector statistics are disseminated in line with SDDS requirements. - BOP and IIP statistics are released approximately two months after the end of the reference quarter, which exceeds SDDS requirements. *Source: _cr10343 - 3. Accuracy and reliability* ### 4.2 Consistency ### _cr10343 - 4.2 Consistency ### 4.2 Consistency within the dataset - The BOP and IIP data are fully consistent and reconciled. - The quarterly Balance of Payments and International Investment Position includes tables presenting the IIP in a full reconciliation statement, with transactions in the reconciliation statement equal to the transactions recorded in the BOP. - The reconciliation statement includes details on price changes, exchange rate changes, and other volume changes. - Net errors and omissions have been small and have oscillated around zero. ### 4.2.2 Consistency over time - Quarterly BOP series are published from September quarter 1959. - Quarterly IIP series are available from September quarter 1988. - Both time series are on a BPM6 basis, although some components are not available for the full time series: - Positions between fellow enterprises introduced in September quarter 2009. - Financial derivatives introduced in September quarter 1994. - Other aspects of the financial account introduced in September quarter 1988. - Acquisition and disposals of nonproduced, nonfinancial assets introduced in March quarter 1988. ### 4.2.3 Consistency with other data sources/frameworks - Balance of payments adjustments made to international merchandise trade data are published in International Trade in Goods and Services (ABS Catalog No. 5368.0). - Australia's BOP and IIP statistics are fully consistent with the rest-of-the-world sector in Australia's national accounts compiled on a 2008 SNA basis. - A comparison of banks’ international transactions and positions in the BOP/IIP data and the monetary statistics is performed frequently. ### 4.3 Revision policy and practice - Revisions policy: incorporate more accurate information when practical; however, to minimize disruption, revisions to periods prior to the previous financial year are generally only made once a year. - Timing of routine revisions: - June quarter issue: investment income, financial account, and the IIP. - September quarter issue: trade in goods and services and other components. - Exceptions: significant revisions are incorporated into the next available issue. - Revision policy documented in Balance of Payments and International Investments Position, Australia: Concepts, Sources and Methods (ABS Catalog No. 5331.0). - Data identification: - Data are provisional when first released and subject to revision; stated in explanatory notes. - Revisions are noted on page 2 of relevant publications; reasons provided where significant. - Revision analyses: - Summary revision tables included in the quarterly publication Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia (ABS Catalog No. 5302.0). - ABS publication Quality of Australian Balance of Payments Statistics (ABS Catalog No. 5342.0, issued in 1996) includes numerical analyses of revisions performance and detailed assessments; available on the ABS website. - The mission notes that an update of this publication with an analysis of the revisions due to BPM6 is not available. ### 5. Accessibility — Data accessibility - Data presentation: - Data disseminated in millions of Australian dollars, showing credits and debits for goods, services, primary income, secondary income, and the capital account. - Financial account dissected into net acquisition of financial assets and net incurrence of liabilities (direct investment, portfolio investment, financial derivatives, other investment, and reserve assets). - Current account published in original, seasonally adjusted, and trend terms. - Goods and services series also published in chain volume terms, with implicit price deflators, fixed weighted indices and terms of trade, and percentage changes. - Capital and financial accounts only published in original terms. - Forward seasonal concurrent factors are published. - IIP presentation: - Time series format and reconciliation format. - Most prescribed components disseminated: asset and liability data on direct investment; portfolio investments (broken down into equity and debt); financial derivatives; other investments; reserve assets. - Memorandum items for reserve-related liabilities at remaining maturity are not available (para. 2.3.1). - International investment assets and liabilities published by broad industry, individual countries, and country groups. - Dissemination media and format: - International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia (ABS Catalog No. 5368.0) available for free download from the ABS Internet website. - Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia (ABS Catalog No. 5302.0) available for free download from the ABS Internet website. - ABS website gives free access to main BOP and IIP aggregates and analysis of the latest quarterly information. - Requests for customized data may incur a charge. - Release practices: - Each issue of the quarterly BOP and IIP publication announces the release date for the following three issues. - Data released simultaneously to all users via the quarterly publication. - ABS uses an embargo system; standard release time is 11:30 a.m. (Canberra time). - Full set of BOP and IIP data posted on the ABS Internet website at the prescribed release time. - Non-routine dissemination: - More detailed quarterly and annual statistics and time series data available on request or via subscription; customized data may be provided electronically as a special data service and clients are charged based on number of data cells provided and time taken. ### 5.2 Metadata accessibility - Concepts, sources, and methods documentation: - Published in Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia, Concepts, Sources and Methods (ABS Catalog No. 5331.0); available free on the ABS website. - This publication is currently on a BPM5 basis and will be updated during 2010 to reflect BPM6 concepts, sources, and methods. - Between issues, any changes in concepts, sources, or methods are documented in the affected publications. - SDDS metadata are provided and reviewed on a regular basis. - Level of detail: - Brief explanatory notes included in each statistical publication in addition to detailed documentation. ### Data Quality Assessment Framework — summary observations - Key framework elements and notable comments: - 0.2 Resources: resource strains due to changing standards and coping with the global financial crisis; significant loss of expertise. - 2.3 Classification/sectorization: international standards are not observed for classification/sectorization of repos; transactions in foreign securities between residents and transactions in domestic securities between nonresidents; outright purchases and sales of the outcome of R&D; holding companies; and the reserve template. No data are published for interest before FISIM. The sign convention of BPM6 is not observed. - 2.4 Basis for recording: Loans and deposits recorded at fair value. Interest on securities is based on the creditor approach. - 3.1 Source data: in some instances data classification is based on assumptions due to lack of source data, e.g., all portfolio income on equity is attributed to income on shares in investment funds. - 4.2 Consistency: some inconsistencies between the BOP/IIP reserve assets and the data template. - Overall practice assessments in the table used symbols O, LO, LNO, NO and indicated observed or largely observed practices across elements such as professionalism, transparency, concepts, scope, periodicity, revision policy, data and metadata accessibility, and user assistance. ### Recommendations (from the source) - Consider publishing additional datasets that fully comply with the international standards for classification/sectorization, and data that allow conversion to the BPM5 presentation format to serve international users. - Enhance consultations between the ABS and RBA to avoid differences in classification. Consider bringing the reserves data in the BOP/IIP and the reserve template in line with international standards regarding the recording of repos. - Publish or reclassify data that are currently available but not published or erroneously classified in the prescribed manner of BPM6. - Investigate the assumption that all portfolio equity investment abroad is through investment funds, with a view to showing separately dividends on equity excluding investment fund shares and obtaining a better estimation of reinvested earnings attributable to investment fund shareholders. - Consider using the sign convention as required under BPM6 standards. - Consider publishing remaining maturity of external debt by sector, given high international demand for these data. ### Appendix I — Users’ views (summary) - Survey and consultation: - An informal survey with assistance of ABS and RBA: twenty-five responses; meetings in Sydney and Canberra with users including academics, banks, government agencies, and embassies. - Overall user sentiments: - Users rated Australian statistics highly and appreciated consultations and advance notice of changes. - Users identified concerns and qualifications despite a generally strong picture. - Specific user concerns: - CPI: most critical dataset; requests for improved coverage and periodicity; close to half the respondents dissatisfied with current periodicity; more frequent rebasing (perhaps every four years) mentioned. - Timeliness of national accounts and GFS and the amount of information on revisions to national accounts were concerns. - Statistics on exports of services seen as not keeping up with user needs. - Methodology and expertise: - All respondents thought methodologies sound and statistics unbiased and accurate. - Users noted a significant loss of expertise in recent years and less analysis produced with the numbers. - Some users preferred more focus on seasonally adjusted data rather than trends given current uncertainties. - Additional comments: - On CPI: ABS initiated a 16th review and solicited comments; criticisms included low periodicity and inclusion of FISIM. - On national accounts: users wanted reconciliation of three GDP estimates (Expenditure, Income, Product) which have diverged since the start of the global financial crisis; headline GDP is the average of the three, but Income and Product measures showed lower growth than Expenditure over the last two years. - Confidentiality rules: some official users expressed reservations that confidentiality rules preclude full information for officials involved in trade negotiations; ABS notes nonstatistical sources should be used in such contexts. - Credibility risk: users cited instances such as the September 2009 national accounts rerelease and a 24 percent reduction in labor force survey sample size at the crisis onset as risks to ABS credibility; alternative suppliers were meeting perceived gaps (e.g., higher periodicity CPI figures, State productivity figures). *Source: _cr10343 - 4.2 Consistency (Balance of Payments Statistics), as provided in the supplied content.* ### Appendix II. Summary of the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) ### Appendix II. Summary of the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) ### SDDS: Core prescriptions by dimension - Data dimension (coverage, periodicity, and timeliness) - The dissemination of 18 data categories, including component detail, covering the four main sectors (real, fiscal, financial, and external) of the economy, with prescribed periodicity and timeliness. - Access dimension - The dissemination of advance release calendars providing at least a one-quarter advance notice of approximate release dates, and at least a one-week advance notice of the precise release dates. - The simultaneous release of data to all users. - Integrity dimension - The dissemination of the terms and conditions under which official statistics are produced and disseminated. - The identification of internal government access to data before release. - The identification of ministerial commentary on the occasion of statistical release. - The provision of information about revision and advance notice of major changes in methodology. - Quality dimension - The dissemination of documentation on statistical methodology and sources used in preparing statistics. - The dissemination of component detail and/or additional data series that make possible cross-checks and checks of reasonableness. ### SDDS subscriber obligations and IMF monitoring - SDDS subscribers are required to: - Post descriptions of their data dissemination practices (metadata) on the IMF’s Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board (DSBB). Summary methodologies, which describe data compilation practices in some detail, are also disseminated on the DSBB. - Maintain an Internet website, referred to as the National Summary Data Page (NSDP), which contains the actual data described in the metadata and to which the DSBB is electronically linked. - IMF staff monitoring: - Monitoring is conducted through NSDPs maintained on the Internet. - Monitoring is limited to the coverage, periodicity, and timeliness of the data and to the dissemination of advance release calendars. - Source noted: http://dsbb.imf.org ### Data Quality Assessment Framework — Generic Framework (July 2003) - Quality dimensions and summary of elements/indicators: - 0. Prerequisites of quality - 0.1 Legal and institutional environment - 0.1.1 Responsibility for collecting, processing, and disseminating statistics is clearly specified. - 0.1.2 Data sharing and coordination among data-producing agencies are adequate. - 0.1.3 Individual reporters’ data are to be kept confidential and used for statistical purposes only. - 0.1.4 Statistical reporting is ensured through legal mandate and/or measures to encourage response. - 0.2 Resources - 0.2.1 Staff, facilities, computing resources, and financing are commensurate with statistical programs. - 0.2.2 Measures to ensure efficient use of resources are implemented. - 0.3 Relevance - 0.3.1 The relevance and practical utility of existing statistics in meeting users’ needs are monitored. - 0.4 Other quality management - 0.4.1 Processes are in place to focus on quality. - 0.4.2 Processes are in place to monitor the quality of the statistical program. - 0.4.3 Processes are in place to deal with quality considerations in planning the statistical program. - 1. Assurances of integrity - 1.1 Professionalism (e.g., 1.1.1–1.1.3: impartial production; statistical considerations guide choices; right to comment on misuse). - 1.2 Transparency (e.g., 1.2.1–1.2.4: availability of terms/conditions; identification of internal governmental access prior to release; identification of agency products; advance notice of major changes). - 1.3 Ethical standards (1.3.1: guidelines for staff behavior). - 2. Methodological soundness - 2.1 Concepts and definitions (2.1.1: follow internationally accepted standards). - 2.2 Scope (2.2.1: scope broadly consistent with international standards). - 2.3 Classification/sectorization (2.3.1: broadly consistent with international standards). - 2.4 Basis for recording (2.4.1–2.4.3: market prices; accrual basis; grossing/netting procedures consistent). - 3. Accuracy and reliability - 3.1 Source data (3.1.1–3.1.3: comprehensive collection programs; source data approximate required definitions/scope; timely source data). - 3.2 Assessment of source data (3.2.1: routine assessment of source data and monitoring). - 3.3 Statistical techniques (3.3.1–3.3.2: sound statistical techniques for compilation and other procedures). - 3.4 Assessment and validation of intermediate data and statistical outputs (3.4.1–3.4.3: validation against other information; assessment/investigation of discrepancies). - 3.5 Revision studies (3.5.1: routine studies and analyses of revisions). - 4. Serviceability - 4.1 Periodicity and timeliness (4.1.1–4.1.2: follow dissemination standards). - 4.2 Consistency (4.2.1–4.2.3: internal consistency; consistency/reconcilability over time; with other datasets). - 4.3 Revision policy and practice (4.3.1–4.3.3: regular transparent schedule; identification of preliminary/revised data; public analyses of revisions). - 5. Accessibility - 5.1 Data accessibility (5.1.1–5.1.5: clear presentation; adequate dissemination media and format; preannounced schedule; simultaneous release; non-routine data available on request). - 5.2 Metadata accessibility (5.2.1–5.2.2: documentation on concepts/scope/classifications/etc.; levels of detail adapted to audience). - 5.3 Assistance to users (5.3.1–5.3.2: publicized contact points; catalogs of publications/services and charges). ### Users’ Survey — General information about uses of official macroeconomic statistics of Australia (Total Number of Responses: 26) - Which official statistics are used regularly (number of respondents): - National accounts (NA): 25 - Prices: 25 - Government finance statistics (GFS): 18 - Monetary statistics (Monetary): 23 - Balance of payments (BOP): 20 - Other (specified): - Production indices: 12 - Labor market: 23 - Merchandise trade: 19 - International reserves and foreign currency liquidity: 12 - External debt: 18 - International investment position: 15 - Other: 8 - Sources used to obtain official statistics (number of respondents): - Official press releases and publications on macroeconomic statistics: 25 - Private sector summaries and analyses: 11 - Official policy papers: 14 - Publications from international organizations about the country: 14 - Other sources: 8 - Reference to official descriptions of sources and methods: - Yes: 26 - No: 0 - Purposes for using official statistics (number of respondents): - Analysis of current developments for short-term decision making: 22 - Analysis of trends for longer-term policy formulation: 16 - Econometric model building and forecasting: 19 - Economic research: 25 - Comparison with economic developments in other countries: 23 - General economic background: 22 - Other: 7 - Coverage and detail (summary counts across datasets) - In general, are you satisfied with the coverage of official statistics? - Yes: 23; No: 1 (aggregate); further dataset-specific counts provided in source. - In general, are you satisfied with the level of detail? - Yes: 23; No: 1 (aggregate); dataset-specific counts provided in source. - Periodicity and timeliness - Satisfied with frequency of compilation: - Yes: 20; No: 3 (aggregate) - Disseminated with appropriate timeliness: - Yes: 17; No: 7 (aggregate) - Other dissemination practices - Awareness of publicly disseminated release calendar: - Yes: 25 - No: 1 - Are official statistics released on announced dates (where calendar exists): - Yes: 23 - No: counts by dataset provided in source. - Enough information about revisions: - Yes: 16; No: 7 (aggregate) - Accessibility - Can you easily access official statistics? - Yes: 23; No: counts by dataset provided in source. - Can you easily access explanatory/methodological information? - Yes: 20; No: counts by dataset provided in source. - Is the methodology information sufficiently clear and at an adequate level of detail? - Yes: 21; No: 3 - How users access official statistics (number of respondents): - Official releases: 4 - Hard copy publications: 5 - Data specifically requested: 6 - Official website: 25 - Other: 9 - E-mail requests: 15 - Overall assessment - Underlying methodology sound and appropriate: - Yes: 24; No: 1 (aggregate) - Official statistics considered unbiased and accurate: - Yes: 21; No: 1 (aggregate) - Comparison with region (quality): - Better: 16; Same: 5; Worse: counts by dataset provided in source. - Overall quality rating (1 = poor, 5 = excellent): detailed frequency distribution provided in source. *Source: _cr10343 - Appendix II. Summary of the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) and accompanying Appendices as provided in the source PDF.* --- _Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/websites/imf/imported-full-text-pdf/external/pubs/ft/scr/2010/_cr10343.pdf_