Training Program

Officials responsible for compiling short-term or monthly economic indicators in central banks and statistical offices.

Participants should have a degree in economics or statistics or equivalent experience.

This course, presented by the Statistics Department, discusses identification and assessment of elementary indicators and the techniques for combining them into a single overall index of economic activity to track trends in the economy. Flash estimates or indexes of economic activity bring together a range of specific economic elementary indicators to give timely overall measures of economic activity. Such measures give useful information to policy makers complementing the annual and quarterly GDP estimates (which are more comprehensive but usually only available after substantial lags) and provide a more comprehensive picture than a set of individual monthly and quarterly indicators (which are up-to-the-minute but reflect just a portion of the total economy).  This course is oriented toward actual or potential compilers of short-term indicators in central banks and statistical offices as well as those involved in data collection of monthly indicators. Participants are expected to work with their own available monthly and quarterly time series during the course. These indicators will be used in the practical session to develop experimental estimates.