Meeting with journalists: Statistics produced by the CBBH

Statistics produced by the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, its compliance with the European Union (EU) standards, and particularly balance of payments statistics, were the subjects of the meeting with journalists which was held on 23 March 2022.

Head of Statistics and Publications Department, Amir Hadžiomeragić, pointed out the existence of a number of different kinds of data, which are often called statistics, however, official statistics requires harmonised and verified methodology, independence of the institution producing it, expertise and qualifications, compliance with the principles of the UN and the EU statistics, public disclosure of data for all the periods and periodic revisions, discussions with users...

Official statistics in BH is produced by the BH Statistics Agency, producing numerous kinds of statistics data, including economic ones ( with the CBBH) and the CBBH producing economic statistics data and Entity Statistics Institutes which are responsible only for publishing statistics at the Entity level.

It is quite common that statistics is produced in central banks, particularly in Europe, and in other countries in the world. The first reason is in our own needs for timely, good quality data on economy in order to be able to make decisions and monitor trends, the other reasons is the fact that central banks are highly independent, and also because central banks, from their own resources, independently from the budget, can finance the production of statistics.

The production of the CBBH statistics is very complex and demanding, which is seen in the fact that data are collected from more than 150 financial institutions, more than 50 government institutions, and several hundreds of non-financial companies and various institutions.

The CBBH produces monetary and financial statistics, statistics of public finance and public debt and external sector statistics.

Monetary and financial statistics in a systemic way records trends in banking system, and the entire financial system of BH, and it is based on the monthly compilation of data. On the basis of this statistics, users can see all the changes in assets and liabilities of banks and other financial institutions, interest rates on the market, thus having a complete picture of the flows between financial sector and the rest of the economy.

Government finance statistics is aimed at calculating entire public finance of BH and present them in the form harmonised with international classifications. On the basis of all the collected data from numerous budgets, funds, road directorates...it is possible to make a consolidated fiscal balance of BH, with detailed structure of income, expenses, investments and financing and the public debt amount, and thus gain insight into the total public finance in BH, which is one of the key macroeconomic indicators.

Vedran Milisav, M.Sc., Head of Balance of Payments Statistics Section was speaking to journalists about external sector statistics. The focus of the presentation was on informing the representatives of the media on compiled macroeconomic statistics of external sector in the CBBH, firstly balance of payments statistics, international investment position, direct investment, international trade in services, and real and nominal effective exchange rate. A special attention was paid to the usefulness, i.e. the use of the mentioned statistics, primarily for preparing the EU Alert Mechanism Report, showing the main and additional indicators calculated from the mentioned statistics for the needs of the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP). In the same form, these indicators can be used and are used by local users in preparing strategic objectives and economic development programmes.  

In addition, the methodology for compiling and disseminating external sector statistics was presented, and it was stressed that the methodology applied in the CBBH is the latest methodology used in this area, in the EU and most other countries in the world. Therefore, statistics data compiled in the CBBH in this area are entirely comparable with the relevant statistics data compiled in the rest of the world.