Statistics for economic analysis: the experience of the Bank of Italy

Abstract

The paper provides an overview of the main statistics produced by the Bank of Italy: financial accounts, monetary statistics, balance of payments, household and business surveys. The volume discusses the problems related to the measurement of economic phenomena, how statistics can be used for policy evaluation, the challenges for official statistics posed by globalization, the digital economy and big data. Finally, we show the policy adopted by the Bank of Italy for the dissemination of statistics and the role of the Research Data Center.

Keywords: central bank statistics, financial accounts, monetary and banking statistics, balance of payment, household surveys, business surveys, financial literacy, policy evaluation, official statistics, globalization, digital economy, big data, dissemination

JEL Classification: C40, C80