Eurostat’s decision on data of public interventions supporting financial institutions
15 July 2009
Three aspects of the crisis have raised particular challenges for statisticians - the uncertainty over asset values, the difficulty in measuring risks which public bodies are taking on, and the rapid development of new forms of intervention.
Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities , has published a Decision on the statistical recording of public interventions to support financial institutions and markets during the financial crisis. A more detailed technical note 2 for statisticians is also published.
Three aspects of the crisis have raised particular challenges for statisticians - the uncertainty over asset values, the difficulty in measuring risks which public bodies are taking on, and the rapid development of new forms of intervention.
The Decision is founded on established statistical principles in the European System of Accounts, which have been applied to the specific circumstances of the financial turmoil. It deals with the complex public interventions observed to date, such as recapitalisation, guarantees, purchases of assets, and liquidity operations conducted through exchange of assets.
The Decision also deals with the statistical classification of temporary special purpose entities which have been created to address financial crisis issues. It provides a framework for statisticians across the EU to apply in recording these (and future) interventions in the national accounts, ensuring a consistency of treatment across countries and between operations of the same economic substance.
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