Newsletter 2020-06
Dear colleagues,
The COVID-19 pandemic has up-ended all our lives in recent months, and brought many immediate challenges to establishment statistics. The onset of the pandemic required abrupt changes in working arrangements for both staff working in official statistics and business survey respondents, requiring reviews of data collection methods. An increased focus on the economic effects of the crisis resulted in the rapid development of new releases and changes to existing ones. After the initial scramble to keep up with the changing environment, establishment statisticians are continuing to develop methods to accommodate to the new ways of living and working.
The Topical Papers section of the ENBES repository contains a selection of working papers that address these issues, including the challenges with measuring economic changes during a recession, and difficulties with measuring inflation in sectors where expenditure has collapsed due to the lockdown. The Topical Papers section is available HERE.
To contribute a paper or report to the repository, email repository@enbes.org. Shorter opinion pieces and comments are also welcome. Please send a file with your observations to the same email address. These will be added to the discussion and may be compiled with others on similar topics.
Wishing you continued good health in these difficult times.
ENBES Steering Committee