Meeting 20

Macroeconomic Statistics Liaison Group Meeting
Location: Microsoft Teams
Date: Tuesday, 19^th July 2022

Present:

Mairéad O’Sullivan (BSTAI), Stephen Byrne (Central Bank), Thomas Conefrey (Central Bank), Michael Flanagan (D/Fin), Ruth Lennon (D/Fin), Wendy Disch (ESRI), Annette Hughes (EY), Kevin Timoney (IFAC), Tom McDonnell (NERI), Simon Barry (Ulster Bank), Seamus Coffey, UCC

CSO: Chris Sibley, Gordon Cavanagh, John Mullane, Annette Hayes, Anne O’Brien.

Absent:

Loretta O’Sullivan (BoI), Austin Hughes (KBC)

Minutes:

1. Chris Sibley introduced new MSLG member Mairéad O’Sullivan, the Economics representative from the Business Studies Teachers Association of Ireland, who works on the curriculum for the Junior and Leaving Certificates.

2. The Annual National Accounts (ANA) for 2021 were reviewed. Following an office-wide review of suppression, confidentiality on medical devices – one of the bigger sectors in the economy – has now been lifted. The new data is available in the ANA on NACE 29-30 (CL), which is dominated by the medical devices sector. This follows the lifting of suppression in the Regional Accounts, and further plans for Capital Formation data are being reviewed.

   The annual revisions policy was reviewed: revisions happen at the time of the Q1 final set of results, and this year included the new seasonal adjustment process, which has changed from quarterly to annual, with richer metadata. On foot of the new Fisher annual price indices, there have been significant revisions to trade based pricing and wholesale price indices.

   Factors contributing to the large increase in GNI* were discussed, which include contract manufacturing inventories held abroad. Similar to GNI*, CA* was also designed as a top-down level indicator. Tax revenues, including VAT and Corporation Tax, were discussed.

3. Anne O’Brien gave a demonstration of the new format ANA publication, where the content is rearranged by topic, highlighting the three methods of GDP compilation: income, output, and expenditure. She also highlighted the new permanent set of table numbers on PxStat.

4. John Mullane presented the new Monthly estimates of Payroll Employees using Administrative Data Sources output from the Labour Market division. A monthly earnings release is to follow. The MSLG warmly welcomed this new release, and suggested further potential indicators and releases from the same administrative data sources that would be useful in their analysis.
   https://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/labourmarket/monthlyestimatesofpayrollemployeesusingadministrativedatasources/

5. Chris Sibley also presented the new Distributional Compensation of Employees (CoE) data from the ANA. This is work under development by the CSO, and a full publication on Distributional COE is expected later in the year. The CSO welcomes feedback on this data and will take that onboard for the format and analysis in the new publication. https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-ana/annualnationalaccounts2021/gdpbyincomes/wagesandprofits/
   
   
6. Gordon Cavanagh presented new volume indicator data available in the ANA on NACE 86 (QA) Human Health Activities. This is shown in the ANA revision for this sector and will also be used to improve the QNA estimates.