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30 January 1996 EU alters Finnish statistical indicatorsFinnish statistical indicators will be adjusted to the harmonisation of the statistics of the EU countries. Statistical data on the different Member States that are more comparable are required in EU decision-making. The existing statistics are still to a large extent based on national practices and requirements. As a result of harmonisation Finland will have among other things a new concept for inflation in addition to the present concepts, and the Labour Force Survey as well as the National Accounts will be reformed.First EU Labour Force Survey dates to spring 1995The EU Labour Force Survey will replace the annual interview of the Labour Force Survey of Statistics Finland which is carried out every autumn and will comprise entirely new contents compared to the earlier surveys. The first such survey was conducted in the spring of 1995 and a publication on the survey will be out by the end of this year. On the basis of the survey the employed labour force appears to increase slightly compared to earlier data by Statistics Finland, whereas unemployment remains at almost the same level.Statistics Finland will release the first monthly EU harmonised employment and unemployment figures next year. The harmonisation of the the present monthly Labour Force Survey will be implemented gradually this year and at the beginning of 1997 the entire survey will have been revised. The monthly indicators still to be released this year are therefore all based on the old survey. The harmonisation will result in changes in the concepts, definitions and classifications of the Labour Force Survey. The contents will be broadened and the data collection method will be renewed. The aim of the harmonisation of the labour force statistics is to enhance the description of the diversity of the labour markets. One of the main objectives of the European Commission is to find solutions to the employment problems in Europe. The new survey also offers more data on the trends in the labour markets in Finland, such as under- employment and hidden employment, as well as on atypical employment. New inflation figure already in FebruaryThe consumer price indices will be harmonised in two phases. The EU Member States will produce the so-called interim consumer price indices in the first stage this year. This will be replaced by the Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICPs) in the second stage, which the Member States will implement from the beginning of next year. Statistics Finland will release the point figures of the Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices as of 15.2.1996. These figures will not replace the existing national indices in Finland; instead the two indices will be produced side by side each month.The stage I interim indices will be adjusted from the existing national consumer price indices by excluding those commodity groups that are handled very differently in the rest of the Member States. Such commodity groups in Finland are education, health care, imputation and interest on owner-occupied housing, insurance, package holidays and others groups such as membership fees and church tax. The proportion of the groups to be excluded from the present consumer price indices of Finland amounts to approximately 22 per cent, i.e. over one fifth. The base year of the interim indices is 1994. Part of the commodity groups excluded in stage I will be included in the stage II indices. In addition, the calculation methods and the practices applied in producing the indices will be harmonised. The base year of these indices will be 1996. The new Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices are necessary in order to compare the inflation rates of the individual EU countries. A stable price level is one of the four so-called convergence criteria of the Maastricht Treaty on European Union for entry to Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Since the present consumer price indices of the EU countries are not sufficiently comparable, Eurostat has, in close collaboration with the Member States, been working for over two years on developing more comparable indices. National Accounts will be renewed in 1999National accounts adhering to the new national accounts will be issued to the Commission for the first time in 1999. The data will relate to the years 1995-98. The adjustments will continue at least until the year 2005. The additions included in the new accounts will raise the level of GDP in all Member States, but the size of the increase is still difficult to estimate.The new system introduces roughly thirty significant additions or adjustments in the present system. In the budget process of the EU the concept of gross national income (GNI) instead of the traditional concept of gross domestic product (GDP) is applied. Gross national income indicates the income earned by Finns, whether received in Finland or abroad. The monitoring of the value of GNI in marks will become significant while up until now the analyses of the national accounts statistics have been based primarily on the quantities of GDP and those that describe its use. The harmonised national accounts system is fundamentally more up- to-date than previous ones based on national practices, and this system produces statistics on national accounts that are more comparable. These are necessary when comparing the Member States in relation to the EMU criteria of public deficit and public debt. The data of the accounts are also used in calculating budgetary fees to the different Member States. Furthermore, a number of EU legislative provisions refer to the concept of national accounts of one type or another. Inquiries: |
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