NSO needs to make itself more relevant - CEO

The National Statistics Office (NSO) needs to make itself more approachable and relevant in the eyes of the general public and is working on developing channels of communication to highlight the importance of the public's participation in the data gathering process, according to its CEO.

Speaking exclusively to MaltaToday, Reuben Fenech said that it was imperative for the NSO to reach out to the public and to make them realise just how important their input is, but also how relevant the data collated by the office could be for the man on the street.

"I think the right thing for the NSO to do is to fulfill its role in a wider context, to become more relevant," he said. "We started here 40, 50 years ago and things have changed, our role has changed. And we need to be more pro-active."

Fenech said the NSO's statistics need to be constantly changing if it is to continue delivering on its mission and the office needed to change its outlook and approach in some areas if it was to keep up with the changes in today's reality.

He said that while it was well and good that the office collaborated with strategic partners, the public needed to be made aware of just how important its input was to the NSO’s role.

The NSO on Wednesday organised a seminar providing insight into a study entitled ‘Supply, Use and Input-Ouput Tables for 2010’ which it launched in May.

The new elaborate tool will allow NSO and third parties to determine how inputs in economy are used in the production of outputs, making it an extremely important tool in policy-making.

Univeristy lecturer Dr Ian Cassar used the new NSO model to anticipate Brexit's impact on Malta's economy

Based on the Maltese economic structure of 2010, the Input-Output framework gives a new means to economic analysts to assess the effects of changes in a whole raft of variables and the impact that such changes will have across industries and product groups.

The new model provides detailed information on production activities, the supply and demand of goods and services, intermediate consumption, primary inputs and foreign trade.

Fenech said that this project was further testimony of the role of the NSO – to help Malta make better decisions – and that it would help policymakers allocate resources more efficiently and allow businesses to make forward-looking choices.

Dr Ian Cassar, lecturer at the University of Malta specialised in input-output analysis, used to model to determine what would be the impact on the economy in terms of output, income value-added and employment of an increase or decrease in the demand of one sector in the economy.

Taking the possible impact of Brexit (the UK’s decision to leave the EU) on Malta’s economy, Cassar used the new model to anticipate the effect on specific industries.

Assuming that Malta would see a decline of 5% in the demand of the hotels and restaurants sector, whilst further assuming it registers an increase of 10% in the demand of the financial and insurance sectors, and an increase of 15% in the construction activities sector and the information and communication sector would register a 15% increase, Cassar said that the results utilising the SIOT 2010 would yield an overall increase in output of 3.6% and increase in total gross value added generated of 1.9%.

This basic exercise by Cassar was only intended to highlight the practical application of the Input-Output framework, but it also provided the audience with a good understanding of how one can measure the effects of external shocks like this.

Jennifer Vassallo addressing the seminar

Due to the in-built inter-linkages of the tool, Cassar could estimate multiple rounds of effects on more sectors that themselves are related to these industries.

Jennifer Vassallo, a member of the National Accounts Unit within the NSO, gave a detailed description of the process carried out by NSO in compiling these tables. 

“The process is extremely elaborate and meticulous, based on highly reliable data,” she said. “Overall this gives us strong confidence in this tool that has enormous potential to shed light on how the Maltese economy works.”

Such a tool will also allow for estimations of the effects of an expansion or contraction in a specific sector, she said.