Principles for the dissemination and revision of data

The Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) of the International Monetary Fund, which Estonia joined in October 1998, serves as a basis for disseminating statistical data. The standard sets minimum requirements for the content of the data, the dissemination periodicity, and the timeliness across statistics categories.

Data dissemination

Balance of payments statistics, press releases, analyses and statistics tables are published on the Eesti Pank website (see Statistics). For the publication of external sector statistics, see the Release calendar.

Data revision principles

Eesti Pank and Statistics Estonia use the same principles for revising statistics, and these are in line with the principles of the revision policy recommended by the European Commission and the European Central Bank. The revision policy is harmonised for the external sector statistics and the sub-accounts of the national accounts (GDP, external sector financing statistics, and the quarterly and annual non-financial and financial accounts).

Revisions can be regular or extraordinary:

• Regular revision (generally to accommodate new or corrected data or other additional information):
• when the statistics for Q1 and Q3 are first published, the statistics for the preceding quarter only are adjusted;
• when the statistics for Q4 are first published, the statistics for Q1, Q2 and Q3 of the same year are adjusted. If necessary, the quarters of the previous two years may also be corrected, making up to 11 quarters in total;
• when the statistics for Q2 are first released, the data for Q1 and all the preceding quarters for which there are additional data are revised, for up to 17 quarters in total.
• after the completion of the quarterly balance of payments, the monthly balances of payments for that quarter are revised so that the total of the items in the balance of payments for the three months is equal to the total of the same items in that quarter’s balance of payments.
• Extraordinary revision:
• in exceptional cases, when significant errors or omissions have occurred, the data for earlier quarters affected may be revised when new data are released;
• if the methodology or the data collection system changes, data from earlier periods can be adjusted as far back as possible when new data are released;
• extraordinary changes are announced publicly in press releases and on the website.

Unit of account

The euro has been the unit of account in the balance of payments, the international investment position and the external debt since 1 January 2011. All the retrospective time series of the external sector have been converted into euros at 1 EUR = 15.6466 EEK.