Tailoring National Financial Accounts to the Users’ Needs Using Administrative and Other Large Granular Datasets

Filipa Lima*, Rita Poiares, António Jorge Silva

Banco de Portugal, Lisboa, Portugal

Abstract: Economic and financial reality is increasingly more complex and portraying it in a precise and timely fashion challenges the statistical function of central banks. Furthermore, users have been requesting ever more comprehensive and detailed information. In this context, it is crucial to develop tools that allow users to see the details without losing sight of the big picture. National financial accounts are of particular interest when dealing with these challenges, as they provide an overall view of the financial interlinkages between institutional sectors helping in the identification of sector vulnerabilities, imbalances and potential over-exposures to certain financial instruments. Banco de Portugal places a strong emphasis on the compilation of national financial accounts, namely, by making extensive use of administrative and other large granular databases. In this paper we show how these databases – which include, among other sources, the Central Balance Sheet Database, the Securities Statistics Integrated System and the Central Credit Register –, are being used to tailor the national financial accounts statistics to the specific users’ needs. Additional insights brought by the Household Finance and Consumption Survey are also illustrated.

Keywords: sector accounts, micro-data, indebtedness, flow of funds, Household Finance and Consumption Survey.

Pages: 177 – 184 | Full PDF Paper