Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 20 August (BelTA) – Belarusian statistics complies with international standard, chairperson of the National Statistics Committee Inna Medvedeva told a press conference to mark Statisticians’ Day on 20 August, BelTA has learned.

"In December 2004 Belarus officially joined the IMF special data dissemination standard. Today the data supplied by Belarus meet all IMF requirements in terms of coverage, periodicity and timeliness. In 2012 the international experts conducted the Adapted Global Assessment of the National Statistical System of Belarus and praised the high level of statistics development in the country," said Inna Medvedeva.

According to her, the results of the assessment confirmed that the Belarusian statistics complies with international standards. We have outlined the strategic areas for its development, she noted. In particular, we will be working on improving the legislative basis governing state statistics, will hold a population census, introduce the updated international standard in the field of national accounting (SNA-2008) into the statistical practice as from 1 January 2016 as well as new versions of state-level classifications for economic activities and products. We will be working to develop and improve the functional operation characteristics of the unified information system of state statistics, and will facilitate access to the official statistics including with the use of interactive elements, will work to improve the methodology, ensure the compatibility with international standards, and strengthen the cooperation between the statistical services of the CIS countries and the Eurasian Economic Union member states.

The United Nations adopted a resolution to designate 20 October 2015 as the second World Statistics Day, under the general theme “Better data. Better lives”. "We will have the day of accessible information. All requests filed on 20 October, regardless of the amount of information requested, will be performed free of charge. Only official statistical information will be subject to dissemination. Naturally, we will work within the framework of the law. Confidential, primary data will not be made available,” said Inna Medvedeva.