The present paper reviews the use of big data in Asian central banks, leveraging on a survey conducted by the Irving Fischer Committee on Central Bank Statistics (IFC) of the Bank for International Settlements. It reveals four main insights. First, Asian central banks define big data in an encompassing way. Second, they show higher interest in big data, including at the senior policy level. Third, big data already supports a wide range of tasks. Fourth, big data poses new challenges and increases the need for international policy cooperation, especially to make use of payments data and promote innovative technological solutions.
A key lesson from central banks’ experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, as both users and producers of economic and financial data is the need to broaden their ability to face future shocks that can test the resilience of today’s economies in unexpected ways. This could be achieved by developing higher-frequency, more granular and timelier indicators, leveraging on the growing availability of alternative data sources. In particular, increased digitalization is bringing new types of information that can complement and expand traditional analysis and statistical measurements. Yet, a key issue is that reaping the full the benefits of such new and alternative data sources can face several important challenges.
This paper compares productivity developments across industrial countries based on official OECD data in the business sector. It discusses the uncertainties surrounding the measurement of both productivity levels and productivity growth, and then focuses on changes in productivity growth. The paper analyses labour productivity patterns and trends of total factor productivity (TFP) across countries. The recent performance of the United States clearly stands out. In particular, the level of US labour productivity appears to be the highest among the major industrial countries and has been rising the fastest in the recent past. Despite substantial uncertainties surrounding these international comparisons, there is little doubt that the US performance has improved sharply in relative terms. Productivity has accelerated in the United States but decelerated in most other industrial economies. Indeed, only a few countries have experienced a structural improvement in their productivity performance over recent years. Moreover, rather than just reflecting stronger capital accumulation, the US performance has been associated with a higher rate of technological progress that was maintained during the latest recession. In contrast, the accumulation of capital has been quite strong in most other major industrial economies. This might be a source of concern in some places, given the observed trend decline in the rate of technical progress.
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