To the Statistical Bulletin (Hebrew)
Statistical Bulletin is a new annual publication of the Bank of Israel. Central banks of advanced economies generally produce periodic statistical publications. In order for the Bank of Israel to achieve its objectives and fulfill its functions under the Bank of Israel Law, the Bank manages numerous systems of information and statistics on economic activity, focused on financial areas. Likewise, the Bank provides data on economic activity for the wider public, international institutions, researchers, analysts, and others, both in Israel and abroad. This new publication was prepared by the Bank’s Information and Statistics Department, which is responsible for these issues.
Against this background, Statistical Bulletin is intended to serve two main objectives:
The first objective is to increase the accessibility of the data and aggregates that the Bank of Israel collects and manages, for the public that is interested in data on Israel’s financial system. It thereby focuses a spotlight on the major developments in that data. The Bank of Israel is thus realizing the vision shared by many entities involved in issuing official statistics—making sure that the users of such data will be able to extract the fullest benefit from them and thus promoting the understanding of the realities of the economy.
The second objective is to share initiatives, research, development and methodological issues with the public, in order to expand the statistical knowledge among the interested public.
The current publication is divided into two sections:
The first section presents the main developments during 2014 in four main areas of financial statistics in Israel: (1) the public’s financial assets portfolio, (2) the economy’s activity vis-à-vis abroad, (2) the foreign exchange market, and (4) the credit market.
The main developments are presented through graphs, which depict long term trends in the most important data, together with a short text description and a table of selected indicators and data in each topic.
The second section presents three papers on statistical methodology and data processing. These were written as part of the continuing development of statistical tools and economic information for policy analysis needs, and their implementation in the Bank of Israel. The three papers are (1) Developments in the economy’s basic balance, (2) A “MODS” (Multi-layer Outlier Detecting System) to warn of extraordinary developments in financial markets, and (3) Rapid real information in Israel and in international comparison.
The publication can be accessed on the Bank of Israel website as well. For readers’ ease, the online version has the main data compiled in separate files, and includes links to current data on the same issue found on the Bank’s website.