SDMX as the logical foundation of the data and metadata model at the ECB
Gérard Salou, Xavier Sosnovsky · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · 2010
The Directorate General Statistics of the European Central Bank (ECB) is responsible for efficient management of the statistics that are needed for the ECB’s monetary policy and the other functions of the ECB, the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). In addition, it is responsible for providing statistics to the interested public and market participants. For those tasks, the ECB has developed a statistical infrastructure based entirely on SDMX standards. This paper starts with a description of the SDMX statistical standards, covering the development of the standards, the underlying data model and implied data organisation. Later, the paper describes how SDMX standards are used as the common logical foundation for data collection, data dissemination and data models within the ESCB. Tools and applications of common interest to the SDMX community are also described, in particular the ECB SDMX loader suite, which is used by the ECB for converting seamlessly between data formats (EDI, XML, CSV), the ECB data visualisation tools and the related ECB SDMX framework.