CHANGES TO THE SCHEDULE OF THE MNB’S STATISTICAL RELEASES

The Magyar Nemzeti Bank has published its schedule of statistical releases for 2014. Changes to the calendar of the Bank’s statistical releases for 2014 have been made to take account of the publication of supervisory information in the context of the integration of supervisory functions and powers into the MNB’s organisation as well as the introduction of the new international methodological framework for National Accounts and Balance of Payments statistics in 2014. The main changes are summarised below:

Following a revision in previous years, the new methodological standards for National Accounts and Balance of Payments statistics will be implemented uniformly in countries of the European Union in 2014. Accordingly, starting from the release of statistical data for the first quarter of 2014, the MNB’s main releases of Balance of Payments and Financial Accounts data will be published with a shorter lead time and a content and detail consistent with the new statistical requirements.

In the case of Financial Accounts data releases, the full set of Financial Accounts will be published on the last working day of the third month following the reference period instead of the first working day of the fourth month. The releases will contain a more detailed breakdown of data for economic sectors and financial instruments than previously, and the contents of the individual economic sectors will also change. Those changes will be applied retrospectively to the entire time series published; therefore, the MNB will cease to publish time series with the old content and structure following the changeover in June 2014.

In the case of Balance of Payments statistics, data meeting the new methodological requirements (BPM6) will be released and the time series will be backdated to reflect the methodological changes for the first time in June 2014. As a new feature, following the changeover monthly Balance of Payments statistics within the ‘open’ quarter will be published in the period preceding the release of quarterly statistics. By introducing the new regime of monthly releases, the Bank aims to provide information for users about developments in trade in goods and services and Hungary’s international investment position with the shortest possible delay following the reference period. The first release within the new framework will be made publicly available in July 2014, with publication of Hungary’s Balance of Payments for April and May 2014. The monthly data will continue to be available on the Bank’s website only until the release of the relevant quarterly data. The Bank will not publish long time series of the monthly data and will not adjust them during data revisions.

In the context of the integration, the MNB has reviewed the overlapping nature of statistical and supervisory publications. As a result of the harmonisation, two publications with similar contents have been merged and the frequency of releases have been standardised. Starting from the first quarter of 2014 as the reference period, releases of data on the composition of outstanding lending by credit institutions will be merged and will be published at the same time as the previous supervisory releases. Trading data for investment service providers and monthly releases of data on securities held in custody by them will be made available on the Bank’s website at Statistics under XIII. Securities and capital market information starting from the reference period of January 2014. The time series for credit institutions’ prudential data will be published at a quarterly frequency. The frequency of releases of data for the voluntary mutual funds and private pension funds will also change: the Bank will release full sets of time series data for all funds semi-annually, while releasing quarterly data only for voluntary and private pension funds. From 2014, releases of prudential data for investment funds and investment service providers containing only quarterly time series data will be published.

MAGYAR NEMZETI BANK
STATISTICS DIRECTORATE