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The FRB and SDMX:

The FRB and SDMX:. National data and International standards San Cannon Federal Reserve Board SDMX Conference 9-11 January 2007. Background. The Fed is a statistical agency as well as a central bank and regulatory agency. Lots of data and information are available on the public website.

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The FRB and SDMX:

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  1. The FRB and SDMX: National data and International standards San Cannon Federal Reserve Board SDMX Conference 9-11 January 2007

  2. Background • The Fed is a statistical agency as well as a central bank and regulatory agency. • Lots of data and information are available on the public website. • Statistical data are varied: monthly industrial production indexes, daily interest and exchange rates, quarterly financial flows for various sectors of the economy, surveys of small businesses and consumers, etc. SDMX Conference 9-11 January 2007

  3. Serving our users better To some, it may appear that the statistical agency role is secondary. • Data are not always easy to find. • Downloads are not customizable. • Example: Trying to extract one industrial production series requires retrieving two text files, cutting and pasting, reformatting…. • Complete – yes. User Friendly – no. SDMX Conference 9-11 January 2007

  4. Data Download Program (DDP) • XML designated as key format but project team wrestled with implementation details. • Staff weighed a homegrown DTD setup against the new SDMX standard. • SDMX looked to have greater benefits and was adopted. • Good decision: additional internal applications as well as interagency projects using SDMX are in the works. SDMX Conference 9-11 January 2007

  5. A lot to learn • SDMX is based on data structure definitions (‘key families’) and codelists, with every concept represented by a code with a corresponding definition. • We were unfamiliar with this type of data modeling, so it proved challenging. • Two of our pilot datasets translated easily to this new format; others needed more work. SDMX Conference 9-11 January 2007

  6. Data structures differ Some data structures are readily adapted to the concept/codelist representation. Series “keys” have no real mnemonic value. SDMX Conference 9-11 January 2007

  7. Hierarchical relationships We allow data to be modeled hierarchically, and use mnemonics that reflect this. SDMX Conference 9-11 January 2007

  8. Applying the SDMX model • Data represented by a concrete number of concepts are much easier to represent with key family dimensions and attributes: JQI_I02YMF_N.M → Topic_Industry_SA.Freq FA156900005.Q → Prefix (2 digits), Sector (2), instrument type (5), series type (1), frequency • Hierarchical relationships and varying number of concepts makes life more difficult: RIFSPPNA2P2D30_N.B → Topic?_SA.Freq RIFLGFCY20_XII_N.B → Topic?_Inflate_SA.Freq SDMX Conference 9-11 January 2007

  9. Decisions we made • Allow a variable number of data structure definitions per dataset. • Use the compact format for internal exchange and external downloads. • Stick with SDMX 1.0, for now. • Use a relational database to store data and XML information for retrieval. SDMX Conference 9-11 January 2007

  10. Final product: DDP! • We have a flexible application whose interface is entirely driven by the data structure definitions. • “We store the XML as carefully sliced text in a relational database and we can build an index structure that allows us to respond to ad-hoc queries very efficiently, even for large volumes of data.” Data Download Program SDMX Conference 9-11 January 2007

  11. Strengths and weaknesses • Because interface is entirely data driven, it is easy to add new data. • Internal architecture is complex, due to security and the data workflow: • SDMX files are generated by data staff and transmitted to public website staff for processing. • These files are made available on the website and “shredded” for database entry and lookup. • Current structure is not set up for codelist sharing. SDMX Conference 9-11 January 2007

  12. What do the users say? • “Really excellent. One of the best I’ve used on the web.” • “This Data Download thing is better than sliced bread.” • “I downloaded the XML files, but I cannot run them. All I see is the xml code.” SDMX Conference 9-11 January 2007

  13. What do the numbers say? • More than 250,000 unique visits since April – about 50,000 per month. • Data Download Program is the 6th most visited area on the Federal Reserve website. SDMX Conference 9-11 January 2007

  14. Next steps • Add more data: reserves, exchange rates, consumer credit. • Continue working with other central banks and statistical agencies on common framework. • Prepare to move to SDMX 2.0 to take advantage of additional features. SDMX Conference 9-11 January 2007

  15. The last slide… Questions? Comments? Thank you for your attention! San Cannon scannon@frb.gov (202) 452-3710 SDMX Conference 9-11 January 2007

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