The use of SDMX at the ECB

Xavier SosnovskyEuropean Central Bank

Bonn, 2009-04-02

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Overview

• Data exchange: SDMX-EDI• Data storage: SDMX Information Model• Data dissemination: SDMX-ML

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Data exchange: SDMX-EDI

• 27 NCBs• 7 NSIs• Eurostat• IMF• BIS

Using SDMX-EDI

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Overview

• Data exchange: SDMX-EDI• Data storage: SDMX Information Model• Data dissemination: SDMX-ML

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Data storage: SDMX Information model

• Data stored in FAME and Oracle databases• Based on the SDMX information model (concepts,

code lists, key families, dataflows, etc)

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Overview

• Data exchange: SDMX-EDI• Data storage: SDMX Information Model• Data dissemination: SDMX-ML

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SDMX-ML on the ECB websites

• Export functionality on the ECB Statistical Data Warehouse

• Bilateral exchange rates & euro area yield curves• Publication of national contributions• ECB visualisation tools

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The ECB Statistical Data Warehouse

Full support of extractions in SDMX-ML format

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Bilateral exchange rates and euro area yield curves

Extractions into SDMX-ML format

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Publication of national contributions (1)

1. The problem: Need to improve the accessibility of ESCB statistics (user request).– Time-consuming task– Accessibility issues

2. The solution: To present euro area aggregates and national contributions in one table, simultaneously on the ECB and participating NCBs websites.

3. The benefits:– Increased user-friendliness– Consistent data and presentation– Minimised maintenance work

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Publication of national contributions (2)

Technical overview:• SDMX standards: SDMX-ML 1.0 Compact format data

files published on the ECB website• XSLT + a programming/scripting language (i.e.: Java,

PHP, etc)• Multi-channel output (HTML, CSV, etc)

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Publication of national contributions (3)

NCBs implementations: Own added values.• Localization• Database with wizard and personalization features• Display of metadata• Additional download formats

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Publication of national contributions (4)

Benefits• The ESCB statistics sites appear as a co-ordinated

network with an entry point in all NCBs• Users do not have to leave the NCB website to

consult ESCB data• Look and feel of NCB website is preserved• Translation into national languages

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ECB visualisation tools (1): Current applications

ECB dynamic visualisation tools use SDMX-ML as format for data feeds. Examples:

1. The bilateral exchange rates graphs

2. The euro area yield curves

3. The inflation dashboard

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ECB visualisation tools (2): An SDMX visualisation framework

• Develop libraries that can be used to build visualisation tools for statistical data and metadata

• Written in ActionScript 3 (Flex/Flash applications)

• Based on the SDMX information model v. 2

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ECB visualisation tools (3): An SDMX visualisation framework

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Data

SDMX-ML data files(data sets, series, observations, etc)

SDMX-ML data structure definitions (concepts, code lists, data structure definitions, etc)

ECB SDMX Framework

SDMX-ML Readers

SDMX Information model

Visual display

Applications

Application 1

Application 2

Application 3

Application 4

Read

View

Use

Translate

Access

Users

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ECB visualisation tools (4): An SDMX visualisation framework

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• Open source project• ECB, NY FED, BOC, OECD• Code hosted and publicly available on Google Code• Strict commit policy and change management

procedures• BSD license• Roles

– Leadership roles (Project Manager, Project Advisor and Project Architect)

– Committers: three individuals– Contributors: contributions are welcome from all

– Users: the code is available to all

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ECB visualisation tools (5): Planned work

• Generalise the use of this technology to other sections

of the ECB website (e.g.: effective exchange rates,

HCIs, Eurosystem joint dissemination sections, etc.)

• Replace charts of the ECB Statistical Data Warehouse

with similar interactive visualisation tools

• Add new statistical domains to the ECB dashboard

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SDMX Web services on the SDW (1)

• Available 2009 Q3• Possibility to get all statistical data stored in the

SDW• Support for the SDMX-ML Query format• Possibility to get all the data or updates and

revisions only• Possibility to retrieve data snapshots• Possibility to filter data by dataflows, datasets,

dimensions, attributes, date ranges, etc• Data returned in SDMX-ML Compact Data and SDMX-

ML Generic Data formats (v. 2)

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SDMX Web services on the SDW (2)

• Possibility to retrieve data structure definitions, code lists and concept schemes

• Possibility to retrieve the category schemes, organisation schemes and dataflow definitions (including constraints)

• Metadata returned in SDMX-ML Structure format

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SDMX Web services on the SDW (3)

• Possibility to submit subscription requests and receive update notifications, when specific actions occur on data and metadata

• Possibility to receive notifications via email and via an HTTP request