The impact effect of globalisation on traditional statistical systems

Issue title: Special issue on Globalistaion

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Meskó, Anna | Farkasházi, Mária

Affiliations: Hungarian Central Statistical Office Keleti Károly utca 5-7. H-1024 Budapest, Hungary. Tel.: +36 1 345 6027; 6348; Fax: +36 1 345 6232; E-mail: Anna.Mesko@office.ksh.hu;Laszlone.Farkashazi@office.ksh.hu

Abstract: The article deals with the general definition of globalisation and with the questions: what should official statistics be measuring? and, what is the scope of official statistics given that data must come from a related, complex and extremely diverse domain of factors? The authors go into the details of the new Hungarian methodology for foreign direct investment that the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO) and the National Bank of Hungary (NBH) have developed. According to the new methodology, when determining the volume of foreign capital we are moving from subscribed capital per foreigner to equity per foreigner, because the equity contains the retained earnings of foreign investors too. The paper examines some unsolved problems: the lack of processing of outward capital investments from Hungary, indirect ownership, data on accounting of income and costs between parent and foreign subsidiary companies yet to be processed, and that only the NBH provides data on credits for owner and portfolio investment. The article gives a short description of the relationship between globalisation and FATS (Foreign Affiliates Trade in Services) statistics and SBS (Structural Business Statistics) statistics.

DOI: 10.3233/SJU-2003-20209

Journal: Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 145-153, 2003