February 12, 2012, 23:31 CET
Aggregate data
Real time data
Many economic data are subject to revision, which means that the figures for one and the same reporting period may change over time. Real time data sets store the vintages of macroeconomic time series, as they were known at given points in time in the past, in chronological order. Such data are useful for addressing various economic policy and research issues.
For some years now, the Research Centre has been lending its support to research using real-time data. An initial dataset, which was compiled, in particular, for the evaluation of the Bundesbank’s monetary policy strategy, was already published in 2004 (time series, documentation). However, this data set comprises only a few variables.
The most extensive collection of real-time data on the German economy currently available has been built up in the past few years. It includes vintage data of about 280 economic indicators. Since August 2009, GERDA (GErman Real-time DAtabase) has been available in the statistics section of the Bundesbank’s website.
The data can be accessed at http://www.bundesbank.de/statistik/statistik_realtime.en.php.
The european Area Business Cycle Network (EABCN) makes available a european real time data set through http://www.eabcn.org/eabcn-real-time-database
Background information and research publications for new real-time database
- Publication of a comprehensive real-time database for the German economy,
Deutsche Bundesbank, Monthly Report, August 2009. - The German real-time database: Content, structure, search and download functions
- Research publications
Financial accounts
The financial accounts are an integral part of the national accounts, a statistical accounting system that covers the whole economy. Historically, this system has focused on determining the goods and services which an economy produces in a certain period as well as the income which this generates.
Since the 1950s, other account systems have gradually been added to this “classical centrepiece” of a representation of the overall goods and incomes cycle. These include the financial accounts as well as national and sector accounts.
