News 25 Mar 2020
Corona situation: First statistical data concerning March will be published on 27 March
The news item was corrected on 26 March. Previously, statistics describing the turnover of main industries were mentioned in the news item. The correction is indicated in bold in the text.
The majority of Statistics Finland's employees are now working remotely. Despite this, the production of statistics has run almost as planned.
Face-to-face interviews were discontinued in individual-based data collections. Telephone interviews are so far going well, as is online responding in individual-based and enterprise data collections. We have closed the physical information service point at the Library of Statistics, but information services are functioning otherwise.
For the time being, we estimate that key statistics will be published on schedule. We much appreciate that despite the difficult situation, people and enterprises respond to our inquiries. Availability of correct data as a basis for decision-making is absolutely essential especially now.
The first data describing the time of the coronavirus epidemic, the Consumer Confidence statistics, will be published on 27 March. The data of the statistics were collected between 2 and 19 March, or mostly in the time before the Government decided on restrictive measures connected to the coronavirus epidemic. The data of the Consumer Price Index for March will be published on 14 April, the early estimate describing the output of the whole economy in March will be published as experimental statistics on 21 April and the retail flash estimate on 23 April. Some questions assessing the effects of the coronavirus epidemic on society have been added to Statistics Finland's interview data collections in April. These data will be published in mid-April.
Statistics Finland's preliminary and experimental statistics are based on data as well as on statistical modelling. It is difficult to estimate how the modelling will work in an exceptional situation. For this reason, preliminary statistics may become more revised than usual when the data finally become specified.
Other statistics describing March will be published starting from the end of April. The publication dates are given in Statistics Finland's Release calendar.
In addition to normal statistics production, we are looking into the possibility to produce new preliminary data based on faster available data and to assess the corona situation with interview data collections.
A situation report on the coronavirus epidemic and statistics production will in future be published weekly.
Further information:
Timo Koskimäki, Deputy Director General of Statistics Production, tel. +358 29 551 3495
Hannele Orjala, Director of Information Services, tel. +358 29 551 3582
firstname.lastname@stat.fi
viestinta@stat.fi
News 17 March 2020: Statistics Finland's activity during the coronavirus epidemic