Using synthetic indicators to assess the quality of macroeconomic statistics via mirror data

The quality of the geographical breakdown in the balance of payments and related statistics (such as international trade in goods, trade in services and foreign direct investment (FDI) statistics) can be assessed by means of comparisons with mirror data in order to assess bilateral asymmetries. Although such comparisons are performed on a regular basis, they tend to focus on pairs of countries and are not sufficient to determine which of the countries involved has better data. This paper describes three synthetic indicators that have been developed with a view to assessing whole groups of countries. In the specific context of an economic union’s external account, they allow us to assess the quality of geographical breakdowns by country and the contribution that an individual country makes to the aggregate asymmetry for that group of countries. Those indicators are applied in the context of euro area FDI statistics.