5489.0 - International Merchandise Trade, Australia, Concepts, Sources and Methods, 2001

ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 30/05/2001

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Contents >> Chapter 8. Data Quality >> Introduction

8.1 The quality of statistics should be judged by their ability to satisfy users' information needs. Statistics on a particular subject should provide a reasonable and timely measure of the real world economic events to which they relate. They need to be:

relevant i.e. measure the concepts in which users are interested;

accurate and reliable i.e. not be subject to large errors or revisions;

timely;

comprehensive in coverage;

consistent with related statistics;

comparable with other countries statistics;

easily accessible; and

cost effective.

8.2 The quality of Australia's international merchandise trade statistics is broadly affected by similar factors to those for most statistical series. This chapter describes the concepts underlying data quality and presents some analyses of data quality for Australia's trade statistics.