Statistical function

Banca d'Italia plays a prominent role as a producer of economic and financial statistics. Statistical information is essential for citizens and institutions to make informed decisions: disseminating reliable and timely statistics therefore means providing an important service to the public. This information base is also a key input for many of the Bank's institutional functions and for fulfilling the commitments arising from its participation in the Eurosystem and the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM).

Banca d'Italia's statistical function is recognized by national regulations as well as by EU legislation, which assigns the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) powers that complement those of statistical institutes. More specifically:

  • Legislative Decree 385/93 (Consolidated Law on Banking) and Legislative Decree 58/98 (Consolidated Law on Finance) impose on banks and other financial intermediaries obligations to report to Banca d'Italia;
  • Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 governs the collection of information required by the ECB;
  • For the purposes of performing the tasks set out in Council Regulation (EU) No 1024/2013 under the SSM, Banca d'Italia collects the information reported by supervised entities, carries out preliminary data checks and makes the information available to the ECB, in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 468/2014;
  • Pursuant to Directive 2014/59/EU and Regulation (EU) No 806/2014, under the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM), Banca d'Italia collects the information required to prepare and implement resolution plans.

The Bank provides indicators and statistics on banks and other financial institutions, credit distribution, money and interest rates, financial markets, financial accounts, balance sheets and distributional accounts of institutional sectors, the balance of payments and international investment position, general government debt and borrowing requirements, and payment systems. A second line of statistical production has been developed over time with the aim of collecting information for economic analysis, particularly on the behaviour and expectations of economic agents. This includes conducting regular surveys of households and firms.

Among the principles guiding Banca d'Italia in the performance of its statistical function, independence and the pursuit of high quality standards are paramount. The independence of official statistics, which is essential to safeguard their quality, is enshrined in European law, to avoid political interference and conflicts of interest that could affect data availability. The high quality of the Bank's statistics rests on compliance with the best international standards (see the Public Commitment on European Statistics by the ESCB) and on professional ethics and moral principles set out in the Declaration on Professional Ethics of the International Statistical Institute. The information collected is thoroughly checked and verified in order to assure the quality of the disseminated data.

Banca d'Italia's statistics are available on its website in various ways, depending on user needs. Statistics Series reports, the traditional option, are released when updating a database and contain an overview with tables and charts providing a snapshot of the state of things at the time of the release. Files are organized by topics and made available according to a statistics release schedule published in advance, ensuring accountability and predictability.

The full database of aggregate data (macrodata) produced by Banca d'Italia can be accessed through the Statistical Database (BDS), which always shows the latest available version of the information throughout the period for which the data are available. BDS allows users to perform targeted queries, export data in various formats, create charts and, for large-scale analysis, download data in bulk for entire macro-sections, as well as saving outputs to a dedicated space.

Granular data (microdata) are made available through the Research Data Center (RDC), with different access options depending on the level of confidentiality.

Visit the Statistics section of our website for more information.

Sezione di approfondimento