Errors have occurred in national approved statistics, raising concerns about the inadequate use of statistics in government policy evaluations.
On October 15, the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Committee conducted a national audit at the Government Complex Daejeon, focusing on the National Data Agency, the Korea Customs Service, and the Public Procurement Service.
Rep. Lim I-ja of the ruling People Power Party emphasized the need to examine whether the process of correcting errors in national approved statistics and post-management is being properly conducted. She pointed out significant errors in housing-related statistics from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, as well as substantial revisions to the National Tax Service's statistics on the status of operators in the top 100 essential industries, which undermines the reliability of the data. Initially, the growth rate of the number of operators was reported as a decrease of 45.9%, but it was later revised to an increase of 10.1%.
National Data Agency Director Ahn Hyung-jun explained that the issues with the Ministry of Land's statistics are related to delays and duplications in data entry by local governments, while the problems with the National Tax Service's statistics stem from issues in the data extraction process. He added, 'In the past, we were reluctant to disclose errors, but moving forward, we believe that openly correcting errors will help enhance trust in statistics.'
Rep. Ahn Sang-hoon pointed out that while financial authorities requested a pre-impact assessment regarding the introduction of single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the National Data Agency did not demand any supplements during the actual evaluation process. He noted that the financial authorities had requested evaluations from five agencies, but existing statistics were insufficient to adequately analyze the impact of the product's introduction on investors by age, region, gender, and income, as well as the risks of investment losses.
Rep. Ahn stressed the importance of not only confirming the existence of relevant statistics but also ensuring that the necessary data and indicators for actual impact analysis are in place.
Director Ahn stated that the agency operates by verifying whether the necessary statistics exist for legislative amendments and recommends statistical development if they are lacking. He also noted that a similar evaluation in 2021 concluded that sufficient statistics were available.
However, he acknowledged that there is room for improvement in considering the indicators necessary for analyzing the overall impact of policies. He clarified that there was no intention to conduct evaluations passively or to support specific policies, but rather a focus on the existence of statistics.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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