Yesterday the National Bank of Ukraine held an expert roundtable discussion to discuss the implementation of the Open data project designed to disclose information provided or could be provided by the NBU via the use of state-of-the-art information dissemination technologies.
The roundtable discussion brought together representatives of the central bank and software developers specialized in software applications and solutions enabling the use of statistical data provided by the NBU, analysts and final users.
“Last year the NBU started publishing information in open data format and gradually expand the scope of information available to users. The Open data project is closely linked to the project to design and launch a new website for the NBU. The new website will enable users to retrieve standard data series in user-friendly formats, which would simplify data processing and analysis,” underlined Director of the NBU Statistics and Reporting Department Mr Yurii Polovniov.
Head of the Digital Communications Division Mr Artem Rumiantsev said that the Open data project implemented at the changes the perception of digital information.
“When it comes to digital communication channels, we seek to shift away from presenting data in conventional formats (html-pages, xls-tables, pdf-documents) toward the concept of information centricity, meaning that the NBU would regard the entire content as data and graddually turn unstructured data into structured data. The provision of structured data via the Application Programming Interface (API) will enable the maintenance of functional compatibility, ensure data openness and make sets of data available for use in the public and corporate sectors, as well as to individual users. Users will be able to use these data at their convenience – disseminate, refer to and incorporate this information, ” said Mr Rumiantsev.
Currently, the NBU disseminates the following data via an API platform:
- the official hryvnia exchange rate against foreign currencies and investment metals;
- the results of the placement of domestic sovereign bonds;
- the Ukrainian index of interbank rates;
- monetary aggregates;
- loans granted by deposit-taking corporations;
- deposits attracted by deposit-taking corporations; and
- securities, shares and other equity held in the portfolio of deposit-taking corporations (excluding the NBU), and securities other than shares issued by deposit-taking corporations (excluding the NBU).
“We plan to make all data sets available for automated data collection systems,” said Mr Rumiantsev.
The roundtable discussion participants confirmed that the dissemination of data in an aggregated format is more convenient for the use and processing. The participants suggested ways of improving the parameters of data sets and expressed the need for more detailed information on certain banks.
Click here to view the presentation on the technical aspects of the implementation of the Open Data project.
Please send your comments and proposals on the list of data published by the NBU, the technical aspects of data dissemination and participation in further discussions regarding the implementation of the Open Data project to Project and Program Leader of the NBU Strategy and Reforming Department Ms Svitlana Sokolovska at [email protected].