Jean-Luc Tavernier – Director General, INSEE

The last few weeks have shown that the need for statistics has not disappeared with the current health crisis – quite the contrary, in fact. They have also shown that the official statistical system needed to be able to respond quickly and to rise to new challenges and it was able to do so. The first challenge was to adapt to remote working conditions and the idea that some data collections could no longer continue. A need has also arisen for new analyses and new outputs to shed light in real time on such crucial issues as the severe economic downturn and the extent of excess mortality. Increasingly, the challenge will be to ensure maximum international comparability of statistics at a time when we have all had to adapt and innovate in response to changing and often different conditions in different countries.… [LIRE L'ARTICLE]