Background

The Seasonal Adjustment User Group (SAUG) will collaborate with the Seasonal Adjustment Center of Excellence (SACE) to assure the quality and the promotion of JDemetra+ (the European Seasonal Adjustment IT tool developed by the National Bank of Belgium and the National Bank of Germany) and the associated plug-ins.

The Seasonal Adjustment Expert Group (SAEG) agreed that the results of the Center of excellence should be reviewed by other experienced users than the SACE itself. The SAEG also recognized the importance of associating more users and institutes to the works of the SACE in particular to facilitate the adhesion to the software JDemetra+ through the European Statistical System.

Communication of information to the SAUG

While the SAUG will be composed of skilled colleagues, who are encouraged to test JDemetra+ and the associated plug-ins themselves, the principal basis for the opinions issued of the SAUG is the outcome of the tests conducted by the SACE according to terms of the agreement signed with Eurostat in October 2015.

The SACE is responsible for communicating all test outcomes to the SAUG in a timely manner, well in advance of the time at which the opinion is sought.

Communication of the opinions of the SAUG

The SA User Group will report to the SAEG. The opinions of the SAUG (and any other outcomes of the SAUG deliberations) will be communicated to the SAEG after validation by the user group members. The SAUG secretariat is responsible for communicating the opinions of the SAUG to the SAEG.

Members of the Group

The Group will consist of representatives of NSIs, NCBs, Eurostat, the ECB and any other relevant International Organizations that can demonstrate a large experience in seasonal adjustment (methodology and software).

The number of participants should be limited to 20 people, including representatives of Eurostat and of the SACE. Representativeness of the different EU Member States should be ensured in the SAUG. 

SACE members can participate as experts but whenever a formal opinion is to be issued by the User Group, only the members of the User Group would participate in the decision.