This chapter covers five key areas: demographic and social statistics; macroeconomic statistics, national accounts and structural business statistics; business statistics; statistics on agriculture, forestry, fisheries, environment, registers and classifications and coordination of the official statistical system.

Demographic statistics within social statistics include statistics on births, deaths, marriages and divorces, migration, development of basic demographic indicators, as well as population estimates and projections. Data on vital statistics (births, deaths) as well as marriages and divorces are one of the oldest data available and have been monitored since 1960.

The system of national accounts is a set of mutually integrated macroeconomic accounts, balance sheets and tables as well as classification, which represents a statistical framework for monitoring the economic trends of each country. The internationally prescribed methodology for calculating national accounts is the System of National Accounts 2008 (SNA 2008) which provides a detailed theoretical framework, while for the countries of the European Union the methodology European System of National Accounts (ESA 2010) is prescribed which is fully consistent with SNA 2008 and adapted to the European environment. and practice. It is the legal obligation of each EU Member State to respect ESA 2010 in its statistical practice.
The Statistical Business Register is a reliable source of data on the population and demographics of business entities. It serves as a sampling frame for all business statistics researches within the national statistical system, provides a database from which address data is taken to send questionnaires in statistical researches, and so on. One such register is considered to be a system that converts data from administrative sources into data suitable for statistical use.

The Department of Agricultural Statistics includes structural statistics, crop production statistics, livestock statistics, agro-monetary statistics and fisheries statistics. Agricultural statistics includes development of methodologies and conducting research in the field of agriculture and fisheries statistics. Data on agriculture were collected in complex annual reports for which methodological explanations are given in the relevant statistical sub-domains. The field of forestry statistics participates in the development of the methodology for forestry and develops indicators on the felling of certain tree species, production of forest assortments and indicators from forest cultivation and protection, as well as indicators on hunting. The field of environmental statistics participates in the development of methodological and organizational preparations for conducting statistical research on the use and protection of water from industrial pollution; on irrigation systems; on public water supply and public sewage, municipal and industrial waste, develops and applies international harmonized statistical standards for the environment.

The system of official statistics of Montenegro includes the following producers of official statistics: Statistical Office of Montenegro, the Central Bank, the Ministry of Finance and others determined by the Program of Official Statistics 2014-2018. Statistical Office of Montenegro is the main producer and disseminator of statistical data, as well as the responsible expert holder, organizer and coordinator of the official statistics system and represents the official statistics of Montenegro in the international statistical system. In order to more efficiently coordinate the official statistical system, increase the use of administrative sources and reduce costs, a new Sector for Coordination of Statistical Data Sources has been established in the Statistical Office. The primary role of the sector is coordination with the statistical system, that is, cooperation with other producers of official statistics, cooperation with institutions of administrative data sources and cooperation with the business sector, all with the aim of improving the quality of data sources needed to produce official statistics.

When was the chapter opened?

Chapter 18 – Statistics was officially opened on 16 December 2014 at the Intergovernmental Conference in Brussels.

Closing benchmarks?

In Chapter 18, the EC defined two closing benchmarks:

1. Montenegro submits key data on national accounts in accordance with the European System of National and Regional Accounts (ESA) 2010 and other relevant requirements, together with the required detailed description of the methodologies used.

2. Montenegro presents to the Commission a roadmap for the transmission of the remaining tables from the ESA 2010 Data Transfer Program and the pending methodological issues.

The closing benchmarks in Chapter 18 – Statistics are primarily focused on delivering key tables in accordance with (ESA) 2010 and other relevant requirements within the prescribed timeframes with a detailed description of data sources and methods and meeting data quality levels in accordance with the European Code of Practice. Also, the Statistical Office has defined an Action Plan according to which it submits tables to Eurostat, which will also be a roadmap to be submitted from the moment of fulfilling the first closing benchmark, that is, submitting key tables according to ESA 2010.

What are the activities in the coming period?

In the forthcoming period, Montenegro will be committed to meeting the obligations of Chapter 18, primarily to meet the criteria set by the EC for these closing benchmarks. Considering that these are continuous activities, Montenegro is working on a daily basis to provide the necessary tables and data. Also, preparations will continue to apply the census methodology based on the registers for the 2021 Census, with the maximum use of the administrative register.

Institutions / organizations participating in the negotiating group?

The Statistical Office is the key bearer and coordinator of activities within the negotiation chapter 18 – Statistics. In addition to this institution, members of Working Group 18 are representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank, the Customs Administration, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism, the Institute of Public Health, as well as representatives of the civil sector and other relevant state institutions.

What are the benefits for Montenegro from this chapter?

Negotiations in the field of statistics will result in the achievement of European standards, which will result in reliable statistical data important for all social areas that meet the needs of national and European institutions, business entities and the general public. Namely, students, scientific – research institutions, theorists will have an insight into comparable and therefore more useful data during the research, while citizens will get a broader picture of numerous everyday phenomena from different spheres of life.