Juan Rodríguez Poo presents his resignation as president of the INE

The Government says that it is preparing reforms to modernize the state Statistical System

The president of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), Juan Manuel Rodríguez Poo, has submitted his resignation from the position he held since 2018 at the head of the body, as confirmed by government sources to Europa Press.

The Executive has confirmed, through a statement, that Rodríguez Poo is leaving his position as head of the INE for "personal reasons" and is now opening a replacement process for this position that the Economic Vice Presidency "expects to close in the coming weeks."

In this sense, the Government has announced that in the coming weeks, with the approval by the Council of Ministers of a new Statute for the National Institute of Statistics (INE) and the change in the presidency of the body, the reforms will continue " to reinforce and modernize the State Statistical System", which have already reached "a fundamental milestone with the approval in Parliament of a modification of the Law on the Public Statistical Function".

The department led by First Vice President Nadia Calviño has highlighted that Rodríguez Poo "has been the main promoter of this transformation process since his appointment in October 2018" and has reiterated that the reforms "will facilitate the use of new sources of information based on administrative records and Big Data, improving the quality of statistics and reducing the response burden for reporting companies and citizens".

The same reforms, according to the Government, will be "fully aligned with the European Statistics Code of Good Practice" and the initiatives to adapt European statistical systems "to the greater availability of data that the digital economy allows and to the new demands of quality of citizens.

Likewise, the Government has recalled that the approval of a new statute of structure and operation of the INE is planned -the current one dates from 2001-- to "strengthen its capacities and adapt them to the new needs and work models and to do so in a of maximum efficiency and quality, in accordance with the criteria required by the Code of Good Practices of official statistics".

The new structure, explained the Vice Presidency, brings together "all the statistical products in two general directorates": the general directorate of Economic Statistics and the general directorate of Population Statistics, "so that methods and procedures will be harmonized in each of them adapting them to the different requirements that the study of each area demands, guaranteeing efficiency in the treatment and consistency in the results".

Secondly, the different phases of the statistical preparation process will be concentrated in the general direction of Statistical Planning and Processes, in order to harmonize statistical treatments and facilitate a common infrastructure that allows a more standardized, efficient and quality development. of all statistical products and services.

Thirdly, the General Subdirectorate for Training and Promotion of Research is created in order to strengthen collaboration with the world of research, "of great value for the modernization of public statistics", according to Economy, and maximize the value added data reuse,

RODRÍGUEZ POO’S CAREER

Rodríguez Poo joined the INE as head of the INE four years ago, replacing Gregorio Izquierdo, who had held the position since December 2011. Born in 1964, he has a degree in Economics and Business Sciences from the University of the Basque Country and a doctorate in Economics from the Catholic University from Leuven.

He has also been a professor of Econometrics at the University of Cantabria since 2005 and before that he was at the University of Zaragoza. Between 2004 and 2011 he directed the Cantabrian Institute of Statistics and has participated in the commission of experts for the reform of the regional financing system by appointment of the Government of Cantabria.