Indicators are part of daily life, modern politics and public debate in times of crises and their solutions. The question arises to what extent indicators embody a special form of statistical information, whether a separate indicator-chapter in statistical methodology is needed and what the content of this chapter should be. This paper considers different perspectives of indicators produced by official statistics agencies. Starting from the definition of indicators, it then discusses statistical quality, impact and interaction between producers and users of indicators. To introduce and illustrate the points made in the paper a choice of cases is used in order to derive the essential elements of a methodological framing. The overall objective is to enhance the added value of official statistics indicators as they are communicated and expected to lead to trustworthy evidence for policy making.
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