The first reform is to improve how we write our reporting instructions. We think we can make our instructions clearer and easier for recipients to work with, meaning smoother and quicker processing and less variability in how they are interpreted. The second reform is integrating various reporting processes – breaking down barriers between external and internal reporting, between different steps of the reporting process, and between different levels of data within the process. But third and most foundational is the wider development of common data standards. This underpins the other two reforms. And we believe it can help firms and other users make the best use of data, well beyond our collection processes. Common data standards  Let me first explain what I mean by common data standards. These are simply collectively adopted rules and methods for describing and recording data. They mean standardising the format and labelling used to identify and organise data.
Every year since then, as a savings plan, the government has let a substantial share of current income from oil and gas remain as deposits in the fund. At the end of the first quarter of this year, the fund’s market value stood at NOK 2 763 billion. See chart “The fund’s market value” at the end of the speech. As the fund increased, the need for a plan for the phasing in of oil revenues became evident. In 2001, the Government and the Storting adopted the fiscal rule, which is based on the deposit of government petroleum revenues in the oil fund. An amount equivalent to the expected real return on the fund, or 4 per cent, as an annual average over time, is transferred back to the central government budget to cover current expenditure. The transfers increase as the fund rises in value. Along the way, the name of the fund has been changed from the Government Petroleum Fund to the Government Pension fund Global. There are prospects that new annual transfers to the fund may be made over the next 10 years or so. This implies further growth in the fund, perhaps up to twice the size of today’s  3  See NOU (Official Norwegian Report) 1983:27 “Petroleumsvirksomhetens framtid” [The future of petroleum activity]. 2  BIS Review 78/2010  fund, which corresponds to one and half to two times annual GDP for Norway. Public expenditure accounts for about half of GDP.