Brussels, 10/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) signed on Monday a new Memorandum of Understanding to improve the quality of economic and financial statistics. It confirms that the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat) is responsible for general economic statistics, such as the harmonised index of consumer prices, data on production, labour markets, external trade, and statistics linked to the excessive deficit procedure, while the ECB is responsible for money, banking and financial markets statistics, particularly the balance sheets for financial institutions, interest rates, prices of financial assets and securities statistics. This agreement strengthens the co-operation between the ECB and Eurostat on balance of payments, financial and non-financial national accounts by institutional sector, and statistics on infrastructure.