The article discusses various reports published within the issue including one by Gian Luigi Mazzi and Gaetana Montana on the role played by research Eurostat to meet the demand for a timely economic data, one by Jennifer Castle, Nicholas Fawcett and David Hendry on the reasons for nowcasting, and one by Domenico Giannone, Lucrezia Reichlin and Saverio Simonelli on the strength of green shoots of economic recovery.