ESA 2010: Recording of pension schemes in national accounts 7th Meeting of the Advisory Expert Group on National Accounts New York, 23-25 April 2012 Jens Gruetz

OUTLINE BACKGROUND STATE OF PLAY IN EUROPE COMPILATION OF DATA ON PENSIONS: Approach and Assumptions

1 Background: Supplementary table on pensions Funded vs. unfunded pension schemes Defined contribution vs. defined benefit vs. notional defined contribution pension schemes ABO vs. PBO

2 State of play – Time schedule Task Force on pensions until 2008 Final report to CMFB Contact group on pensions from 2009 Pension seminars in 2010 and 2011 Joint ECB/Eurostat-Pension compilation guide 2012

2 State of play – Time schedule On going discussions on practicalities of the supplementary table on European level ONS: Pension conference London 2012 Country visits in the course of 2012/2013 Best practice: Gathering further country specific experience Pension workshop and ESA 2010 training in first half 2013

3 COMPILATION – THE NEEDS Measuring unfunded public defined benefit pension entitlements Actuarial Model A) Calculation procedure B) Key assumptions C) Data requirements

3 COMPILATION – THE KEY ASSUMPTION The discount rate – the single most important assumption One additional percentage point lowers the pension entitlements by about 20% How to ensure comparability between different countries? Long-term Government bonds? Corporate bonds? A stable rate over time? An average? …

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