Ring Comparison and Core List of Items Nada Hamadeh World Bank ITAG meeting Feb. 9-13, 2009

Linking the regions Two approaches: 1- Ring Comparison 2- Core List of Items

Ring Comparison - Ring Countries (choice affects linking factors) - Ring List (balanced list for both developed and developing countries) - Collection Frequency (can affect quality / seasonal considerations)

Building the Ring List - Analysis of overlap between regional lists (Difficulties due to different specs and terminology used) - Ring list was built as a separate exercise using regional lists as starting point

Building the Ring List - Combined all regional lists ( around 5000 products) - Meeting with Ring countries to determine which products are available - Narrow down the list to around 1000 products - Tried to include regional representative products - Standardizing item descriptions and introducing quality specifications

Considerations for 2011 - Reconsider choice of countries - Reconsider item list - Reconsider frequency of price collection - Cost consideration

Core List of Items - Idea raised during Ring data validation - Small number products (Ex: 100 to 150 products) added to regional lists - All countries in all regions asked to price this subset (if available)

Building a Core List of Items Two ways to approach this exercise: - Overlap between regional and Ring lists (tedious exercise involving consideration for differences in terminology and specs) - Choosing core items from within Ring list using the data collected in 2005 In both cases, need to add lower-quality products

Considerations for 2011 - Number of products ( 100 – 150?) - Additional burden on countries - Regions with large regional lists of products might consider decreasing the number of products on their lists - Cost implications