Current situation on conducting international comparison of the GDP and purchasing power parities of the CIS countries for 2004

Participating countries Azerbaijan Armenia Belarus Georgia Kazakhstan Kyrgizstan Moldova Russian Federation Tajikistan Turkmenistan

Coordinators CIS Statcommittee Goskomstat of Russia Technical assistance and financial support OECD World bank

Coordination of work Five or six meetings is scheduled in 2003 – 2006 Bilateral meetings between coordinators and participating countries are planned Phone

Main features of CIS comparison SNA 1993 Multilateral base EKS aggregation Fixity principle for CIS countries

Main features (continued) The classification breaks GDP down into six main aggregates. These are subsequently broken into 31 categories, 73 groups, 143 classes and 179 basic headings Classification similar to classification of the OECD comparison. Using asterisk method

Main features (continued) Input price approach for non-market services Quantitative approach for rent treatment Developed method for construction

Product selection of 2004 CIS comparison Item list based on countries’ proposals Established by Goskomstat of Russia Updated item list from the previous comparison

Product selection of 2004 CIS comparison (continued) Item list for consumer items has been discussed in April 2004 All consumer items divided into 8 files Criterion used for leaving item in item list

Product selection of 2004 CIS comparison (continued) Truly representativity of item in country At least two countries could price item and at least one country mark as * * As result of work see table

Construction comparison in CIS and Mongolia  Defined construction materials priced by the national statistical services priced materials from all the participating countries has been sent by Goskomstat of Russia to employed experts outside statistical service for checking and calculation construction projects. Construction experts priced 100 construction projects. Participating countries marked as asterisk * representative items and deleted projects which were not constructed at all.

Price observation Immediate start Finalized version of item list after meeting has been sent to countries Preparation more photo's and additional materials for countries for selected items

Legal base Council of the Heads of the statistical offices of the CIS countries in December 2003 confirm participation of CIS countries in comparison MOU’s has been approved by Governments and signed Global MOU has been signed

The end