1. Globalization in the Updated SNA Carol S. Carson Project Manager, SNA Update Session on Globalization and the Effect on National Accounts Joint National Accounts Meeting April 25-28, 2006, Geneva

2. 2 Background December 2004 AEG –Expressed interest in including a discussion of the statistical challenges of multinational enterprises within the context of globalization in the updated SNA –Work to be carried forward by a subgroup Group on Globalization met in in July 2005, aiming toward a modest amount of new text drawing on evolving literature

3. 3 Toward an outline The outline attached to the paper is the current state of thinking The outline will evolve: –Comments by AEG in January-February 2006 Some specific suggestions Noted potential implications of globalization for updated SNA –This one-day session –Ongoing work on the Benchmark Definition of Foreign Direct Investment

4. 4 Draft outline Definition and characterization of globalization, with key role of multinational enterprises Challenge of globalization to NAs: –Accounting: complexity of recording a variety of stocks and flows and relating them to units, using examples such as goods for processing, merchanting, SPEs, non-permanent workers –Source data issues: for example, transfer pricing, multinationals, free zones, with general concern about consistency of the several sets of data

5. 5 Draft outline (2) Challenges of globalization to NAs: Conceptual issues: examples –Globalization points to the analytical usefulness of ownership- or control-based statistics to supplement traditional statistics on cross-border transactions and positions. –R&D: accounting is complex in a closed economy, but the complexity is multiplied in an international context

6. 6 Some points for discussion 1.Does the draft outline capture the main topics for a modest amount of new text in Rev. 1 about globalization in general and multinational enterprises in particular? What is missing? 2.If two, perhaps three, issues dealt with in the SNA Update were to be described briefly to illustrate the accounting challenges stemming from globalization (see section II.A), which should they be? 3.Given that the SNA is not meant to be a compilation guide, how much attention should be given to practical considerations? 4.What additional sources should be consulted?

7. 7 Thank you Contact:: ccarson@imf.org