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

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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 3 COMPILATION – THE NEEDS
Measuring unfunded public defined benefit pension entitlements
Actuarial Model
A) Calculation procedure
B) Key assumptions
C) Data requirements

7. 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? …

8. THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION!