1. Assessment of National Accounts Compilation in the GCC Countries Giovanni Savio, Statistics Division, UN-ESCWA
High level seminar on the implementation of the System of National Accounts 2008 in the GCC Countries
Muscat, 27 May 2010

2. Main Fields of Economic Statistic
National Accounts
Balance of Payment and External Trade
Prices
Production Statistics – by industrial sector
Financial Statistics – including fiscal statistics
Money and Capital Market Statistics
(Labour market)

3. Frameworks of Economic Statistics
System of National Accounts 1993 / 2008
coordinating conceptual framework for all economic statistics; and
ensuring consistency of definitions and classifications used in different, but related, fields of economic statistics
Concepts and principles set out in international recommendations for other economic statistics harmonized with System of National Accounts

4. Present Status of National Accounts (1)
(Based on outcomes of review of practices for NA conducted by the ESCWA, end 2009)
Basic definitions & concepts: 1993 SNA quite largely followed or implementation ongoing – but compilation of national accounts constrained by availability of data
System officially followed: 3 countries declare 1968 SNA but moving to 1993 SNA, others 1993 SNA
Timeliness and Dissemination: All have a release calendar – and release preliminary ANA within 12 months of completion of the accounting period

5. Present Status of National Accounts (2)
Classifications: largely homogeneous
Staff: Varying from 4 to more than 20
Main impediments to 1993 SNA implementation:
Data sources and Coverage (most relevant)
Staff
Legislative mandate
Internal cooperation (less relevant)

6. Present Status of other Economic Statistics (1)
Balance of Payment and External trade:
BoP: Compiled by the Central bank, mostly following BPM5
External trade: Mostly, the customs data on merchandise trade are compiled by the NSOs, using HS
Problem areas: Quantity figures
Data gap: Statistics on International Trade in Services

7. Present Status of other Economic Statistics (2)
Price Statistics:
CPI: fairly well developed – closely in compliance with ILO standards
No other price data collected, except on some selected (wholesale) prices of construction materials and agricultural produce.
Almost no PPI
Exports & imports: Unit Values 7

8. Present Status of other Economic Statistics (3)
Production Statistics – by industrial sector:
Agricultural activities: from M/o Agriculture
Oil sector: from administrative sources or companies
Financial sector: from surveys and CBs
General Government: administrative sources
Non-agricultural, non-financial private sector: from economic surveys based on list frame
Problem areas: Incomplete frame; absence of system of regular updating using administrative sources, lack of business registers
Data gap: data on informal / un-registered sector

9. National Accounts - Main Shortcomings (1)
Incomplete Coverage: Economic activities carried out in establishments not in the list frame are not covered in economic surveys providing production statistics required for NA
Constant-price estimates of production-side aggregates are based
on CPI, owing to absence of PPI, or
on quantity index of output

10. National Accounts – Main Shortcomings (2)
Expenditure-side aggregates at constant prices sometimes not compiled
Income-side aggregates at constant prices generally not compiled
Lack of information on expenditure aggregates (consumption and investment)
Quarterly accounts compiled in few countries, very limited set of data released

11. Main Conceptual Lapses
Expenditure on oil exploration not included in capital formation (at least two countries)
Though large oil reserves and significant exploration activities

12. National Accounts Immediate Needs (1)
Complete coverage of economic activities in national accounts statistics requires
Regular updating of the list frame
Coverage of units not included in list of establishments in the economic surveys

13. National Accounts Immediate Needs (2)
Reviewing questionnaires of economic surveys for adoption of definitions of production and capital formation, keeping in view (i) 1993 / 2008 SNA and (ii) recommendations of IRIS and IRDTS manuals of UNSD (2008)
Adoption of new classifications
Rational re-grouping of industry and product classifications suitable for compilation and presentation of NA, particularly Supply-Use Tables

14. National Accounts Immediate Needs (3)
Improving constant-price estimates using appropriate deflation procedures and indicators like
(a) ‘retail turnover’ index (conducting annual retail trade survey)
(b) quantity index/ estimates of output of important products
(c) PPI – separately for groups of goods and services and
(d) wage-rate index

15. National Accounts Immediate Needs (5)
Developing complete sequence of accounts
Estimation of capital stock and adoption of international standards
Development of short-term indicators for compilation of Quarterly Accounts

16. Thank you