1. Task Force on Seasonal Adjustment of Quarterly National Accounts Second meeting Item 6 Chain-linking and seasonal adjustment: Overview of national practices Luis Biedma and Martin Eiglsperger Frankfurt, April 2007

2. 2
Background
Mandate: “Review … existing recommendations that may be affected by the introduction of chain-linked QNA volume measures …”
Questionnaire on chain-linking and seasonal adjustment practices (TF-SAQNA-14)
Replies received from BE, BG, CZ, DE, EE, ES, FR, IT, LT, HU, NL, AT, PT, SK and FI
Replies from SE and the UK pending

3. Chain-linking and benchmarking of raw QNA3
Chain-linking and benchmarking of raw QNA
Annual overlap
BE, CZ, DE, ES, FR, IT, LT, HU, SK, FI → raw QNA and ANA are consistent
Quarterly overlap
AT, UK → consistency of raw QNA and ANA forced
Over-the-year approach
BG (GDP only), NL and SE (will change to annual overlap in summer 2007) → only small discrepancies between raw QNA and ANA
Chain-linking not yet implemented: EE

4. Input for chain-linked QNA series4
Input for chain-linked QNA series
If temporal disaggregation techniques are used, they are applied on
annual chain-linked series by most of the replying countries
series in average previous year’s prices by DE, SK
Seasonal adjusted chain-linked QNA series are obtained via adjusting
chain-linked QNA series by most of the replying countries
indicator series (monthly or quarterly) by BE, ES, FR, IT and PT

5. Balancing / consistency5
Balancing / consistency
Consistency of unadjusted and adjusted QNA (production, expenditure and income side)
EE, PT and SK allow for discrepancies for unadjusted data
Others compile residual series, in most cases changes in inventories and operating surplus
Balancing is mostly done for level data; FI has a special focus on growth rates, allowing for small discrepancies between output and expenditure data
Balancing is conducted after adjustment by ES, FR, IT and PT
Balancing / consistency of adjusted QNA
Done by BE, DE, ES, IT and PT
Not done by BG, CZ, HU, LT, AT and FI

6. Direct and indirect adjustment6
Direct and indirect adjustment
Indirect adjustment of GDP
BE, ES, FR, IT, PT and the UK
Direct adjustment of GDP
All other replying countries
Adjustment of series in current prices, volume and deflator series
All countries adjust two series and derive the third one; PT: depending on the format of source data
DE and AT derive adjusted series in current prices, others derive deflators