1. Regional Programme for Economic Statistics: Capacity Screening Results
Zeynep Orhun Girard Regional Seminar on Developing a Programme for the Implementation of the 2008 SNA and Supporting Statistics in the ECO member countries Ankara, Turkey September 2013

2. We all know that economic policy decisions are made with incomplete and unreliable information in many countries in Asia and the Pacific.
And the recent Capacity Screening supports this statement.

3. About Capacity Screening
Developed by the Steering Group as a rapid assessment tool based on RPES and Core Set
Provides a baseline for the implementation of the Core Set of Economic Statistics
48 out of 58 ESCAP member countries responded (March-May 2013)
Analysis is done at the regional and sub-regional levels. Results are presented in national summary sheets for each respondent
2 advocacy reports (for development partners and countries) are in preparation
The 48 countries correspond to 97 per cent of the total regional GDP and to 93 per cent of the population.
10 non-respondents. 5 of them are ECO members: Afghanistan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Would be nice to verify the results for the participating countries here based on the summary sheets.

4. Structure of Capacity Screening
RPES Technical Cooperation (existing capacity building agreements and interest)
Institutional setting (legislation, planning, national statistical coordination and dissemination and advocacy for economic statistics)
Information technology and Human Resources
Statistical infrastructure (quality assurance, metadata, BR, data collection instruments
Availability of Core Set of Economic Statistics (based on the seven components)

5. Regional facts from the Capacity Screening
15 countries don’t have a centralised BR
21 countries don’t have a Quality Assessment Framework available and used to monitor quality of economic statistics outputs
15 countries feel they have adequate HR to produce and disseminate the Core Set of Economic Statistics
23 countries carry out an economic census
20 countries produce quarterly GDP (e)
10 countries produce monthly commodity price index
13 countries produce annual productivity measures
23 countries produce annual integrated national accounts
7 countries are able to produce indicators related to natural resources
Capacity Screening responses received as of May 2013.
48 countries responded to the Capacity Screening questionnaire.

6. What about ECO respondents?
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Turkey responded
4 respondents considered upper middle income countries and one as low income country by the WB
Pakistan and Turkey are on Steering Group for RPES and 2 out of remaining 3 countries are interested in participating in RPES, as a provider or receiver of technical assistance

7. Statistical law and strategy
Legislation
Principles of confidentiality, transparency and independence from political pressures are covered in the statistical laws of all countries
3 countries have plans for revising their statistical law
4 countries have statistical strategic plan; one is in the process of designing
Pakistan is designing a national statistical strategy

8. National statistical coordination
Graph includes Russian Federation.
Pakistan and Tajikistan have a decentralized system.
Turkey reported their system to be semi-centralized.
“Centralized” means that all indicators are compiled by the NSO, with BoP compiled by the Central Bank. “Semi-centralized” means that most indicators are compiled by the NSO, BoP by Central Bank, and some indicators are compiled by other agencies, and “decentralized” means that some are compiled by the NSO, BoP by Central Bank, and some by other agencies.
Azerbaijan answered No to the other coordination questions.
All but one country stated that the distribution of responsibilities among agencies was clear and that there are plans of improving coordination

9. Dissemination and advocacy
All countries responded:
Dissemination procedures in place and regular assistance to users available
Ongoing activities to improve awareness and use economic statistics from official sources
Ongoing activities to build analytical/research capacities, develop data analysis methodologies targeting users
Sufficient awareness among users of relevance of statistics for economic policy
Seminars regularly organized by producers of economic statistics

10. IT and human resources
All but one country reported that IT and human resources were adequate for producing the Core Set of Economic Statistics
Staff manuals and guidelines are available for internal use in all countries
Internal processes documented for referencing and use by new staff in all countries
Pakistan and Turkey have not conducted a recent skill needs assessment.

11. Statistical infrastructure
All countries provide metadata in statistical releases
All but 2 countries have a centralized metadata repository and implement a metadata format standard
Only 2 countries implement a metadata quality standard
In 3 countries the use of BR is shared by a number of agencies
NOE and informal economy not in key data collections in 2 countries
All participate in ICP
Kazakhstan and Turkey answered no to metadata repository and format standard
Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkey do not implement a metadata quality standard
Kazakhstan and Turkey do not cover NOE and informal economy in design of key data collections

12. Graph includes Russian Federation.
The collections from the first four sub-sections are conducted by every country while the collection from 4.9, enterprise/establishment survey, is not conducted by Pakistan. Frequencies of collection for these five indicators are shown in Figure 2.[1]
[1] Tajikistan’s “Other” response for Labour Force Survey frequency: July-August 2004 and June-July 2009

13. Graph includes Russian Federation.

14. Graph includes Russian Federation.
Economic census, is not conducted by Kazakhstan or the Russian Federation while the frequency of collection for the agricultural census was not reported by Kazakhstan.

15. Figure 5 measures the timeliness (in months) of reporting of collections in sub-sections 4.9–4.12. Aside from the population census, each question had three omissions.
Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Russia enterprise/establishment census and economic census. The latter is not conducted by Kazakhstan and Russia.
Kazkahstan, Russia, Tajikistan for agricultural census.

16. Standards/Classifications
All countries implement 1993 SNA and have plans to update to 2008 SNA
Tajikistan ISIC Rev.2, Turkey ISIC Rev.3, and Pakistan ISIC Rev.4
Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan NACE Rev. 2, aligned with ISIC Rev.4
Tajikistan and Turkey plan to update to CPC Ver.2 from a CIS classification and CPC Ver.1.0
Kazakhstan has a national classification based on CPA 2008
Pakistan uses CPC Ver.2
All countries use COICOP and COFOG

17. Table 11: Prices and Costs Desired M B A U X
Consumer price index (CPI)
Quarterly 6
Producer price index (PPI)
Commodity price index
Monthly 1 2 3
External merchandise trade price indices
Wages / Earnings data
Labour costs index / Wage index
Includes Russian Federation.
The desired frequencies are specified based on SDDS, GDDS and ECB requirements.
M = number of countries meeting or exceeding the minimum frequency; B = number of countries regularly collecting the indicator but at a rate below the minimum frequency; A = number of countries reporting ad-hoc collection; O = number of countries reporting other rates of collection; U = number of countries reporting that the item is unavailable; X = number of countries leaving responses blank.
Only Azerbaijan met the standard for commodity price index. Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan were the only two to meet the standard for external merchandise trade price indices, while the standard for the last indicator in Table 11 was met by Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.

18. Table 12: Demand and Output Desired M B A O U X
GDP (Production)
Quarterly 5 1
GDP (Expenditure) 4 2
External Trade – Merchandise
Monthly 6
External Trade – Services
Short-term Indicators – Industry Output 3
Short-term Indicators – Services Output
Short-term Indicators – Consumer Demand
Short-term Indicators – Fixed Investment
Short-term Indicators – Inventories
Economy structure statistics
Every 5 years
Productivity
Annually
Pakistan reported annual collection of both GDP indicators while Tajikistan did so for the second one and the Russian Federation reported annual collection of the external trade of services indicator. All short-term indicators were omitted by Turkey, and the last two indicators in Table 12 were both omitted by the Russian Federation and Turkey. All “Ad-Hoc” responses were given by Kazakhstan.

19. Table 13: Income and Wealth Desired M B A O U X
Integrated National Accounts
Annually 3 1 2
Institutional Sector Accounts
Balance of Payments (BOP)
Quarterly 6
International Investment Position (IIP) 5
External debt
Income distribution
Every 5 years 4
Turkey omitted the first two as well as the last indicator in Table 13, while Kazakhstan was the only country to meet standards on all six indicators.

20. Table 14: Money, Labour and Government
Desired M B A U X
Assets/liabilities of depository corporations
Monthly 3
Broad money and credit aggregates 1 2
Interest rate statistics 5
General government operations
Quarterly
General government debt
Labour supply and demand
Annually 4
Hours worked
Natural resources
The first two indicators in Table 14 were omitted the Russian Federation and Turkey, while Turkey also omitted each of the last three. Kazakhstan and Pakistan both met standards on each of the first five indicators, and Kazakhstan was the only country to report any measurement of natural resources.

21. To conclude
Half of ECO member countries have not responded so the picture remains partial
Every country has weaknesses and strengths
There are subjective questions, e.g. adequacy of IT and HR
The Core Set information gives us a broad picture of where things are at
In planning activities other assessments such as the GA will be used to supplement the information with further detail

22. Thank you!