2008 SNACURRENT SITUATION

Presentation to the 12th OECD-NBSWorkshop on National Accounts 27-31 October 2008

INTRODUCTION

• The SNA Update formally commenced in late 2003– the Editor and Project Manager were

appointed in early 2004• One of the first decisions made about the update

was to provide a very open, consultative process• An Advisory Expert Group (AEG) was

established, consisting of 20 very experienced national accountants from NSOs around the world

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CONSULTATIVE PROCESS

• The first AEG meeting was held in February 2004– 44 key issues were identified for review

• Four follow-up AEG meetings have been held– December 2004– July 2005– February 2006– March 2007

• Input was also obtained from various national accounts meetings during these years

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UN STATISTICAL COMMISSION

• The 2007 meeting of the UNSC agreed that the Updated SNA should be split into 2 volumes– Volume 1 (chapters 1-17) would contain

detailed descriptions of the concepts, including all changes resulting from the 44 issues identified by the AEG

– Volume 2 (chapters 18-29)is to provide an elaboration of the concepts contained in Volume 1

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UN STATISTICAL COMMISSION (continued)

The 2008 UNSC approved Volume 1 of the updated SNA in principle, but with an extra 2 months (until 30 April) being allowed for countries to comment on the draft chapters• the UNSC emphasised that this extra time was

to allow a check of the conceptual coherence and consistency of the Updated SNA with the recommendations on the 44 issues, together with the clarifications and consistency issues flowing from them. But decisions made on the 44 issues were not to be reopened

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UN STATISTICAL COMMISSION (continued)

Other key issues raised by the 2008 UNSC were:• Volume 2 has to be presented to next year’s UNSC

meeting for approval• the ISWGNA should develop a strategy for

implementing the updated SNA• Eurostat/UNSD conference in May, with the

outcome being the “Luxembourg Recommendations”

• the ISWGNA should seek the opinion of Member States on the title of the Updated SNA

• “System of National Accounts, 2008” was favoured by more than two-thirds of countries responding

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VOLUME 1

• The UNSC Bureau approved Volume 1 a couple of months ago – – the SNA codes were removed from

Volume 1

• A “White cover” version of Volume 1 has now been released

• Volume 1 has been through the UN editing process, with only a small number of minor changes required

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VOLUME 2

• There are 12 chapters in Volume 2:Ch 18 – Elaborating and presenting the

accountsCh 19 – Population and labour inputsCh 20 – The role of capital services in the

national accountsCh 21 – Measuring corporate activityCh 22 – The government and public sectorsCh 23 – Non-profit institutions in the System

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VOLUME 2 (continued)

Ch 24 – HouseholdsCh 25 – The informal sectorCh 26 – The rest of the world account (external

transactions account)Ch 27 – The link to financial and monetary

statisticsCh 28 – Input-output and other matrix based

analysesCh 29 – Satellite accounts and other extensions of

the System

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VOLUME 2 (continued)

• The time for commenting on 8 chapters of Volume 2 has closed– the ISWGNA considered all these

comments yesterday• The remaining 4 chapters are now on

the UNSD website for comment– the ISWGNA is meeting on 10 November

to discuss the comments on these chapters

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AEG meeting

• An AEG meeting is being held in Washington from 12-14 November, with the following agenda– Codes– Insurance

• non-life• reinsurance• life

– Pensions– Emission permits– Issues from the review of Volume 2 11

Remaining process

• Volume 2 will be redrafted to take account of the comments from the current review– it will be available for UNSC review in

December• The February UNSC will consider Volume 2

– any changes required will be incorporated after the UNSC

• Volume 2 will go through the UN editing process

• An index will be prepared• The 2008 SNA to be released in second half of

200912

Major changes in the 2008 SNA

• New recording of pensions• Explicit recognition of capital services• Recognition of outcomes of R&D as

fixed assets• Recognition of offensive weapons as

fixed assets• Goods for processing on a change of

ownership basis13

Implementation of 2008 SNA OECD (as of October 2008)

Country IntentionsAustralia 2009 for most, if not all, changesCanada 2012/13 for all changesUS 2012/13 for most (outstanding) changesEU 2014Korea 2014?Japan 2015?New Zealand no schedule yet, but all changes at

onceMexicono schedule yet, but introduced piecemealSwitzerland, Iceland and Norway same as EUTurkey?

Implementation of 2008 SNA Summary

• Australia, Canada and US have quite firm plans to introduce the update SNA quite rapidly.

• All three intend to adopt at least all the major proposed changes, including – Employers’ pension schemes (2), – R&D (9), – Government and non-market producers – cost of

capital (16), – Military expenditures (19).

• Australia and Canada more or less all at once• US staggered introduction

Implementation of 2008SNA Summary

• Australia has published an information paper (Introduction of revised international standards in ABS economic standards Cat No. 5310.0.55.001) describing its intentions.

• Japan and Korea have tentative plans to synchronise their adoptions of the updated SNA and SICs in 2015 and 2014, respectively. Japan is currently considering a firmer schedule.

• NZ and Mexico have no firm plans

Achieving consistent and internationally comparable national

accounts• Formulating a strategy to ensure comparability of data

• Developing handbooks and manuals

• Defining a research agenda for the OECD WPNA

Formulating a strategy to ensure comparability of data

• Accepted that countries will implement the 2008 SNA at different times and there will be a lack of comparability during the transition.

• Countries should undertake a one-off exercise to quantify and publish the impact of the update on their major aggregates. To be included in metadata on OECD databases.

• Countries should supply data to the Secretariat as per either 1993 or 2008 SNA

Developing handbooks and manuals

• The OECD is producing a– revised edition of the Manual on

Measuring Capital, – a Handbook on Deriving Capital

Measures of Intellectual Property Products ,

– and a Handbook on the Measurement of Volume Output of Health and Education.

Defining a research agenda for the OECD WPNA

• OECD WPNA will have two streams of work concerned with 2008 SNA – 2008 SNA implementation issues:

• Identify major issues, countries undertake investigations, especially the early adopters, and report to WPNA

– Address issues on the research agenda:• Identify ones that should be pursued quickly

and develop a work programme. May require setting up task forces. Discuss next meeting?