The SNA Update:Progress Report

OECD Working Party on National Accounts October 10-12, 2006

Carol S. CaronProject Manager

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A year ago

• Pace of work on the 44 agreed issues was picking up; some important issues were on the next AEG meeting’s agenda

• Website was promoting country involvement• Editor and ISWGNA had begun more

detailed thinking about the Rev. 1 volume– What, if anything, could be omitted?– How should new material would be

incorporated?

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A lot has happened since!

Full Set ofProvisional

Recommendations

LeasesContracts

Licenses

TowardRev.1

Issues Papers

Issues Papers

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Plan of the presentation

• Milestones – Frankfurt AEG meeting– Statistical Commission– Full Set of Provisional Recommendations

(FSPR)– Follow up on individual issues– Draft chapters posted for comment

• Next steps

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Reminder: the Framework

• The Statistical Commission set the framework– Work programme: research, consultation,

governance, etc.– List of 44 issues to be considered– Timetable for Commission’s consideration:

• Consolidated Set of Recommendations in March 2007

• Full set of chapters for Rev. 1 in March 2008

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Frankfurt AEG meeting

• Fourth, and last, of the issues-oriented AEG meetings

• Reached agreement on recommendations for most issues, but some work needed mainly on…– Leases and licenses – Pension schemes

• Opened discussion of consistency

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Statistical Commission, 2006

• Focus was on process:– Commended progress on issues– Attributed progress to project management approach

and use of the project website

• On substance,– Welcomed chapter on informal sector– Noted concerns about unfunded government pension

schemes and need for consultation, but positive outlook

• Accepted ISWGNA offer to prepare a programme of implementation

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FSPR

• Brought together all recommendations– Called for in the work programme – Serves as a basis to examine the consistency

and overall robustness of the recommendations

• Circulated in late April– On web at http://unstats.un.org/unsd/nationalaccount/snarev1.asp

– Countries invited to comment by mid September– Discussion at several meetings

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Follow up on individual issues

• Pension schemes: work toward solution, especially in Europe

• Leases and licenses: AEG e-discussion

• Classifications of financial assets and sectoring of financial corporations: world wide questionnaire– All to be covered later on this morning’s

agenda

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… individual issues (cont’d)

• Guarantees: AEG e-discussion of treatment of standardized guarantees due to close this week

• Freely available R&D: may come up in tomorrow’s agenda

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… individual issues (cont’d)

• “Consistency issues” posted on web site: “we are getting there” – Market/non-market distinction– Subsectoring of NPIs– Annuities– Property income– Decision tree to guide sectoring

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Draft chapters

• Background– Rev. 1 is to go to the Statistical Commission in

2008, so…• draft Rev. 1 on basis of the FSPR to meet timetable• comment period is provided before 2008

– Organization of drafting and review phase• Divide chapters into two roughly equal tranches• Proceed sequentially: draft, review, and AEG

meeting for each tranche

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Draft chapters (cont’d)

• Volume is a balancing act: keeping the familiar structure while integrating new material – Numbering retained through the sequence-of-

accounts chapters--that is, through chapter 13 – Recommended changes incorporated as they

come up– Major blocks of new material to be pulled

together in separate chapters

• Leads to 27 chapters

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Draft chapters (cont’d)

Chapter list1. Introduction2. Overview

3. Flows, stocks, and accounting rules

4. Institutional units and sectors5. Establishments and industries

6-13: Accounts

14. Summarising and presenting the accounts

15. Supply and use and …16. Prices and volume measures

17. Role of capital services…18 Cross-cutting and other special

issues

19. Measuring corporate activity20. Government and public sectors21. NPIs22. Households23. Informal sector24. ROW account25. Link to financial and monetary

statistics26. Population and labour inputs27. Satellite accounts and other

extensions

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Draft chapters (cont’d)

• First chapters ready for comment were posted last week in a Progress Monitor at http://unstats.un.org/unsd/sna1993/draftingPhase/pubdefault.asp – Chapters ready

• 9: Use of Income• 14: Summarising and presenting the accounts

– Progress monitor is comprehensive tool for tracking the drafting and review stage

• Issue-by-chapter matrix• Colors for chapter column change to show progress

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Draft chapters (cont’d)

• AEG, NSOs, central banks, and experts invited to comment on the draft chapters– Comment period is 60 days from the time of

posting– Template for commenting is on the web

• Template is flexible but structured• Comments go to UNSD

– Comments will be assembled and used to frame the AEG meeting and revise drafts

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Next steps

• Where we are: meetings, letters from central banks and NSOs, and consultations with those working on other manuals shows…– Wide agreement on most recommendations– Reason to proceed with special care on a few:

• Pension schemes• R&D• Capital services, especially on own assets of nonmarket

producers• Military expenditures• Goods for processing

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Next steps (cont’d)

• Recommendations: ISWGNA is in the midst of a process to consider comments and reach agreement on what to bring forward to the Statistical Commission– This will lead to a Consolidated Set of

Recommendations– Report of the ISWGNA to the Statistical

Commission

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Next steps (cont’d)

• Chapters: Editor to continue on first tranche – Next batch

• Capital account• Financial account• Other changes in assets account• Balance sheet• The link to monetary and financial statistics• Role of capital services in the accounts

– Then production, primary distribution, secondary distribution

– And supply and use, price and volume, cross-cutting

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Next steps (cont’d)

• Implementation: ISWGNA committed to presenting a strategy in March 2008– Canvassing now to learn from experiences

after the 1993 SNA– OECD’s survey on countries’ plans is useful

input

• Other issues that come up: keep focused on the 44 and build the long-term research agenda

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In conclusion

• The consultative process has served us well so far: – We know a lot about countries’ views—

probably more than ever before on such an international venture

– We should strive to continue to make it work

• No one ever said that the Update would be “a piece of cake,” so let us get on with it

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Thank you

Contact:: ccarson@imf.org