WORKING PARTY ON NATIONAL ACCOUNTSParis, 3-5 October 2007

The situation of QUARTERLY NATIONAL ACCOUNTS data transmission to the OECD Document STD/CSTAT/WPNA(2007)6Rachida DKHISSI

The OECD QNA database (1)

• Requirements of OECD internal users– Full scope of what is produced by

National Statistical Institutes– Accuracy, comparability and timeliness

• Content of the database– Set of tables of the OECD - Eurostat

questionnaire– Plus most of the other accounts produced

by countries

The OECD QNA database (2)• Released on a quarterly basis:

– paper publication, CD-ROM, news release on GDP volume growth for the OECD area

• Electronic publication released monthly

• Updated daily in OECD.Stat:– extract of the electronic publication,

quarterly growth rates for GDP in volume• OECD performs seasonal adjustment

of GDP by expenditure components when no national data are provided.

Data transmission to the OECD • All countries announce on Internet, in

advance, the release day of their QNA. • OECD users expect the database to be

updated within 24 h of the release for Major Seven countries and within 48h for other countries.

• Table 1 of Document 6: small delay for Q1 and/or Q2 2007 data transmission (Australia, Greece, Ireland, Korea, Norway, Poland and the United Kingdom).

OECD requirements on data transmission

• Transmission of data, national press releases and GDP flash as soon as available on the day of release.

• A brief note appended to the data transmission to signal any important change.

• When a major methodological change is made, we would prefer countries to send only data with the new methodology.

Chain volume estimates• Table 2: all EU countries have changed

over to chain volume estimates except Slovak Republic.

• The majority of EU countries have opted for the annual overlap method among the 3 methods for chaining QNA.

• Among non-EU countries Korea, Mexico and Turkey still use fixed constant prices.

Contributions to GDP growth• Quarterly changes in inventories and

external balance: two important variables but accurate calculation of contributions to GDP growth particularly problematic for users.

• Table 3 gives the availability in the OECD QNA database of these contributions.

• OECD asks countries to supply these contributions through the ESA questionnaire (see Attachment 1) or in national file or database with as much data precision as possible.

Allocation of FISIM• Table 4: all EU countries have allocated

FISIM to all sectors except the United Kingdom.

• Several non-European countries have been allocating FISIM for many years like Australia, Canada, Korea and the United States.

• Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and Turkey have not yet implemented this methodological change in their quarterly accounts.

Quarterly Sector accounts• Since 1st of June 2007, Eurostat

releases quarterly sector accounts for the Euro area and the EU.

• Quarterly institutional sector accounts are stored in the OECD QNA database for Australia, Canada, Italy, Norway, Slovak Republic, Sweden, the UK and the US.

New ESA95 questionnaire• The current ESA95 questionnaire has

been revised and a new key family has been adopted for the European transmission programme. Both changes are expected to be implemented at the same time.

• Eurostat expects a first data transmission including these new features for next December.

• OECD is amending its systems to deal with the change.

Conclusion

• Principle governing the transmission of data:transmit data to the OECD (and Eurostat) as early as possible on the release day of the data by the NSI.

• Chaining (Table 2): Could Korea, Mexico, Slovak Republic and Turkey indicate if they expect to introduce quarterly chain volume estimates ? If so, with the release of which reference quarter is the change planned ?

• FISIM allocation (Table 4): Could Japan and the United Kingdom confirm or amend the planned dates ? Could Mexico, New Zealand and Turkey indicate if they expect to allocate FISIM ? If so, with the release of which reference quarter is the change planned ?

THANK YOU !

SNA.contact@oecd.org

www.oecd.org/std/qna/statistics