NOE

1
South Asian Countries Compliance with the
UN-NAQ Questionnaire
Workshop on National Accounts 6-9 July 2009, New
Delhi, India Gulab Singh UN Statistics Division
1
2
Outline

• Introduction.
• UN National Accounts Questionnaire
• Scope of national accounts statistics reported to
  the UNSD.
• Scope of 1993 SNA implementation.

3
Introduction

• At the request of the UN Statistical Commission
  (UNSC) the UNSD
• Collects National Accounts data from Member
  States
• regularly evaluates the conceptual compliance of
  official NA data with the recommendations of the
  1993 SNA
• The data is collected annually through the
  National Accounts Questionnaire (UN-NAQ)
• Collected from individual country and/or regional
  organizations like United Nations Economic
  Commission for Europe (UNECE) OECD or through
  the Caribbean Community Secretariat (CARICOM)
• Many countries are not able to submit the minimum
  requirement data set (as defined by the UNSC) to
  the UNSD.

4
UN National Accounts Questionnaire

• Table 1.1 GDP by expenditures at current prices
• Table 1.2 GDP by expenditures at constant prices
• Table 1.3 Relations among product, income,
  savings, and net lending aggregates
• Table 2.1 Value added by industries at current
  prices
• Table 2.2 Value added by industries at constant
  prices
• Table 2.3 Output, gross value added, and fixed
  assets by industries at current prices
• Table 3.1 Government final consumption
  expenditure by function at current prices
• Table 3.2 Individual consumption expenditure of
  households, NPISHs, and general government at
  current prices
• Table 4.1 Total Economy Sequence of accounts
• Table 4.2 Rest of the world

5
General Comments on Reporting

• SAARC Member States and Afghanistan report their
  national accounts data directly to the UNSD
  through the UN-NAQ

6
Scope of National Account Statistics

• The scope of national accounts data reported to
  the UNSD is evaluated against a standard minimum
  requirement data set (MRDS), and against the
  milestone achieved
• A set of MRDS required for meaningful policy
  decision making, was adopted by the UNSC at its
  32nd session in 2001 .
• The UNSC at its 29th session in 1997 defined
  statistical implementation milestones.
• Milestone and compliance with the identified
  indicators - both evaluate the scope of 1993 SNA
  implementation

7
Frequency of Reporting
Figure 1 Frequency of Reporting
8
Compliance with 1993 SNA concepts

• Elements affecting the level
  of GDP
• Gross capital formation
  (GCF)/output
• Is government defence expenditure on fixed assets
  that can be used for civilian purposes included
  in GCF?
• Is consumption of fixed capital included on all
  government fixed assets (roads, dams and
  breakwaters and other forms of construction
  except structures)?
• Is all mineral exploration (successful and
  unsuccessful) capitalized?
• Is expenditure on computer software purchases
  included in GCF and on software development
  included in output?
• Is expenditure on entertainment, literary or
  artistic originals included in GCF and on their
  development included in output?
• Is expenditure on valuables included in GCF?
• 1993 SNA extends the production boundary of
  households to include all goods produced by
  households for own consumption are these goods
  included in output?
• Is the natural growth of cultivated forests
  included in GCF?
• Volume estimates
• Are volumes estimated using a chaining procedure
  with annually changing weights?
• Social contributions/insurance
• Are unfunded social contributions (for sickness,
  unemployment, retirement etc.) by enterprises
  imputed as compensation of employees and included
  as contributions to private employer initiated
  social insurance schemes?
• Rather than be based just on premiums less
  claims, do non-life insurance estimates include
  premium supplements?
• Elements affecting GNI
• Are reinvested earnings estimates included in the
  rest of the world account?

9
Implementation milestones for the 1993 SNA
10
Implementation of the 1993 SNA
Based on the data sent to UNSD.
11
Implementation of the 1993 SNA (Cont)

• Of the SAARC countries
• 2 implemented the 1993 SNA prior to 2001.
• 2 implemented the 1993 SNA between 2001 and
  2005.
• 4 implemented the 1993 SNA after 2001

12
Tables of the MRDS
Based on data submitted to UNSD.
13
Scope of National Accounts Statistics
Based on data submitted to UNSD.
14
Conclusions

• Availability of NA data from the South Asian
  countries has increased in the past.
• There are 4 countries that have implemented the
  1993 SNA in the last 3 years.
• Hopefully we can work together to improve the
  implementation of international standards to
  national accounts of the South Asian countries.

15

• Thank You