BEA Experience with NAWWE

1
BEA Experience with NAWWE
Brent R. Moulton OECD, Working Party on National
Accounts Paris November 4, 2009
2
Background

• Since BEAs first submission of SNA 93 data in
  2000, the data submission has been based on
  spreadsheets with a gradual increase in details
  and metadata.
• Process involved exporting data to spreadsheetsa
  time-consuming and often error prone process.
• Before exporting to Excel, data were stored in
  time-series databases (Aremos and Fame).

3
BEA implementation of NAWWE

• To translate from these time-series databases to
  a relational database, we used NAWWE start-up
  files to reorganize the data.
• In the process of reorganizing the data, several
  smaller time-series databases were consolidated.
• An SQL relational database was constructed using
  NAWWE table codes to form the core identities.
• A test submission was provided for 20002007.
  After OECD provided feedback, we resubmitted in
  mid-2008.

4
Comments and plans

• BEA intends to continue its participation in
  NAWWE with our upcoming submissions.
• BEA received useful feedback from OECD.
• Timely communication and participation by other
  statistical offices would be useful.
• Transforming our time-series data into a
  relational database allowed BEA to identify
  redundancies and inconsistencies.