1. Assessment of National Accounts
Compilation in the
GCC Countries
Giovanni Savio, Statistics Division, UN-ESCWA
High level seminar on the implementation of the System
of National Accounts 2008 in the GCC Countries
Muscat, 27 May 2010
2. Main Fields of Economic Statistic
• National Accounts
• Balance of Payment and External Trade
• Prices
• Production Statistics – by industrial sector
• Financial Statistics – including fiscal statistics
• Money and Capital Market Statistics
• (Labour market)
3. Frameworks of Economic Statistics
• System of National Accounts 1993 / 2008
– coordinating conceptual framework for all economic
statistics; and
– ensuring consistency of definitions and classifications used
in different, but related, fields of economic statistics
• Concepts and principles set out in international
recommendations for other economic statistics
harmonized with System of National Accounts
4. Present Status of National
Accounts (1)
(Based on outcomes of review of practices for NA conducted
by the ESCWA, end 2009)
• Basic definitions & concepts: 1993 SNA quite largely
followed or implementation ongoing – but
compilation of national accounts constrained by
availability of data
• System officially followed: 3 countries declare 1968
SNA but moving to 1993 SNA, others 1993 SNA
• Timeliness and Dissemination: All have a release
calendar – and release preliminary ANA within 12
months of completion of the accounting period
5. Present Status of National
Accounts (2)
• Classifications: largely homogeneous
• Staff: Varying from 4 to more than 20
• Main impediments to 1993 SNA implementation:
– Data sources and Coverage (most relevant)
– Staff
– Legislative mandate
– Internal cooperation (less relevant)
6. Present Status of other Economic
Statistics (1)
• Balance of Payment and External trade:
– BoP: Compiled by the Central bank, mostly following
BPM5
– External trade: Mostly, the customs data on merchandise
trade are compiled by the NSOs, using HS
– Problem areas: Quantity figures
– Data gap: Statistics on International Trade in Services
7. Present Status of other Economic
Statistics (2)
• Price Statistics:
– CPI: fairly well developed – closely in compliance with
ILO standards
– No other price data collected, except on some selected
(wholesale) prices of construction materials and
agricultural produce.
– Almost no PPI
– Exports & imports: Unit Values
8. Present Status of other Economic
Statistics (3)
• Production Statistics – by industrial sector:
– Agricultural activities: from M/o Agriculture
– Oil sector: from administrative sources or companies
– Financial sector: from surveys and CBs
– General Government: administrative sources
– Non-agricultural, non-financial private sector: from economic surveys
based on list frame
– Problem areas: Incomplete frame; absence of system of regular
updating using administrative sources, lack of business registers
– Data gap: data on informal / un-registered sector
9. National Accounts - Main
Shortcomings (1)
• Incomplete Coverage: Economic activities carried
out in establishments not in the list frame are not
covered in economic surveys providing production
statistics required for NA
• Constant-price estimates of production-side
aggregates are based
– on CPI, owing to absence of PPI, or
– on quantity index of output
10. National Accounts – Main
Shortcomings (2)
• Expenditure-side aggregates at constant prices
sometimes not compiled
• Income-side aggregates at constant prices generally
not compiled
• Lack of information on expenditure aggregates
(consumption and investment)
• Quarterly accounts compiled in few countries, very
limited set of data released
11. Main Conceptual Lapses
• Expenditure on oil exploration not included
in capital formation (at least two countries)
– Though large oil reserves and significant exploration
activities
12. National Accounts
Immediate Needs (1)
Complete coverage of economic activities in
national accounts statistics requires
• Regular updating of the list frame
• Coverage of units not included in list of
establishments in the economic surveys
13. National Accounts
Immediate Needs (2)
• Reviewing questionnaires of economic surveys for
adoption of definitions of production and capital
formation, keeping in view (i) 1993 / 2008 SNA and
(ii) recommendations of IRIS and IRDTS manuals of
UNSD (2008)
• Adoption of new classifications
• Rational re-grouping of industry and product
classifications suitable for compilation and
presentation of NA, particularly Supply-Use Tables
14. National Accounts
Immediate Needs (3)
Improving constant-price estimates using
appropriate deflation procedures and indicators like
(a) ‘retail turnover’ index (conducting annual retail trade
survey)
(b) quantity index/ estimates of output of important products
(c) PPI – separately for groups of goods and services and
(d) wage-rate index
15. National Accounts
Immediate Needs (5)
• Developing complete sequence of accounts
• Estimation of capital stock and adoption of
international standards
• Development of short-term indicators for
compilation of Quarterly Accounts
