Agenda item 3a
The global implementation programme for the
2008 SNA and
supporting statistics
Herman Smith
UNSD/DESA
Workshop on the Implementation of the 2008 SNA,
Kiev, 29 November – 2 December 2011
Outline of presentation
Introduction
 2008 SNA Implementation Programme
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Short term indicators
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Implementation tools
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Monitoring the SNA implementation
SNA implementation - Impediments
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Insufficient staff and training.
For exhaustive coverage of economic activities – data
collection mechanism and supporting infrastructure
need to be improved
Quality and policy relevance of basic economic and
macroeconomic statistics are not well promoted
Lack of modern management, ICT infrastructure in the
NSOs
Lack of coordination between TAs providing country,
regional and international agencies
Reference manuals and compilation guidance not easily
accessible.
Statistical Production Process Framework
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The framework provides a structure for the SNA
implementation programme to address and reinforce
both
◦ statistical institutional infrastructure and
◦ the collection and reporting of statistics.
Statistical Production Process Framework
Structure for organizing the information base based on a stylized
statistical production model
Registers
and
Frames
Surveys
Integration
Framework
Dissemination
Institutional Setting
Information, Communication Technology (ICT)
Management and internal policy
Institutional arrangements
Implementation programme
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UNSC in Feb 2010 supported the
implementation programme and encouraged
countries to develop their own programmes
of implementation
The Implementation Programme for the
2008 SNA and supporting statistics
represents a global statistical initiative
UNSD conduct series of seminars with RC to
align regional and global implementation
programmes
Objective of the Global Statistical Initiative
To assist countries in developing the
statistical and institutional capacity to:
(a) Make the conceptual change over from
the 1993 SNA to the 2008 SNA
(b) Improve the scope, detail and quality
of the national accounts and
supporting economic statistics.
Principles of the global initiative
The efficiency and sustainability of the
initiative rest on the agreed principles of the
implementation strategy:
(a) strategic planning
(b) coordination, monitoring and
reporting
(c) improving statistical systems
Elements to operationalise the initiative
(a) Use of National Strategies for the Development of
Statistics (NSDS) as the strategic planning framework
(b) The programme information structure built around
the statistical production process, scope and
compliance for the national accounts and supporting
economic statistics
(c) The modalities of statistical capacity building
through training and technical cooperation, publication
of manuals and handbooks, research and advocacy
(d) The stages of implementation leading to the change
over to the 2008 SNA.
Strategic planning framework
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Strategic planning is a key principle in mobilizing
political and financial support for investment in
statistics
The NSDS is the most widely used strategic
planning framework to connect national
development objectives with a programme of work
for statistical capacity-building
Why a strategic approach?
 To align the 2008 SNA country programme with
national policy priorities and regional
requirements
 Consultative process is system wide
 Resources are limited
 Piece meal approach is not cost effective
 Donor coordination is critical
The programme information structure
To facilitate the coordination, monitoring and
reporting on the SNA implementation in the
multi-stakeholder environment.
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Frameworks
 Minimum Required Data Set (MRDS)
based on UN-NAQ
 IMF GDDS and SDDS
 Report on the
 statistical process
 data quality
Implementation stages
 Three stages
Each country will determine the duration of the
various stages. However, it is expected that from
2014 onwards, many Member States will change
over to the 2008 SNA
 Stage I
Review of strategic framework and detailing of
national and regional implementation
programmes
Stage I - Review
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Statement of strategy – Development of an
economic statistics programme for compiling the
required scope and detail of the National
Accounts to inform policy makers
Diagnosis of current situation – Assessment of
the national statistical system to support the
national accounts compilation
Development of strategic vision for national
accounts and supporting statistics shared among
stakeholders
Develop implementation plan based on agreed
priorities with a minimum set of core indicators
Stage II - Adaption & III - Application
 Stage II. Adaptation of classification
frameworks, business registers and
frames, surveys, administrative data
sources and information technology
infrastructure; and
 Stage III. Application of adapted
frameworks and source data, backcasting
and changeover to 2008 SNA.
Short term indicators and the SNA
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A series on meetings at the end of 2008 and
beginning of 2009 in reaction to economic and
financial crisis
2008 SNA the overarching framework for economic
statistics, able to incorporates measurement issues
arising from the financial crises
The availability of structural and annual data tell us
about the past
Policy makers need information about the present
to facilitate more timely policy responses
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Need to improve the availability, periodicity and
timeliness of short term indicators in accessible
and analytically useful formats
Data collection practises need to be adapted to
facilitate the dissemination of short term indicators
Short term indicators are also relevant for
expanding the scope and detail of the national
accounts
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Rapid Estimates
Business Cycle Composite Indicators
Tendency Surveys
Data Template and Analytical Indicators
• Data Template and Analytical Indicators
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Establish an internationally accepted data and
metadata template for short-term economic
indicators
To develop a guide on the data template and
reference metadata structure to assist the
compilation of the short term indicators
Explore feasibility of centralized national data hubs
Using modern data sharing and exchange
techniques, such as SDMX and modern
visualization tools for data dissemination and
communication
Purpose
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Economic monitor for macroeconomic
surveillance
◦ Early warning signals and business cycle monitoring
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SNA compliant and compliant with other
internationally accepted standards: BPM,
prices, business statistics, etc.
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Scope
◦ 12 categories (national accounts, production,
prices, markets (labor, real estate and financial
markets) and sectors (government, financial,
non-financial, household and external sector)
◦ Periodicity and timeliness (monthly and
quarterly)
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Macro structure for 12 categories:
◦ Tier 1 (internationally accepted core set)
◦ Tier 2 and 3: strategic indicators (sectoral
accounts and “new” indicators but less
available) and country specific indicators
◦ Adaptable to specific sectoral policy needs:
agriculture and rural development and
industrial sector indicators
◦ Flexible for alternative groupings for policy
purpose (e.g. housing sector, financial sector,
household consumption, etc.)
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Standard harmonized structure
◦ Short description (basic information for statistical
indicator – at international level)
◦ Detailed description (SDMX format with structured
methodological description –propose limited
“chapters” at country level)
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Supporting internationally accepted statistical
standards and country practices
◦ UN Knowledge Base on Economic Statistics
◦ Methodological gaps identified related to Data
template (e.g. new order index, production index for
construction)
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Single access point in countries:
◦ standard internationally accepted data and
meta data dissemination template of short
term indicators (“Economic Monitor”)
◦ tool for improved accessibility of data
◦ tool for harmonization and improved
comparability of statistics and indicators
◦ tool for standardization of data transmission
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Member States encouraged to
• set up national central data hubs on
voluntary basis with flexible time frame
• submit compilation practices and use of
short-term economic indicators to
Knowledge Base on Economic Statistics
• Incorporate programme on short term
statistics with the 2008 SNA implementation
programme
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UNSD and other ISWGNA members have
developed a number of tools to facilitate the
SNA implementation
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Website
Handbooks
Knowledge Base
Diagnostic tool
Status of the NA
SNA implementation website
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To facilitate sharing of information UNSD
developed a website with information
supporting the implementation of the 2008
SNA and supporting statistics
Website at:
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/nationalaccount/
default.asp
National Accounts Handbooks
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OECD handbooks on Measuring capital and
intellectual property products.
World Bank handbooks on Introduction to SNA and
SNA compilation guidance
Eurostat’s Essential SNA: Building the basics
UNSD national accounts handbook on Financial
production stocks and flows, in collaboration with
the ECB
UNSD handbooks on International guidelines on
industrial and trade statistics
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Provide a centralized repository of
information on all aspects of methodology
and best country practices for the collection,
analysis and dissemination of all areas of
economic statistics and macroeconomic
standards
Facilitate the international sharing and
exchange of knowledge on economic
statistics programmes as well as the
provision of guidance to countries
Statistical System Information
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A tool to assist in developing the statement of
strategy
The statistical system information can be obtained
from the web
This tool brings together information available at
various international organisations into a single
framework
Statistical System Information
Country
Statistical agency
Legal Framework
Strategic Framework
Relevant documents
Projects/Programmes
Data
Statistical Standards
UNSD, IMF, World Bank,
Eurostat, Paris21
Relevant documents
Data
Diagnostics tool
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Tool to assess the adequacy of the national
statistical production process to support
implementation of the 2008 SNA.
Self assessment of statistical prerequisites
outlined in stages I and II of the 2008 SNA
implementation programme.
Leads to developing a vision for improving
the availability and quality of the economic
statistics required for compilation of national
accounts.
Diagnostics tool
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The tool is based on the widely used CES
Classification of Statistical Activities
The Classification provides a structured
presentation of statistical activities aimed at
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collecting, producing and disseminating data,
developing standards,
harmonization and implementation of statistics.
Statistical activities are organized in five statistical
domains.
Diagnostic tool
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Cross classify the statistical activities of
domain 2 and selected activities from domain
1 and 3 with domain 4 and 5
This allows the assessment of economic
activities in terms of
◦ process,
◦ organization and
◦ managerial aspects of official statistics
Status of National Accounts and
Supporting Economic Statistics
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Outline provides information on each of the
economic indicators, together with the
international recommendation for compiling
the indicators.
This allows the mapping of the data gaps
revealed by the DT with the data needs to
facilitate the development of a vision
document on where to go.
Monitoring the 1993 SNA implementation
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A set of six milestones to assess the scope of
accounts compiled by countries; plus
three data sets
 (a) minimum set of accounts that need to be compiled;
 (b) a recommended set of accounts; and
 (c) a desired set of accounts.
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To assess the compliance with major 1993 SNA
concepts a set of questions
The IMF quality assessment framework to assess the
quality of the national accounts
Purpose of the milestones twofold
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To provide guidance to countries considering
expanding the scope of their national
accounts
To serve as a monitoring instrument for
measuring the level of national accounts
development
Limitations of the milestones
1.
2.
3.
The milestones taken as the order in which
additions to national accounts must be
approached.
The milestones make no reference to the detail of
national accounts implementation
The milestones make no reference to conceptual or
quality issues
Required data sets
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Three data sets to assess the scope of national
accounts implementation according to the 1993 SNA
◦ The minimum requirement data set (MRDS) milestones 1 and 2.
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The recommended data set - importance in assessing
developments of an economy
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The desired data set, which comprises useful data
that should be compiled if possible
Report to UNSC an assessment of the MRDS based
on the United Nations national accounts database.
Scope and compliance measures for the 2008 SNA
 The 1993 SNA scope and compliance measures are
deemed to be adequate to also assess the scope and
compliance for the 2008 SNA.
 However
 need for more timely information to facilitate
appropriate policy responses
 include quarterly national accounts as an option
Scope and compliance measures for the 2008 SNA
The MRDS now include:
 quarterly accounts
 nominal and volume measure of GDP by industry
or by expenditure
 integrated accounts until net lending for the total
economy and the rest of the world.
 annual institutional sector accounts until net lending
 corporate, government, households and NPISH’s
 quarterly compilation of these sectors is now
recommended.
Scope and compliance measures for the 2008 SNA
 Recommended set include the annual compilation
 Sectoral financial accounts and balance sheets
and other changes in assets accounts
 Desired set include the quarterly compilation
 Sectoral financial accounts and balance sheets
and other changes in assets accounts
 The compliance questionnaire was adjusted to
reflect the 2008 SNA concepts
Scope and compliance measures for the 2008 SNA
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Report of the Intersecretariat Working Group on National
Accounts
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Section VII. B. Guidelines for monitoring the
implementation of the 2008 SNA.
Annex: Information system for assessing the progress of
the implementation of the System of National Accounts
2008
English:
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/statcom/doc11/2011-6NationalAccounts-E.pdf
Russian:
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/statcom/doc11/2011-6NationalAccounts-R.pdf
Thank You