Organization of Economic Statistics
Statistics South Africa
SCOPE OF ECONOMIC STATISTICS
• Macro Economy with exception of trade in
goods and services, and investment
capital flows.
• Informal Sector
• Labour Statistics
• Income and Expenditure
• Poverty
Conceptual Framework for
Economic Data Collection
• 1) National accounts – as an intermediate user,
rather than final user (or GDP side of national
accounts) – defines the primary framework for
economic data collection.
• 2) National accounts, in collaboration with
source data, defines the priorities of Economic
Statistics primarily though its concern with the
quality of GDP.
• 3) Identifying broader priorities beyond national
accounts considerations, specifically micro
economic analysis.
Thrust of Economic Statistics
• Level and movement of GDP
• Timeliness – Quarterly GDP and Annual
• Surveys organized to meet these
objectives.
• Real changes in GDP – CPI and PPI
• Increasing user needs beyond GDP
Stats SA and SARB
High Level of co-ordination and co-operation
Unusual division of labour
StatSA responsible for estimating GDP from
the production side
SARB estimates from the expenditure side?
Has various implications for further division
of labour
SARB – Expenditure Side
• Estimates of GDP annually and quarterly.
• Income and outlay accounts for institutional sectors,
annually for corporations, annually and quarterly for
general government and households.
• Balance of payments, annually and quarterly
• Financial accounts (flow of funds), annually and quarterly
• SARB monitors the estimates of GDP from the production side by making their own estimates although not as
detailed as Stats SA.
• compiles all the basic and detailed data and the
production account for the finance and insurance
industries and for the general government sector.
Government Accounts
• With the exception of municipal data, the SARB obtains and
estimate all other levels of government on a quarterly basis. This
information is required for their GDP estimates (as calculated by the
SARB).
•
• The SARB quarterly bulletin also has tables on the finances of all
levels of government (income and expenditure); cash-flow
statements, ownership of government debt, ets – Stats SA does not
collect this type of information.
•
• For the purposes of compiling the National financial account, the
SARB also obtains information from various sectors (foreign,
monetary, Public Investment Commission, etc).
•
Backbone of Annual GDP
• Breadth
• An annual sample survey covering the
formal market sector of the South African
economy (Annual Financial Survey)
• Financial data sufficient for the calculation
of industry value added and gross profit,
as well as some balance sheet items.
• broad level of industry detail [1 and 2 digit
SIC].
LSS
Depth
• The Large Sample Surveys [LSS] programme
comprises a rolling set of industry surveys
covering most industry sectors of the formal
market economy every 3-4 years.
• Greater industry detail (but the financial data set
is the same)
• LSS programme also collects value data [and
quantity where appropriate] for product [goods
and services].
Quarterly GDP
• QFS ( more relevant to quarterly revisions)
• Various monthly indicators critical to
quarterly GDP
• Increasing monthly indicators specifically
in services