PROGRESS
REPORT ON THE
OECD FINANCIAL
ACCOUNTS
DATABASES
WPFS 13-14 October 2008
by Michèle Chavoix-Mannato, OECD/STD
Main objectives
• To thank all Delegates and contacts in
OCD countries
• To inform Delegates about the current
situation
• To present some results of the Quality
Survey
• To discuss and decide possible changes
Current Situation
Collection and Dissemination of Annual
Financial Accounts & Financial Balance Sheets
General Remarks
• Data available for both accounts for all OECD countries,
except Iceland and New Zealand
• Data available for both sets (CO or NCO), except AUS,
CAN, JPN, KOR, CHE, TUR, USA
• Data available up to 2007, except JPN, LUX, POL and
CHE (2005)
Current Situation
Collection and Dissemination of Annual
Financial Accounts & Financial Balance Sheets
Improvements and shortcomings
Austria: historical data as from 1980 for S14-S15
Czech Republic and Canada: CO data for S13 and components ;
Czech Republic: CO data for S12 and S2
Switzerland: NCO flows for S13 and components, and S14-S15
Luxembourg: S13 and sub-sectors only
Turkey: S121 and S122 only
IRL,KOR,MEX,CHE,TUR: short time coverage (5 Y<data< 10 Y)
JPN: no data for 2007; CHE: no data for 2006
OECD Quality Reviews
Background
• Quality reviews are a continuous process regarding OECD
databases and publications launched in 2001
• They provide a systematic mechanism to assess their quality
• They are based on eight dimensions
• The ‘quality’ of the OECD FA and FBS, created in 2003, has to
be reviewed in 2008
• A core part of the Quality Review is a survey of users
• Such a survey has been directly sent to 450 persons (WPFS
Delegates, other official contacts, customers and subscribers,
external and internal users)
First global results
• Only 21 persons have replied yet (all from official institutions,
most WPFS Delegates), of which
o 3 sent back a totally empty survey
o 3 completed less than half questions
• Many respondents do not know how to navigate into OECD.Stat
-------
• Most respondents are satisfied with the FA and FBS products
• They use them with a frequency between once a month to once a year
Results according to the main
criteria

Relevance
General satisfaction with data in national currencies
Most users would like to find derived series in addition to primary data
A large majority would appreciate to find the other accumulation sub-accounts
Half users are interested in FA and FBS of non-member countries
Very few are interested in long series

Accuracy
The systematic coverage of financial assets/liabilities is very useful
The combination of both NCO and CO data are very helpful: but, NCO data very
important for nearly all users; CO data necessary for three-quarters of them

Accessibility
Easy access to OECD.Stat by a large majority of respondents, but frequent
ignorance of the official way

Interpretability
Less than half of respondents use the related methodological notes

Coherence
Users recommend to follow the SNA definitions and accounting rules
Possible improvements
Databases and Publications
For most users it would be useful to find:
• relevant indicators and graphs rather than primary
data which would


show current situations and trends
enable comparisons across countries
• accumulation sub-accounts data (Revaluation and Other
changes in volume) in order to


contribute to a better understanding of the difference between flows and
changes in stocks
enable analyses of the impact of revaluation on balance sheet accounts
Decisions to be taken
• Delegates should agree on a list of relevant and
internationally comparable indicators and possible
graphs
• The Secretariat should modify the databases
and electronic publications and lay out a new
printed publication
• If conclusions cannot be reached during the
meeting, the written procedure will be used.
The Financial Statistics Section
• thanks all Delegates and their colleagues
• ask them to continue to maintain the
quality of the databases and publications
on financial accounts
• request their co-operation to meet users
needs