WORKING PARTY ON NATIONAL ACCOUNTS Paris, 3-5 October 2007 The situation of QUARTERLY NATIONAL ACCOUNTS data transmission to the OECD Document STD/CSTAT/WPNA(2007)6 Rachida DKHISSI

The OECD QNA database (1) Requirements of OECD internal users –Full scope of what is produced by National Statistical Institutes –Accuracy, comparability and timeliness Content of the database –Set of tables of the OECD - Eurostat questionnaire –Plus most of the other accounts produced by countries

The OECD QNA database (2) Released on a quarterly basis: –paper publication, CD-ROM, news release on GDP volume growth for the OECD area Electronic publication released monthly Updated daily in OECD.Stat: –extract of the electronic publication, quarterly growth rates for GDP in volume OECD performs seasonal adjustment of GDP by expenditure components when no national data are provided.

Data transmission to the OECD All countries announce on Internet, in advance, the release day of their QNA. OECD users expect the database to be updated within 24 h of the release for Major Seven countries and within 48h for other countries. Table 1 of Document 6: small delay for Q1 and/or Q data transmission (Australia, Greece, Ireland, Korea, Norway, Poland and the United Kingdom).

OECD requirements on data transmission Transmission of data, national press releases and GDP flash as soon as available on the day of release. A brief note appended to the data transmission to signal any important change. When a major methodological change is made, we would prefer countries to send only data with the new methodology.

Chain volume estimates Table 2: all EU countries have changed over to chain volume estimates except Slovak Republic. The majority of EU countries have opted for the annual overlap method among the 3 methods for chaining QNA. Among non-EU countries Korea, Mexico and Turkey still use fixed constant prices.

Contributions to GDP growth Quarterly changes in inventories and external balance: two important variables but accurate calculation of contributions to GDP growth particularly problematic for users. Table 3 gives the availability in the OECD QNA database of these contributions. OECD asks countries to supply these contributions through the ESA questionnaire (see Attachment 1) or in national file or database with as much data precision as possible.

Allocation of FISIM Table 4: all EU countries have allocated FISIM to all sectors except the United Kingdom. Several non-European countries have been allocating FISIM for many years like Australia, Canada, Korea and the United States. Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and Turkey have not yet implemented this methodological change in their quarterly accounts.

Quarterly Sector accounts Since 1 st of June 2007, Eurostat releases quarterly sector accounts for the Euro area and the EU. Quarterly institutional sector accounts are stored in the OECD QNA database for Australia, Canada, Italy, Norway, Slovak Republic, Sweden, the UK and the US.

New ESA95 questionnaire The current ESA95 questionnaire has been revised and a new key family has been adopted for the European transmission programme. Both changes are expected to be implemented at the same time. Eurostat expects a first data transmission including these new features for next December. OECD is amending its systems to deal with the change.

Conclusion Principle governing the transmission of data: transmit data to the OECD (and Eurostat) as early as possible on the release day of the data by the NSI. Chaining (Table 2): Could Korea, Mexico, Slovak Republic and Turkey indicate if they expect to introduce quarterly chain volume estimates ? If so, with the release of which reference quarter is the change planned ? FISIM allocation (Table 4): Could Japan and the United Kingdom confirm or amend the planned dates ? Could Mexico, New Zealand and Turkey indicate if they expect to allocate FISIM ? If so, with the release of which reference quarter is the change planned ?

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