1. Economic Statistics in Asia and the Pacific
Zeynep Orhun Girard Regional Seminar on Developing a Programme for the Implementation of the 2008 SNA and Supporting Statistics in the ECO member countries Ankara, Turkey September 2013

2. This presentation covers
What ESCAP does on economic statistics
Background to the Regional Programme on Economic Statistics (RPES) in A-P
Links to the work of development partners
Implementation of RPES & next steps

3. Economic Statistics at ESCAP
Capacity Building
Framework:
Regional Programme for Economic Statistics (RPES)
Core Set of Economic Statistics
Related projects
Advisory services
Outputs:
Advocacy
Coordination
Infrastructure
Skills (SIAP)
Data Work
Economic indicators in DB
>400 indicators
Covering 8 topics
Statistical Yearbook
Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report
SIAP has a training programme on SNA and Economic Statistics and currently there is ongoing work for coordinating training programmes in Asia and the Pacific
Although there is no one-to-one correspondence between the Core Set areas and the data we collect there is a direct link.
Data collected from countries and international organizations.
Capacity Building and Programme Management:
4 professional staff
Consultant
2 assistants
2 SIAP training staff
Data work:
1 professional staff, 4 assistants

4. Regional Programme for Economic Statistics
Why? To improve soundness of economic analysis & related decision making
What? Increased capacity of NSSs to produce & disseminate the Core Set of Economic Statistics (in line with international standards)
When? By 2020
How? Governed by the Steering Group for RPES (countries & development partners), secretariat by ESCAP SD.

5. What is the Core Set of Economic Statistics?
Prices and costs
Demand and output
Income & wealth
Money & banking
Government
Labour market
Natural resources and environment
Prices and costs
Consumer, producer and product price indices to analyze price changes; average and unit labour costs and earnings/wages; terms of trade; and exchange rates/purchasing power parities.
Demand and output
GDP production and expenditure accounts in current and constant prices; external trade; industrial structure statistics; short-term indicators (industry output and demand); productivity.
Income & wealth
National accounts for the economy and by sector to measure income, savings, investment, accumulation and wealth; balance of payments to measure international income and capital flows; international investment position and external debt.
Money & banking
Assets and liabilities of the banking sector, monetary measures and interest rates.
Government
Revenue and expenditure, borrowing and lending, government accounts based on the System of National Accounts and/or Government Finance Statistics.
Labour market
Labour supply and demand, characteristics of labour force, employment, unemployment, underemployment, hours worked, employment in the formal/informal sector, job creation and vacancies.
Natural resources and environment
Sustainable measures of economic growth, discovery, depletion and degradation of natural assets.
There is no contradiction between RPES and the implementation of individual standards such as the 2008 SNA. What RPES and its Core Set do is to set a holistic framework for improving economic statistics for the purpose of the SNA and for their own purposes. In other words, it is wider than the implementation of the 2008 SNA but the latter is a key component of it. The idea behind it is that the starting point for planning and prioritizing for economic statistics has to be comprehensive.

6. How are RPES outputs organized?
The roll-out of the RPES is at the national level
supported by regional and sub-regional activities as
possible:
Advocacy (governments and development partners)
Coordination (benchmarking and planning)
Statistical Infrastructure (methods and processes)
Skills (human resources)

7. How did RPES come about? 2009 2010 2011 2012 CST 1 discusses
Overview of Statistics Development
Towards an Action Plan for the Development of Economic Statistics in Asia and the Pacific
*TAG established
CST 2 endorses
Proposed RPES
(SD with guidance from TAG and in consultation with countries & development partners)
Proposed Core Set (TAG)
*TAG  SGRPES
Assessments
Bhutan
Bangladesh
Lao PDR
(SD)
CST 3 endorses
Implementation Plan for RPES
(SD with guidance from SGRPES)
TAG had 13 member countries (including Azerbaijan, Iran and the Russian Federation) and 7 development partners (including ADB, Eurostat and IMF).
The Steering Group is formed with 26 members. 22 representatives of NSOs, 3 development partners and 1 common member with the Steering Committee on Agricultural Statistics.
Coordination Committee members are given in bold:
East and North-East Asia: China, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Mongolia and the Republic of Korea
South-East Asia: Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Singapore and Viet Nam
South and South-West Asia: Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Pakistan and Turkey
North and Central Asia: Armenia and the Russian Federation
Pacific: Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Samoa

8. Phased Implementation of RPES
Phase 3:
Consolidating national and regional efforts to achieve the programme outcome
Phase 1
Capacity Screening
Plans for economic statistics
Phase 2
Accelerating regional and country level implementation

9. Value added of RPES
Raises the profile of economic statistics development in A-P
Provides a common reference of the minimum set of economic indicators
Provides a platform of coordination for development partners in A-P (NOT solely an ESCAP programme)
Focus has been on social statistics.
Comparability, regional integration, fundraising.

10. What does RPES offer to countries?
Assistance in planning or enhancing existing plans for economic statistics development
Rallying support/resources for the implementation of national priorities
Facilitating partnerships with resource countries and development partners
Capacity enhancement geared towards improving statistical infrastructure and human resources for producing and disseminating the Core Set
Statistical infrastructure, e.g. business register quality assurance frameworks, metadata repositories
The needs for assessments and plans vary from country to country. For instance, in the case of the Pacific subregion, we have seen that there is a strong need for including economic statistics in the overall statistics development strategies at the subregional and national levels. Following a similar meeting to this one, our colleagues are currently working on identifying countries for more targeted assistance.
CIS countries (what we call North and Central Asia in the case of ESCAP) have made already headway in assessing needs and designing strategies and plans of statistics development including economic statistics. Hence, the implementation of RPES can start at a more advanced stage and we have dedicated seed money for this to be spent on CIS countries.

11. What does RPES offer to development partners?
A shared vision for capacity building at the regional level and implement it in countries based on national priorities
Alignment of capacity building for economic statistics
Identification and pooling of resources (including development partners and resource countries)

12. Cooperation with Development Partners
ADB, ILO and SPC on the Steering Group
Links to the 2008 SNA, Global Strategy for Agricultural Statistics, ICP
Different development partners for different areas of the Core Set, e.g. FAO on natural resources
At subregional levels, e.g. in the Pacific ESCAP, IMF and SPC programming in coordinated way

13. Current Status of Implementation
Governments are fully engaged in the Programme
Fundraising efforts ongoing
Advocacy (member countries and development partners), e.g. communicating results of capacity screening
Next date: Steering Group meeting planned for October in Bangkok

14. Example: Project for CIS countries
Project funded by the Russian Federation within the framework of RPES and with a focus on 2008 SNA ( , 240K)
Desired results:
Advocacy for developing capacity to produce/disseminate the Core Set
Capacity building to produce/disseminate the Core Set
Supplemented by other resources and collaboration with development partners.
The amount is small but can be supplemented with other funds for regional advisory and other donor money. RPES approach also foresees collaboration with donors where possible. We are here to explore those possibilities as well.
Organize subregional meetings/consultations at the country level in selected countries. Everyone is convinced of the necessity to involve ministries of finance and central banks in the process.
Selected technical assistance activities based on national priorities.
This meeting is an opportunity to share this information with you and also get the latest update from the participating countries and development partners to understand how best we can use these funds.

15. Thank you! http://www.unescap.org/stat/econ
Proposed regional programme for the improvement of economic statistics in Asia and the Pacific (2010) at
Proposed core set of economic statistics for Asia and the Pacific (2010)
Implementation plan for the Regional Programme for the Improvement of Economic Statistics in Asia and the Pacific (2012) at