1. Sixth SPECA Project Working Group Meeting Geneva, 16 June 2011
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Statistical Division
The Capacity Building Programme on New Challenges in Economic Statistics for Central Asia and Eastern Europe
Sixth SPECA Project Working Group Meeting
Geneva, 16 June 2011

2. New Challenges in Economic Statistics Programme 2011-2012
UNECE organizes with support of the World Bank a training programme for Central Asia and Eastern Europe
Offers workshops focusing on economic statistics:
Short-term statistics
Seasonal adjustment
Price statistics
National accounts
Training includes:
Practical exercises and discussions between countries
Review of international recommendations and standards 2

3. Workshop I – STS and Seasonal Adjustment
14-17 March 2011 in Astana, Kazakhstan
Joint organizer: The Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Statistics
Topics:
Why are short-term statistics important?
Use of multiple data sources
Methodology of compilation of STS
Dissemination
Seasonal adjustment in practice
Exercises on seasonal adjustment
The workshop was attended by 38 national experts from 12 different countries. 3

4. Participants’ overall evaluation of the first Workshop
Overall evaluation of the Workshop
64%
33% 1% 0% 2%
very good
good
fairly good
unsatisfactory
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The participants considered the training very useful, including the guidelines and materials now available in Russian.
They were looking forward to the Workshop in February 2012 to support practical implementation work.

5. New guidelines available after the first Workshop
Working instructions (Eng/Rus)
Beginner's instructions for Demetra+
ESS guidelines on seasonal adjustment translated
An Analysis of Industrial Production of the EECCA countries with DEMETRA+Dissemination
Training material
STS production methodology
Introduction to seasonal adjustment
Why and how seasonally adjust
Dissemination of seasonally adjusted data 5

6. Workshop II – Challenges in Consumer Price Indices
10-13 October 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey
Joint organizer: Turkish Statistical Institute, EFTA
Topics:
Calculation of elementary and higher-level indices
Owner occupied housing in the CPI
The coverage of goods and services
Seasonal products and missing prices
Adjustment for quality changes
The workshop will be based on the Consumer Price Indices Manual and country practices, and will focus on the implementation of recommended methods and include practical exercises. 6

7. Workshop III – Implementation of the 2008 SNA
29 November – 2 December 2011 in Kiev, Ukraine
Joint organizers: States Statistics Committee of Ukraine, United Nations Statistical Division and EFTA
Topics:
The main issues of the 2008 SNA and specific challenges of the region
How to implement the 2008 NSA
Developing of related primary statistics
Developing implementation plans
The workshop will focus on the challenges for transition economies in implementation of the 2008 SNA in practise. 7

8. Workshop IV – Training in Seasonal Adjustment
February 2012, in Istanbul, Turkey
Joint organizer: Turkish Statistical Institute
Topics covered:
Follow-up of Workshop 1
Exchange of experiences in seasonal adjustment
Alternative methods and tools
Assessment of quality of adjustment
Examples of problematic times series
This workshop will be a continuation of the first workshop, going into more methodological and practical detail. Experts who participated in Workshop I should also participate in this workshop. 8

9. Your priorities for future activities in economic statistics?
Funding of participation to meetings in 2012?
Joint UNECE/ILO meeting on Consumer Price Indices, Geneva
Group of Experts on National Accounts, Geneva
Other meeting?
AND/OR
Additional training workshops? Topics?
The 2008 System of National Accounts (continued)
Other topic? 9