1. Developing a Regional Programme
for the Improvement of Economic
Statistics in Asia and the Pacific
Artur Andrysiak
Statistics Development and Analysis Section
ESCAP
E-mail: andrysiak@un.org
1 © 2008 by ESCAP

2. Overview
• Background
– Overview of current situation
– Decision of the Committee on Statistics
• Regional Programme
– Approach to the development of the programme
– Work completed during 2009
– Aim and target areas of the Programme
– Core Set of Economic Statistics
• Next Steps
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3. Background
• The economic statistics have not received a lot of
attention in the Asia-Pacific region, the main focus has
been on the MDGs
• Many developing countries in the region lack the capacity
to produce and disseminate basic financial and economic
data required for compiling of a minimum set of national
accounts and short-term economic indicators
• Most developing Asia-Pacific countries have still not been
able to fully implement 1993 SNA
3 © 2008 by ESCAP

4. Milestone levels achieved by
subregion
Percentage of
countries
100
80
60
40
20
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Milestone level
ENEA SEA SSWA NCA Pacific ESCAP total
4 © 2008 by ESCAP

5. Status of SNA implementation in
Asia and the Pacific
Number of ESCAP
countries
35
30
6
25
20 9
15
8
10 5
3
5 2 1
8 1
2 5 4
2 2
0
SNA68 SNA68/ 93 SNA93 SNA2008 No SNA/ No info
Pacific SEA SSWA NCA ENEA
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6. Availability of selected economic
statistics
Statistical domains
Merchandise Trade 58
Employment/ Unemployment 57
National Accounts 56
Consumer Price Index 56
Balance of Payments 49
Wages/ Earnings 48
Industrial Production Index 37
Producer Price Index 34
Retail Trade Turnover 26
Volume/ Turnover in Services 16
0 10 20 30 40 50
No. of ESCAP Asia-Pacific countries
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7. Availability of censuses and surveys
Population census 56 2
Economic census 26 32
Agricultural census 33 25
Household Income and
53 5
Expenditure Survey
Labour force Survey 43 15
Establishment/ Enterprise
39 19
survey
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Source data used Source data not used/ No info
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8. Availability of Business Registers
by subregion and income category
NCA 8 1
ENEA 5 2
Pacific 12 9
SEA 6 5
SSWA 3 7
High-income 8 4
Middle-income 19 13
Low-income 7 7
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
BR available BR not available/ No info
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9. Committee on Statistic, 2009
• At 1st session, in February 2009
• Adopted a coordinating governance structure to
guide the development, implementation and
monitoring of an action plan (Regional
Programme) for the development of economic
statistics in the Asian and Pacific region
• Established a technical advisory group to provide
guidance to the Bureau and the ESCAP
secretariat on the development and periodic
revision of a regional programme for the
development of economic statistics
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10. Approach to development of
Programme
• Agree on a core set of economic statistics that
each country in the region should be able to
produce
• Assess countries’ capacity to produce economic
statistics, and determine what main impediments
to produce core set are
– Initial assessment done; need for continuous (e.g.
annual) monitoring
• Identify what countries & agencies are doing /
planning to do to overcome capacity constraints
– Need for ongoing information sharing / collection
10 © 2008 by ESCAP

11. Programme development approach
(cont.)
• Identify, for each country, what the remaining
gaps in capacity are
• Determine, for and with each country, what
national priorities to fill the gaps are
• Develop national work plans to address the
priorities by:
– Integrating capacity building requirements for economic statistics
in National Strategies for the Development of Statistics
– Mobilizing (advocating for the mobilization) of national and
internationally resources (funding)
• Implementing / monitoring the work plans
11 © 2008 by ESCAP

12. Work completed during 2009
• Establishment and meetings of Technical Advisory
Group (TAG):
– Experts from AFG, AUS, IND, KAZ, MNG, NZL, ADB,
ASEAN Secr., ECO Secr., Eurostat, FAO, IMF, SPC
– Met in Sep and Dec 2009 + intensive email & phone
communication
– Proposed Core Set of Economic Statistics
• Assessment of NSS’s capacity to produce
economic statistics
– Development of framework
– Desk research
– Country validation / gap filling
12 © 2008 by ESCAP

13. Work completed during 2009(cont.)
• Expert Group Meeting (17-18 September 2009)
– To discuss need for Regional Programme, how to go
about developing it, and issues to be covered
• Workshop to Develop a Regional Programme (9-
11 December 2009 )
– to discuss and formulate recommendations on the
proposed Regional Programme:
• a minimum core set of economic statistics that each country
in the region should be able to produce
• the key elements, deliverables and timelines of the Regional
Programme
• the implementation and periodic review of the Regional
Programme.
13 © 2008 by ESCAP

14. Focus of the Programme
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15. Aim of the Regional Programme
• The primary aim of the programme is to develop
the capacity of ESCAP Members and Associate
Members to produce a core set of economic
statistics by 2020 of appropriate quality required
for short and long term economic analyses and
decision making by both government and non-
government agencies / organisations.
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16. Target areas
• develop selected core human skills required to collect,
compile, analyse and disseminate economic statistics of
appropriate and known quality
• improve the capacity of countries to develop, implement
and maintain key statistical infrastructures - quality
assessment framework; metadata repositories; business
register; area frame for household surveys
• improve methodological transparency through national
compilation and dissemination of appropriate
methodological information (metadata)
• enhance the long-term sustainability of the national
statistical system through improvements in statistical
advocacy within the country
16 © 2008 by ESCAP

17. Delivery of the Programme
• The delivery of most aspects of the programme will be
via the work programmes of NSOs as well as global,
regional and sub-regional bodies funding and providing
technical assistance and other initiatives across the
region
• All players active in the region will need to sign on to the
programme, be willing to share information on their
activities, and if necessary modify the nature of the
training or technical assistance and/or the timing of what
they planned to deliver
• ESCAP Committee on Statistics will provide a key forum
for discussion and decisions on Regional Programme
17 © 2008 by ESCAP

18. Relationship of the Core Set to the
Regional Programme
• Purpose of the programme is to develop the
capacity to produce a range of economic
statistics, ie remove the constraints preventing
their production.
• The core set fulfils two roles:
– Determines the scope of the programme.
– Provides guidance on the minimum set of economic
statistics to be produced.
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19. Core Set of Economic Statistics
• A minimum set of statistics needed to monitor the
economy and material wellbeing.
• Includes both primary and derived statistics.
• Flexibility in the type of statistic and its characteristics (other
than frequency) within some statistical categories.
• Applies to all member countries in principle.
• In practice, some statistics may not be relevant given the nature
of the economy of the member country – but that country will
have the capability to produce the core set.
• Not a set of surveys ...but source data needs and best practice
imply the need for certain types of surveys.
• Not a list of source data needed to compile SNA……but..
19 © 2008 by ESCAP

20. Core Set of Economic Statistics
• …..the statistics are compiled within the SNA and related
frameworks.
• …..the statistics are key … so it can be expected that they
will also provide most of the source data needed to
compile the national accounts.
• …the Regional Programme delivers capability. The
outcome should be country capability to produce national
accounts including obtaining source data that may not be
explicitly listed in the core set.
20 © 2008 by ESCAP

21. Domains of economic statistics
included in the core set
– Prices and costs
– Demand and output
– Income and wealth
– Money and banking
– Government
– Labour market
– Natural assets and the environment
– Within each of the above domains, the Core Set
consists of key statistics, each of which is described by
its frequency and relevant international standard
and/or guideline
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22. Core Set of Economic Statistics
Infrastructure:
(
frameworks, standards, classifications, registers )
Input data Processing Output statistics
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23. Next steps
• The Core Set and the Regional Programme will be
finalized during the 1st half of 2010
• The finalized versions of the Regional Programme and the
core set will be submitted for the consideration and
endorsement of the Committee on Statistics during its
second session, scheduled to take place in December
2010
• Given the need for strengthening national statistical
systems (NSSs) in Asia and the Pacific through actively
advocating for increased commitment from policymakers,
particularly in government, both of these documents will
be subsequently submitted to the ESCAP Commission.
23 © 2008 by ESCAP

24. Implementation of 2008 SNA and ISIC Rev.4 – ESCAP Region
Country Plans for If yes, when do you Plans for If yes, when do you
implementatio plan to implement implementatio plan to implement
n of 2008 SNA SNA2008 n of ISIC Rev4 ISIC Rev4
Armenia Y 2011-2012 Y 2010
Australia Y 2009Y 2009
Bhutan Y 5years time
Fiji Y 2009, GDP released. Y
Working on all other
national accounts
tables eg up to
lending, integrated
accounts etc
Hong Kong, China Y around 2012 Y 2011
India Y 2015Y 2015
Indonesia Y 2014
Iran (Islamic Republic of) N Y 2011
Japan Y 2015N
Republic of Korea Y 2014
24 © 2008 by ESCAP

25. Implementation of 2008 SNA and ISIC Rev.4 – ESCAP Region
Country Plans for If yes, when do you Plans for If yes, when do you
implementatio plan to implement implementatio plan to implement ISIC
n of 2008 SNA SNA2008 n of ISIC Rev4 Rev4
Macao, China Y 2010Y 2011
Malaysia Y 2014Y 2014
Maldives Y
Mongolia Y 2015Y 2010
New Zealand N Y 2011
Samoa Y 2010Y 2009/10
Singapore Y SNA2008 will be Y Implemented ISIC Rev4
implemented (draft) in 2007.
progressively. Implementing ISIC Rev 4
in 2011-12.
Thailand N Y 201X
Tonga Y N
Viet Nam Y 2011Y 2007
25 © 2008 by ESCAP

26. References and useful links
Committee on Statistics, First session
• http://www.unescap.org/stat/cst/1/index.asp
Towards an action plan for the development of economic statistics in the
Asian and Pacific region
• http://www.unescap.org/stat/cst/1/CST1-5E.pdf
Availability and quality of short-term economic statistics in the Asian and
the Pacific Region
• http://unstats.un.org/unsd/nationalaccount/workshops/2009/netherlands/AC
Expert Group Meeting on the Development of Economic Statistics in the
Asian and Pacific Region (17-18 September 2009, Bangkok)
• http://www.unescap.org/stat/meet/egm2009/index.asp
Workshop to Develop a Regional Programme for the Improvement of
Economic Statistics in Asia and the Pacific (9-11 December 2009,
Bangkok)
• http://www.unescap.org/stat/meet/econ-dec09/index.asp
26 © 2008 by ESCAP

27. Regional advisory services
The Statistics Division of ESCAP offers regional
advisory services on statistics
Regional Adviser on Statistics
stat.unescap@un.org
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28. Questions?
Thank you
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