World Economic Outlook Database October 2014
World Economic Outlook
Source details
- Canonical URL
- World Economic Outlook Database October 2014
Other formats
Bibliographic details
- Authors: Country Groups
Overview
- The World Economic Outlook (WEO) database is created during the biannual World Economic Outlook exercise and contains selected macroeconomic data series from the statistical appendix of the World Economic Outlook report.
- The WEO is released in April and September/October each year.
- Use of the database: national accounts, inflation, unemployment rates, balance of payments, fiscal indicators, trade for countries and country groups (aggregates), and commodity prices reported by the IMF.
Data coverage and projection horizons
- Data availability:
- Data are available from 1980 to the present.
- Projections are given for the next two years.
- Medium-term projections are available for selected indicators.
- Data completeness:
- For some countries, data are incomplete or unavailable for certain years.
- Tools:
- World Economic Outlook on Google Public Data Explorer offers select indicators from the latest online WEO database, such as GDP growth and inflation.
Methodological changes: adoption of BPM6
- The WEO has adopted the sixth edition of the Balance of Payments Manual and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6).
- Notable classification and presentation changes include:
1. Merchanting has been reclassified from services to exports of goods. 2. Manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others (goods for processing in the BPM5) and maintenance and repair services (repairs on goods in the BPM5) have been reclassified from goods to services. 3. Migrants’ transfers have been removed from capital transfers in the capital account because a change in ownership is no longer imputed. 4. Reverse investment in direct investment has been reclassified so as to present assets and liabilities on a gross basis. 5. A separate financial derivatives category is now included in the financial account, whereas previously it was a subitem under portfolio investment.
- Presentation convention change:
- The conventional sign for increases in assets (and liabilities) within the financial account is now positive.
- Balances are now computed as net acquisition of financial assets minus net incurrence of financial liabilities.
New and removed financial series following BPM6 adoption
- Included, where available, for all country groups:
- current account balance
- imports of goods and services
- exports of goods and services
- financial account balance
- net direct investment
- net portfolio investment
- net financial derivatives
- net other investment
- change in reserves
- Removed series:
- The private financial flows series that were available in previous versions of the WEO online database have been removed.
Transition issues and historical revisions
- Not all countries have converted to the BPM6 standard; a few still use versions older than the BPM5.
- Historical data are subject to change when countries adopt the latest standard.
- During the transition period, some country groups’ aggregates are not available.
- Refer to Table G in the WEO's Statistical Appendix for the Balance of Payments statistical standard for each country (note: reference to table name preserved from source).
Purchasing-power-parity (PPP) updates
- Following the recent release of the 2011 International Comparison Program (ICP) survey for new PPP benchmarks, the WEO’s estimates of purchasing-power-parity weights and GDP valued at purchasing power parity have been updated.
- For more detail, see “Revised Purchasing Power Parity Weights” in the July 2014 WEO Update.
Country-specific notes and exclusions
- Syria:
- Data for Syria are excluded from 2011 onward because of the uncertain political situation.
- Pakistan:
- Because of the ongoing IMF program with Pakistan, the series from which the nominal exchange rate assumptions can be calculated are not made public, as the nominal exchange rate is a market-sensitive issue in Pakistan.
- Latvia:
- Data for Latvia, which were previously excluded from the euro area aggregates because of data constraints, are now included.
- Ukraine:
- Projections for Ukraine, which were previously excluded because of the crisis, are once again included.
- Argentina:
- As in the April 2014 WEO, the consumer price projections for Argentina are excluded because of a structural break in the data. Refer to note 5 in Table A7 of the October 2014 WEO Statistical Appendix for further details.