Quarterly National Accounts (QNA)

Source details

Training Program: Quarterly National Accounts
Target Audience: Officials worldwide responsible for compiling quarterly national accounts (QNA).
Qualifications: Participants are expected to have a degree in economics or statistics; or equivalent experience.
Deadline passed

The course is presented by the Statistics Department.
"This one-week course" prepares participants to compile QNA by providing a thorough understanding of the concepts, source data, and compilation techniques used for producing these datasets.
The course covers both theoretical and practical compilation issues.
Introduces benchmarking, seasonal adjustment techniques, as well as volume estimates; and explains the application of these techniques to time series data.
Broadly based on the IMF Quarterly National Accounts Manual (2017 Edition), and expands on techniques required to dealing with alternative data sources, and mixed frequencies.
Participants will learn how to:
- identify and assess available data sources for compiling QNA;
- use related real-time series databases to assess the quality of QNA; and
- implement a suitable revisions policy.

Upon completion of this course, participants should be able to:

Recognize the role, scope, and uses of QNA.
Describe the compilation framework for the QNA and early estimates.
Compile benchmarked series using the recommended techniques.
Apply basic techniques for filling data gaps and backcasting.
Identify good seasonal adjustment practices and apply basic seasonal adjustment techniques to time series.
Formulate a balanced revisions policy taking account of how related real-time database can be used to assess the reliability of the QNA estimates.