Evolution of National Accounts Statistics Compilation Practices Over the Period 2018 to 2021 in 189 Economies

IMF Working Papers, July 21, 2023

Source details

Canonical URL: Evolution of National Accounts Statistics Compilation Practices Over the Period 2018 to 2021 in 189 Economies

Scope: analysis of the evolution of national accounts statistics compilation practices over the period of 2018 to 2021 for 189 economies.
Purpose: monitoring the quality of national accounts statistics, supporting identification of areas for improvement, and enabling economies to benchmark their practices to the region and the world.
Context: assessment of migration to the 2008 SNA vintage as an indicator of readiness to migrate to the new 2025 SNA vintage.

Coverage: the study covers compilation practices in 189 economies over 2018 to 2021.
Migration to 2008 SNA: 31 economies have moved to the 2008 SNA between 2018 and 2021.
Quarterly GDP compilation: the paper examined how many economies started compiling quarterly GDP during the period 2018 and 2021 (no aggregate count provided in the summary).

Benchmarking utility:
- Economies can use the data to benchmark their national accounts compilation practices against regional and global peers.
- The analysis provides useful information for monitoring quality and identifying areas for improvement.
Migration signal:
- The number of economies using the 2008 SNA vintage provides a clue to how fast authorities may migrate to the new 2025 SNA framework.

Encourage and support migration to updated SNA vintages to better reflect the size and structure of economies.
Promote the expansion of quarterly GDP compilation where absent to improve timeliness and policy relevance.
Use benchmarking results to target technical assistance and capacity-building to economies lagging in adopting international frameworks and compiling higher-frequency national accounts.

IMF Working Paper by Anthony Silungwe, July 21, 2023.