Progress Report on the Review of the SNA

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Progress Report on the Review of the SNA

• Carol S. Carson
• Project Manager
• Working Party on National Accounts
• OECD, Paris, October 11-14, 2005

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Plan of the presentation

• Big picture
• July 2005 (Bangkok) Advisory Expert Group (AEG)
  meeting
• Overview
• Selected issues
• January 2006 (Frankfurt) AEG meeting
• Drafting and Review Phase

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Big picture

• Statistical Commissions mandate
• No fundamental changes that would impede
  implementation
• Bring the accounts in line with
• New economic environment
• Advances in methodological research
• Needs of users
• Consistent with other macro manuals
• 1993 SNA, Rev. 1 ready for endorsement in March
  2008

4
Big picture (contd)

• The Update is on track
• Update contained within the bounds set by the 44
  agreed issues
• Recommendations so far deal with, for example,
• Statistics for an increasingly globalized world
• Developments in financial markets
• Aspects of the new economy
• With hard work and focus, expect to deliver Rev.
  1 on time

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Big Picture (contd)

• Progress Report at the Project website
  http//unstats.un.org/unsd/nationalaccount/snarev1
  .asp includes...
• List of the issues, with status as of end
  September
• Calendar of SNA-related events

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July AEG

• Overview
• Intense, but productive meeting
• Reports available on the Project website at
  http//unstats.un.org/unsd/nationalaccount/aeg.htm
  
• Summary conclusions (Spanish translation
  available French translation coming)
• Report (draft)
• Recommendations now open for country comment

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July AEG (contd)

• Non-financial assets
• Cost of capital services
• Confirmed the importance of including capital
  services (depreciation and return to capital) in
  SNA
• Emphasized compilation of capital services and
  stocks in an integrated manner
• Strongly supported including estimates of capital
  services in supplementary tables

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July AEG (contd)

• Non-financial assets (contd)
• Assets used in non-market production Reaffirmed
  principle of including a return to capital. To
  consider further after follow-up on country
  comments
• R D Recommendations
• To recognize output of R D as assets
• That although R D made freely available should
  not be treated as assets, in practice they might
  not be excluded
• To use Frascati definition of R D
• That patents will no longer be separately
  identified

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July AEG (contd)

• Government/public sector
• Previewed a new chapter on general government and
  public sector
• Tax revenues, uncollectible taxes, tax credits
• Recommendations that
• Taxes are to be recorded on an accrual basis
• Taxes that are uncollectible and/or unlikely to
  be collected should not be included
• Payable tax credits to be recorded on gross basis
• The above plus clarifications of definition and
  coverage of taxes to be reviewed with draft
  chapter

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July AEG (contd)

• Government/public sector (contd)
• Guarantees
• Agreed in principle to recommendations based on a
  three-way split
• Tradable guarantees to be treated as financial
  derivatives
• Standardized guarantees to be treated similar to
  insurance
• One-off guarantees not in the core accounts
• Clarifications to be made in a revised paper
  combining granting and activation for
  e-discussion

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July AEG (contd)

• Government/public sector (contd)
• Sector delineation
• Broad support for
• Use of decision tree to identify boundaries
• Indicators to be used to determine whether
  government controls
• Elaboration of economically significant prices
• Clarifications to be made in a revised paper for
  e-discussion

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July AEG (contd)

• Financial instruments dealt with several issues,
  mainly on classification (and more to come)
• BOP dealt with a number of issues (to be
  presented separately)

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January AEG

• Overview
• Last of the AEG meetings on separate issues
• Issues concentrated in government sector and
  where several working groups share an interest in
  the issue
• Papers mainly from series of meetings that began
  in mid-September
• As for the July AEG, a combination of
  e-discussions and face-to-face discussion

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January AEG (contd)

• Agenda issues
• Employer pensions schemes
• Payments to government by public corporations
  super-dividends, etc.
• Holding companies, SPEs, trusts
• Leases and licenses
• Informal economy
• And others, such as
• Ancillary units
• Financial services

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January AEG (contd)

• Agenda other topics
• First look at some problems of consistency across
  recommendations
• Plan for the drafting and review stage
• ECB will organize a meeting with data users

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Drafting and review phase

• Key dates
• Late 2006 recommendations ready for
  consideration by Statistical Commission in March
  2007
• Late 2007 draft of Rev. 1 ready for
  consideration by the Statistical Commission in
  March 2008

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Drafting and review phase (contd)

• ISWGNA is fleshing out the work plan
• Likely key features
• Editor edits existing SNA text and drafts new
  sections, sometimes using others drafts
• Chapters broken into logical groups for
  drafting-review process
• Review of at least three kinds
• Support for editor, mainly by ISWGNA
• AEG
• Country
• Record of changes made
• Progress chart

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and this involves you!

• Work on issues is winding down, but your
  continued involvement is needed
• Suggest additional needed clarifications
  (non-conceptual changes) to the SNA open through
  end 2005
• Comment
• Now, on recommendations (for the July AEG
  meetings recommendations, by November 30)
• In 2006-2007, on draft text

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Thank you
Contact ccarson_at_imf.org