2008 SNA CURRENT SITUATION

1. 2008 SNACURRENT SITUATION Presentation to the OECDNational Accounts Meeting14 October 2008

2. INTRODUCTION • The SNA Update formally commenced in late 2003 • the Editor and Project Manager were appointed in early 2004 • One of the first decisions made about the update was to provide a very open, consultative process • An Advisory Expert Group (AEG) was established, consisting of 20 very experienced national accountants from NSOs around the world

3. CONSULTATIVE PROCESS • The first AEG meeting was held in February 2004 • 44 key issues were identified for review • Four follow-up AEG meetings have been held • December 2004 • July 2005 • February 2006 • March 2007 • Input was also obtained from various national accounts meetings during these years

4. UN STATISTICAL COMMISSION • The 2007 meeting of the UNSC agreed that the Updated SNA should be split into 2 volumes • Volume 1 would contain detailed descriptions of the concepts, including all changes resulting from the 44 issues identified by the AEG • Volume 2 is to provide an elaboration of the concepts contained in Volume 1

5. UN STATISTICAL COMMISSION (continued) • The 2008 UNSC approved Volume 1 of the updated SNA in principle, but with an extra 2 months being allowed for countries to comment on the draft chapters • the evaluation period was extended until 30 April • the UNSC emphasised that this was to allow a check of the conceptual coherence and consistency of the Updated SNA with the recommendations on the 44 issues, together with the clarifications and consistency issues flowing from them but that the decisions made on the 44 issues are not to be reopened

6. UN STATISTICAL COMMISSION (continued) • Other key issues raised by the 2008 UNSC were: • Volume 2 has to be presented to next year’s UNSC meeting for approval • the ISWGNA should develop a strategy for implementing the updated SNA • Eurostat/UNSD conference in May, with the outcome being the “Luxembourg Recommendations” • the ISWGNA should seek the opinion of Member States on the title of the Updated SNA • “System of National Accounts, 2008” was favoured by more than two-thirds of countries responding

7. VOLUME 1 • The UNSC Bureau approved Volume 1 a couple of months ago • the SNA codes were removed from Volume 1 • A “White cover” version of Volume 1 has now been released • Volume 1 has been through the UN editing process, with only a small number of minor changes required

8. VOLUME 2 • There are 12 chapters in Volume 2: Ch 18 – Elaborating and presenting the accounts Ch 19 – Population and labour inputs Ch 20 – The role of capital services in the national accounts Ch 21 – Measuring corporate activity Ch 22 – The government and public sectors Ch 23 – Non-profit institutions in the System

9. VOLUME 2 (continued) Ch 24 – Households Ch 25 – The informal sector Ch 26 – The rest of the world account (external transactions account) Ch 27 – The link to financial and monetary statistics Ch 28 – Input-output and other matrix based analyses Ch 29 – Satellite accounts and other extensions of the System

10. VOLUME 2 (continued) • The time for commenting on 8 chapters of Volume 2 has closed • the ISWGNA considered all these comments yesterday • The remaining 4 chapters are now on the UNSD website for comment • the ISWGNA is meeting on 10 November to discuss he comments on these chapters

11. AEG meeting • An AEG meeting is being held in Washington from 12-14 November, with the following agenda • Codes • Insurance • non-life • reinsurance • life • Pensions • Emission permits • Issues from the review of Volume 2

12. Remaining process • Volume 2 will be redrafted to take account of the comments from the current review • it will be available for UNSC review in December • The February UNSC will consider Volume 2 • any changes required will be incorporated after the UNSC • Volume 2 will go through the UN editing process • An index will be prepared • The 2008 SNA to be released in second half of 2009