1993 SNA UPDATE

1. Agenda item 3 1993 SNA UPDATE

2. INTRODUCTION • The SNA Update formally commenced in late 2003 with the appointment of the Editor and Project Manager • 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 has been extended until 30 April • the UNSC emphasised that this is 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 • the ISWGNA should seek the opinion of Member States on the title of the Updated SNA (during the UNSC discussion, some countries spoke in favour of “2008 SNA” rather than the currently proposed “1993 SNA, Rev 1”)

7. WHERE ARE WE AT WITH VOLUME 1? • Yesterday the ISWGNA considered the final points from a review by its member agencies and resolved all the outstanding points • The deadline for world-wide comments is 30 April (i.e. Wednesday next week) and the ISWGNA is meeting on 9 May to consider all the comments • The aim is to finalise the text of Volume 1 by 31 May to enable it to be released towards the end of the northern summer

8. VOLUME 2 • There are 12 chapters in Volume 2: Ch 18 – Elaborating 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. Reviewing Volume 2 • Chapter 27 (The link to financial and monetary statistics) was posted for review in December 2006 • Chapters 20, 22 and 25 will be posted in the next couple of weeks • The remaining chapters will be made available for comment progressively from late May until towards the end of July

11. Reviewing Volume 2 (continued) • The review period for Volume 2 is 30 days rather than the 60 days allowed for Volume 1 chapters • the 44 issues have been covered in Volume 1 • Volume 2 elaborates topics in Volume 1 • on average, chapters shorter than those in Volume 1 • Comments will be collated during September • Volume 2 redrafted between then and December • Volume 2 available from late December for consideration prior to UNSC in February 2009