Joint UNECE/EUROSTAT/OECD Meeting on National Accounts

1. JointUNECE/EUROSTAT/OECD Meeting on National Accounts Regional Aspects in the National Accounts Comments on papers submitted by: EUROSTAT CISSTAT Statistics Netherlands Michel Girard Statistics Canada April 2006

2. Regional Accounts - Uses • “Regional accounts are of special importance when there are important gaps between the economic and social development of the various regions of a country.” SNA 1993, paragraph 19.88. • Regional accounts: a tool to determine eligibility for structural funds assistance or distribution of wealth. • Quality matters significantly Michel Girard Statistics Canada April 2006

3. Regional Accounts - Implementation • Few paragraphs on regional accounts in SNA 93 while a short chapter in ESA95 • Regional accounts developed following series of consultation between national statistical agencies and data availability. • Regional accounts not necessarily implemented consistently, affecting comparability • Not to mention the issue of data availability affecting quality Michel Girard Statistics Canada April 2006

4. Regional Accounts Concerns affecting quality • Business registers and local KAU • Administrative data • Transparent/common methodologies • Size, concepts and processes Personally, I would add: • Costs • Response burden • Link between enterprise and its establishments • Integration within national accounts framework Michel Girard Statistics Canada April 2006

5. The Regional Accounts System of the EU – submitted by EUROSTAT Key requirements for sound regional accounts • Statistical business register with local KAU • Structural business statistics • Administrative data • Size • Quality Reports Michel Girard Statistics Canada April 2006

6. The Regional Accounts System of the EU –Questions • Does EUROSTAT view BR with local KAU and the necessity to have sufficient industry detail as a turning point in promoting bottom-up approach? • What is the right amount of business statistics? To what extent administrative data can be survey substitute? • Strengths/weaknesses of administrative data. • Measuring quality without discussing consistency/coherence of regional and national accounts, notably adjustments. Michel Girard Statistics Canada April 2006

7. Regional Accounts in the CIS Countries - submitted by the CIS Statistical Committee • Compilation done by regional offices and finalized by the national office. • What are the roles of the regional offices and the national office? • How easy is it to ensure quality of the results? Michel Girard Statistics Canada April 2006

8. Regional Accounts in the CIS Countries - submitted by the CIS Statistical Committee • Multiregional units at the regional level • CISSTAT recommends a bottom-up approach to obtain information • Suggesting, among others, clear link between accounting of enterprise and establishments • Is it the case? Response burden? Michel Girard Statistics Canada April 2006

9. Regional Accounts in the CIS Countries- Conceptual and practical problems • Difficulty of achieving full reconciliation between GDP and the sum of GRP • Allocating central government bodies, transport activities, insurance, NPISH, FISIM, taxes on imports and exports • Large reconciliation item • How to ensure quality of estimates? • Any plan to implement methodologies to impute for gaps and reconcile GDP and GRPs? Michel Girard Statistics Canada April 2006

10. Regional Accounts in the CIS Countries- Conceptual and practical problems • GRP by expenditure approach • Powerful set of data to reconcile production accounts and income and expenditure accounts • Supply and disposition • Any plan to estimate final consumption of residents (by regions) and interregional flows of goods and services? Michel Girard Statistics Canada April 2006

11. How to Improve the Quality of Regional Accounts Estimates - H. Nijmeijer, Statistics Netherlands • Allocation of funds on the basis of regional GDP per capita • Requires high quality data • Difficulty to “quantify” quality • National and regional accounting • Process tool Michel Girard Statistics Canada April 2006

12. How to Improve the Quality of Regional Accounts Estimates - H. Nijmeijer, Statistics Netherlands • Measuring quality vs. ensuring processes are in place to ensure quality results • Focus is on adjustments • Need tool in order to make proper adjustments • Consistent with Canadian experience Michel Girard Statistics Canada April 2006

13. How to Improve the Quality of Regional Accounts Estimates - H. Nijmeijer, Statistics Netherlands • Process tables • Shows source data • Analytical function (ratios) • Documentation • Help find inconsistencies but not resolving incoherencies • Approach requires focussing on micro data to produce macroeconomic statistics Michel Girard Statistics Canada April 2006

14. How to Improve the Quality of Regional Accounts Estimates - H. Nijmeijer, Statistics Netherlands • Future of data warehouse • Show source data from various sources and can compare them using common classification and definitions • Analytical function (ratios) • Help find inconsistency as well as incoherence • However, type of documention still an issue Michel Girard Statistics Canada April 2006

15. How to Improve the Quality of Regional Accounts Estimates - H. Nijmeijer, Statistics Netherlands • Regional and national accountants teams? • Should they be the same people? • Integrating instead of reconciling? • Documenting is very costly and time consuming but we never have enough. What is the minimum to document about adjustments? Michel Girard Statistics Canada April 2006