Under the framework of integration between price statistics and national accounts, the International Comparison Program (ICP) team at ESCWA’s Statistics Division conducted a regional training on 26-27 April, 2017 in Cairo, Egypt.
The training was carried out within the scope of the 2016 Regional Round for the production of Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) which will result in the production of numerous indicators, among which Real National Accounts Expenditures at the level of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and its aggregates, and will ensure the regular production of detailed and reliable price and national accounts expenditures data.
The ICP team at ESCWA strives to achieve a high level of integration not only between the different price statistics, but also between price statistics and national accounts, and always looks for opportunities to enhance the national statistical practices of its member countries and contribute to their capacity building in those areas.
The regional training included sessions for familiarizing the national accounts experts from 11 ESCWA member states with the Model Report on Expenditures Statistics (MORES) and presenting the indicators which can be used for the estimation of detailed GDP expenditures. Moreover, training sessions were conducted on the estimation of annual GDP expenditure weights at the most detailed level - i.e. the level of 155 basic headings - for 2014, 2015 and 2016, in addition to hands-on working sessions on GDP expenditure estimation for 2014 and 2015 in a round table setting enabling the sharing of knowledge and lessons learned. Furthermore, the updated classification and updated MORES form for the 2017 ICP round along with the changes in the classification between the 2016 regional PPP production round and the 2017 global ICP round were also presented.