CARIBBEAN                           COMMUNITY                        SECRETARIAT

            TWENTY-EIGHTH MEETING OF THE                               RESTRICTED

            STANDING COMMITTEE OF

CARIBBEAN STATISTICIANS                                            SCCS/2003/28/3

            Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands                    

            3-5 November 2003                                                               27 October 2003

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REVISED SYSTEM

OF NATIONAL ACCOUNTS (1993 SNA)

1.         Report of SNA Workshop of 2002 and Meeting of SNA Advisory Group

In continuation of the efforts to assist Member States in implementing the 1993 System of National Accounts (1993 SNA) the Caribbean Community  (CARICOM) Secretariat in collaboration with the Caribbean Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC) convened a Training Workshop on the 1993 System of   National  Accounts  (1993 SNA)  during  the  period  18  November - 6 December 2002.  This Workshop was held at one of the conference centers at the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), St Kitts and Nevis.  The Workshop was supported by the United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD) and with financial support from the European Commission.

2.                  The Workshop was organised in two (2) Modules. The first Module which was held during the period 18-22 November 2002, entailed the presentations of country experiences in implementing the 1993 SNA since the last Workshop in 2001 and on approaches aimed at advancing the recommendations that were made at that Workshop.  The CARICOM Secretariat and the UNSD facilitated Module I with the UNSD Inter-Regional Adviser being the main facilitator of the sessions.

3.                  The   second   Module  which  followed  during  the  period  25 November-6 December 2002 focussed primarily on the concepts and compilation methods of the 1993 SNA with supporting exercises.  It was essentially modeled after the regional courses offered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).  The resource personnel for this Module were provided by the CARTAC.

4.                  The findings, conclusions and recommendations of Module 1 are given in Attachment I to this Paper.  It was recognised that as a Region, all countries should meet the recommended and agreed minimum core set of national accounts statistics (in the near future i.e. the extended Minimum Required Data Set (MRDS) which comprises Gross Domestic product by industry and Final expenditure at current and constant prices, GNI, Supply and Use Tables (SUT), CCIS, and the Rest of the World account).

2.         Proceedings of SNA Advisory Group Meeting

5.                  The SNA Advisory Group also met during the Workshop in 2002.  Members were cognisant of the fact that the countries represented at this Workshop were at varying levels of development with respect to the implementation of SNA 1993.  Few had completed SUT, CCIS and Institutional Sector Accounts, while the majority had so far not made any significant headway.

6.                  While it was ideal for the Region to strive to move forward side by side, the Advisory Group Meeting noted with concern that some countries lagged far behind although it was encouraging that other countries were way ahead of the field.

7.                  Arising out of the ensuing discussion were two (2) major viewpoints.  It was sufficient that countries that were lagging should be brought up to the basic minimum level needed to initiate SNA 1993.  They should be assisted in the preparation and the maintenance of a Business Register and have a well-designed questionnaire to collect the information in the annual establishment surveys.

8.                      However, the view was expressed that most countries needed to take a bold step in using the data at their disposal to implement some aspect of SNA 1993 and in this process they would have gained confidence in implementation.  The Meeting asserted that if national accountants waited for that ideal situation when all things are in place before moving forward, nothing would be achieved.  Member States were encouraged to go beyond initial activities such as register-building to actually preparing the data and building the SNA Tables.  Once this is completed, much needed confidence would have been gained to improve upon what has been accomplished and also to move forward into other areas.

9.                  The Advisory Group also undertook a needs assessment, the questionnaire and the results are found in Attachment II to this Paper.  Most Member States produce only Value Added by industry, total GDP at current and constant prices and the Expenditure components at current prices.  There are limited instances of SNA development beyond these tables.

10.             The Advisory Group, is to actively assist the CARICOM Secretariat in the formulation of a multi-year technical assistance programme reflecting the findings of the workshops of 2001 and 2002.  The Secretariat is also aware of approaches to CARTAC by Member States to assist the process of SNA implementation which are largely in accordance with the recommendations of the 2002 Workshop. It is necessary to have a sustained programme of technical assistance across all Member States to bridge the gap that currently exists in 1993 SNA Implementation and to encourage exchange visits across Member States.

3.         Tourism Satellite Accounts  Workshops

11.             While there were no comprehensive National Accounts Workshop held this year, attention was focussed on the area of Tourism and two workshops were held, the first organised by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Santiago, Chile, the World Tourism Organisation and the Canadian Tourism Commission.  This workshop took place in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago during 24-26 March 2003.  Participants were invited from eight (8) Member States and included representatives of National Statistical Offices, National Tourism Administration Offices, and regional/sub-regional organisations such as the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, the Caribbean Tourism Organisation and the CARICOM Secretariat.  From Trinidad and Tobago, there was also a representative from the Policy Research and Development Institute of Tobago.   Approximately eight (8) persons from Member States were trained.

12.             This seminar was a technical assistance initiative aimed at improving capacity building in the field of tourism statistic for the participating countries to enable them to carry out two sets of initiatives:

(i)                 To promote the development of the System of Tourism Statistics as a necessary condition to make progress in the measurement and analysis of the economic impacts of tourism; and

(ii)               To begin the tasks recommended by the WTO for the development of a TSA.

13.             The second seminar on the TSA took place in Barbados during 21-24 October  2003, and was funded by the Government of Spain through the CARICOM/Spain initiative.  This seminar was hosted by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO).  Statistical departments from all Member States were invited and the Meeting served to reinforce or to introduce concepts and methods used in the compilation of the TSA.

ACTION REQUIRED

15.             The Meeting is invited to:

(i)                 note the conduct of the regional workshop in national accounts held in late 2002 which was hosted by the ECCB and the Government of St Kitts and Nevis;

(ii)               commend the collaborative efforts of CARICOM, CARTAC, UNSD and Eurostat in enabling the conduct of this workshop;

(iii)             urge Member States to  attempt implementation of the recommendations arising out of the Workshop;

(iv)               also note the proceedings of the SNA Advisory Group and the views expressed therein relative to the need for technical assistance and for countries to move ahead and attempt implementation;

(v)                further note the convening of the workshops in Tourism Satellite Accounts;

(vi)             also commend the Government of Spain, CARICOM and CTO relative to the organisation of that Workshop;

(vii)            recommend that Member States attempt to implement the approaches in the WTO guidelines.

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ATTACHMENT I

Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations of Module I held during

18 November-6 December 2002

Introduction - Module I

The sequence of the proceeding findings, conclusions and recommendations is based on the order of the Agenda of the abovementioned Workshop.  The recommendations are to be executed over the next 12 months during which time a programme of technical assistance will be activated to assist countries with implementation of the 1993 SNA.

General findings, conclusions and recommendations

1.         It has been reasserted that all countries in the Caribbean Region, participating in SNA 1993 implementation programme, will make further efforts in producing and disseminating annual GDP by industry and final expenditure at current and constant prices, GNI, Supply and Use Tables (SUT), CCIS, and the Rest of the World account (ie., the extended Minimum Required Data Set (extended MRDS) as recommended by the Statistical Commission as the minimum scope of national accounts statistics).  Moreover, it has been recommitted that compliance with the concepts of the 1993 SNA will be actively pursued.

2.         Countries represented at this Workshop were cognisant of the fact that the countries of the Caribbean Region are at various levels of development with respect to the scope of compilation of 1993 SNA and the conceptual compliance with the SNA 1993. Few had completed SUT and CCIS and Institutional Sector Accounts, while the majority had so far not made any significant headway in the adoption of the 1993 SNA.

3.         It was recognised that as a Region, all countries should meet the recommended and agreed minimum core set of national accounts statistics (ie., extended MRDS) in the near future.  Based on a needs assessment (of which form is attached) to be undertaken by the Advisory Group, the AG will actively assist the CARICOM Secretariat in the formulation of a multi-year technical assistance programme. This programme will also reflect the findings of the previous workshop on national accounts held in 2001 in Trinidad and Tobago.

4.         The CARICOM Advisory Group on National Accounts has been revitalised. The decisions taken during its Meeting in St. Kitts and Nevis have been summarised and attached.

Specific findings, conclusions and recommendations

1.         As part of the MRDS, all countries have committed to produce a manageable SUT.  Experiences of countries that compiled the SUT successfully have learned that the product and industry dimensions of the table should be of limited size (eg., not more than 50) to facilitate the development of a balancing strategy.

2.         It has been identified that the statistical measurement/treatment of the International Business and Financial Services Sector (IBFS) should be harmonised in the Caribbean Region.  To that effect, a meeting should be convened of stakeholders inclusive of national, regional and international agencies and members of the private sector.  Tentatively, Barbados has offered to be the host of this meeting to be held in the next 12 months.

3.         All countries were urged to re-base their national accounts to a recent year in the range of 1996 to 2000.  This re-basing would also include the broader objective of quality improvement.  All countries have committed to be part of this major statistical exercise.

4.         It has been reconfirmed that all countries should strongly pursue the strengthening of the business registers in terms of scope of the universe of enterprises.

5.         The use of the household surveys should be promoted by all countries as an independent source of data in the measurement of final household consumption aggregate and in the compilation of the SUT in particular.

6.         All countries are encouraged to adopt the international family of classifications as recommended by the 1993 SNA. Those classifications and concordances are available and might be downloaded for free from the UNSD website, http//:unstats.un.org/unsd/class/default.htm. Moreover, the classifications should also be perceived as the foundation for analytical analysis.

7.         Given the importance of the tourism industry in the Caribbean Region, all countries were encouraged to maintain up-to-date tourism indicators and national accounts estimates on visitor consumption and tourism GDP by extending the compilation of the SUT into a Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) as recommended by the World Tourism Organisation.  Few countries volunteered to prepare the TSA for the next meeting including Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize and Trinidad and Tobago, tentatively.  As a minimum requirement, it has been agreed that all countries would adopt the Tourism Expenditure Survey (TES).  For this purpose countries are encouraged to evaluate the TES questionnaire which was prepared by the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) and whose availability will be facilitated by the UNSD.

8.         Only a limited number of countries in the Region have reached the stage of statistical development to include the preparation of IEA in their regular annual compilation programme (eg., The Netherlands Antilles, Aruba). Therefore, it was agreed to gradually phase-in the regular annual compilation of the institutional sectors only after the SUT and CCIS have become part of a regular compilation cycle. In the next stage, the general government and financial corporate sector accounts should be prepared followed by the non-financial corporate, household and NPISH sector accounts.

For presentations in the CARICOM Workshop 2003, the following countries made the subsequent specific commitments in the preparation of the institutional sectors:

§                     General government (Barbados, Bermuda, Suriname)

§                     All institutional sector accounts  (Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica)

§                     Financial sector accounts (Antigua and Barbuda)

§                     Household, NPISH and government account (Saint Lucia)

St Vincent and Grenadines will undertake a feasibility survey for the preparation SUT, CCIS and IEA

§                     Guyana would be reactivating the abovementioned feasibility approach.

9.           All countries have been informed that various software and spreadsheet tools are available for the (annual) compilations of the central framework of the 1993 SNA.  Background documentation on ERETES, a EUROSTAT-sponsored and supported national accounts software was circulated.  It was advised that additional information on ERETES could be obtained from Mr. Jurgen Heimann, Principal Administrator, Technical Cooperation with non-member states, jurgen.heimann@cec.eu.int Other national accounts tools that could be considered are those used by the UNSD, Swedish Statistics (ie., SNAPC) and Integrated Accounting System 1996 (IAS96). Both ERETES and IAS96 are based on a relational database structure.

10.       Only specific countries indicated that a recurrent programme in the preparation of quarterly accounts was in place (eg., Jamaica). Some countries mentioned that the preparation of the quarterly accounts was at an experimental stage and considered work in progress.  Central Banks should be encouraged to attend the CARICOM workshops on national accounts and present their quarterly national accounts.  Aruba and The Netherlands Antilles indicated that the preparation of the quarterly national accounts would be part of their statistical programme in 2004.

Specific countries indicated their willingness to present to the next workshop the work undertaken in the next 12 months on quarterly accounts, including Jamaica, Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago.

11.       All countries were encouraged to convene regular user and producer meetings to advocate and sensitise users.  Moreover, it was felt that the statistical offices would benefit from the dialogue in obtaining information on the needs of the users for policy analysis.  Within the next 12 months, CARICOM will collaborate with PARIS21 with a view to convening a regional meeting on statistical capacity focussing on the promotion and advocacy of official statistics and regular user-producer meetings at national level.

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ATTACHMENT  II

SNA93 Advisory Group

CARICOM National Accounts Workshop

November 18^th - December 6^th 2002

St. Kitts & Nevis, West Indies

Country Assessment Form - Scope of SNA93 Implementation

Objective:     To determine which countries in the Caribbean Region are currently compiling the Minimum Required Data Set (MRDS) for national accounts as the recommended minimum scope of national accounts statistics and to assess technical assistance needs.

Country Name: _______________________________________

1.                  Does the national statistical office/central bank currently produce annual estimates of:

·        Value added by Industrial Origin and GDP in current prices?        

1.Yes             2.No

(see UN National Accounts Questionnaire (UNNAQ), table 2.1)

Specify annual series available: like 19xx – xxxx:                  

19 -  

·        Value added by Industrial Origin and GDP in constant prices?        1.Yes          2.No

(see UN National Accounts Questionnaire (UNNAQ), table 2.2)

Specify annual series available: like 19xx – xxxx:      

19 -   Base year: 19       19 -   Base year: 19

19 -   Base year: 19       19 -   Base year: 19

·        Expenditure components and GDP in current prices?          

1.Yes          2.No

(see UN National Accounts Questionnaire (UNNAQ), table 1.1)

Specify annual series available: like 19xx – 19xx:

 19 -  

·        Expenditure components and GDP in constant prices?                    1.Yes          2.No

(see UN National Accounts Questionnaire (UNNAQ), table 1.2)

Specify annual series available: like 19xx – xxxx:

19 -   Base year: 19       19 -   Base year: 19

19 -   Base year: 19       19 -   Base year: 19

·        Value added components by industrial origin in current prices?       1.Yes          2.No

(see UN National Accounts Questionnaire (UNNAQ), table 2.3)

·        Employment by industrial origin?                                                         1.Yes          2.No

(see UN National Accounts Questionnaire (UNNAQ), table 2.3)

Specify annual series available: like 19xx – xxxx:

 19 -  

·                    Gross National Income, saving and net lending/ Total economy sector account up to net lending?                                                                        1.Yes          2.No

(see UN National Accounts Questionnaire (UNNAQ), table 1.3/4.1)

Specify annual series available: like 19xx – xxxx:

 19 - 

·                    Rest of world sector accounts (up to net lending)?                 1.Yes          2.No

(See UN National Accounts Questionnaire (UNNAQ), table 4.2)

Specify annual series available: like 19xx – xxxx:

 19 -  

2. Has  the national statistical office/central bank compiled?

·                    Balanced Supply and Use Table?                                            1.Yes          2.No

Specify year (s)  like xxxx

19   19   19    19       19

·                    Cross-classification of output/value added by industry of origin and institutional sectors (CCIS)?                                                                        1.Yes          2.No

(UN National Accounts Questionnaire (UNNAQ), table 5.1)

Specify year (s)  like xxxx

      19    19     19    19

3. Do you agree with all the commitments relative to work to be performed by your country over the next 12 months as stated in the documentation on the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the 1993 SNA workshop held in St Kitts and Nevis in November 2002?

[Note: In the document on the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the Workshop there are commitments that are applicable to all countries and then there are specific country commitments]

            1.Yes           2. No   (Please provide reasons if No)

4.      Is your office executing any programme of technical assistance in SNA 1993 over the next twelve months and does it include all the commitments referred to in Q3?

            1.Yes           2. No  

[Please indicate which commitments are not included and areas included in the programme of cooperation that go beyond the commitments]

Commitments not included:

5. What technical assistance, if any, is currently needed by your office to develop the   commitments in Q 3 or those that are not included in the programme in Q4?

COUNTRY ASSESSMENT: SCOPE OF SNA 93 IMPLEMENTATION

COUNTRY ASSESSMENT: SCOPE OF SNA 93 IMPLEMENTATION (Continued)

REASONS FOR NOT AGREEING TO COMMITMENTS

1. More training required
2. MM

Bvi EXPRESSES the need to harmonise the IBFS for which commitment and agreement would have to be sought form the Financial Commission, Business register strengthening, there is need for a consultation with the company registry department; A manageable SUT, already exists and the international classifications as recommended by the 1993 SNA was adopted in forming our National Accounts System, Software is Microsoft Excel

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE REQUIRED

1. BR- Business Register
2. Rebasing National accounts
3. Household budgetary survey
4. Cruise passenger and Visitor expenditure survey
5. Agriculture survey
6. Training, expert advice, financial aid and any other technical assistance

** PARTIAL INFORMATION

The Bahamas no data officially submitted to the Secretariat after 1991

* For Grenada-annual series of GDP at Constant prices were also indicated for the following periods:

1961- 1967- No base year indicated

1970-1975 No Base year

1980-1987- No base year indicated

1989-1996- No base year indicated

1993-2001- 1990 base year

 For Guyana annual series at Constant Prices also indicated for the period: 1970-

 Trinidad and Tobago indicated the following periods for Value Added by Industrial origin and GDP at constant price series:

 1966-86: base year 1970

 1981-90: base year 1985

 1990-1996: base year 1985

 1995-2002:base year 2000

x Expenditure at Constant prices

  1966-85 base 1970

  1981-1991  Base 1985

  1990-96 Base year 1985

  1998-02_ Base Year 2000

*** Gross National Income, Saving and Net lending/Total economy sector accounts

       For Grenada: Gross National Income and Savings are available

       For St Vincent and the Grenadines, Gross National Income is available

**** Rest of the World Sector Accounts

       For St. Vincent and the Grenadines Goods and Services only are available

Xx Value added by Industrial Origin and GDP at current prices:

     Windward Islands of the Netherlands Antilles & Windward Islands-1998-01 Curacao and Bonaire 1988-2001

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