ICP Regional Coordinators Meeting

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1. The regional activities Following the release of the final regional 2011 ICP results in February 2014,the Western Asia Regional Office (RO) conducted the following activities:

The development of an innovative exercise for the computation of PPP estimatesfor the years 2012 and 2013 using methods developed by the Regional Office;

A regional workshop in Turkey – Istanbul to validate the produced price andnational accounts data, and the release of the final PPP estimates for the years2012 and 2013;

The development of a special national project for the production of regular annualsubnational PPPs for specific countries including Egypt, UAE and Sudan;

Three national workshops for the NSO of UAE: 1- July 2014 for proposing the project and discussing the suggested methodology and project

requirements on all aspects;

2- December 2014 for launching the project and starting the training of the 7 local offices on therequirements of the national accounts weights and the necessity of having GDP expenditurebroken down to 155 BH levels at the emirate level;

3- May 2015 for launching the price data collection in 2015, developing the product lists foreach of the HHC and special surveys, and training the local statistical offices and the mainnational one on the use of the ICP kit in its different modules;

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1. The regional activities (Cont’d)

A national workshop for the NSO of Egypt:

1- June 2014 for proposing the national project and discussing thesuggested methodology and project requirements on all aspects;

A mission to Egypt in February 2015 to startup the required activities ofthe national project and agree on tentative milestones and deadlines for atimely implementation and parallel price and national accounts activities;

A mission to Sudan to conduct a national ministerial conference for therelease of the 2011 ICP results and the 2012 & 2013 PPP estimates,followed by a national workshop for the NSO of Sudan for proposing theimplementation of a national project for the computation of sub-nationalPPPs;

Production of two special editions of the WA ICP Newsletters; the firstedition featured highlights from the Final Regional ICP Workshop whenreleasing the 2011 final results and ICP booklet, while the second editionfeatured highlights from the regional workshop for the computation of2012 and 2013 PPP estimates;

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All the post 2011 Round activities in Western Asia Region originated from

Sustain the capacity building benefits andcapitalize on the experiences gained in the2011 ICP Round, through the harmonizationof price statistics and National Accountsactivities and the production of regular PPPestimates in Western Asia region.

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However, achieving thisvision at the regional level isnot as simple as one mighthope, given the economicaldiversity of countriesinvolved, the unpredictableand unstable situation atsome countries, the scarcityof financial resources, andthe scarcity of humanresources at the regionaloffice. The process is verydemanding and requiresdedication and massiveefforts and will from both theRegional Office and theNational Statistical Offices.

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Thus, below is the outline of

On the Short Term:Provide a smooth transition between ICP Rounds byimplementing interim activities and producing PPPestimates.

On the Medium Term:Integrate the ICP with national CPI and National Accountsactivities and produce regular annual sub-national PPPsfor countries where applicable.

On the Long Term:Produce sub-regional and regional PPPs on a regularbasis through the harmonization of Price Statistics andNational Accounts Activities.

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The Regional ICP Report

The Final Regional Report:

“Purchasing Power Parities

and the

Real Size of Western Asia Economies”

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The regional ICP Report (Cont’d)

A Comprehensive Report of the 2011 Round of theInternational Comparison Program in Western AsiaRegion:

Chapter 1: BackgroundChapter 2: Price Comparison Results of the 2011 RoundChapter 3: ICP 2011 - A Round of InnovationChapter 4: Price Comparison Results of 2012 and 2013Chapter 5: Annexes

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