A Draft Manual for Index of Services Production and Summary of Country Feedbacks 28 June 2006

1. A Draft Manual for Index of Services Production and Summary of Country Feedbacks 28 June 2006 STESWP Task Force on Services (Eun-Pyo HONG / OECD)

2. Objectives <Manual> Practical guidelines to compile ISP for official statisticians <ISP> For short-term economic analysis and quarterly GDP compilation

3. The contents of the Manual Section 1: Introduction Section 2: Infrastructure (Statistical Units, Classification, Services industry) Section 3: Terminologies for ISP (Services, ISP, etc.) Section 4: Sources and methods (Recommended variables and deflators, etc.) Section 5: Index Compilation (Index, transformation, consolidation, compilation procedure) Section 6: Presentation and Dissemination Annexes (Deflators; Recommended variables, deflators and sources)

4. Questions on the ISP manual General view on contents and structure of the Manual? Do you think the Manual will be useful? Any comments on various sections of the Manual (especially on Section 5.4)? Do you have any plan to compile the ISP in the near future? ** Most MSs have provided comments for previous versions

5. Comments: overall structure Draft is: useful, important, well documented (logical, user-friendly, sufficiently detailed, comprehensive) However, Flexibility could cause less international comparability Need discussion on collecting basic information; balancing between accuracy vs. timeliness; choice of data source vs. reporting burden; sectors with multiple activities Argument for using deflated turnover could be supported by reasonable examples ** Link between ISP and UNSD’s work on IIP is preferable as comparability between IIP and ISP is important

6. Comments: various sections of the Manual Coverage, Statistical units, Classification, Terminology, Variables: fine but to consider: - various services group (e.g. market services); combinations of more than one unit or activity;ISIC rev4; and use ofproxy Sources and methods: relevant but can be improved with more national practices or examples in recommended variables and deflators Index compilation: to consider other options for missing values; - Section 5.4: very useful in practice, flowchart is quite helpful

7. MSs plan to compile the ISP in the near future? Answer: Not immediately for most countries due to - lack of resources, priority, or incomplete nature of necessary information However, this can be a mid-term project and Eurostat can influence the timing. MSs reported development work on services area, e.g.: - Luxembourg: output price index will be developed before 2009/10 - Japan: several survey on services sector are planned (e.g. economic census including services in 2009) - New Zealand: services part of administrative data will be analysed - Greece: Index of turnover will be published in 2006 and output prices in services in 2009 * UK, Korea, Canada and Japan are compiling monthly production index for services * FRB developed experimental ISP in 1980s

8. Tentative schedule for the Manual 2006-2007 • Jul – Dec 2006: Further revision of ISP draft • Oct 2006: 21st Voorburg Group meeting (presentation of draft manual of the ISP) • Dec 2006: Submission of ISP manual to CSTAT for approval • First half 2007: Preparation and Dissemination of published version of ISP

9. Further work (after 2007) • Revision for new classifications • Collection of more practices from MSs • Enhancement of Annex 2 • Promotion of use of the manual by NSOs