Page 156 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS195 Gabriel Quirós-Romero et al.
detailed guidance, without affecting the fundamental framework; (ii) providing
(more) disaggregated (i.e. more granular) statistics, offering institutional
sector, firm characteristics (e.g., ownership, industry, and size) or distributional
information; (iii) rearrangement of classifications to reflect new agents (e.g.,
digital platforms), transactions, goods and/or services, however, all of them
supplementary to related statistics; (iv) changing the fundamentals of the
international standards.
Such distinctions are key when considering when an update of the manuals
is warranted, and if so with which depth and range. Issues that do not change
the fundamentals of the international standards could be addressed through
separate documents, such as compilation guidance and clarification notes, in
addition to the current BPM6 and 2008 SNA. In other cases, the issues may go
to the heart of the national and international accounts, and can only be
addressed within an updated version, “benchmark” type of revision, of the
international standards. Furthermore, issues that are viewed as affecting
fundamental principles may be best addressed through “extensions” or
supplements to the basic, core concepts (e.g., extending the production
boundary to include unpaid household service work such as cleaning),
providing alternative concepts, but leaving the “core” framework intact.
At the same time, the solutions to be provided should be tested by several
critical restrictions. Among the most important are: (i) statistical compilation
feasibility; (ii) data source availability and accessibility; (iii) objectivity; (iv) and
flexibility to implement second-best solutions, due to differences across
countries related to their economic structure and statistical capacity. As such,
the conceptual guidance should provide a roadmap for what can be done by
national statistical offices and central banks, considering existing as well as
new and innovative good statistical compilation practices.
The following questions are worth considering:
 What areas, economic and financial developments are not sufficiently
or well covered?
 What issues would change the fundamentals of the system? Do
benefits of the potential change outweigh costs?
 What issues can be addressed through granular, supplementary, or
extended measures?
 Are issues relevant for most countries? Could the potential solutions
be implemented by national statistical compilers?
The major priority issues discussed below are broadly consistent with
issues put forward by other international organisations. The only addition in
which we seek new efforts in the next generation of standards is the Informal
Economy, where the concept is being tested with new types of jobs largely
linked to digitalization, e.g. the gig economy. Furthermore, practical

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