Global Purchasing Power Parities and Real Expenditures : 2005 International Comparison Program
The International Comparison Program (ICP) is a worldwide statistical initiative to collect comparative price data and estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) of the world's economies. Using PPPs instead of market exchange rates to convert c...
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| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2015
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/01/23853274/global-purchasing-power-parities-real-expenditures-2005-international-comparison-program http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21558 |
| Summary: | The International Comparison Program
(ICP) is a worldwide statistical initiative to collect
comparative price data and estimate purchasing power
parities (PPPs) of the world's economies. Using PPPs
instead of market exchange rates to convert currencies makes
it possible to compare the output of economies and the
welfare of their inhabitants in real terms (that is,
controlling for differences in price levels). This report
brings together the results of two separate PPP programs.
The first is the global ICP program conducted by the ICP
global office within the World Bank, which provided overall
coordination for the collection of data and calculation of
PPPs in more than 100 (mostly developing) economies. The
program was organized into five geographic areas: Africa,
Asia-Pacific, Commonwealth of Independent States, South
America, and Western Asia. Regional agencies took the lead
in coordinating the work in the five regions. In parallel,
the Statistical Office of the European Communities
(Eurostat) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) conducted their 2005 PPP program,
which comprised 46 economies. Eurostat covered 37 economies:
the 25 European Union (EU) member states; the European Free
Trade Association (EFTA) economies (Iceland, Norway, and
Switzerland); and Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria,
Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and Turkey.
The OECD part of the program included 9 other economies:
Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, the Republic of Korea,
Mexico, New Zealand, the Russian Federation, and the United
States. The main reasons for conducting the ICP on a
regional basis are that the products to be priced are more
homogeneous within regions, the expenditure patterns are
likely to be more similar, and language differences are
reduced. Moreover, dividing the ICP organization among a
number of regional offices in relatively close proximity to
the economies they are coordinating provides operational benefits. |
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