International Workshop on Measuring GDP by Final Demand Approach Held in Shenzhen
According to the work plan of Sino-UN Technical Cooperation Trust Fund Project in 2011, National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS), in collaboration with the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), organized International Workshop on Measuring GDP by Final Demand Approach in
Mr. Xu pointed out that, in the Twelfth Five-year Plan, Chinese Government pay more attention to the improvement of people’s livelihood and the steady increase of resident consumption rate, so as to formulate an economic growth pattern coordinately driven by consumption, investment and export. Measuring GDP by Final Demand Approach refers to the method of measuring economic output a country or a region by final demand, reflecting the structural changes among consumption, investment and net-export, as well as their sub-divisions. Therefore, it is an important task for NBS to strengthen and improve GDP measurement by final demand approach and formally build the system on quarterly GDP measurement by final demand approach, so as to meet the demands of national macro-economic analysis and management.
Mr. Xu hoped to learn more international experience on measuring GDP by final demand approach, to obtain guidance from UN experts both theoretically and practically, ant to have in-depth and broad exchanges and discussions among experts and participants through the workshop, so as to promote the progress and improvement of GDP measurement by final demand, as well as the development of official statistics.
Mr. Paul Cheung expressed thanks to Chinese government for the supports on Statistics Trust Fund Project, and the supports on the success of the workshop by related agencies of China, and hoped that the workshop would focus on the practical issues on measuring GDP by final demand approach, and make efforts to improve GDP measuring qualities and enhance the capacities of official statistics.
The workshop was composed of two parts: international and national, and lasted for five days. In the first 3 days of international part, Ms. Youlia Antonova and Mr. Viet Vu, experts from UNSD and Statistics Canada, as well as Mr. Wing Huen Ho, Honorary Professor from Hongkong University, respectively gave a presentation on the basic methods of GDP measurement by final demand approach, family consumption measurement, final consumption measurement of governments and non-profit institutions, gross capital formation , im-export measurement for commodities and services and so on.
For the national part of workshop, NBS experts on national accounts gave presented “Government Consumption Expenditure”, “Connection Between Expenditure and Production Approach”, and “China Net Export Accounts”. The international experts gave high appraise on the results and practices that
Mr. Du Weiqun, Director-General, Department of International Cooperation of NBS, presided the opening ceremony. Messrs. Peng Zhilong, Director-General of Department of National Accounts of NBS, Xia Rongpo, Deputy Director-General of Statistical Education Center of NBS, Xin Xiaowei, Director-General of Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Statistics, Yin Yong, Director of Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Statistics, Xie Zuozhen, Director of Shenzhen Survey Organization of NBS, attended the opening ceremony. Mr. Dong Lihua, Deputy Director-General of Department of National Accounts of NBS, presided the national workshop.
More than 80 participants from NBS, regional statistical offices, statistical divisions of HK and Macao SARs, and international institutions, as well as National Statistical Offices of Asian countries, attended the workshop.