The ESCWA Initiative to Produce PPP Estimates Discussed in Washington

During a meeting held by the World Bank in Washington D.C. in May 2015, ESCWA delivered a briefing on the methodology and challenges hindered the implementation of the project of producing Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) estimates for the years 2012 and 2013 based on the experiences gained during the 2011 International Comparison Program (ICP) Round. 
Participants in the meeting included representatives from the ICP Global Office, and the regional coordinating offices of Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Latin America, Caribbean, Eurostat-OECD, and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Representatives from the users' side, notably the International Monetary Fund and the producers of the World Penn tables, which provide PPP estimates for non-benchmark years, also took part in the meeting.
For his part, Majed Skaini, ICP Regional Coordinator for Western Asia region, launched during the meeting the detailed results of the 2011 ICP Round and the initiative through the release of a comprehensive report summarizing the Western Asia experience within the last years, and including detailed analysis and explanations on the methodologies used.
Representatives from the ICP Global Office praised the initiative and urged participants to benefit from Western Asia's successful experience and implement this project in the other regions.
It is worth noting that this initiative translated the vision of the WA Regional Office "A Window to the Future", which aims at sustaining the experiences gained during the 2011 ICP Round and continue building the capacities of WA's national statistical offices in the fields of price statistics and National Accounts.
This initiative aims at producing an updated set of statistical indicators, which will contribute in turn to the development of realistic economic policies. Quality wise, these highly accurate indicators can compete with the periodical indicators produced by the World Bank; credit goes to the comprehensiveness of the methodology which was meticulously developed by the WA Regional Team.
The Regional Office at ESCWA was continuously striving to develop the statistical work in the region and invest the benefits of the 2011 ICP Round in various projects on the sub-national, national and regional levels, which comes in line with the Office's short and long term visions.