NSCB - Economic and Financial Data - Meta Data - Real Sector

Real Sector > National Accounts
Last certified: 04 January 2008
Last update: 04 February 2008

Contact Person
Director Raymundo J. Talento
National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB)
1st, 2nd & 5th Floors Midland Buendia Building
403 Sen. Gil J. Puyat Avenue, Makati City 1200.

Phone: 63 2 8952481
Fax: 63 2 8909397
E-mail: info@nscb.gov.ph; rj.talento@nscb.gov.ph

Dissemination Formats:

Hardcopy
(x) News release
( ) Weekly ( ) monthly (x) quarterly bulletin
( ) Other

Electronic
(x) On-line country bulletin board or database
(x) Diskette (x) CD ROM (x) Other

The Data: Coverage, Periodicity, and Timeliness
Coverage characteristics	GDP and GNP estimates are disseminated at current prices and at constant 1985 prices; in million of pesos, including growth rates, implicit price deflators and percent distribution by industry and expenditure items. The estimates present both the production and expenditure sides of the accounts and cover the total economy of the Philippines. GDP based on the production approach is broken down by economic activity while GDP using the income approach is estimated by institutional sector namely: private corporations, government corporations, general government, and household and unincorporated enterprises. GDP based on the expenditure side is disaggregated as follows: personal consumption; government consumption; capital formation which includes construction, durable equipment and breeding stocks and orchard development; changes in stocks; export of goods and services; and imports of goods and services. GDP, GNP and Gross Value Added of Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry, Industry, and Services; and Personal Consumption Expenditure are seasonally adjusted on a quarterly basis.
Periodicity	Quarterly and Annual
Timeliness	Released no later than 2 months after the end of the reference quarter for the first, second, and third quarter estimates (that is, no later than May 31, August 31 and November 29, respectively), and no later than 1 month after the end of the reference quarter for the fourth quarter estimates (that is, no later than January 31). The preliminary annual estimates are published not later than one month after the end of the reference year while the final annual estimates are released not later than 5 (five) months after the reference year.
Access by the Public
Advance dissemination of release calendar	The Advance Release Calendar (ARC) which shows the dates of release of the quarterly national accounts for the following year is posted on the NSCB website (www.nscb.gov.ph) before the end of the previous year.
Simultaneous release to all interested parties	Quarterly estimates of National Accounts are released to the public according to the ARC schedule through a quarterly press conference in which copies of all the accounts, tables and highlights are distributed to the press free of charge. Complimentary copies are also distributed to all major statistical agencies and selected government agencies. Highlights and major tables are made available at the NSCB website at the same time or after the press conference. After the quarterly press conference, the Quarterly National Accounts is also presented to the Joint Meeting of the Committee on Economic Affairs of the Senate and House of Representatives.
Integrity
Dissemination of terms and conditions under which official statistics are produced, including ... confidentiality of individual responses	The Philippine Statistical System is administered based on a number of Statistical Act/laws. Executive Order (E.O.) No. 352 on the System of Designated Statistics, signed on July 1, 1996, provides for the designation of statistics that are most critical for decision-making of the government and the private sector. The approved list contains the designated activity/statistics; implementing agency; frequency of conduct; geographic disaggregation; and schedule of data dissemination and timeliness. The following sections pertain to the dissemination of the designated statistics: • Section 2 of E.O. 352 provides for the dissemination of the data from the designated statistical activities to the general public; while • Section 4 states that any modification, addition or deletion from the list requires the approval of the NSCB, the highest policy making body on statistical matters in the country. • Commonwealth Act 591 of August 19, 1940 (An Act to Create a Bureau of the Census and Statistics to Consolidate Statistical Activities of the Government). It includes a provision that safeguards the confidentiality of individual responses in surveys and censuses and other data collection activity of the National Statistics Office. • Republic Act 591: Provides for the reconstitution of the Bureau of Census and Statistics as new agency to be known as the National Census and Statistics Office (NCSO), under the administrative supervision of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA). • Section 4 of Republic Act 591 states that data furnished to NSO (formerly named NCSO) will be kept strictly confidential and shall not be used as evidence in court for purposes of taxation, regulation or investigation; nor shall such data or information be divulged to any person except in the form of summaries or statistical tables in which no reference to an individual, corporation, association, partnership, institution or business enterprise shall appear. This provision is printed in survey questionnaires. • E.O. 121 : Section 9 states that the National Census and Statistics Office is hereby renamed the National Statistics Office (NSO). It provides that the National Statistics Office (NSO) shall be the major statistical agency responsible for generating general purpose statistics and undertaking censuses and surveys. Copies of EO 352 and Commonwealth Act 591 may be obtained from the NSCB, 1st, 2nd & 5th Floors, Midland Buendia Bldg 403, Sen. Gil Puyat Ave., Ext., Makati City 1200, Philippines. Tel No. (632) 8952767 Fax No. (632) 8909408 Email: info@nscb.gov.ph
Identification of internal government access to data before release	The national accounts estimates are transmitted by the Chairman of the NSCB Executive Board, who is also the Secretary of Socio-Economic Planning, to the President of the Philippines, one day before its release to the public. The press conference by the NSCB is held in the morning of the scheduled date of release.
Identification of ministerial commentary on the occasion of statistical releases	The NSCB Chairman (concurrently the Secretary of Socio-Economic Planning and therefore of ministerial level) and the Secretary General of the NSCB Technical Staff hold a joint press conference on the date of the release of data. After the press conference, the NSCB Chair also presents the Quarterly National Accounts, including the economy’s outlook in the short term in the Joint Meeting of the Committee on Economic Affairs of the Senate and House of Representatives.
Provision of information about revision and advance notice of major changes in methodology	At the time of release, the national accounts show preliminary estimates for the current year and revised estimates for the immediately preceding quarter. Revisions for the last three-year series are done during the May round of estimates. The final data are published in the May release of " The Annual Accounts of the Philippines". NSCB Resolution No. 8-97, series of 1997, approved the above policies on the updating of the Philippine System of National Accounts (PSNA). Technical notes, including a section on Improvement Efforts, on the PSNA are regularly available on the NSCB website and are updated on a quarterly basis. A table on the sources of revisions is also included in the quarterly publication of the National Accounts. For the improvements of the PSNA, the NSCB usually conducts users' fora to solicit feedbacks from data sources and users of the PSNA.
Quality
Dissemination of documentation on methodology and sources used in preparing statistics	Documentation on the methodology is published in the "Sources and Methods". Copies are available at the National Statistical Information Center. Technical notes on the Estimates are also posted on the NSCB website. For inquiries on the PSNA, contact Dir. Raymundo J. Talento, 2nd Flr. Midland Buendia Bldg., 403 Sen. Gil Puyat Ave., Makati City at telephone no. (632) 895-2481, telefax no. (632) 890-9397and email address rj.talento@nscb.gov.ph. (See also summary methodology)
Dissemination of component detail, reconciliations with related data, and statistical frameworks that support statistical cross-checks and provide assurance of reasonableness	Annual GDP data, in current and constant 1985 prices, compiled through the production and expenditure approaches in millions pesos are published in the "National Accounts of the Philippines" and cover three years. Breakdowns by production sector at the two-digit level of ISIC Rev. 2. The national accounts quarterly releases include a table on confidence interval as a measure of the accuracy of the estimates.