4 minute readTo compare macroeconomic indicators across countries, we must adjust for differences in currencies and price levels to ensure we are comparing apples with apples, and not apples with oranges. Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) are the right tool for this because they are constructed based on prices of a common and comprehensive basket of goods and services, serving both as currency convertors and price deflators. As a result, PPPs are the conversion rates to be used when comparing macroeconomic indicators, such as GDP and price levels, across countries.
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4 minute readProductivity is a core determinant of long-term economic growth, living standards, and international competitiveness. Policymakers and analysts rely on productivity trends to guide decisions on growth, competitiveness, and structural reforms. Discover how innovative nowcasting techniques harness machine learning and mixed-frequency data to track labour productivity in near real-time. This approach blends high-frequency indicators—like monthly surveys or industrial output—with more traditional quarterly data. By swiftly capturing changes in economic activity, it provides timely insights into productivity trends and potential turning points. Policymakers and analysts can then react faster, refining forecasts and adapting strategies in a rapidly shifting economy.
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4 minute readServices play an increasingly important role in international trade. In 2023, services trade accounted for approximately one quarter of global trade, up from one fifth a decade earlier. Explore how the refreshed OECD-WTO Balanced Trade in Services (BaTIS) dataset unveils nuanced patterns in global services trade. This new release offers richer details and improved consistency, enabling policymakers and analysts to pinpoint shifts across diverse sectors—from finance to digital services. By capturing bilateral flows at a finer level, BaTIS supports better monitoring of emerging trends, highlights competitive strengths, and informs strategic decisions in international trade.
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3 minute readThe digital revolution has transformed daily life, offering benefits like improved healthcare and remote work while introducing challenges such as excessive screen time, cyberbullying, and data privacy concerns. The OECD and Cisco have launched the Digital Well-being Hub to explore how technology affects well-being, bridging gaps in understanding beyond traditional statistics. With 40% of internet users lacking basic digital skills in OECD countries, the Hub aims to gather personal stories and data to inform policies that foster safer, more inclusive digital environments. Participate in the poll to share your experience and help shape a healthier digital future.
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4 minute readMultinational Enterprises (MNEs) are key actors in the global economy. In 2023, the top 500 MNEs generated over USD 21 trillion in revenues, greater than the combined GDP of the European Union. To overcome this, the OECD and United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) developed the Multinational Enterprise Information Platform (MEIP). The Platform is updated annually, with the third release, covering the period to 31st December 2023, now available.
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4 minute readHuman capital, the stock of knowledge and skills embodied in people, is a key input in economic production. Changes in both the “quantity” and the “quality” of a country’s human capital stock influence economic growth and productivity performance. Traditional measures of labour input in economic growth and productivity analyses, such as total hours worked, focus solely on changes in the quantity of labour input, ignoring changes in the skill composition of the workforce. For example, these measures equate an hour worked by a highly experienced surgeon and an hour worked by a junior retail salesperson, disregarding their vastly different experience and skills.
Firms recognise that workers with different skills and experience are not perfect substitutes by paying them different wages. It is therefore possible to account for differences between workers by weighting their hours worked by their respective shares in total wages. Such measures are often referred to as Composition Adjusted Labour Input (CALI), Labour Services, or Quality Adjusted Labour Input (QALI). CALI measures provide an improved understanding of whether the average “quality” of labour is increasing or decreasing over time.
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4 minute readComparing macroeconomic indicators across countries is a tricky issue, as it requires adjustment for differences in currencies and price levels to ensure a like-for-like comparison. Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) are the right tool for this. This is possible because PPPs are calculated based on prices of a common and comprehensive basket of goods and services. As a result, PPPs are the go-to conversion rates to be used when comparing macroeconomic indicators, such as GDP or price levels, across countries.
The latest “flash” PPPs point to large variability across countries for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in PPPs in 2023.
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4 minute readRising uncertainties and geo-political tensions, together with more complex trade relations have increased the demand for data and tools to monitor global trade in a timely manner. At the same time, advances in Big Data Analytics and access to a huge quantity of alternative data – outside the realm of official statistics – have opened new avenues to monitor trade. These data can help identify bottlenecks and disruptions in real time but need to be cleaned and validated.
New work from the OECD Statistics and Data Directorate proposes a new methodology to identify ports, at a higher level of precision than in past research; builds indicators to monitor port congestion and trends in maritime trade flows; and provides a new Dashboard to get detailed information and better understand those flows.
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