Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

The balance of payments is a statistical statement that provides a systematic summary of economic transactions of an economy with the rest of the world, for a specific time period. The transactions are for the most part between residents and non-residents of the economy. A transaction is defined as an economic flow that reflects the creation, transformation, exchange, transfer, or extinction of economic value and involves changes in ownership, of goods or assets, the provision of services, labour or capital.  This dataset presents countries compiling balance of payments statistics in accordance with the 6th edition of the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual published by the IMF (BPM6). Transactions include: the goods and services accounts, the primary income account (income account in BPM5), the secondary income account (transfers in BPM5), the capital account, and the financial account. Changes in BPM6 compared to BPM5 are often a consequence of a stricter application of the change of ownership principle in particular in the goods and services accounts. They relate to transactions on goods and services (merchanting, goods for processing, Insurance), income (investment income), and financial operations (direct investment) .

The business tendency survey indicators cover a standard set of indicators for four economic sectors: manufacturing, construction, retail trade and other services. This includes an indicator of overall business conditions or business confidence in each sector. The consumer opinion survey indicators cover a restricted set of indicators on consumer confidence, expected economic situation and price expectations.   Business and consumer opinion (tendency) surveys provide qualitative information that has proved useful for monitoring the current economic situation. Typically they are based on a sample of enterprises or households and respondents are asked about their assessments of the current situation and expectations for the immediate future. For enterprise surveys this concerns topics such as production, orders, stocks etc. and in the case of consumer surveys their intentions concerning major purposes, economic situation now compared with the recent past and expectations for the immediate future. Many survey series provide advance warning of turning points in aggregate economic activity as measured by GDP or industrial production. Such series are known as leading indicators in cyclical analysis. These types of survey series are widely used as component series in composite leading indicators.   The main characteristic of these types of surveys is that instead of asking for exact figures, they usually ask for the direction of change e.g. a question on tendency by reference to a “normal” state, e.g. of production level. Possible answers are generally of the three point scale type e.g. up/same/down or above normal/normal/below normal for enterprise surveys and of the five point scale type e.g. increase sharply/increase slightly/remain the same/fall slightly/fall sharply for consumer surveys. In presenting the results as a time series, only the balance is shown. That is “same” or “normal” answers are ignored and the balance is obtained by taking the difference between percentages of respondents giving favourable and unfavourable answers.   Virtually all business tendency and consumer opinion survey data are presented as time series of balances in this dataset, either in raw or seasonally adjusted form. Very few series are presented as indices, and where these exist they have generally been converted from underlying balances by countries before submitting the data to the OECD.

Statistical population: CLIs are calculated for 33 OECD countries (Iceland is not included), 6 non-member economies and 8 zone aggregates. A country CLI comprises a set of component series selected from a wide range of key short-term economic indicators.   CLIs, reference series data (see below) and standardised business and consumer confidence indicators are presented in various forms.   Recommended uses and limitations: The composite leading indicator is a times series, formed by aggregating a variety of component indicators which show a reasonably consistent relationship with a reference series (e.g. industrial production IIP up to March 2012 and since then the reference series is GDP) at turning points. The OECD CLI is designed to provide qualitative information on short-term economic movements, especially at the turning points, rather than quantitative measures. Therefore, the main message of CLI movements over time is the increase or decrease, rather than the amplitude of the changes. The OECD’s headline indicator is the amplitude adjusted CLI. In practice, turning points in the de-trended reference series have been found about 4 to 8 months (on average) after the signals of turning points had been detected in the headline CLI.

The 'Consumer Price Indices (CPIs)' contains all data that was previously contained in three different datasets: 'Consumer Prices', 'National Consumer Price Indices (CPIs) by COICOP divisions' and 'Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICPs) by COICOP divisions'. The 'Consumer Price Indices (CPIs)' dataset contains predominantly monthly statistics, and associated statistical methodological information, for the 36 OECD member countries and for some non-member countries. The ‘Consumer Price Indices (CPIs)' dataset contains statistics on Consumer Price Indices including national CPIs, Harmonised Indices of Consumer Prices (HICPs) and their associated weights and contributions to national annual inflation. The data series presented have been chosen as the most relevant prices statistics for which comparable data across countries is available. In all cases, a lot of effort has been made to ensure that the data are internationally comparable across all countries presented and that all the subjects have good historical time-series’ data to aid with analysis. Data are available monthly for all the countries except for Australia and New Zealand (quarterly data).

1. ccTLDs stands for country code top-level domains. 2. gTLDs - stands for generic top-level domains.

National currencies are converted in United States dollars (USD) using IMF monthly average conversion rates.

The Future of Business Survey is an original source of information on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Launched in February 2016, the survey is a partnership between Facebook, OECD, and the World Bank. It provides timely information on business owners’ assessment of the current state and future outlook of their business, job creation perspectives, main business challenges and participation in international trade. Several data breakdowns are available, in particular by size of the enterprise, age, sector, trading status and gender of owners or managers.

This dataset contains statistics on Consumer Price Indices - all items, for G20 countries and for the G20 as a whole.  The G20 area consists of the following economies: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Türkiye, the United Kingdom, the United States, the African Union and the European Union. 

Unit of measure usedIndex: Year 2015 = 100 The Hourly Earnings (MEI) dataset contains predominantly monthly statistics, and associated statistical methodological information, for the 35 OECD member countries and for selected non-member economies.  The MEI Earnings dataset provides monthly and quarterly data on employees' earnings series. It includes earnings series in manufacturing and for the private economic sector. Mostly the sources of the data are business surveys covering different economic sectors, but in some cases administrative data are also used. The target series for hourly earnings correspond to seasonally adjusted average total earnings paid per employed person per hour, including overtime pay and regularly recurring cash supplements. Where hourly earnings series are not available, a series could refer to weekly or monthly earnings. In this case, a series for full-time or full-time equivalent employees is preferred to an all employees series.

The International Transport Forum collects, on a quarterly basis, monthly data from all its Member countries. When monthly information is not available then quarterly data is provided. The survey contains a dozen variables selected for their quarterly availability among reporting countries. Data are collected from Transport Ministries, statistical offices and other institution designated as official data source. The survey used for this exercise is the ITF "Quarterly Transport Statistics". Variables collected are rail, road and inland waterways goods transport (T-km), rail passengers (P-km), road traffic (V-km), first registration of brand new vehicles, petrol deliveries to the road transport sector and road fatalities. Although there are clear definitions for all the terms used in this survey, countries might have different methodologies to gather or estimate quarterly data. The information provided in short-term surveys does not necessarily have the same coverage as annual data exercises and therefore remains provisional. Depending on countries, data is not always revised so totals might not correspond to the sum of the elements. The main purpose of this data collection is to identify in advance changes in transport data trends. In case of missing data for a country, ITF can calculate estimates based generally on growth rates from previous years or from data available from other sources. These estimates are used solely to calculate aggregated trends in graphic representations and are not shown at the individual country level.  

The Key Economic Indicators (KEI) database contains monthly and quarterly statistics (and associated statistical methodological information) for all OECD member countries and for a selection of non-member countries on a wide variety of economic indicators, namely: quarterly national accounts, industrial production, composite leading indicators, business tendency and consumer opinion surveys, retail trade, consumer and producer prices, hourly earnings, employment/unemployment, interest rates, monetary aggregates, exchange rates, international trade and balance of payments.

This dataset contains monthly Comparative Price Levels (CPL) for OECD countries. CPLs are defined as the ratios of PPPs for private final consumption expenditure to exchange rates. They provide measures of differences in price levels between countries. The monthly PPPs used to derive the table are OECD estimates. The table is to be read vertically. Each column shows the number of specified monetary units needed in each of the countries listed to buy the same representative basket of consumer goods and services. In each case the representative basket costs a hundred units in the country whose currency is specified. Let’s take an example. If you are a Canadian citizen and you want to know the price level in Canada when compared to other countries, you have to look at the column Canada, where the price level is set at 100 for the whole column. If you have 120 for Finland, it means that the price level in Finland is 20% higher than in Canada. It means that you would spend 120 dollars in Finland to buy the same basket of goods and services when you spend 100 in Canada.

The International Trade (MEI) dataset contains predominantly monthly merchandise trade statistics, and associated statistical methodological information, for all OECD member countries and for all non-OECD G20 economies and the EU.   The dataset itself contains international trade statistics measured in billions of United States dollars (USD) for: Exports, Imports, Balance. In all cases a lot of effort has been made to ensure that the data are internationally comparable across all countries presented and that all the subjects have good historical time-series’ data to aid with analysis.

The Financial Statistics dataset contains predominantly monthly statistics, and associated statistical methodological information, for the 36 OECD member countries and some selected other countries. The dataset itself contains financial statistics on 4 separate subjects: Monetary Aggregates, Interest Rates, Exchange Rates, and Share Prices. The data series presented within these subjects have been chosen as the most relevant financial statistics for which comparable data across countries is available. In all cases a lot of effort has been made to ensure that the data are internationally comparable across all countries presented and that all the subjects have good historical time-series’ data to aid with analysis. All data are available monthly, and are presented as either an index (where the year 2015 is the base year) or as a level depending on which measure is seen as the most appropriate and/or useful in the economic analysis context.

The 'Production and Sales (MEI)' dataset is a dataset containing predominantly monthly statistics, and associated statistical methodological information, for the 34 OECD member countries and for selected other economies. The Production and Sales dataset contains industrial statistics on four separate subjects: Production; Sales; Orders; and Work started. The data series presented within these subjects have been chosen as the most relevant industrial statistics for which comparable data across countries is available. For Production, data comprise Indices of industrial production (IIP) for total industry, manufacturing, energy and crude petroleum; and further disaggregation of manufacturing production for intermediate goods and for investment goods and crude steel. For others, they comprise retail trade and registration of passenger cars; and permits issued and work started for dwellings. Considerable effort has been made to ensure that the data are internationally comparable across all countries presented, coverage for as many countries as possible, and that all the subjects have reasonable length of time-series to assist analysis. Most data are available monthly and are presented as an index (where the year 2010 is the base year) or as a level depending on which measure is seen as the most appropriate and/or useful in the economic analysis context. Due to differences in statistical or economic environment at country level, however, availability of data varies from one country to another.

The Registered Unemployment and Job Vacancies dataset is a subset of the Short-Term Labour Situation database, which contains predominantly monthly statistics, and associated statistical methodological information, for the 34 OECD member countries and for selected other economies. There are basically two sources for unemployment statistics: labour force surveys and administrative data. Surveys are based on standard methodology and procedures used all over the world while administrative data are subject to national legislations which evolve through time. Consequently registered unemployment data are not comparable across countries. The relationship between survey and registered unemployment is not the same for all countries. Number of registered unemployed persons and registered unemployment rates are presented here because they are monthly and quickly available after their reference period. The job vacancies data provides estimates of the number of unfilled job vacancies across national economies. Series give an indication of the labour demand while the unemployment is linked with the labour supply.

Residential Property Prices Indices (RPPIs) – also named House price indices (HPIs), are index numbers that measure the price of residential properties over time. RPPIs are key statistics not only for citizens and households across the world, but also for economic and monetary policy makers. Among their professional uses, they serve, for example, to monitor macroeconomic imbalances and risk exposure of the financial sector. This dataset covers the 34 OECD member countries and some non-member countries. Please note that not all RPPIs are available for all countries. For instance, the RPPI at the most aggregate level for the United States only covers single-family dwellings, not all types of dwellings as it is the case for most other OECD countries. This dataset presents, for each country, the RPPI that is available at the most aggregate level. It mainly contains quarterly statistics. The dataset called “Residential Property Price Indices (RPPIs) – Complete dataset” contains the full list of available RPPIs. The dataset called “Analytical house price indicators” contains, in addition to nominal RPPIs, information on real house prices, rental prices and the ratios of nominal prices to rents and to disposable household income per capita. The datasets “Analytical house price indicators” and “Residential Property Price Indices (RPPIs) – Headline Indicators” do not refer to the same price indices for Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, the United States and the Euro area. These differences are further documented in country-specific metadata. For the United States, the series used in “Analytical house price indicators” is included in the dataset called “Residential Property Price Indices (RPPIs) – Complete database”, but is not the headline indicator. For all other countries, non-seasonally adjusted price indices in both datasets are identical in the period in which they overlap.For all other countries, non-seasonally adjusted price indices in both datasets are identical on the overlapping period.

The Short-Term Labour Market Statistics dataset contains predominantly quarterly labour statistics, and associated statistical methodological information, for the 35 OECD member countries and selected other economies. The Short-Term Labour Market Statistics dataset covers countries that compile labour statistics from sample household surveys on a monthly or quarterly basis. It is widely accepted that household surveys are the best source for labour market key statistics. In such surveys, information is collected from people living in households through a representative sample and the surveys are based on standard methodology and procedures used internationally. The subjects available cover: working age population by age; active and inactive labour force by age; employment by economic activity, by working time and by status; and, unemployment (including monthly harmonised unemployment) by age and by duration. Data is expressed in levels (thousands of persons) or rates (e.g. employment rate) where applicable.   Data are based on Labour Force Surveys and national information in this dataset is directly collected from the following sources:   ABS - Australian Bureau of Statistics (Australia) Statistics Canada (Canada) INE - Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas (Chile) CBS – Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel) Statistics Bureau (Japan) Statistics Korea (Korea) INEGI - Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Geografía (Mexico) Statistics New Zealand (New Zealand) BLS - Bureau of Labor Statistics (the United States) Eurostat (Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom).

In general, data comply with the UN recommandations defined in International Merchandise Trade Statistics: Concepts and Definitions, Revision 2 (IMTS, Rev.2). For exceptions and for definitions of statistical territories, please refer to country notes. Following the UN recommendations, the international merchandise trade statistics record all goods which add to or subtract from the stock of material resources of a country by entering (imports) or leaving (exports) its economic territory. Goods simply being transported through a country (goods in transit) or temporarily admitted or withdrawn (except for goods for inward or outward processing) do not add to or subtract from the stock of material resources of a country and are not included in the international merchandise trade statistics. Customs records should be the main source of the data; and the additional sources could be used where customs sources are not available. Goods should be included in statistics at the time when they enter or leave the economic territory of a country. In the case of customs-based data collection systems, the time of recording should be the date of lodgement of the customs declaration. Lists of goods to be included, to be recorded separately and to be excluded should be provided. Specific goods are to be excluded from detailed international merchandise trade statistics but recorded separately in order to derive totals of international merchandise trade for national accounts and balance of payments purposes. Trade system There are two trade systems in common use by which international merchandise trade statistics are compiled: general trade system and special trade system. The United Nations recommendations advise using the general trade system that provides a more comprehensive recording of external trade flows than does the special system. It also provides a better approximation of the change of ownership criterion used in the 1993 SNA and BPM5. General trade includes all goods that cross the national frontier including goods that are imported into and exported from custom-bonded warehouses and free zones. The general trade system is in use when the statistical territory of a country coincides with its economic territory so that imports include all goods entering the economic territory of a compiling country and exports include all goods leaving the economic territory of a compiling country. Special trade covers goods that cross the customs frontier plus goods that are imported into and exported from custom-bonded areas. The special trade system is in use when the statistical territory comprises only a particular part of the economic territory.

Note: This database has been discontinued. Values are expressed in United States dollars (USD) and refer to declared transaction values. Imports are reported c.i.f. and exports are reported f.o.b. with the exception of Australia, Canada, Mexico, Slovak Republic and United States where imports are reported f.o.b. United States exports are reported f.a.s. Data published are expressed as monthly averages. Quarterly and annual data are calculated as averages of monthly figures. The option chosen by OECD is to convert exchange rates for periods prior to entry into European Monetary Union (EMU), i.e. prior to 1999 for all members apart from Greece, which acceded in 2001, from the former national currency exchange rate using the appropriate irrevocable exchange rate. Such a conversion facilitates comparisons over time within a country and also preserves the historical evolution (i.e. growth rates). However, pre-EMU euro rates are notional units and are not always suitable to form area aggregates or for cross country comparisons. For further details, see The Statistics Brief Number 2, February 2002.