99387 Quarterly Update June 30, 2015 Issue 26 2nd Meeting of the ICP updates. The way forward also entails further Regional Coordinating Agencies testing PPP time series approaches using detailed CPI and deflators data, and The second meeting of the ICP Regional preparing an e-Learning on ICP and various Coordinating Agencies took place from May outreach material. The next meeting of ICP 27-29, 2015 in Washington, DC. The meeting Regional Coordinating Agencies is proposed discussed issues including updates on post- for October 2015. 2011 activities; maximizing synergies in regional and global post-2011 activities; Workshops & Seminars global core list survey materials for regional PPP updates; expenditures and price International Comparisons of Income, Prices International Comparisons of Income and deflators data reporting; PPP applications; and Production conference Production, May 22-23, 2015, Prague and discussions on the future of the ICP. The International Comparisons of Income Meeting participants included experts from Prices Project (BPP) in Washington, DC on and Production conference was held at the AfDB, ADB, CIS-STAT, Eurostat, IMF, June 16, 2015. BPP conducts economic CERGE-EI, Prague from May 22-23, 2015. OECD, UN-ECLAC, UN-ESCWA, World Bank, as research on prices collected from hundreds Sessions covered international comparisons well as independent experts. of online retailers around the world. On a of living standards and prices; collecting daily basis the data are collected online with The United Nations Statistical Commission prices across borders; wages and prices over a software that scans the underlying code in advice was recalled to sustain the capacity time and space; and housing, prices, and public webpages and keeps the relevant built during the 2011 round and ensure output accounting. Among others, a price information in a database that includes continuity of ICP activities while the ICP 2011 presentation was made on the World Bank a vast number of products. More information evaluation was being conducted by the initiatives on PPP applications. is available at http://bpp.mit.edu/. Friends of the Chair group. The contribution Hands-on Poverty Measurement Training – of Regional Coordinating Agencies at the PPPs meeting shed light on the various regional efforts taking place. It was agreed that As part of the World Bank hands-on poverty synergies between regional and global post- measurement training, a session on PPPs was 2011 activities was needed to help ensure held in Washington, DC on April 22, 2015. the availability of reliable regional and global The ICP team conducted this short training PPP updates. Regional Coordinating Agencies for World Bank economists on PPP and the ICP team agreed to further update methodology and recent results and findings. the global core lists based on meeting Billion Prices Project discussions to ensure that the lists represent Alberto Cavallo of the Massachusetts all regions, in support of regional PPP Institute of Technology explained the Billion Hands-on PPP Training, April 22, 2015, Washington, DC Preferences, Inequality and PPPs Ranjan Ray of Monash University, Australia presented his works on “Preferences, Inequality and Purchasing Power Parity: Analytical Framework and Preliminary Results on 2011 ICP” in Washington, DC on June 18, 2015. Discussions focused on the usefulness of subnational PPPs in a large country context such as India; benchmarking the 2011 ICP PPPs against an alternative set of PPPs based on a treatment of consumer preferences, and comparing the multilaterally determined PPPs with those from bilateral PPP calculations in regional contexts; extending the Balassa-Samuelson framework by linking consumer preferences 2nd ICP Regional Coordinating Agencies meeting, May 27-29, 2015, Washington, DC and inequality with the PPP and price level ICP Quarterly Update — June 30, 2015 — Issue No 26 Page 2 Workshops & Seminars cont’d Asia A regional meeting on the methodology for index; and the preliminary results from the the 2015 update of the PPPs was held in panel estimation of the temporal changes in Bangkok, Thailand from June 29-July 3, 2015, the ICP PPPs between successive rounds. organized by the ADB. The meeting launched the 2015 ICP update of regional PPPs; shared country experiences on consumer price index (CPI) practices and methodologies; discussed potential avenues for CPI and ICP workflow harmonization; and discussed methodology and experiences on sub-national PPPs. Many countries incorporated the SPD concept into their CPIs in order to calculate sub-national Asia regional workshop, June 29-July 3, 2015, PPPs, ensuring a good overlap between the Bangkok CPI and ICP baskets. Preferences, Inequality and PPPs, April 22, Blog post on MDG monitoring Selected Media & Uses of ICP Results 2015, Washington, DC (April – June 2015) using PPP data Regional Activities Global Poverty Monitoring and the New PPPs: A Note from Kaushik Basu, World Bank Africa Blogs A workshop on sub-national PPPs took place MDG 1: Uneven progress in reducing ex- in Pretoria, South Africa from May 11-15, treme poverty, hunger and malnutrition, 2015. It was conducted jointly by the AfDB Juan Feng, World Bank Blogs and Statistics South Africa. Based on the discussions and agreements at the workshop, World Bank Chief Economist Sets up New a preliminary computation of sub-national Commission on Global Poverty, World Bank PPPs for South Africa will be produced and Press Release discussed with Statistics South Africa. A regional workshop to launch the 2015 ICP- RI To Break Into Global Top 10 By 2050: Africa activities took place in Dakar, Senegal The World Bank published a blog on the Think Tank, The Jakarta Post from June 29-July 3, 3015, organized by the progress made towards achieving the AfDB. The workshop overviewed regional and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), The Japan-U.S. Price Level Index for Industry global 2015 activities; discussed the reduced based on the 2015 edition of World Outputs; Nomura Koji, Miyagawa Kozo; The regional item list and survey tools related to Development Indicators. Research Institute of Economy, Trade and household consumption; reviewed One of the targets for the MDG Goal 1 Industry methodology and materials related to “Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger” national accounts and special survey areas; explicitly utilizes PPPs to measure the New Estimates of Global Poverty and Ine- discussed survey framework principles, number of people living on less than $1.25 a quality: How Much Difference Do Price Data preparation and implementation; and agreed day. The full blog is at Really Make?; Peter Edward, Andy Sumner; on the timetable for the implementation of http://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/mdg-1- Center for Global Development the 2015 ICP-Africa activities, starting in uneven-progress-reducing-extreme-poverty- August 2015. hunger-and-malnutrition You are what (and where) you eat: capturing food away from home in welfare measures; Gabriela Farfan, Maria Eugenia Genoni, Renos Vakis; World Bank Global poverty goals and prices: how pur- chasing power parity matters; Dean Jolliffe, Espen Beer Prydz; World Bank International Comparison Program (ICP) Development Economics Data Group The World Bank, 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20433 USA Phone: 1 800 590 1906 +1 202 473 3930 Africa regional workshop , June 29-July 3, 2015, Dakar Email: ICP@worldbank.org Web: www.worldbank.org/data/icp