New comparison of GDP and consumption based on purchasing power parities for the year 2005

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21/11/2007 - The OECD, in partnership with Eurostat, ROSSTAT(1)  and CISSTAT(2) , has calculated benchmark purchasing power parities (PPPs) for GDP and consumption for the year 2005 for 55 countries following a common methodology(3). The calculation covers the 30 member countries of the OECD, the 27 member states of the European Union, ten CIS countries, six Western Balkan countries and Israel. The results will be included into the forthcoming release of the world-wide comparison undertaken by the World Bank(4)  for the year 2005.

What are PPPs?

PPPs are currency conversion rates that take into account the differences in price levels between countries. To do so, prices of a basket of about 3000 goods and services were compared across countries. The basket covered the entire range of final goods and services which make up GDP (consumer goods and services, government services, investment goods)...etc.

Further information about PPPs is available on the OECD's Statistics Directorate at www.oecd.org/std/ppp

Contacts
For further information, journalists are invited to contact the OECD's Media Relations Division on (33) 1 45 24 97 00 or news.contact@oecd.org;  others should contact the Statistics Directorate on stat.contact@oecd.org.