New seasonal adjustments by OECD are generally carried out once a year, when the December figure is available.
Revisions to individual series due to new seasonal adjustments by national source or by OECD are not signalled in this note.
LEADING INDICATORS
The lists of turning points used in the calculation of the CLIs have been
updated in December 2002, with the exception of Italy, Spain (turning points for
these two countries were updated in 2001), Mexico, Greece, Luxembourg and
Switzerland. As a result, the level of the CLI data has been modified. At the
same time, some component series have been dropped or replaced, to improve the
overall timeliness of the CLIs. In addition, a CLI for Turkey has been included.
More information can be found at
http://www.oecd.org/std/cli
A list of the new components series and a list of the suppressed components
series can be found in the attached csv file (NEWSERIES_SUPPSERIES_CLI.CSV).
DATA AVAILABILITY FOR NON-MEMBER COUNTRIES
From January 2003, only data for the six major Non-Member countries (Brazil,
China P.R., India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa) will be included and
published in the MEI publication and related electronic version. However, all
other Non-Member countries now included in MEI will from January 2003 only be
available (free) on the OECD web-site (www.oecd.org) in a document entitled
"Main Economic Indicators: Non-Member Countries". This document can be located
by selecting directorates, statistics and statistics for Non-Member countries.
NATIONAL ACCOUNTS
Previously, quarterly national accounts data in MEI was
published at annual levels only in order to facilitate comparison of data across
countries. However, among OECD Member countries only Canada, Mexico, the United
States and Japan publish quarterly national accounts data at annual levels.
From September 2002, additional quarterly national accounts data at quarterly
levels will be included in the MEI for those Member countries that do not
annualise their quarterly national accounts data. This ensures that MEI reflects
the series that are being published by national institutions and is consistent
with the related OECD publication "Quarterly National Accounts". The Member
countries for which quarterly national accounts data at quarterly levels are
included are Australia, Korea, New Zealand, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal,
Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom.
In order to continue to facilitate cross country comparisons data at annual
levels will be retained.
EURO TREATMENT
From February 2002, the national currencies of the 12 Euro
Member countries are expressed in euro. All historical data (i.e. pre 2001 for
Greece and pre 1999 for all other euro area countries) are calculated by
applying the fixed irrevocable exchange rates. However, pre European Monetary
Union euro are notional units and are not always suitable to form area
aggregates. For further details see the article by Schreyer and Suyker in the
February 2002 edition, Statistics Brief Number 2, published by the Statistics
Directorate of OECD.
Note that, for all Euro area countries, data for periods after accession (i.e.
1999 onwards, 2001 onwards for Greece) are expressed in true euro.
| SOUTH AFRICA
| |
| Production | | |
| | New series code for the following series (previously ZAF.BSCURT01.ST): |
| | | Production capacity utilisation rate | ZAF.PRCUMN01.ST.1 |
|
| Business tendency surveys (manufacturing) | | |
| | The following series have been included: |
| | | Business situation:Tendency | ZAF.BSBUCT01.ST.1 |
| | | Business situation: Future tendency | ZAF.BSBUFT01.ST.1 |
| | | Mfg confidence indicator | ZAF.BSCICP01.ST.1 |
| | | Employment: Future tendency | ZAF.BSEMFT01.ST.1 |
| | | Orders Inflow:Tendency | ZAF.BSOITE01.ST.1 |
| | | Production: future tendency | ZAF.BSPRFT01.ST.1 |
| | | Selling prices: Future tendency | ZAF.BSSPFT01.ST.1 |
|
| | The following series has been corrected for the entire period: |
| | | BST Rate of capacity utilisation | ZAF.BSCURT01.ST.1 |
|
| Consumer opinion surveys | | |
| | The following series have been included: |
| | | Consumer confidence indicator | ZAF.CSCICP01.ST.1 |
| | | Consumer expected inflation | ZAF.CSCICP03.ST.1 |
| | | Consumer expected economic situation | ZAF.CSCICP04.ST.1 |
|