2017 International Comparison Program in Asia and the Pacific: Purchasing Power Parities and Real Expenditures—A Summary Report

By Asian Development Bank

This publication provides estimates of purchasing power parities (PPPs) and real expenditures for 22 economies in Asia and the Pacific. These are summary regional results from the 2017 cycle of the International Comparison Program (ICP), a global statistical initiative carried out under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission. The report provides estimates of PPPs, real expenditures for total and per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and its component expenditures derived using PPPs, and price level indexes showing relative costs of living. The PPPs enable comparison in real terms across economies by removing the price level differences among them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Asian Development Bank
• Release date: May 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9789292622008

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2017 INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON PROGRAM FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

PURCHASING POWER PARITIES AND REAL EXPENDITURES

A Summary Report

MAY 2020

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 IGO license (CC BY 3.0 IGO)

© 2020 Asian Development Bank

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Some rights reserved. Published in 2020.

ISBN 978-92-9262-199-5 (print); 978-92-9262-200-8 (electronic); 978-92-9262-201-5 (ebook)

Publication Stock No. TCS200013-2

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22617/TCS200013-2

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) or its Board of Governors or the governments they represent.

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Notes:

In this publication, $ refers to United States dollars, unless otherwise stated.

Cover design by Rhommell Rico.

Cover photos:

Top, left to right

Construction workers working with metal bars to create pillars for a building in Calamba, Laguna, Philippines (photo by Al Benavente, ADB). Dil Maya Magar shows off some of her bumper crop from her farm in Thade, Nepal. The Decentralized Rural Infrastructure and Livelihood Project was designed to reduce rural poverty and to increase access to economic opportunities and social services (photo by Kiran Panday, ADB). The goods from the PRAN factory are loaded unto to trucks for distribution. PRAN (Programme for Rural Advancement Nationally) founded in 1980, is the largest food and nutrition company in Bangladesh (photo by Abir Abdullah, ADB).

Middle, left to right

Produce and meat stalls do brisk business at the Kalibo Town Market. Traditional open markets remain part of everyday life throughout the Philippines (photo by Lester V. Ledesma, ADB). Worker plucking chillies, from the fields at Gabbur, district Raichur, Karnataka, India (photo by Rakesh Sahai, ADB).

Bottom, left to right

Yanur Begum is a worker at the Wool Tex Sweaters Limited in Shewrapara, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Skills Development Project helped improve the skills of millions of workers in the ready-made garments and textiles, light engineering, and construction industries – the three main employers in the country (photo by Abir Abdullah, ADB). Street vendors sell bags in Kolkata, West Bengal, India (photo by Amit Verma, ADB). Daily operations at the 15-megawatt (MW) Sermsang Khushig Khundii Solar plant in Khushig valley, Tuv aimag, which is located 40 kilometers (km) from Mongolia″s capital, Ulaanbaatar, and 17 km from the new international airport. The private sector project involves the operation and maintenance of the solar plant. In addition it will also include the construction of a 110/10kV substation, a 14-km long 110kV double circuit overhead electricity transmission line, as well as the extension of the 110/10kV Khushig substation owned by the National Power Transmission Grid SOJSC (photo by Ariel Javellana, ADB).

Contents

Tables, Figures, and Boxes

Foreword

The International Comparison Program (ICP), under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC), is the largest global statistical initiative aimed at estimating purchasing power parities (PPPs) to compare the real size and price levels of economies around the world. In the 2017 cycle, 176 economies participated from Africa, Asia and the Pacific, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Latin America and the Caribbean, Western Asia, and the regular PPP program managed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat), with the World Bank coordinating the global program. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) continues as the regional implementing agency (RIA) for the ICP in Asia and the Pacific. The 2017 ICP cycle marks ADB’s successful completion of the third benchmark under its stewardship, after the 2005 and 2011 benchmarks.

During its 47th session in March 2016, the UNSC considered the evaluation report of the 2011 ICP by the Friends of the Chair group and accepted its recommendation to establish the ICP as a permanent element of the global statistical work program, to be conducted more frequently, which led to the decision to implement the ICP every three years, beginning with 2017. It also recommended keeping the general methodology from 2011 stable for the 2017 cycle, except for fine-tuning some methods.

Asia and the Pacific is a unique, diverse region that includes the world’s most populous economies and very small island states; the richest economies in per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and economies near the bottom of the ladder; and economies with widely divergent capacity in their statistical systems. The 22 participating economies in the 2017 ICP in the region are Bangladesh; Bhutan; Brunei Darussalam; Cambodia; Fiji; Hong Kong, China; India; Indonesia; the Lao People’s Democratic Republic; Malaysia; Maldives; Mongolia; Myanmar; Nepal; Pakistan; the People’s Republic of China; the Philippines; Singapore; Sri Lanka; Taipei,China; Thailand; and Viet Nam.

This publication presents the estimates of 2017 regional PPPs and summary results of real GDP and its major components for the 22 participating economies. A final report with a detailed description of ICP methods, results for 2017, and revised 2011 results will be released around middle of 2020. In line with the global consensus to keep the general methodology from the 2011 ICP, ADB only adopted certain refinements introduced at the global level to improve the robustness of the methods. ADB also applied these refinements to the 2011 revisions to ensure consistency and comparability between the 2011 revised PPPs and the 2017 benchmark PPPs.

ADB’s ICP team rigorously validated the data submitted by the economies, using enhanced data validation tools in close collaboration with the implementing agencies from participating economies to ensure high quality of the data used to calculate the PPPs and other results. As part of ongoing research to improve the methodology for comparing dwelling services, ADB developed a new methodology,