This paper collates country practices on compilation of national accounts in 18 Asian countries, based
on the metadata gathered from a survey conducted by the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) in
joint research with Keio Economic Observatory (KEO), Keio University, between April and July 2008.
The paper was prepared as a first step towards the construction of an international database for
productivity comparisons among Asian countries.
Our observations are summed up as follows. First, although most countries are 1993 SNA
compliant, the extent of compliance in terms of coverage still varies. The treatment of FISIM and
software is far from standard in this country group, and methods to align GDP coverage need be
considered for any cross-country comparisons. Second, employment data are more fragmented and
countries are more likely to have a manufacturing census than a census on services. Third, most
countries have detailed benchmark supply-use/input-output tables which can be used to supplement
their national accounts. Our judgment is that GDP per worker as a labor productivity volume should
be feasible for this country group, whereas GDP per hour worked will be more of a challenge due to
data limitations. Industry comparative analysis of labor productivity should be feasible; but comparing
total factor productivity performance, which requires capital stocks and services estimates, is feasible
for only a handful of countries at the whole-economy level.