Asia Regional Integration Center

Real Sector and Prices

Note: All values are expressed in billions local currency. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and its components (Exports of Goods and Non-Factor Services, Fixed Investment, Gross Domestic Investment, Imports of Goods and Non-Factor Services, Private Consumption and Public Consumption) are expressed in constant prices and their definitions are sourced from the United Nation’s System of National Accounts (SNA). Different base years are used across economies depending on their national convention.

• Gross Domestic Investment (quarterly and annual). Gross Domestic Investment measures the total value of gross fixed capital formation, changes in inventories and acquisitions less disposals of valuables for a unit or sector.

  Gross Domestic Product (quarterly and annual). Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures the value of final goods and services produced within an economy’s borders during a given period. The data are gathered by national authorities and in most cases are measured in market prices rather than factor cost. The data are compiled using both the production and expenditure methods following the analytical framework, concepts, definitions, accounting conventions, and classifications of the System of National Accounts (SNA).

  Gross Fixed Investment (quarterly and annual). Gross Fixed Investment is measured by the total value of a producer’s acquisitions, less disposals, of fixed assets during a given accounting period plus certain additions to the value of non-produced assets (such as subsoil assets or major improvements in the quantity, quality or productivity of land) realized by the productive activity of an economic entity.

  Exports of Goods and Non-Factor Services (quarterly and annual). Exports of goods and non-factor services consist of sales, barter, or gifts or grants, of goods and services from residents to non-residents. The treatment of exports in the SNA is generally identical with that in the balance of payments accounts as described in the Balance of Payments Manual of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

  Imports of Goods and Non-Factor Services (quarterly and annual). Imports of goods and non-factor services consist of purchases, barter, or receipts of gifts or grants, of goods and services by residents from non-residents. The treatment of exports and imports in the SNA is generally identical with that in the balance of payments accounts as described in the IMF Balance of Payments Manual.

  Net Exports of Goods and Non-Factor Services (quarterly and annual). Net Exports of Goods and Services is defined as exports of goods and non-factor services less imports of goods and non-factor services using the export and import series defined above.

  Private Consumption (quarterly and annual). Private consumption is the value of the consumption goods and services acquired by households, whether by purchase in general, or by transfer from government units, and used by them for the satisfaction of their needs and wants. It is derived from their final consumption expenditure by adding the value of social transfers in kind receivable.

  Public Consumption (quarterly and annual). Public Consumption refers to the final consumption expenditure of the government, which consists of expenditure, including imputed expenditure, incurred by general government on both individual consumption goods and services and collective consumption services.

  Industrial Production Index/Manufacturing Production Index (monthly). Industrial Production Index is based on constant prices and reflects current economic activity in the industrial sector, namely, mining and quarrying, manufacturing, and electricity, gas and water.

  Retail Sales (monthly). Retail Sales are expressed in current prices and reflect the total sales of a sampling of retail stores in different sizes and sectors. The data are compiled by national authorities and in most cases cover only goods.

  Consumer Price Index (monthly and annual). Consumer Price Index (CPI) reflects the cost of acquiring a fixed basket of goods and services by an average consumer. The price data of the different goods and services included in the CPI are normally weighted by the relative importance of each item in consumption expenditure. Monthly CPI data from economy sources are indexed to the year 2000 to derive indexes.

  Core Inflation (monthly). Core Inflation is defined as headline CPI excluding certain items, typically food and energy. The items excluded differ across economies based on national conventions.

External Sector

Note: Data are in billion US$. Balance of payments accounts are reported based on the IMF's Balance of Payment Manual 5th Edition (BPM5).

• Exchange Rates (daily, weekly, monthly, and annual). The local currency-to-US-dollar exchange rate refers to local currency price of one US dollar. Unless otherwise specified, the exchange rate for a given period refers to the mean of the daily exchange rate for period. An end-of-period exchange rate is the exchange rate ruling on the final day of a given period.

  Current Account Balance (quarterly and annual). Current Account Balance is the sum of net merchandise trade, non-merchandise trade balance, net income receipts and net current transfers.

  Merchandise Exports (monthly, quarterly and annual). Merchandise Exports refer to exports of goods, valued on a "free-on-board" basis.

  Merchandise Imports (monthly, quarterly and annual). Merchandise Imports refer to imports of goods, valued on a "cost of insurance and freight" basis (except for the Philippines). It includes the cost of freight and insurance incurred beyond the border of the exporting economy.

  Merchandise Trade Balance (monthly, quarterly and annual). Trade Balance is equal to merchandise exports less merchandise imports as defined above.

  Capital Account Balance (quarterly and annual). Capital Account Balance records acquisitions less disposals of non-financial assets by resident units and measures the change in net worth due to saving (final balancing item in the current accounts) and capital transfers.

  Financial Account Balance (quarterly and annual). Financial Account Balance records all transactions in financial assets and liabilities. It includes net foreign direct investment, net portfolio investments, and net other investments.

  Net Foreign Direct Investment (quarterly and annual). Net Foreign Direct Investment refers to the difference between inflows of direct investments from nonresident investors to the reporting economy and outflows due to direct investment abroad. Direct investment is as defined by national authorities.

  Net Portfolio Investment (quarterly and annual). Net Portfolio Investment refers to difference between inflows and outflows of portfolio investment flows.

  Net Other Investment (quarterly and annual). Net Other Investment is equal to net inflows arising from other investment assets and liabilities. Other investment assets and liabilities include all financial transactions not covered in direct investment, portfolio investment, financial derivatives, or reserve assets. Major categories are transactions in currency and deposits, loans, and trade credits.

  Net Errors and Omissions (quarterly and annual). Net Errors and Omissions is a residual category of the balance of payments.

  Overall Balance of Payment Position (quarterly and annual). Overall Balance of Payment Position is a statistical statement that systematically summarizes, for a specific period, the economic transactions of an economy with the rest of the world. It is the sum of the current account balance; capital and financial account balance; and net errors and omissions.

  Gross International Reserves Less Gold (monthly and quarterly). Gross International Reserves Less Gold is the end of period sum of the US dollar value of monetary authorities' holdings of special drawing rights (SDRs), reserve position in the IMF, and foreign exchange reserves less official gold holdings.

  Short-Term External Debt (quarterly and annual). Data from the Joint BIS-IMF-OECD-World Bank Statistics on External Debt. Short-Term External Debt Outstanding is the sum of bank loans, debt securities issued abroad, non-bank trade credits, multilateral claims, and official bilateral loans due within one year.

  Total External Debt Outstanding (quarterly and annual). Data from the Joint BIS-IMF-OECD-World Bank Statistics on External Debt. Total External Debt Outstanding is the sum of bank loans, debt securities issued abroad, non-bank trade credits, multilateral claims, and official bilateral loans. Bank loans include loans from banks in industrialized economies and six offshore centers. Debt securities issued abroad refers to money market instruments, bonds, and notes issued by both public and private sector borrowers. Non-bank trade credits are official and guaranteed non-bank export credits. Multilateral claims are sourced from the various multilateral financial institutions. Official bilateral loans refer to concessional aid and other loans provided mainly for development purposes.

  Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (monthly). Data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). A nominal effective exchange rate (NEER) is an index of the geometric weighted average of a basket of bilateral exchange rates consisting of 61 economies. The weighting scheme adopted is time-varying and is based on recent trade data from 2008–2010. Data include 11 Asian economies such as the People’s Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; India; Indonesia; Japan, the Republic of Korea; Lao People’s Democratic Republic; Malaysia; the Philippines; Singapore; Taipei,China; and Thailand.

  Real Effective Exchange Rate (monthly). Data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). A real effective exchange rate (REER) is the NEER adjusted by relative consumer prices.

Monetary and Financial Sectors

• M2 (Broad Money) (monthly and annual). M2 (Broad Money) is defined as M1 (narrow money) plus quasi-money, measured in billions of local currency and reported as end period. M1 refers to the sum of currency outside deposit money banks and demand deposits other than those of the central government. Quasi-money is the sum of time, savings, and foreign currency deposits of resident sectors other than the central government. Definitions used differ across economies according to central bank definition.

  Policy Rate (daily, monthly). Policy Rate is expressed in percentage points and is the key interest rate used in the monetary authorities’ monetary policy operations. The following interest rates are used: one year lending rate (People’s Republic of China); repo rate (India); Bank Indonesia rate (Indonesia); overnight call rate (Japan); overnight call rate (Korea, Rep. of); overnight policy rate (Malaysia); overnight borrowing rate (Philippines); official discount rate (Taipei,China); one-day reverse repurchase rate (Thailand); and Viet Nam prime rate (Viet Nam).

  Stock Price Indexes (daily, weekly, monthly and annual). Stock Price Indexes are weighted by market capitalization. The following benchmark indexes are used: Dhaka Stock Exchange (Bangladesh); Shanghai SE Composite Index (China, People’s Rep. of); Hang Seng Index (Hong Kong, China); BSE SENSEX Index (India); Jakarta Composite Index (Indonesia); NIKKEI 225 (Japan); KOSPI Index (Korea, Rep. of); Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (Malaysia); Karachi 100 Index (Pakistan); Philippine Composite Index (Philippines); Sri Lanka Colombo All Shares (Sri Lanka); Straits Times Index (Singapore); Taiwan Taiex Index (Taipei,China); Stock Exchange of Thailand Index (Thailand); and Ho Chi Minh Stock Index (Viet Nam).

  Financial Stock Price Indexes (daily, weekly, monthly and annual). Financial Stock Price Indexes are the capitalization-weighted index of all stocks in the finance sector listed on the stock exchange. The following indexes are used: Shenzen Stock Exchange Financials Index (China, People’s Rep. of); Hang Seng Finance Index (Hong Kong, China); Jakarta Finance Index (Indonesia); TOPIX-Banks Index (Japan); Korean Financial Industry Index (Korea, Rep. of); Kuala Lumpur Finance Index (Malaysia); PSE Finance Index (Philippines); FTSE Straits Times Financials Index (Singapore); TWSE Financial and Insurance Industry Index (Taipei,China); and SET Finance/Securities Index (Thailand).

  Capital Adequacy Ratio (monthly and annual). Capital Adequacy Ratio is measured in percent and is the ratio of regulatory capital to risk-adjusted assets of commercial banks. Definitions used differ across time and economies due to the transition from Basel I to Basel II Capital Accord.

  Ratio of Non-Performing Loans to Total Loans in percent (monthly and annual). Ratio of Non-Performing Loans to Total Loans is the percentage of loans classified as non-performing in relation to the total loan stock. Definitions used differ across economies according to the criteria used to classify loans as non-performing, whether accrued interest in included and with regard to whether specific provisioning is netted out.

  Return on Assets (annual). Return on Assets (measured in percent) is computed as weighted averages of individual banks. It refers to the after-tax income on assets in relation to the total assets of commercial banks. Definitions used vary across economies as reported by national authorities.

  Return on Equity (annual). Return on Equity (measured in percent) is measured as weighted averages of individual banks. It refers to the rate of return on the ownership interest (shareholders' equity) of the common stock owners of commercial banks. Definitions used vary across economies as reported by national authorities.

  Claims on the Private Sector (monthly). Data from the IMF International Financial Statistics. Private sector claims refer to loans or gross credit from the financial system (e.g. banking institution or deposit money banks) to the private sector and non-financial institutions. These are financial assets with counterpart liability such as security holdings, equity investment, loans, advances, and other accounts receivable that establish a claim for repayment.

General

• Year-on-year Growth Rates. Year-on-year (y-o-y) growth rates are computed for quarterly and monthly time series. These growth rates are computed as the percentage change in the value of each observation relative to the value for the same quarter or month of the previous year.

  Period Averages. Period Average is the arithmetic average of the relevant data observations during a specified period.

  Indexes (daily, weekly, and monthly). All indexes are computed by dividing the value of each data point by the value of the data on the reference date, month or year.

  Indicators Expressed as Percentage of Nominal GDP in US Dollars. Nominal values are used to compute all ratios using GDP as the denominator. The dollar value of nominal GDP is derived by dividing the nominal GDP in local currency unit by the average local-currency-to-US-dollar exchange rate.