International Comparison of Income, Prices and Production conference

Prague, May 22-23, 2015

World Bank initiatives on PPP applications and big data to inform the ICP

Nada Hamadeh, World Bank

Homi Kharas (Brookings Institution): “PPP data has to be current”Aleem Walji (World Bank): “Can’t imagine CEOs making decisions based on old data like ICP… Can we move to current and not perfect?”Angus Deaton (Princeton): “it would be extremely desirable to put the ICP on a continuous basis, with results updated from year to year, which should avoid the large revisions that characterized the last two rounds.”

Convergence in perspectives…

United Nations Statistical Commission: “stressed that ICP should become a permanent element of the global statistical programme with ICP rounds be held on a more frequent basis.” T.C.A. Anant (India): “The ICP has emerged as a very important global statistical product... The existing frequency is not adequate.”

Data users are saying…Data producers are saying…

Official statistics (prices, expenditures, CPIs)

Private sector data(crowdsourcing, big data)

Annual PPP time series

PPPs for Poverty (SDGs and Bank’s

twin goals)

Improving the timeliness and frequency of PPPs…

Frequent, timely and relevant PPPs

‒ Cost-efficient and timely

‒ Vast item coverage

‒ Extensive and granular geographical coverage

‒ Comparable across countries

‒ Open to users

Researching new ways to collect price data that is:

Striving to meet the demand…

‒ Crowd-sourced price data collection through mobile phones and a website ‒ Conducted in eight pilot countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria,

Pakistan and the Philippines‒ Prices were collected for 30 basic food commodities from around 2,500 supermarkets in

270 survey locations, by a crowd of 7,000 non-professionals

Current efforts…Pilot with JANA

Pilot with PREMISE

Collaboration with STATISTICS NETHERLANDS

‒ Capturing granular high-frequency price data using modern technology combined with human intelligence on the ground

‒ The pilot is being conducted in three countries - Brazil, Indonesia and Nigeria - for a basket of approximately 150 household consumption food, goods and services

‒ The survey coverage includes urban / suburban / rural areas

‒ Using scanner data and internet robots (web scraping) as alternative, faster and less costly methods for price data collection

‒ Assess the feasibility for use in lower capacity statistical offices and countries of different levels of technological development

Regional agencies Inside the Bank Private sector Technical advisors and experts

Capitalize on existing partnerships and build new ones

Strengthening partnerships…