OECD Main Economic Indicators
Data Base Manual

June 2006

Global Insight Ltd. 800 Baldwin Tower, Eddystone, Pennsylvania 19022(610) 490-4000 Hotline: (610) 490-2700 FAX: (610) 490-2770

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Introduction

Global Insight maintains the complete set of data from the OECD publication Main Economic Indicators. The OECD Main Economic Indicators Database provides a wide range of indicators on recent economic developments in the 30 OECD Member countries. Current series for 6major non-member countries (Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russian Federation and South Africa) within the program of the OECD Centre for Co-Operation with Non-Members (CCNM) are also included. The OECD gathers data directly from national sources. The base year of the series, as well as the units of measurement, vary from country to country. In some instances, the OECD will rebase or readjust the series in order to allow for country comparisons.

Over 6,600 time series are available on an annual, quarterly and/or monthly basis with most beginning in 1960. The majority of data are expressed in the national currency of each country.

The entire MEI Database is updated by CD-ROM which is provided by the OECD on a monthly basis.

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Mnemonics Design

An integral feature of database design is a consistently defined naming, or mnemonic, scheme to identify series. As with each of the Global Insight databases, specific conventions are employed in the OECD Main Economic Indicators Database.

Seriescodes are constructed by Global Insight using a portion of the OECD’s mnemonic construction and are broken down into three distinct parts: 1) Periodicity and Country Code, 2) Subject Code (provided by the OECD), and 3) Measure Code provided by Global Insight. The series codes are arranged in the following format.

Example (OECD code): USA.PRCNDW01.NCML

Position / Description
A111PRCNDW01MN / Periodicity Code and Country Code: A denotes annual series, Q denotes quarterly series, M denotes monthly series. 111 is the three-digit code for the United States. A list of all country and aggregate codes appear in the next section.
A111PRCNDW01MN / Subject Code: This code is provided directly from the OECD. The first two characters of this code denote the Subject heading. A list of subject headings appears in the section.
A111PRPEIN01MN / Measure Code: To remain within the limits of GII series coding, each OECD measure code has been assigned unique characters by Global Insight to indicate the basis on which data is reported. It should be noted that an ending suffix of A indicates that the data are seasonally adjusted by national source. In those instances when data are not available by national source, data are adjusted by the OECD Secretariat.

Please keep in mind that not all series are available in the database for every country.

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Country Codes

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Country / OECD / GII
Australia / AUS / 193
Austria / AUT / 122
Belgium / BEL / 124
Belgo Luxembourg / BLX / 126
Brazil / BRA / 223
Canada / CAN / 156
China / CHN / 924
CzechRepublic / CZE / 935
Denmark / DNK / 128
Finland / FIN / 172
France / FRA / 132
Germany / DEU / 134
Greece / GRC / 174
Hungary / HUN / 944
Iceland / ISL / 176
India / IND / 534
Indonesia / IDN / 536
Ireland / IRL / 178
Italy / ITA / 136
Japan / JPN / 158
Korea / KOR / 542
Luxembourg / LUX / 137
Mexico / MEX / 273
New Zealand / NZL / 196
Norway / NOR / 142
Poland / POL / 964
Portugal / PRT / 182
Russian Federation / RUS / 922
SlovakRepublic / SVK / 936
South Africa / ZAF / 199
Spain / ESP / 184
Sweden / SWE / 144
Switzerland / CHE / 146
The Netherlands / NLD / 138
Turkey / TUR / 186
United Kingdom / GBR / 112
United States / USA / 111

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Area Codes

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Area / OECD / GII
Euro zone (OECD
Methodology) / EUZ / 163
EU 15 / E15 / E15
Non-OECD / NOC / NOC
Euro zone (11) / E11 / E11
Euro zone (12) / EMU / EMU
Major seven / G7M / 907
OECD-Europe / OEU / 930
OECD-Europe (former) / OEF / OEF
OECD-Europe excl. High inflation (former) / OEI / OEI
OECD-Europe excl. high
inflation / OEL / 932
OECD-Total / OTO / 950
OECD-Total (former) / OTF / OTF
OECD-Total excl. high
inflation / OTL / 952
OECD-Total excl. High
inflation (former) / OTI / OTI
SDR / SDR / SDR
World / WLD / 999
Big 4 European / G4E / G4E
NAFTA / NAT / NAT
E12 (standardized unemployment) / E12 / E12
OECD + 6 non-member
countries / ONM / ONM
Major 5 Asian countries / A5M / A5M
OECD Eastern European members / OEE / OEE

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Subject Code

OECD Leading Indicator / LO
National Accounts / NA or SN
GDP by Type of Expenditure / EXP
NIA Comparative Volume Indices / CMP
Production / PR
Business Tendency (Manufacturing) / BS
Business Tendency (Retail Trade) / BR
Business Tendency (Construction) / BC
Business Tendency (Services) / BV
Consumer Sentiment / CS
Manufacturing / MN
Construction / CN
Labor Compensation / LC
Other Labor Market / OL
Employment / EM
Unemployment / UN
Producer Prices / PP
Wholesale Prices / WP
Consumer Prices / CP
Other Prices / OP
Monetary Aggregates / MA
Domestic Credit and Debt / DD
Interest Rates / IR
Security Issues / SI
Share Prices / SP
Currency Conversions / CC
External Finance / XF
Foreign Trade / XT
Balance of Payments / BP

Measure Codes

Each OECD measure code is assigned unique characters to distinguish the basis on which data are reported. Seasonally adjusted data are indicated by appending the letter A to the GII codes shown.

OECD
/ GII
Sum of component periods (e.g. quarter=sum of 3 months) / CU / CS
Monthly level / ML / ML
Quarterly level / QL / QL
Stock or quantum / ST / ST
Sum of component periods in US$ / CXCU / CU
Annual levels in US$ / CXAL / AU
Monthly levels in US$ / CXML / MU
Quarterly levels in US$ / CXQL / QU
Index, Normal = 100 / IXN / XN
Index, national base year / IXNB / XB
Index, publication base year (2000) / IXOB / XO
Index, same period previous year / IXPY / XP
Index based on NCU / NCIXOB / XC
National currency, monthly level / NCML / MN
National currency, annual level / NCAL / AN
National currency, sum of component periods / NCCU / CN
National currency, quarterly level / NCQL / QN
Current prices at quarterly rates / CQR / QR
Current prices at annual rates / CAR / AR
Constant prices, national base year at quarterly rates / VNBQR / QV
Constant prices, national base year at annual rates / VNBAR / AV
Chained constant prices, national base year at quarterly rates / LNBQR / QC
Chained constant prices, national base year at annual rates / LNBAR / AC
Implicit price deflator, national base year = 100 / DNB / DN
Volume index expressed 2000 = 100 / VIXOB / VO

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