From local prices to the global economy: A unique global collaboration that underpins the International Comparison Program

Abstract

The International Comparison Program (ICP) is a unique example of enduring statistical cooperation and collaboration across national, regional, and global agencies. For over fifty years, the Program has delivered a vital public good: purchasing power parities (PPPs) and price level indexes (PLIs) for economies across the globe. PPPs enable a wealth of metrics on economic output, material well-being, and consumption, as well as a host of PPP-based indicators across the socioeconomic spectrum, many of which are used for monitoring progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Fundamental to these data and metrics is cross-country comparability, and the ICP’s multi-agency partnership ensures that this is achieved through agreement on common statistical standards and methods in price data collection, in national accounts expenditure data compilation, in quality assurance, and in the calculation and dissemination of results. Working within a comprehensive governance structure overseen by the United Nations Statistical Commission, the ICP Global Office at the World Bank, and five regional agencies, together with Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), collaborate with over 170 national agencies to ensure that the work carried out across all economies adheres to these established benchmarks and processes, resulting in both bespoke ICP price collections that reflect both nationally relevant and globally comparable goods and services, and expenditure data that follow international standards. This paper presents an overview of this unique global partnership and highlights how different challenges and processes are addressed by stakeholders working with shared knowledge towards a common goal.