In accordance with its 2015 Annual Work Plan, SESRIC organised the technical mission on ‘Quarterly National Accounts: Module 1’ at the Central Statistics Organization (CSO) on 17-28 October 2015, within the framework of the Statistical Capacity Building (StatCaB) Programme. The course was conducted by Mr. Kourosh Javadi Pashaki, Expert at the Statistical Centre of Iran of the Islamic Republic of Iran with participation of relevant officials of CSO.

As defined in the Terms of Reference by Central Statistics Organization (CSO) of the Republic of Afghanistan; National Accounts Division (NAD) of CSO prepares national accounts every year. Usually, preliminary estimates are prepared for the current year. National accounts are based on data from various sources including ministries, departments, central bank, international organizations and national non-government organizations and others. In fact, national accounting statistics rely very much upon the statistical system of the country where not just CSO but many other government and non-government organizations have important role in collection and compilation of primary and administrative data that are used as inputs to produce reliable and timely national accounts.

The technical mission on 'Quarterly National Accounts: Module 1' focused on the following topics:

• Review of current level of collected data and reporting format;
• Definitions and concepts in National Accounts
• Classification of economic activities used in GDP
• An introduction to GDP calculation methods
• Framing methods to collect information and statistics of economic activities
• Statistical methods : census and the sampling method
• Designing statistical forms in order to collect information
• Workshop : method of statistical data extraction
• GDP calculation by production method (value - added )- at current prices
• Introduction to price indices
• GDP calculation by production method (value - added )- at constant prices
• Quarterly accounts
• Quantitative indices
• Data collection methods to calculate the quarterly accounts

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For other activities of the Statistics and Information Department within the Statistical Capacity Building (StatCaB) Programme, please visit: http://www.oicstatcom.org/statcab.php