Terry Quinn (Central Bank), Mike Fahy (D/Fin), Brendan O’Connor (D/Fin), Annette Hughes (EY), Killian Carroll (IFAC), Austin Hughes (KBC), Ciarán Nugent (NERI), Simon Barry (Ulster Bank).
CSO: Michael Connolly, Chris Sibley, Annette Hayes, Ruth O’Shaughnessy
Loretta O’Sullivan (BOI), Kieran McQuinn (ESRI), Seamus Coffey (IFAC)
1. Errata to the Quarterly National Accounts for the four quarters of 2018 and 2019Q1, which were published on 11th July, were reviewed. There are no annual or GNI effect. The errata were subsequently published on 18th July.
2. Revisions published with the National Income and Expenditure on 11th July were reviewed, which were largely driven by the integration of administrative datasets for 2017. While the publication of these systematic revisions is helpful to National Accounts users, the CSO will review how these are best presented in future, taking international best practice into account.
3. Ongoing work at the EU level within the GNI process to account for the activities of large multinational enterprises was discussed. This work follows an EU Court of Auditors finding.
4. Compensation of Employee data, and the limitations of the current administrative data source were discussed. Plans to integrate the new PAYE modernisation monthly administrative data source into the statistical production system, and the benefits arising from the use of this more robust data source, were reviewed, and will be covered in detail in a future MSLG meeting.
5. Globalisation effects in the BOP data were reviewed, focussing on the treatment of intangible purchases in the capital and financial accounts, and the significant effects of corporate MNE restructuring. The distinction between R&D and non-produced assets was reviewed, and different presentations of modified final demand to account for the distorting effect of large stock changes were discussed.
6. The recent GNI* volume release - a recommendation included in the ESRG work programme - was discussed. However, the Group was reminded that there is no single indicator that can capture the complexities of the Irish economy.