The United Nations Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) in collaboration with the Government of the Philippines through its Statistical Research and Training Center (SRTC) and support of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conducted the second Regional Course on Integrated Economic Accounts from 26 May to 13 June 2008 at SRTC, Quezon City in Metro Manila, Philippines. This course second in the series was designed to meet the training demand of the national statistical offices in the region for their overall development of Integrated Economic Accounts, that is besides System of National Accounts (SNA), also paying appropriate attention to the improvement on the associated systems, namely Government Finance Statistics (GFS), Monetary and Financial Statistics (MFS) and Balance of Payments (BOP). There were 25 participants from 21 countries in the region including five participants from the host country, the Philippines.

The course was designed and directed by SIAP while conducted with the support of two experts as resource persons from IMF to deliver lectures as well as practical sessions on GFS, MFS and BOP. In addition, IMF provided fellowships for some participants from least developed and landlocked countries in the region. The course covered important topics of 1993 System of National Accounts (SNA) including overview of SNA, supply and use table, input- output tables, current and accumulation accounts, balance sheets, GDP estimates- three approaches, constant price estimates and quarterly national accounts. The course also included SNA associated systems - GFS, MFS, BOP and environmental and tourism satellite accounts. Importantly the training course also introduced analysis of national accounts and updates of the 1993 SNA. Workshop exercises were organized in the course to make the participants understand the recommendations of the SNA. A day’s field visit was organized to familiarize the participants with the Philippines Statistical System at National Statistical Coordination Board, National Statistical Office, Department of Statistics on Agriculture and Asian Development Bank for statistical activities undertaken by the ADB. Participants also witnessed the official release of the Quarterly estimates of GDP of the Philippines.

All 25 participants completed successfully the training course requirements. The participants learned the theory, practice and recommendations of the 1993 SNA.
The conduct of this course realized urgently needed national capacity building on 1993 SNA recommendations and its compilation along with associated economic accounts.