| Summary: | The International Comparison Program (ICP) is
a worldwide statistical initiative—the largest in
geographical scope, in implementation time
frame, and in institutional partnership. It estimates
purchasing power parities (PPPs) for use
as currency converters to compare the size and
price levels of economies around the world.
Numerous methodological
improvements and operational guidelines were
introduced in the 2011 round of the ICP for the
advancement of the program.
The Operational Guidelines and Procedures for
Measuring the Real Size of the World Economy is a
compilation of ICP operational guidelines and
material prepared by the ICP 2011 Global Office
team, consultants, and international experts.
It describes the approach to and data requirements
for the main price survey and special
surveys, including the various guidelines produced
and survey forms. It also covers the
framework and requirements for national
accounts activities for the ICP. In addition, this
guide describes the procedures followed for
data validation, computation of national annual
averages, calculation of PPPs, aggregation, and
linking.
Disclosure of the procedures underlying
the ICP 2011 process heightens the transparency
of the program and allows interested
stakeholders and users of the results to delve
into the ICP methods and operational aspects in
order to better understand and interpret the
results.
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