Constructing Purchasing Power Parities Using a Reduced Information Approach

Book excerpt: This publication presents the methodology and results of research on a cost-effective approach for estimating purchasing power parities (PPPs). The study drew on price and national accounts data from 20 economies in Asia and the Pacific. It used a “reduced information” approach to generate more firmly based estimates of PPPs, price level indexes, and measures of real (PPP-based) expenditures than conventional extrapolation methods would obtain. The results include PPP-based gross domestic product and its major aggregates of individual consumption expenditure by households and nonprofit institutions serving households, government final consumption expenditure, gross fixed capital formation, changes in inventories and acquisitions less disposals of valuables, and balance of exports and imports.