ľ¹ÏÓ°Ôº

Skip to Main Navigation

International Comparison Program

Select a EDS Sub navigation page selecting option, leaving this page

ICP Wheel of methodology stages with new ICP logo

The International Comparion Program estimates purchasing power parities (PPPs) for the world¡¯s economies in order to provide comparable price and volume measures of GDP and its expenditure components. PPPs convert different currencies to a common currency and, in the process of conversion, equalize their purchasing power by controlling for differences in price levels between economies.

Overall, the ICP methodology has three major components. The first is the System of National Accounts (SNA) definition of final expenditures on GDP. The second is the basket of goods and services from which items are selected for pricing: the priced items should be comparable across economies and should represent an important part of each economy¡¯s final purchases. The third component is the methodology used to compute PPPs, first within regions for the regional comparisons and then across regions for the global comparison.

Each ICP comparison has a reference year, such as 2011, 2017 or 2021. Each participating economy is required to provide the following data for the reference year: a set of national annual average prices for a selection of items chosen from a common basket of precisely defined goods and services; a detailed breakdown of the national accounts expenditures in local currency units according to a common classification; the economy¡¯s market exchange rates; and its resident population.

Prices and expenditures are used to calculate PPPs and PPP-based expenditures. Market exchange rates and PPPs are used to calculate price level indexes. Population totals and PPP-based expenditures are used to calculate per capita expenditures. Prices and expenditures are reported by participating economies in their local currencies. Both metrics cover the whole range of final goods and services constituting GDP.

ICP COVID-19 Guidelines

  • Image
    Publication

  • Image
    Publication

  • Image
    Publication

  • Image
    Publication

  • Image
    Publication

ICP Methodology and Operational Guidelines

ICP Blogs on Methodology

  • Image
    Blog

  • Global-PPP-cal-blog
    Blog

  • Image
    Blog

Other Related Resources

  • Image
    Publication

  • Image
    Publication

  • Image
    Publication

  • Image
    Publication