Comparability of GDP estimates in S ub‐ S aharan A frica: The effect of Revisions in Sources and Methods Since Structural Adjustment

Abstract

The unreliability ofAfrican income estimates was highlighted whenGhana announced thatGDPestimates were revised upwards by 60.3 percent inNovember 2010. Similar revisions are to be expected in other countries. Many statistical offices are currently using outdated base years. It is argued that with the current uneven application of methods and poor availability of data, any ranking of countries according toGDPlevels is misleading. The paper emphasizes the challenges for “data users” in light of these revisions.GDPdata are disseminated through international organizations, but without any detailed data descriptions. It is argued that many statistical offices inSub‐SaharanAfrica struggled to recover from the structural adjustment period, and the offices have not had the capacity to handle other challenges such as providing data to monitor the Millennium Development Goals. Currently, neither data users nor data producers are getting the assistance they need.

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