Proposed changes to the compilation of zone aggregates for monetary aggregates and other variables in the OECD Main Economic Indicators publication

The Main Economic Indicators (MEI) has traditionally published a range of OECD zone aggregates for the narrow money and broad money concepts of monetary aggregates. These zones have been compiled on a fixed weight basis, with the weights being updated every five years coinciding with the change in OECD base year, the last update being in the summer of 2004 with the introduction of base year 2000=100. The current variable used to weight countries data consists of the underlying series value for the country in the year 2000 adjusted for purchasing power parity. There are a number of deficiencies in this current methodology for compiling zone aggregates of monetary aggregates which have lead the OECD to study a new approach. Some of the key problems with the current approach are: