UK Data Service .Stat Guides
Guide to OECD Economic Outlook
Introduction
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Economic Outlook is the organisations twice-yearly analysis of the major economic trends and prospects for the next two years. The Outlook puts forward a consistent set of projections for output, employment, prices, fiscal and current account imbalances. Coverage is provided for all OECD member countries as well as for some non-member countries. It is a comprehensive and consistent macroeconomic database of the OECD economies, covering expenditures, foreign trade, output, labour markets, interest and exchange rates, balance of payments, and government debt. For the non-OECD regions, foreign trade and current account series are available. The data runs from 1960 onwards.
Main topics
The database contains annual and quarterly data for the projection period. Variables are defined in such a way that they are as homogenous as possible for the countries covered. Breaks in underlying series are corrected as far as possible. Sources for the historical data are national statistical agencies and OECD statistical publications such as the Quarterly National Accounts, the Annual National Accounts, the Annual Labour Force Statistics and the Main Economic Indicators. The cut-off date for information used in the compilation of the projections is the 30 April.
In the context of the OECD Economic Outlook exercise, historical data are based on national sources to take into account the more relevant indicator and structural breaks in data are often adjusted to produce smooth series with the uses of splicing and other techniques. As a result, EO data can differ from other sources with official data including the OECD's National Accounts, Main Economic Indicators and Employment Outlook.
The OECD Long Term Baseline analyses major economic trends beyond OECD short-term projections, for OECD economies, and major non-OECD economies. Components of potential growth, fiscal balances and debt accumulation, domestic saving and investment balances and external balances (through the current account) are covered. It also includes interest rates consistent with those projections. The latest database contains annual data to 2060. Variables are defined in such a way that they are as homogenous as possible for the countries covered. Breaks in underlying series are corrected as far as possible. Sources for the historical data are publications of national statistical agencies and OECD statistical publications such as the Annual National Accounts, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations and Eurostat.
Access OECD data
Access to the OECD Economic Outlook via UKDS.Stat is freely available to all.
Effective July 15th 2015, the UK Data Service made access to OECD online statistics databases free to all users. Please refer to the OECD’s Terms and Conditions, including information on ‘What can you do with OECD published content (data, text and multimedia products).
User RESOURCES
The OECD produces the following documentation about the database:
- OECD's Economic Outlook Directorate's web page
- Economic Outlook Policy and other assumptions underlying the projections Box 1.2 in General assessment.
- Economic Outlook Sources and Methods
- Database inventory
- OECD Glossary
