Expanded Real Value-added Data for Manufacturing: A New Approach to Measuring Sub-Sectoral Manufacturing Development

Abstract

We propose a new single deflation method to expand real value added data coverage for UNIDO’s Industrial Statistics Database (INDSTAT). Our deflator is consistent with current national accounting practices and self-contained, i.e., it only requires data available via INDSTAT. Furthermore, we discuss various deflator extensions to further real value added coverage, enabling us to derive an extensive data set with notably higher data coverage compared to other cross-country data sets, particularly for low(er) income economies. This allows us to measure the manufacturing sector’s performance in unprecedented detail.