International Comparison Program (ICP)

International Comparison Program (ICP)

Part of: GS Prelims and Mains II – International Organization; International Programs 

In news: 

• World Bank released new PPPs for the reference year 2017, under the International Comparison Program (ICP). 
• ICP is a partnership of various statistical administrations of up to 199 countries guided by the World Bank. 
• The Program produces internationally comparable price and volume measures for gross domestic product (GDP).  
• Its component expenditures are based on purchasing power parities (PPPs). 
• The ICP tries to make different countries GDPs comparable by calculating them in PPP both currency converters and spatial price deflators. 

Important value additions: 

What Is Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)? 

• PPP is a popular macroeconomic analysis metric which is used to compare economic productivity and standards of living between countries. 
• PPP is an economic theory that compares different countries’ currencies through a “basket of goods” approach. 

 Do you know? 

• ICP is one of the largest statistical initiatives in the world.  It is managed by the World Bank under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission, and relies on a partnership of international, regional, sub-regional, and national agencies working under a robust governance framework and following an established statistical methodology. 
• India has participated in almost all ICP rounds since its inception in 1970. 
• India is participating in the current phase of International Comparison Programme (ICP) with reference to 2017. 
• India is third-largest economy in terms of its PPP-based share in global actual individual consumption and global gross capital formation. 
• The next ICP comparison will be conducted for the reference year 2021. 

For more details, refer – https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/icp