Value Chain Survey produced by Statistics Office

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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE CHIEF MINISTER BY DEPUTY G.P. SOUTHERN OF ST. HELIER

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 4th APRIL 2006

Question

The recent Value Chain Survey produced by the Statistics Unit has attempted to improve our understanding and the contribution of different sectors to the economy.

1. Whatreasons explain the discrepancyin finance sector figures revealedby this survey(£775 million, 55%imported) and that produced by the Surveyof Financial Institutions (£370 million,  42% imported),  and what changes, if any,  will be put  in  place  to  refine  the methodology used?
2. Will the Minister further explain why the contribution to GVA(GrossValueAdded) of the public sectorisnotincludedand whether this impacts on the independenceof the report from political bias?and,
3. Will the Minister undertake tochange the report to include the GVAofthe public sector in future surveys?

Answer

The Value chain survey was undertaken in 2004 and published in February 2005 in order to gain a better understanding of intermediate purchases made by businesses in Jersey and thus the interaction of businesses in the Island. It was a one-off survey to inform the work on the Fiscal Strategy and there are currently no plans to repeat it.

1. The States ofJersey Statistics Unit made clearinthereport that as this was the first time such a survey hadbeen undertaken in Jersey the results were provisional and it openlyasked for feedback on the results. Specifically the Statistics Unit highlighted the difference between the findings of this surveyand the survey of financial institutions. Themost likely causeof the difference is due to intra-company trading, which is not reported in the survey of financial institutions, and different accounting practices used byindividualcompanies.The Statistics Unit works closely with the finance sector to ensure that surveysproperlyreflect the finance sector and if a valuechainsurveyweretobe run again the recodingofintra- companytradeswouldbere-examined.
2. The contribution toGVAofthepublicsectorwas not included inthe report, becauseitwas not a report onvalueadded and, therefore, thevalueaddedofno sector was published. The report lookedat purchases. The GrossValueAddedofthe public sector (along with all other sectors) is published by the Statistics Uniton its website; in its annual report Jersey Gross Value Added (GVA) and Gross National Income (GNI); in the Jersey Economic Digest and in Jersey in Figures.
3. The purposeofthe value chainsurvey and reportwas to understand purchases. It is not a report that looks at valueadded.GrossValueAdded is published by the Statistics Uniton its website and in the documents referred to intheanswer to question (b).