STATISTICS

Technical notesBelow are brief descriptions of the indicators presented in the country profiles. Theterms are arranged in alphabetical order.Agricultural production index: The indices are calculated by the Laspeyres formulabased on the sum of price-weighted quantities of different agricultural commoditiesproduced. The commodities covered in the computation of indices of agriculturalproduction are all crops and livestock products originating in each country.Practically all products are covered, with the main exception of fodder crops.Production quantities of each commodity are weighted by the average internationalcommodity prices in the base period and summed for each year. To obtain the index,the aggregate for a given year is divided by the average aggregate for the baseperiod 2004-2006. Indices are calculated without any deductions for feed and seedand are referred to as “gross” by the Food and Agriculture Organization of theUnited Nations (FAO).Source of the data: FAOSTAT database of the Food and Agriculture Organization ofthe United Nations, available at http://faostat3.fao.org/faostat-gateway/go/to/download/Q/QI/E (7 February 2014 update).Balance of payments is a statement summarizing the economic transactionsbetween the residents of a country and non-residents during a specific period,usually a year. It includes transactions in goods, services, income, transfers andfinancial assets and liabilities. Generally, the balance of payments is divided intotwo major components: the current account and the capital and financial account.The data on balance of payments presented in the World Statistics Pocketbookcorrespond to the current account category. The current account is a record of alltransactions in the balance of payments covering the exports and imports of goodsand services, payments of income, and current transfers between residents of acountry and non-residents.Source of the data: International Monetary Fund, Balance of Payments (BOP)database (last accessed 31 January 2014).Capital city and population: The designation of any specific city as a capital city isdone solely on the basis of the designation as reported by the country or area. Thecity can be the seat of the government as determined by the country. Somecountries designate more than one city to be a capital city with a specific titlefunction (e.g., administrative and/or legislative capital). The data refer to the year2011.Source of the data: The United Nations Population Division, World UrbanizationProspects: The 2011 Revision, Table 13, available at http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/CD-ROM/Urban-Agglomerations.htm (last accessed 7 November 2013).World Statistics Pocketbook 221