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    International Comparison Program

    A worldwide statistical initiative to collect comparative price data and detailed GDP expenditures to produce purchasing power parities (PPPs) for the world’s economies

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About the International Comparison Program (ICP)

The International Comparison Program (ICP) is one of the largest, and most enduring, statistical initiatives in the world.  It is managed by the World Bank under the auspices of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC), 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. At its forty-seventh session, in March 2016, the UNSC instituted the ICP as a permanent element of the global statistical programme.

The main objectives of the ICP are:

(i) to produce purchasing power parities (PPPs) and comparable price level indexes (PLIs) for participating economies; and

(ii) to convert volume and per capita measures of gross domestic product (GDP) and its expenditure components into a common currency using PPPs.  

PPPs convert different currencies to a common currency and, in the process of conversion, equalize their purchasing power by controlling for differences in price levels between economies. They provide a measure of what an economy’s local currency can buy in another economy. PPP-based comparisons of economic output differ from market exchange rate-based comparisons as the latter do not distinguish between the relative price levels of different items in economies. PPP-based comparisons are also less impacted by the potential volatility of market exchange rates.

PPPs are calculated by the ICP based on the prices of items within a common basket of goods and services and expenditure shares, used as expenditure weights, on groups of items in each of the participating economies. These data are benchmarked to a reference year for each comparison cycle. The most recent ICP results are available for the ICP 2017 cycle, with the ongoing cycle benchmarked to 2021. 

Highlights

Data

  • ICP 2017 2011 2005 reports
    Publication

    ICP Reports

    ICP reports for each recent ICP cycle provide results and analyses together with overviews of methodology, governance, coverage, and history of program.

  • ICP database image
    Database

    ICP Datahub

    The ICP Datahub on the World Bank's DataBank platform provides access to ICP global data for the 2017, 2011, and 2005 cycles and annual PPPs for 2012 to 2016.

  • FPN SQUARE VORDER
    Application

    Food Prices for Nutrition

    ICP item availability and prices, combined with other food composition data and nutritional requirements provide updated metrics to monitor diet costs and affordability to inform agricultural and food systems ...

  • ICP VC front cover
    Publication

    Visual Guide to uses of PPPs and ICP data

    Interactive guide illustrates how PPPs, price levels and other ICP results enable a wealth of indicators benefitting analysis and monitoring by national governments, policy makers, and other users.