Metodologia - O Sector Informal em Moçambique: Resultados do Primeiro Inquérito Nacional (2005)

The Republic of Mozambique is experiencing a significant social and economic change and needs an updated informative base to allow policy-makers to found their decision on reliable and comparable data. The fast development of the Non Observed Economy (NOE) was one of the most important consequences of the transformation of the Mozambican economy. The Italian support Programme to the Mozambique National Statistical System , started in 2004, provided technical assistance for improving the quality of statistics for the Mozambican government according to best practices and international standards. One of the most interesting component of the project was the definition of a methodology for the analysis of the NOE and the provision of a first estimate of the phenomenon through a survey carried out at national level. Within the consortium, led by ICstat, Istat was responsible for the component, with the technical support of experts from INE Mozambique and INE Portugal . The NOE, as defined in the OECD Handbook for Measuring the Non Observed Economy, is one of the most relevant issues to be tackled in order to guarantee a correct comparison of the National Accounts variables and the exhaustiveness of National Accounts estimates, according to the System of National Accounts defined by the UN Handbook (SNA93), nowadays adopted by the majority of countries, that allows the correct comparison of their economic results. At international level there has been considerable progress towards the harmonization of statistical concepts and methods, through the adoption by international organizations of common standards and recommendations: 15th International Conference of Labour Statistics – Recommendation on employment statistics in the informal sector (1993); 3rd Revision of the United Nation’s System of National Accounts, which indicated how the informal sector should be treated in the accounts; the OECD Handbook, which also draws on the SNA93 for the terms used in the definition of NOE. Statistical information about the informal ...