Estimating GDP Revisions

Updated: March 30, 2022


Revising GDP is based on a base year uplift and the percentage of shadow economy

Regional uplifts for each base year by continent are used.

Revised GDP estimates are comparible access all countries to establise relative economy size


A GDP Estimated uplift value is calculated by using the uplift based on a countries base year age and size of shadow economy. The base year uplift component is calculated by using a regional constant for each year out of date. The regional uplift per year percentage are: Africa (2.4% per year), Asia (1.4% per year) and Americas (0.7% per year). These are extrapolated from known uplifts in GDP upon rebasing exercises. See Base Year and Rebasing

All European countries use chain weighted so no base year uplift is possible. The Middle Ease uses an average value for the three regions above as a proxy, this has been calculated at 1.5%.

After a base year uplift is calculated, the percentage of the shadow economy is factored in and an overall uplift percentage calculated for each country. The overall uplift is calculated first using the base year revision. The Shadow economy uplift is added as a percent increase on the already uplifted Base Year data . The resulting value is an overall percentage uplift which is used to calculate the revised GDP data.