This practical guide is the result of UNECE capacity‐building activities in economic statistics for the countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia. It suggests an overall process for performing seasonal adjustment and explains the related concepts. It brings together international recommendations for producing high quality time series, performing seasonal adjustment and disseminating the results. The Guide aims to assist statistical offices of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia in producing economic statistics in a seasonally adjusted form, but it may also provide relevant insight into seasonal adjustment in general.

The guide draws on the international statistical recommendations and the work of Eurostat, ECB, OECD, UNSD and several national statistical offices and central banks on the methodology of short‐term statistics, seasonal adjustment and data dissemination. It consolidates the main recommendations to construct a comprehensive overview of the guidance with relevance to the quality of seasonal adjustment. The referenced international recommendations include, in particular, the ESS Guidelines on Seasonal Adjustment (Eurostat, 2009), the Demetra+ User Manual (Grudkowska, 2011), the International Recommendations for the Index of Industrial Production (UNSD, 2010), the Data and Metadata Reporting and Presentation Handbook (OECD, 2007) and Methodology of Short‐term Business Statistics (Eurostat, 2006).

Custodian: United Nations Economic Commission for Europe - UNECE