New Research Links the Accountancy Profession to Economic Development

2020-11-18 - 01:48

IFAC Membership Unlocks Accountancy’s Full Potential

Professional accountants make a significant contribution to the economy at the local, national and global levels. IFAC partnered with the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), one of the world’s leading economics consultancies, to get a clearer understanding of these contributions.

The results are striking.

In each measure reviewed, a greater number of accountants correlates to better economic performance. Moreover, professional accountants who are members of IFAC member professional accountancy organizations (PAOs) correlate to even stronger performance on economic indicators.

“At IFAC, we have always understood the strong connection between a well-developed accountancy profession and economic development,” said Kevin Dancey, IFAC CEO. “This research will help policymakers around the world have better informed conversations with professional accountants and PAOs about their contributions to society and potential partnerships for development and growth.”

Cebr’s analysis reviewed the accountancy profession in the G20 countries, including each individual country of the European Union. Data was assembled from a range of sources, including the World Bank, World Economic Forum, and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, to establish relationships between economic variables and numbers of accountants and PAO members.

This research follows earlier projects on the positive contributions of the accountancy profession:


About IFAC
IFAC is the global organization for the accountancy profession dedicated to serving the public interest by strengthening the profession and contributing to the development of strong international economies. IFAC is comprised of more than 175 members and associates in more than 130 countries and jurisdictions, representing more than 3 million accountants in public practice, education, government service, industry, and commerce.