Álit: tímarit löggiltra endurskoðenda - 01.01.1988, Page 32

Álit: tímarit löggiltra endurskoðenda - 01.01.1988, Page 32
FINANCIAL REPORTING IN HYPERINFLATIONARY ECONOMIES Grein þessi er erindi sem David H. Cairns, fram- kvæmdastjóri Alþjóðlegu reikningsskilanefndarinnar, IASC, flutti á vegum FLE í Háskóla íslands í maímán- uði síðastliðnum. í IASC News birtist svo nýlega grein um reikningsskilaaðferðir hér á landi í framhaldi af komu framkvæmdastjórans og er henni hnýtt aftan við erindi hans. Introduction IASC was founded in 1973 by the accounting bodies in nine countries. In the last fifteen years it has grown quite considerably so that it now involves 100 account- ing bodies in some 70 countries. Our work also involves many other people other than accountants. We have direct involvement from the International Chamber of Commerce. We also have fi- nancial analysts on our Board and, within our Consul- tative Group, we have international organisations of securities commissions, stock exchanges, trade unions, financial executives, bankers, lawyers, the World Bank, the OECD and the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporatoins. Our job is to formulate and promote International Accounting Standards and to work generally for the improvement and harmonisation of financial reporting on a worldwide basis. We have published 26 Interna- tional Accounting Standards. These Standards are used in a variety of ways in different countries around the world. The Globalisation of Capital Markets One of the main thrusts behind our work is the glob- alisation of world markets. We are all part of one glob- al village; hence, there are pressures for what some people call truly intemational standards of accounting and disclosure. We are being pushed very hard at the moment; hence, our main priority is to meet this need. Financial Reporting In Hyperinflationary Econo- mies We also find time to deal with a number of other im- portant areas. One of these is our project on Financial Reporting in Hyperinflationary Economies. We started this project about four years ago at the request of a number of countries which were suffering from high in- flation or as we have now called it „hyperinflation“. We put together what we call a Steering Committee that involves representatives from Argentina, Mexico and Israel plus the United States and West Germany. This Steering Committee developed some initial pro- posals for the Board of IASC. These were circulated to accountancy bodies in 1985. Last year we published an Exposure Draft, E31, Financial Reporting in Hyperin- flationary Economies, which sets out our latest propos- als. The Steering Committee will consider the re- sponses to the Exposure Draft at the beginning of No- vember and we hope to approve an International Accounting Standard next year. The starting point for our proposals is something that we were told by the Steering Committee representa- tives from Argentina, Mexico, Israel; in hyperinflation- ary economies, pure unadjusted historical cost financial statements are meaningless and worthless. What should happen in these sort of circumstances? To answer this question, we need to go back to the sit- uation that existed before hyperinflation existed. In most countries, financial statements were based on pure unadjusted historical costs. This means that assets are carried at amounts based on what was paid for them. Profit is measured by comparing what we sell something for with what was paid for it. In practice, ac- counting is more complicated than that but that is the main thrust. This system works reasonably well, indeed very well, 32

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