Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Supply and use tables are compiled by the National Bank of Belgium (National and Regional Accounts Division within the General Statistics Deparment).
Input-output tables are compiled by the Federal Planning Bureau.
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
National Bank of Belgium General Statistics Department - National & Regional Accounts and Short-term Statistics Boulevard de Berlaimont 14 1000 Brussels
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
27 January 2026
2.2. Metadata last posted
27 January 2026
2.3. Metadata last update
27 January 2026
3.1. Data description
Supply, use and input-output tables (SUIOTs) are matrices that provide a detailed picture of how goods and services are supplied and used in an economy. By balancing data from various sources in a consistent framework, they allow compiling a single coherent estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) based on production, expenditure, and income.
SUIOTs comprise four main types of tables:
Supply table: This table depicts how products (in rows) enter the economy, either through domestic production by industries or imports (in columns). The supply table also includes data on trade and transport margins as well as taxes less subsidies (in columns) to convert total supply from basic prices to purchasers' prices.
Use table: This table depicts how products (in rows) are used by the economy, either for intermediate consumption by industries, or for final uses (both in columns). Final uses are disaggregated into 1) final consumption expenditure by households, general government, and non-profit institutions serving households, 2) gross capital formation and 3) exports. The use table contains additional rows to show, for each industry, how gross value added is generated, distinguishing compensation of employees, other taxes less subsidies on production, consumption of fixed capital, and net operating surplus and mixed income. The use table can refer to all transactions, domestic transactions or imported products.
Input-output table: This table captures the supply and use of products in a single matrix, depicting either products or industries in both rows and columns. Similar to use tables, input-output tables can refer to all transactions, domestic transactions or imported products.
Margin tables: These tables present separately 1) trade and transport margins and 2) taxes less subsidies, by products (in rows) and industries (in columns).
The supply-use system is built upon two fundamental equations:
total supply = production + imports = intermediate consumption + final consumption + gross capital formation + exports = total use (this equation is satisfied for any given product category)
value added = production – intermediate consumption = compensation of employees + gross operating surplus and mixed income + other taxes less subsidies on production (this equation is satisfied for any given economic activity).
In Belgium, SUIOTs are published for 64 product and industry categories and also transmitted to Eurostat on a voluntary basis for 88 product and industry categories. Products are classified according to the statistical classification of products by activity (CPA 2.1). Industries are classified according to the statistical classification of economic activities (NACE Revision 2).
SUIOTs comprise annual and 5-yearly data transmissions. The annual mandatory data transmission includes the supply table at basic prices, including transformation into purchasers' prices (T1500) and the use table in purchasers' prices (T1600), both in current and previous year’s prices. The 5-yearly mandatory data transmissions concern years ending with ‘0’ or ‘5’ and includes the following tables:
use table at basic prices (T1610)
use table for domestic output at basic prices (T1611)
use table for imports at basic prices (T1612)
table of trade and transport margins (T1620)
table of taxes less subsidies on products (T1630)
symmetric input-output table at basic prices (T1700/50)
symmetric input-output table for domestic output at basic prices (T1800/50)
symmetric input-output table for imports at basic prices (T1900/50).
The 5-yearly tables are transmitted in current prices. Belgium provides the input-output tables in product-by-product and industry-by-industry format. On a voluntary basis, Belgium also transmits yearly tables of trade and transport margins, of taxes less subsidies on products and use tables at basic prices, use tables of domestic output and of import at basic prices.
All SUIOT data published in Belgium are also transmitted to Eurostat.
Products are classified according to the statistical classification of products by activity (CPA 2.1). Industries are classified according to the statistical classification of economic activities (NACE Revision 2).
3.3. Coverage - sector
SUIOTs cover the total economy, that is, all goods and services that are:
produced by industries (non-financial and financial corporations);
used as intermediates for production by non-financial and financial corporations, for final purposes by general government, households, and non-profit institutions serving households, for gross capital formation;
traded with the rest of the world through exports, imports, direct purchases abroad by residents and purchases on the domestic territory by non-residents.
Institutional units are economic entities characterised by decision-making autonomy to exercise its principal function. A resident unit is regarded as an institutional unit in the economic territory where it has its centre of predominant economic interest if it has decision-making autonomy and either keeps a complete set of accounts or is able to compile a complete set of accounts. Institutional units are used to capture income, expenditure, output and financial flows.
Local kind of activity units (local KAUs) comprise all parts of an institutional unit in its capacity as producer which are located in one single site or in closely related sites, and which contribute to an activity at the four-digit class level of NACE Rev. 2. Local KAUs are used to capture production processes.
An institutional unit can be composed of one or more local KAUs. However, a local KAU belongs to one and only one institutional unit.
The Belgian business register for national accounts is based on the concept of legal unit (which coincides in Belgium with the concept of enterprise). This concept is used through the whole set of national accounts as well as in the business surveys, thus guaranteeing a high degree of consistency. The choice of this form of statistical unit is closely linked to the fact that a crucial high-quality data source used to build national accounts, i.e., the business accounts filed with the Central Balance Sheet Office of the National Bank of Belgium, also relies on the legal form.
3.6. Statistical population
The statistical population encompasses all resident statistical units (institutional units or local KAUs) that contribute to the production, supply and use of goods and services each year within the Belgian economy. A statistical unit is considered a Belgian resident if it has its centre of predominant economic interest in Belgium, meaning it engages in economic activities in Belgium for an extended period (one year or more).
National accounts aim to be comprehensive, covering all resident statistical units. This means that all resident statistical units are covered.
Details on how exhaustiveness is organised in the Belgian national accounts are described in the GNI inventory.
3.7. Reference area
The reference area in the Belgian national accounts is the territory of the Kingdom of Belgium. This area covers all production, consumption and trade activities occurring each year within its boundaries.
3.8. Coverage - Time
SUIOTs provide annual data on economic activities in a given calendar year. Tables in current prices tend to be available from 2010 to year N-3 (with N being the current year). The tables in previous year’s prices tend to be available from 2015 to year N-3. While the publication of 5-yearly tables is mandatory only for years ending with ‘0’ and ’5’, Belgium transmits these tables more frequently to Eurostat.
SUIOTs are estimated for a given reference year (N-3) and are not updated afterwards. This means that small incoherences with detailed national accounts may arise.
3.9. Base period
The concept of 'base period' is not applied to supply, use and input-output tables.
Data are presented in million euro for both current and previous year's prices.
The reference period is the calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Four regulations have direct relevance for the compilation and transmission of SUIOTs. Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 as amended by Regulation (EU) No 2023/734 defines the structure and concepts of the European System of Accounts – ESA 2010 and the transmission programme for the related data and metadata.
Implementing Regulation (EU) No 724/2014 defines the interchange standard for the transmission of national accounts data, including supply, use and input-output tables.
Implementing Regulation (EU) No 2016/2304 describes the modalities of quality reporting, including provisions for the assessment of timeliness, completeness, and consistency of the transmitted data.
Two auxiliary regulations establish the statistical classification of products and activities that are used by supply, use, and input-output tables. Regulation (EU) No 1209/2014 establishes the statistical classification of products by activity (CPA 2.1). Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 as amended by Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/137 establishes the statistical classification of economic activities (NACE Rev. 2.1).
In Belgium, the National Accounts Institute (NAI) was established by the Law of 21 December 1994, title VIII, on social and other provisions, with a view to reforming the federal statistical and economic forecasting system. This Law has been amended several times: by the Law of 8 March 2009 (published on 30 April 2009), the Law of 28 February 2014 (published on 4 April 2014) and the Law of 18 December 2015 (published on 29 December 2015). The consolidated Law is available here: Justel databank. Different institutions make up the NAI of which the partners are involved in the production of the European statistics. The partners are: the National Bank of Belgium (NBB), the Federal Planning Bureau (FPB), the National Statistical Office (Statbel) and, since 2009, the Price Observatory (run by the Ministry of Economy). According to the NAI Law, each of these institutions, except for the price observatory, is responsible for a domain of national accounts or for a contribution to their compilation.
The NSO collects basic statistical data (except external trade) necessary for the NAI’s tasks.
The NBB is responsible for producing:
Supply and Use Tables;
Non-financial national accounts (including the institutional sector accounts);
Financial national accounts;
Quarterly national accounts;
Regional accounts;
Annual and quarterly accounts of general government (in close collaboration with the FPB);
External trade statistics.
The FPB is responsible for producing:
The economic forecasts required for budgeting (economic budget);
Input-output tables;
Environmental economic accounts;
Complementary indicators to GDP.
The FPB is also in charge of compiling the accrued-to-date pension entitlements relating to the statutory pension schemes (table 29 not recorded in the core accounts), in cooperation with the NBB.
The Law of 4 July 1962 on Statistics was amended by the Law of 22 March 2006. It constitutes the national legal framework for the functioning of Statbel (current official name of the national statistical office). The 2006 revision had three objectives:
to explain the principles underlying public statistics (i.e., the lawfulness and loyalty, the purpose, the proportionality and the impartiality, the objectivity and the professional independence);
to give preference to the secondary collection of data from administrative databases over direct surveys;
to align the legislation on statistics with national and European legislation in the field of privacy protection. The Law of 2006 also governs the administrative simplification and the exchange of data for scientific purposes.
A cooperation agreement was signed on 15 July 2014 to strengthen collaboration between the various departments of the federal State and the federated entities (Regions and Communities) in the development of public statistics. The cooperation agreement formally recognises Statbel and the regional statistical offices as "statistical authorities" that carry out their missions in accordance with the guidelines of the European Statistics Code of Practice of the EU (Eurostat). In accordance with this Cooperation Agreement, the Interfederal Institute of Statistics (IIS) was set up on 1 January 2016. The IIS should make it possible to continuously improve the quality of public statistics. Each year, the IIS publishes an integrated statistical programme, which includes agreements on public statistics to be drawn up collectively or actions to increase the quality of statistics and reduce the overall response burden.
The 17 July 2013 protocol between the NAI, the Federal government and the Communities and Regions regulates the relationship between the public authorities and the NAI at two levels: the provision of sources data to the NAI for the compilation of ESA 2010 and the EDP statistics and the NAI’s obligations to inform the public authorities.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
There is no institutional mandate for SUIOT data sharing.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.
In Belgium, complementary to the EU Regulation 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (General Data Protection Regulation), confidentiality of data in the field of statistics is guaranteed by different laws.
The first reference legislation is the Statistics Law of 4 July 1962, which has been modified several times. In particular, by the Belgian Statistics Law of 22 March 2006, which contains provisions in the field of privacy protection, administrative simplification and the exchange of data for scientific purposes. This Law will be revised shortly to align it with Regulation (EU) 2016/679. In accordance with this Law, the Royal Decree of 13 June 2014 describes the technical, organisational and legal measures that Statbel must take in order to guarantee statistical confidentiality.
Following the publication of EU Regulation 2016/679, the Belgian legislative framework has been considerably revised. There are several references for the statistical framework applicable to public authorities:
The Law of 3 December 2017 establishing, under the auspices the House of Representatives, the Data Protection Authority (Autorité de Protection des Données - Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit). This authority replaces the previous Commission for the Protection of Privacy and is responsible for monitoring compliance with the fundamental principles of the protection of personal data.
The Law of 30 July 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and in particular, Articles 186 to 206, which extend the protection provided by the GDPR and specifies the rules when personal data are processed by public authorities such as statistical authorities. This law replaces the Law of 8 December 1992.
The Law of 5 September 2018 establishing the Information Security Committee (Comité de Sécurité de l’Information - Informatieveiligheidscomité) and amending various laws implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/679, in particular Chapters 8 and 9.
Since the 2006 Statistics Law, the institutional context of Belgium has changed with extended statistical competences transferred to the Regions and Communities (the so called "Federated Entities"). The cooperation agreement signed on 15 July 2014 between the federal State and the federated entities (see section 6.1) pays particular attention to statistical confidentiality. In the Interfederal Institute of Statistics (IIS, see also section 6.1), a working group entitled Security in the Exchange of Confidential Data between Partners of IIS was set up in 2016 to set the rules and best practices on data protection, statistical confidentiality and communication of confidential data between statistical authorities within the IIS.
In Belgium, responsibility for the national accounts was delegated to the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) by the Law of 21 December 1994. All the statistical rules concerning confidentiality and protection of the privacy are applicable to the NBB. In addition to the legislation in force, staff members are subject to compliance with the code of ethics and the rules of procedure on the classification and processing of information.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Confidential data are included in all steps of the validation process, but they are automatically replaced by flag ‘c’ in the files uploaded to Eurostat’s online database. Likewise, the compilation of aggregated tables for the European Union and the euro area includes confidential data. However, it is ensured that these data cannot be retrieved directly or indirectly from the consolidated tables.
8.1. Release calendar
The National Bank of Belgium releases on its website a schedule for all its statistical publications and press releases. This 'advanced statistical release calendar' covers the NAI’s publications and press releases in the domains that are carried out by the NBB for the account of the NAI. Regarding national accounts specifically, the calendar for one year is published around the end of October of the previous year. Any amendment to the calendar is made as soon as it is known, and a new release date is published.
National accounts news releases concern:
Quarterly data: (preliminary) GDP flash; quarterly GDP, main aggregates and employment, quarterly sector accounts, quarterly government debt and deficit, financial accounts;
Annual data: detailed national accounts, supply and use table, regional accounts.
The NBB releases statistics on its website, allowing anybody to have access to the information. The website is updated twice a day at 11:00 and 15.00. To prepare their articles, press agencies have access under strict embargo to the press releases half an hour before the public release.
Press releases include a direct link to the related domains in the online database.
Results are shared on the day of publication with national partners, such as the Federal Planning Bureau.
The supply, use and input-output tables are published yearly at the end of December.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
The National Bank of Belgium publishes press releases relating to each release of SUT. They often have a fixed structure and are published on the NBB website. New national accounts data are never presented in press conferences nor press briefings, with very few exceptions relating to major changes such as the major benchmark revisions. Press releases are available in French and in Dutch. In many cases, they are also available in English.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
There is no specific publication about supply and use tables. In years when input-output tables are released, the Federal Planning Bureau also releases a specific publication including some standard tables, a short comment on the main figures and methodological explanations. Such a detailed publication is normally only provided in years ending at "0" or "5". An exception is available for the year 2022. In light of the exceptional circumstances surrounding 2020, it was deemed appropriate to provide an additional year for analysis.
In the event of major methodology changes (as is the case with benchmark revisions), there is a dedicated additional publication.
The publications are available as an electronic document (PDF format) and a print version can be ordered against payment. Publications are available in French and in Dutch. English publications are very exceptionally available.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
All the Belgian national accounts data are available in the NBB public database, called NBB.Stat (.Stat Data Explorer). The platform is identical to the one used by the OECD. National accounts data are gathered in main domains, including national accounts, regional accounts, public finance, labour market and financial accounts.
The platform proposes a dynamic construction of tables allowing the combination of different dimensions. Exports/downloads are proposed in various formats: excel, CSV, PC-Axis, XML.
Some metadata information is also presented next to each table (sources, contact person and, if relevant, a link to reference documents on methodology).
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Microdata are not available.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
The "news" item regarding national accounts, which is released on the NBB website, is also spread through these information channels.
The Belgian National Accounts Institute publishes its own documentation regarding the compilation of national accounts in Belgium. Information can be found in the following documents:
The GNI inventory available in English and publicly available on the NBB website. This document is devoted to the sources and methods to estimate gross national income under ESA2010.
The Quarterly National Accounts inventory as well as the Quarterly Sector Accounts inventory also available in English and publicly available on the NBB website.
On a regular basis, specific methodological notes also support the publication of new figures in Belgium. This is the case when there are revisions to sources and methods. These notes are also stored on the statistics page of the NBB’s public website.
Finally, with regard to publication of opinions given on the statistical treatment of particular transactions in response to requests from public authorities, the NAI Council has decided to adopt the same position as Eurostat and to publish on its website the opinions given after 30 March 2007. The NAI also publishes twice a year in April and October, at the time of the publication of the figures related to the Excessive Debt Procedure and the government accounts, a list of all the public entities in Belgium and also their sector classification.
The importance of national accounts requires that documentation should be available on the procedures applied for quality management and quality assessment. Examples of such documentation are national accounts quality reports, quality studies and reports on revision analysis.
The quality (accuracy/consistency) checks carried out by Eurostat on the received country data are described in a validation handbook. From 2017 onwards also annual quality reports are available. They describe several dimensions of the quality of countries' national accounts data transmissions.
GNI Inventories contain very relevant information on the quality of the data underlying the GNI data transmitted by countries to Eurostat.
At the time being, Belgium does not publish documentation or reports on quality management regarding the compilation of national accounts.
Nevertheless, within the National Accounts Institute (see section 6.1.), there are currently four scientific committees competent for the subjects assigned to them. One of these is the Scientific Committee on National Accounts. This committee is composed of 19 members: 6 academics from the different Belgian universities, 6 members of the NAI (2 from Statbel, 2 from the Federal Planning Bureau and 2 from the NBB) and 7 members from the regional statistical institutes. Chair and secretariat are held by the NBB. The committee usually meets at least three times a year. However, more meetings are organized whenever methodological changes have to be implemented. The role of this committee is to express an opinion on the scientific value and objectivity of the methods adopted by the NAI and the results of its work. The material underlying the committee’s work on national accounts is not public.
Eurostat and national data compilers ensure the quality of supply, use and input-output tables through a robust quality assurance procedure. During data production, the European System of Accounts - ESA 2010 concepts and definitions are strictly applied. For data validation, Eurostat applies a standardised two-step procedure (see section 18.4) to verify internal and cross-table consistency, completeness, and plausibility of the transmitted data.
Quality is further monitored through annual quality reports under Regulation (EU) No 2016/2304, which assess timeliness, completeness, and consistency with national accounts main aggregates.
Regulation (EU) 2023/734 strengthens the SUIOT quality assurance. Since 1 September 2024 countries must include in each data transmission data-specific metadata, detailing methodological inconsistencies and updates, unusual zero values, negatives and outliers, as well as flags in the transmitted tables.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
During the overall compilation process, national and regional accounts data undergo several kinds of quality checks, e.g., ex-ante (source statistics), ongoing (results), ex-post (methods used) and external checks (Eurostat, European or National Court of Auditors, IMF).
The Belgian NAI ensures the quality of national data by systematically applying validation checks throughout the national accounts production process. The results of these checks are not formally documented.
There are a number of supervisory and control systems put in place to minimise risks concerning the timeliness and reliability of the statistics produced.
Several actions have been taken such as:
The designation of 'responsible of sources’: every source is monitored by a statistician. This guarantees that changes in content and/or format can be detected at an early stage.
Validation rules have been laid down for the annual repertory and for the different sources.
Standardised IT applications are used where possible. This approach guarantees a harmonised and transparent treatment of sources (annual accounts of companies and non-profit institutions, VAT declarations, social security declarations, structural business survey) and an explicit view of how primary data are converted into national accounts aggregates. IT application specifications are well documented every year.
A regular procedure to assess the statistical sources and products is applied. As regards sources, an internal report on the quality of the business register and all related data sources (social security, balance sheets, VAT, etc.) is produced every year. In particular, comparisons are made with the previous versions, in order to spot any irregularities. A colour analyser can also be used to highlight level shifts and outliers.
Successive internal controls are foreseen within the production chain (head of groups, general coordinator and Head of Service).
Main users of national accounts aggregates (Research Department within the NBB, Federal Planning Bureau, regional authorities) provide de facto external controls.
Institutional controls exist (thorough assessment of sources and methods by the scientific committee on national accounts – see section 10.7. – which implies the need for detailed methodological descriptions).
National accounts data are also monitored before publication by evaluating revisions to the previous estimates.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Supply, use and input-output tables are indispensable tools for researchers, policymakers and statisticians who seek to understand the economic structure of individual countries, the EU, and the euro area. User needs concern a range of applications, among others:
GDP compilation: Allowing to calculate GDP through production, income and expenditure approaches, thereby ensuring data consistency within the national accounts and between national accounts and trade statistics. In Belgium, SUTs are used to balance GDP in current prices for t-3
Extended SUIOTs: Providing the basis for extended supply, use and input-output tables and the development of thematic accounts to address specific economic activities or domains such as tourism, the digital economy, or the space economy.
Inter-country SUIOTs: Providing the building blocks for regional and global inter-country supply, use and input-output tables such as FIGARO (Eurostat) or ICIO (OECD).
Value chain indicators: Supporting the development of value chain indicators to capture economic linkages across sectors.
Economic analyses: Providing the basis for economic modelling and assessment of the impacts of policy intervention, technological innovation, environment factors, or any other disruptive events on the economy of individual countries, the EU, and the euro area.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
The Belgian NAI pays attention to the interests of users but has no formal measure of user satisfaction.
12.3. Completeness
Completeness rates of ESA data transmissions are assessed in annual quality reports.
Belgium provides a complete set of SUIOTs for all mandatory years. Five-yearly tables are transmitted on a voluntary basis for many years. If small data gaps are observed during quality reporting, these will be closed in future transmission rounds.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Not available.
13.2. Sampling error
Not available.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not available.
14.1. Timeliness
The ESA 2010 transmission programme requires countries to transmit SUIOTs to Eurostat within 36 months after the end of the reference year. Belgian national accounts data are transmitted to Eurostat according to the deadlines set out in the European transmission programme. The data are generally released on the NBB website simultaneously to their transmission to Eurostat.
Geographical comparability of supply, use and input-output tables is ensured by the application of common definitions and concepts according to the European System of Accounts - ESA 2010.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Comparability of supply, use and input-output tables over time is limited as Belgium does not revise the tables after benchmark revisions or updates of main aggregates.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Belgium is not required to ensure coherence between SUIOTs and national accounts main aggregates. Therefore, there is also no requirement to revise SUIOTs after each update of the main aggregates.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Belgium ensures that supply, use, and input-tables are internally coherent through the standardised data validation process.
Cost and burden to compile supply, use and input-output tables are significant, especially from a workload point of view.
For SUIOTs, there is no agreed scheme for data revisions. In Belgium SUIOTs, are therefore generally not revised.
17.2. Data revision - practice
There are at the moment no systematic revisions of SUIOTs in Belgium.
In general, corrections are grouped together and transmitted during the scheduled annual data transmission.
18.1. Source data
The SUIOT compilation is based on statistics that are primarily collected for other purposes (primary statistics). It relies on a variety of data sources, including administrative data: car and business registers, accounting statements, tax data, budgetary reports, population censuses, statistical surveys of businesses and households, statements of supervising institutions and branch organisations, annual and quarterly reports, trade statistics on goods and services, balance of payments information.
There is no single survey source for national accounts. Sources vary and provide statistical information on a large set of economic, social, financial and environmental phenomena, which may not be strictly related to national accounts.
The Belgian GNI inventory (see section 10.6) contains details on the sources of data used to compile national accounts, including SUIOT, in Belgium.
The main data sources used in Belgium are (non-exhaustive list):
Business register/repertory (Statbel – NBB)
Annual business accounts for corporations and NPIs (NBB)
Accounting schemes for banks and insurances (NBB)
Aggregate data for investment funds and pension funds (Financial Services and Markets Authority)
National Social Security Office declarations / National Social Security Office for Provincial and Local Authorities declarations
VAT declarations (Statbel)
Personal income tax declarations (Ministry of Finance via Statbel)
Biannual Household Budget survey (Statbel)
Quadrennial labour cost survey (Statbel)
Prodcom survey (Statbel)
Structural Business Survey for Corporations, self-employed and NPIs (Statbel)
Structural Business Surveys for banks and insurances (NBB)
Specific survey on R&D activity (federal public planning Service science policy)
Balance of payments and external trade statistics (NBB)
Detailed data transmitted by public authorities (federal, local and social security)
Interest rate data (NBB)
Financial accounts data (NBB)
Accounting data for hospitals (Federal Public Service Health)
Number of buildings started, number of building permits issued (Statbel)
18.2. Frequency of data collection
The frequency of data collection of primary statistics varies according to the nature of the data source. For example, business statistics are typically available on a monthly (and quarterly) basis. Some households' surveys are available on quarterly or annual frequency (sometimes even less frequent). Availability of administrative data varies. Population censuses are mostly collected every decade.
The frequency and timing of the compilation of SUIOTs are not necessarily aligned with the frequency and timing of (all) primary statistics data collections.
National accounts departments typically receive/collect information in relation to their compilation schedule, i.e., for their annual estimates. In Belgium, some sources are obtained automatically and at fixed points in time for the compilation (social security data, VAT data, annual business accounts, etc.). Other sources are requested by statisticians at the start of each production round.
18.3. Data collection
With some institutions (Ministry of Finance, Social Security Offices), service-level agreements (SLA) are concluded stipulating what data should be made available, at what time, in which format, etc. For information received from Statbel, no specific formalities are necessary in the framework of the institutional context of the NAI. This is also the case for information coming from the NBB. To obtain information concerning some public authorities (part of the general government sector), SPOCs (single points of contact) are used. Some information is also collected in the form of yearly repeated requests. The NBB has a specific data collection unit responsible for collecting source data.
18.4. Data validation
Matching data from different sources is an integral part of compiling the national accounts. Source data used in national accounts undergo a sequence of checks within NSIs. In Belgium, external data are checked before and during the whole production process of national and regional accounts. For the validation of national and regional accounts data, Belgium applies minimum validation rules agreed with Eurostat and provides metadata to support the validation process with respect to revisions and outliers. Further information on validation checks can be found on the Eurostat website (Data validation - Eurostat).
18.5. Data compilation
The Belgian Supply and Use Tables (SUTs) are compiled as the central integration framework of the national accounts and are initially constructed at a detailed level comprising 354 products and 140 industries. The compilation starts from a wide range of source statistics, including structural business statistics, annual accounts, short-term business statistics, external trade statistics, government finance statistics, household budget information, labour market statistics and other national accounts datasets. These sources provide initial estimates for output, intermediate consumption, imports, exports, final consumption expenditure, gross capital formation, taxes and subsidies on products, and value added components.
The initial SUT framework is populated based on these independant first estimates of the various aggregates and subsequently used to confront information originating from different statistical domains. As a first step, the available sources are evaluated according to their conceptual suitability, coverage, timeliness and reliability. Preliminary imbalances between supply and use are then identified at the detailed product level. The balancing process focuses on two fundamental accounting identities that must hold simultaneously throughout the system: the industry balance, whereby output equals intermediate consumption plus gross value added for each industry, and the product balance, whereby total supply equals total use for every product.
The reconciliation process is largely based on detailed manual analysis supported by automated consistency checks. Compilers investigate discrepancies by confronting production, expenditure and external trade data, reviewing product and industry classifications, checking valuation and allocation methods, and assessing possible coverage deficiencies or reporting errors in the underlying sources. Where justified by additional information or methodological considerations, adjustments are introduced to improve the coherence of the estimates, correcting, where needed, the underlying source data.
Quality assurance is embedded throughout the balancing cycle. Validation procedures include the analysis of year-to-year developments in supply and use structures, consistency checks between domestic output and imports, assessment of trade and transport margins, verification of tax and subsidy allocations, and comparisons with published national accounts aggregates. The balancing process may require several iterative rounds, with corrections and validations performed until both product and industry balances are simultaneously achieved. Remaining minor discrepancies are eliminated through a final statistical balancing procedure.
The resulting balanced SUT framework ensures full consistency between the production, expenditure and income approaches to GDP and serves as the benchmark framework for the derivation of symmetric input-output tables (IOTs).
Following the balancing of the SUTs, symmetric IOTs are compiled by the Federal Planning Bureau within the framework of the National Accounts Institute. The Belgian IOTs are derived from the balanced SUTs through a three-step procedure. First, the use table is converted from purchasers' prices to basic prices. Second, the use table at basic prices is split into imported products and domestically produced products. Third, the asymmetric supply and use tables are transformed into symmetric product-by-product input-output tables for total uses, imports and domestic production.
The starting point for the transformation is the balanced SUT framework compiled at a detailed level comprising 354 products and 140 industries. Since the national accounts are compiled on the basis of heterogeneous industries, enterprises may produce both principal and secondary products. However, symmetric input-output tables require homogeneous production structures. Therefore, secondary production and the associated intermediate and primary inputs are reallocated to the industry corresponding to the principal producer of the product concerned.
The allocation of secondary production requires assumptions regarding the technology underlying the production processes because the available source data generally do not allow a direct separation of inputs used for principal and secondary production. In line with Eurostat recommendations, the Belgian IOTs are compiled predominantly using the product-technology assumption, under which a given product is assumed to have the same input structure irrespective of the industry that produces it. In specific cases, where the product-technology assumption is considered less appropriate, the industry-technology assumption is applied. As a result, the Belgian IOTs are compiled using a mixed technology model, with product-technology applied to approximately 87% of output (in 2022).
Quality assurance is performed throughout the transformation process. The resulting symmetric IOTs are verified against the balanced SUT framework to ensure consistency of output, intermediate consumption, value added and final demand aggregates. Together, the SUTs and IOTs constitute the Belgian input-output framework, ensuring the internal coherence of the national accounts while providing a detailed analytical tool for inter-industry analysis, multiplier calculations and economic modelling.
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable.
Not available.
Supply, use and input-output tables (SUIOTs) are matrices that provide a detailed picture of how goods and services are supplied and used in an economy. By balancing data from various sources in a consistent framework, they allow compiling a single coherent estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) based on production, expenditure, and income.
SUIOTs comprise four main types of tables:
Supply table: This table depicts how products (in rows) enter the economy, either through domestic production by industries or imports (in columns). The supply table also includes data on trade and transport margins as well as taxes less subsidies (in columns) to convert total supply from basic prices to purchasers' prices.
Use table: This table depicts how products (in rows) are used by the economy, either for intermediate consumption by industries, or for final uses (both in columns). Final uses are disaggregated into 1) final consumption expenditure by households, general government, and non-profit institutions serving households, 2) gross capital formation and 3) exports. The use table contains additional rows to show, for each industry, how gross value added is generated, distinguishing compensation of employees, other taxes less subsidies on production, consumption of fixed capital, and net operating surplus and mixed income. The use table can refer to all transactions, domestic transactions or imported products.
Input-output table: This table captures the supply and use of products in a single matrix, depicting either products or industries in both rows and columns. Similar to use tables, input-output tables can refer to all transactions, domestic transactions or imported products.
Margin tables: These tables present separately 1) trade and transport margins and 2) taxes less subsidies, by products (in rows) and industries (in columns).
The supply-use system is built upon two fundamental equations:
total supply = production + imports = intermediate consumption + final consumption + gross capital formation + exports = total use (this equation is satisfied for any given product category)
value added = production – intermediate consumption = compensation of employees + gross operating surplus and mixed income + other taxes less subsidies on production (this equation is satisfied for any given economic activity).
In Belgium, SUIOTs are published for 64 product and industry categories and also transmitted to Eurostat on a voluntary basis for 88 product and industry categories. Products are classified according to the statistical classification of products by activity (CPA 2.1). Industries are classified according to the statistical classification of economic activities (NACE Revision 2).
SUIOTs comprise annual and 5-yearly data transmissions. The annual mandatory data transmission includes the supply table at basic prices, including transformation into purchasers' prices (T1500) and the use table in purchasers' prices (T1600), both in current and previous year’s prices. The 5-yearly mandatory data transmissions concern years ending with ‘0’ or ‘5’ and includes the following tables:
use table at basic prices (T1610)
use table for domestic output at basic prices (T1611)
use table for imports at basic prices (T1612)
table of trade and transport margins (T1620)
table of taxes less subsidies on products (T1630)
symmetric input-output table at basic prices (T1700/50)
symmetric input-output table for domestic output at basic prices (T1800/50)
symmetric input-output table for imports at basic prices (T1900/50).
The 5-yearly tables are transmitted in current prices. Belgium provides the input-output tables in product-by-product and industry-by-industry format. On a voluntary basis, Belgium also transmits yearly tables of trade and transport margins, of taxes less subsidies on products and use tables at basic prices, use tables of domestic output and of import at basic prices.
All SUIOT data published in Belgium are also transmitted to Eurostat.
Institutional units are economic entities characterised by decision-making autonomy to exercise its principal function. A resident unit is regarded as an institutional unit in the economic territory where it has its centre of predominant economic interest if it has decision-making autonomy and either keeps a complete set of accounts or is able to compile a complete set of accounts. Institutional units are used to capture income, expenditure, output and financial flows.
Local kind of activity units (local KAUs) comprise all parts of an institutional unit in its capacity as producer which are located in one single site or in closely related sites, and which contribute to an activity at the four-digit class level of NACE Rev. 2. Local KAUs are used to capture production processes.
An institutional unit can be composed of one or more local KAUs. However, a local KAU belongs to one and only one institutional unit.
The Belgian business register for national accounts is based on the concept of legal unit (which coincides in Belgium with the concept of enterprise). This concept is used through the whole set of national accounts as well as in the business surveys, thus guaranteeing a high degree of consistency. The choice of this form of statistical unit is closely linked to the fact that a crucial high-quality data source used to build national accounts, i.e., the business accounts filed with the Central Balance Sheet Office of the National Bank of Belgium, also relies on the legal form.
The statistical population encompasses all resident statistical units (institutional units or local KAUs) that contribute to the production, supply and use of goods and services each year within the Belgian economy. A statistical unit is considered a Belgian resident if it has its centre of predominant economic interest in Belgium, meaning it engages in economic activities in Belgium for an extended period (one year or more).
National accounts aim to be comprehensive, covering all resident statistical units. This means that all resident statistical units are covered.
Details on how exhaustiveness is organised in the Belgian national accounts are described in the GNI inventory.
The reference area in the Belgian national accounts is the territory of the Kingdom of Belgium. This area covers all production, consumption and trade activities occurring each year within its boundaries.
The reference period is the calendar year.
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Data are presented in million euro for both current and previous year's prices.
The Belgian Supply and Use Tables (SUTs) are compiled as the central integration framework of the national accounts and are initially constructed at a detailed level comprising 354 products and 140 industries. The compilation starts from a wide range of source statistics, including structural business statistics, annual accounts, short-term business statistics, external trade statistics, government finance statistics, household budget information, labour market statistics and other national accounts datasets. These sources provide initial estimates for output, intermediate consumption, imports, exports, final consumption expenditure, gross capital formation, taxes and subsidies on products, and value added components.
The initial SUT framework is populated based on these independant first estimates of the various aggregates and subsequently used to confront information originating from different statistical domains. As a first step, the available sources are evaluated according to their conceptual suitability, coverage, timeliness and reliability. Preliminary imbalances between supply and use are then identified at the detailed product level. The balancing process focuses on two fundamental accounting identities that must hold simultaneously throughout the system: the industry balance, whereby output equals intermediate consumption plus gross value added for each industry, and the product balance, whereby total supply equals total use for every product.
The reconciliation process is largely based on detailed manual analysis supported by automated consistency checks. Compilers investigate discrepancies by confronting production, expenditure and external trade data, reviewing product and industry classifications, checking valuation and allocation methods, and assessing possible coverage deficiencies or reporting errors in the underlying sources. Where justified by additional information or methodological considerations, adjustments are introduced to improve the coherence of the estimates, correcting, where needed, the underlying source data.
Quality assurance is embedded throughout the balancing cycle. Validation procedures include the analysis of year-to-year developments in supply and use structures, consistency checks between domestic output and imports, assessment of trade and transport margins, verification of tax and subsidy allocations, and comparisons with published national accounts aggregates. The balancing process may require several iterative rounds, with corrections and validations performed until both product and industry balances are simultaneously achieved. Remaining minor discrepancies are eliminated through a final statistical balancing procedure.
The resulting balanced SUT framework ensures full consistency between the production, expenditure and income approaches to GDP and serves as the benchmark framework for the derivation of symmetric input-output tables (IOTs).
Following the balancing of the SUTs, symmetric IOTs are compiled by the Federal Planning Bureau within the framework of the National Accounts Institute. The Belgian IOTs are derived from the balanced SUTs through a three-step procedure. First, the use table is converted from purchasers' prices to basic prices. Second, the use table at basic prices is split into imported products and domestically produced products. Third, the asymmetric supply and use tables are transformed into symmetric product-by-product input-output tables for total uses, imports and domestic production.
The starting point for the transformation is the balanced SUT framework compiled at a detailed level comprising 354 products and 140 industries. Since the national accounts are compiled on the basis of heterogeneous industries, enterprises may produce both principal and secondary products. However, symmetric input-output tables require homogeneous production structures. Therefore, secondary production and the associated intermediate and primary inputs are reallocated to the industry corresponding to the principal producer of the product concerned.
The allocation of secondary production requires assumptions regarding the technology underlying the production processes because the available source data generally do not allow a direct separation of inputs used for principal and secondary production. In line with Eurostat recommendations, the Belgian IOTs are compiled predominantly using the product-technology assumption, under which a given product is assumed to have the same input structure irrespective of the industry that produces it. In specific cases, where the product-technology assumption is considered less appropriate, the industry-technology assumption is applied. As a result, the Belgian IOTs are compiled using a mixed technology model, with product-technology applied to approximately 87% of output (in 2022).
Quality assurance is performed throughout the transformation process. The resulting symmetric IOTs are verified against the balanced SUT framework to ensure consistency of output, intermediate consumption, value added and final demand aggregates. Together, the SUTs and IOTs constitute the Belgian input-output framework, ensuring the internal coherence of the national accounts while providing a detailed analytical tool for inter-industry analysis, multiplier calculations and economic modelling.
The SUIOT compilation is based on statistics that are primarily collected for other purposes (primary statistics). It relies on a variety of data sources, including administrative data: car and business registers, accounting statements, tax data, budgetary reports, population censuses, statistical surveys of businesses and households, statements of supervising institutions and branch organisations, annual and quarterly reports, trade statistics on goods and services, balance of payments information.
There is no single survey source for national accounts. Sources vary and provide statistical information on a large set of economic, social, financial and environmental phenomena, which may not be strictly related to national accounts.
The Belgian GNI inventory (see section 10.6) contains details on the sources of data used to compile national accounts, including SUIOT, in Belgium.
The main data sources used in Belgium are (non-exhaustive list):
Business register/repertory (Statbel – NBB)
Annual business accounts for corporations and NPIs (NBB)
Accounting schemes for banks and insurances (NBB)
Aggregate data for investment funds and pension funds (Financial Services and Markets Authority)
National Social Security Office declarations / National Social Security Office for Provincial and Local Authorities declarations
VAT declarations (Statbel)
Personal income tax declarations (Ministry of Finance via Statbel)
Biannual Household Budget survey (Statbel)
Quadrennial labour cost survey (Statbel)
Prodcom survey (Statbel)
Structural Business Survey for Corporations, self-employed and NPIs (Statbel)
Structural Business Surveys for banks and insurances (NBB)
Specific survey on R&D activity (federal public planning Service science policy)
Balance of payments and external trade statistics (NBB)
Detailed data transmitted by public authorities (federal, local and social security)
Interest rate data (NBB)
Financial accounts data (NBB)
Accounting data for hospitals (Federal Public Service Health)
Number of buildings started, number of building permits issued (Statbel)
The supply, use and input-output tables are published yearly at the end of December.
The ESA 2010 transmission programme requires countries to transmit SUIOTs to Eurostat within 36 months after the end of the reference year. Belgian national accounts data are transmitted to Eurostat according to the deadlines set out in the European transmission programme. The data are generally released on the NBB website simultaneously to their transmission to Eurostat.
Geographical comparability of supply, use and input-output tables is ensured by the application of common definitions and concepts according to the European System of Accounts - ESA 2010.
Comparability of supply, use and input-output tables over time is limited as Belgium does not revise the tables after benchmark revisions or updates of main aggregates.
