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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.

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Quarterly national accounts (namq_10)

Reference Metadata in Euro SDMX Metadata Structure (ESMS)

Compiling agency: Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

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National accounts are a coherent and consistent set of macroeconomic indicators, which provide an overall picture of the economic situation and are widely used for economic analysis and forecasting, policy design and policy making. Eurostat publishes annual and quarterly national accounts, annual and quarterly sector accounts as well as supply, use and input-output tables, which are each presented with associated metadata. Even though consistency checks are a major aspect of data validation, temporary (usually limited) inconsistencies between datasets may occur, mainly due to vintage effects.

 

Quarterly national accounts are compiled in accordance with the European System of Accounts - ESA 2010 as defined in Annex B of the Council Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013, amended by Council Regulation (EU) 2023/734 of 15 March 2023.

 

The previous European System of Accounts, ESA95, was reviewed to bring national accounts in the European Union, in line with new economic environment, advances in methodological research and needs of users and the updated national accounts framework at the international level, the SNA 2008.

 

The associated transmission programme is also updated and data transmissions in accordance with ESA 2010 are compulsory from September 2014 onwards.

 

Further information is presented on Eurostat's website.

 

The domain consists of the following collections:

 

1. Main GDP aggregates main components from the output, expenditure and income side, expenditure breakdowns by durability and exports and imports by origin.

namq_10_ma

Main GDP aggregates  

namq_10_gdp

GDP and main components (output, expenditure and income)

namq_10_fcs

Final consumption aggregates by durability

namq_10_exi

Exports and imports by Member States of the EU/third countries

 

2. Key auxiliary indicators such as population and employment data, which are used to derive main GDP aggregates per capita as well as productivity and unit labour cost indicators.

namq_10_aux

Auxiliary indicators (population, GDP per capita and productivity)

namq_10_pe

Population and employment

namq_10_pc

Main GDP aggregates per capita

namq_10_lp_ulc

Labour productivity and unit labour costs

 

3. Breakdowns of GDP aggregates and employment data by main industries and asset classes.

namq_10_bbr

Basic breakdowns main GDP aggregates and employment (by industry and assets)

namq_10_a10

Gross value added and income by A*10 industry

namq_10_an6

Gross fixed capital formation by AN_F6 asset type

namq_10_a10_e

Employment by A*10 industry breakdowns

 

Geographical entities covered are the European Union, the euro area, EU Member States, EFTA countries and Candidate Countries. Data from other countries (e.g. US, Japan and other countries) are received via the OECD and IMF and published in Eurobase in the naid_10 collection.

 

Data sources: National Statistical Institutes

7 January 2025

This domain encompasses the main aggregates on national accounts. Its main variables are: GDP and its components, employment, final consumption aggregates, gross capital formation aggregates, income, exports and imports. The above variables are calculated on a quarterly basis but the majority of them are also calculated on an annual basis. Breakdowns exist for certain variables by economic activity (NACE Rev.2) and by non-financial asset (AN_F6).

 

The following are brief definitions of concepts and variables from the European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA 2010). In general, the ESA 2010 which was published in the Official Journal as Annex A of Regulation (EU) No 549/2013, may be referred to for more detailed explanations on methodology.

 

The main aggregates domain excludes estimates in the allocation of primary income account and Gross National Income, which were previously included as part of the national accounts main aggregates.  These estimates have now been reclassified to the national accounts sector accounts dataset.

 

In summary the key concepts captured by the national accounts main aggregates datasets cover the following definitions:

 

GDP - Gross domestic product

GDP at market prices is the final result of the production activity of resident producer units. It is defined in three ways:

 

a. GDP Output approach

From the production point of view GDP can be measured as the sum of the following components:

GDP = Total gross value added (B.1G) + Taxes less subsidies on products (D.21 less D.31)

where:

Gross Value Added (GVA)= Output (P.1) less Intermediate consumption (P.2)

 

b. GDP Expenditure approach

From the expenditure side, GDP can be measured as follows:

GDP =

Household and non-profit institutions serving households final expenditure (P.3 in S.14+S.15)

+ government final consumption expenditure (P.3 in S.13)

+ gross fixed capital formation (P.51)

+ changes in inventories (P.52)

+ acquisition less disposal of valuables (P.53)

+ exports (P.6)

- imports (P.7)

 

c. GDP Income approach

GDP =

Compensation of employees (D.1)

+ gross operating surplus and mixed income (B.2g and B.3g)

+ taxes less subsidies on production and imports (D.2 and D.3)

 

Note: GDP income components and other income measures are only available at current prices, because purely monetary flows cannot be decomposed into a price and a volume component. They may, however, be converted to "real terms" by applying an appropriate deflator. 

 

Population and employment. While not strictly national accounts aggregates, these variables are widely used in a national accounts context. Employment and its components are important economic indicators in their own right, and they serve in the construction of derived indicators, turning monetary aggregates from absolute into relative indicators and thus allowing the comparison of economies of very different size.

 

Population consists of all persons, nationals or foreigners, who are permanently settled in the economic territory of the country, even if they are temporarily absent from it, on a given date. A person staying or intending to stay at least one year is considered to be settled on the territory. By convention, the total population excludes foreign students and members of foreign armed forces stationed in a country.

 

Employment covers all persons engaged in some productive activity (within the production boundary of the national accounts). Employed persons are either employees (working by agreement for another resident unit and receiving remuneration) or self-employed (owners of unincorporated enterprises).

 

For information explaining the units of measure see section 4 (Unit of Measure) below.

National accounts aim to capture economic activity within the domestic territory. They combine data from a host of base statistics, and thus they have no common sampling reference frame. The elementary building blocks of ESA 2010 statistics are statistical units and their groupings.  ESA 2010 defines two types of units, institutional units and local kind-of-activity units (ESA 2010, 1.54). 

National accounts combine data from many source statistics. The concept of statistical population is not applicable in a national accounts context.

Eurostat publishes national accounts data for European Union, euro area, EU Member StatesEFTA countries, candidate countries, the United States, Japan and possibly other countries on an ad-hoc basis.

 

Eurostat estimates the aggregates for the EU and the euro area.  All other data are produced by the statistical offices of the respective countries. For further information on country data you may also refer to National Statistical Institutes and National Central Banks (links given on the Eurostat web site).

 

EU Member States and EFTA countries have legal obligations to submit their data to Eurostat as defined in the European System of Accounts ESA 2010 transmission programme of data. These data are the inputs for Eurostat's estimates of EU and the euro area. Since the United States and Japan have no such obligation to transmit data to Eurostat, coverage is usually limited to key aggregates, and delays between national publication and availability on Eurostat's website may be longer. Note that for some countries not covered in the national accounts domain, some central aggregates such as GDP may be available from the general statistics domain of Eurostat's online database.

The accounting period is the calendar quarter, with temporal coverage varying across geographical units.

Eurostat publishes information on revisions of seasonally and working day adjusted volume GDP series – vintages of quarter-on-quarter growth rates and year-on-year growth rates – demonstrating the reliability of European GDP estimates. The revision triangles are available starting with Q1 2017 for the EU and Q1 2012 for the euro area. The files are regularly updated when newer reference periods become available.

 

Quality reports on national accounts, including revision analysis are also published by some Member States. Eurostat publishes a revision analysis of selected macro-economic indicators in the annual quality reports.

The national accounts main aggregates data are presented using a range of unit measures including current price, volume and implicit deflator series in one table, as well as specific units for the employment and labour productivity tables. Please note that series are not available for all tables: For instance, figures related to EU average can only be derived after the estimation of the respective aggregate and the presentation focuses on the most relevant units for typical users.

 

Current price figures are typically expressed in (millions of) national currency and euro. They can be directly observed but include inflation effects. Additional units and ratios for current prices are derived and presented to facilitate comparisons of economic structures across time or countries.

  • National currency series (CP_MNAC) (including fixed euro series for euro area Member States) are transmitted by Member states and correspond to nationally published figures. They are suitable for studying the development of a variable in a single country over time.
  • Euro series (CP MEUR) are derived from transmitted national currency series using historic exchange rates. They are suitable for internal comparison and aggregation. When comparing them over time, account must be taken of exchange rate effects.
  • For euro area Member States, the national currency series are converted into euros using the irrevocably fixed exchange rate. This preserves the same growth rates than for the previous national currency series. Both series coincide for years after accession to the euro area but differ for earlier years due to market exchange rate movements.
  • Purchasing Power Standards (PPS) (CP_MPPS) are fictive 'currency' units that remove differences in purchasing power, i.e. different price levels between countries. These parities are obtained as a weighted average of relative price ratios in respect to a homogeneous basket of goods and services, both comparable and representative for each country. They are fixed in a way that makes the average purchasing power of one euro in the European Union equal to one PPS. PPS series should be used for cross-country comparisons in a specific year but do not for comparisons over time since they do not constitute time series.
  • To facilitate the comparisons between countries, data are expressed in percent of the EU aggregate, e.g. using euro (PC_EU_MEUR_CP) or euro (PC_EU_MEUR_CP)
  • Figures are also expressed in relation to total GDP (PC_GDP) or the total aggregate (PC_TOTAL) in case of breakdowns by industry or assets to facilitate comparisons of the relative importance of the aggregates over time or across countries:

 

Volume figures show the development of aggregates excluding inflation. They are typically derived as previous year prices but presented as chain linked volumes, indices or various growth rates. 

  • National accounts volumes for transactions concerning goods and services are estimated in previous year prices (PYP_MNAC or PYP_MEUR) to eliminate the influence of inflation. They are used to derive chain-linked volumes and included in the dissemination for advanced users to allow construction of custom aggregations and derived measures. Since the price base changes every year, the figures do not constitute a homogeneous time series.
  • Quarterly figures of chain-linked level series (by annual overlap method) are obtained by multiplying the ratio (previous year's price quarterly figure at year T / average quarterly current price figure at year T-1) with average quarterly chain-linked volume figure at year T-1. For a specific reference year e.g. 2010 (CLV10_MNAC, CLV10_MEUR) the average quarter in chain-linked volumes equal the average quarter in current prices. Chain-linked volumes with 2005 as reference year (CLV05_MNAC, CLV05_MEUR) are still presented to facilitate comparison with ESA 95 series.
  • Chain-linking involves the loss of additivity for all years except the reference year and the directly following year, because these are the only periods expressed in prices of the reference year. For other years, chain-linked components of GDP will not sum to chain-linked GDP, and chain-linked Member States' GDP will not sum to chain-linked EU GDP.
  • In addition, chain-linking cannot be performed directly on variables that can take both negative and positive values. Therefore, no chain-linked series are provided for changes in inventories (P.52), acquisition less disposal of valuables (P.53) and the external balance (B.11, B.111 for goods only, B.112 for services only). These components are available only at current prices and at previous year's prices.
  • Quarterly figures of index series (CLV_I10) are derived (by annual overlap method) by multiplying the ratio (previous year's price quarterly figure at year T / average quarterly current price figure at year T-1) with average quarterly chain-linked volume figure at year T-1. For a specific reference year e.g. 2010 (CLV10_MNAC, CLV10_MEUR) both the average quarter in chain-linked volumes and the average quarter in current prices equal 100. The volume growth rates are equal with the growth rates in the level series mentioned above. Index series are given only for the reference year 2010 since they can easily be re-referenced to another year (average quarter at a reference year = 100).
  • Growth rates are derived from the level series mentioned above (they all give the same growth rates irrespectively of the currency denominated since the exchange rate is "fixed" to the one in the reference year). CLV_PCH_PRE represent the percentage change over previous period. In the case of annual data, this is the previous year. For quarterly data, it is the change to the previous quarter, which is only disseminated for the seasonally adjusted series, since quarter on quarter growth rates are only meaningful for these series. CLV_PCH_SM represent the percentage change compared to same period in previous year. They are presented irrespectively of the type of adjustment since seasonal and calendar effects should not play a major role year on year. The annualised percentage change over previous period, CLV_PCH_ANN, is defined as ((1+ (CLV_PCH_PRE/100))4)-1)*100 and can be approximated as CLV_PCH_PRE multiplied by 4. It gives more precise information on the scale of growth in comparison to the last annual figure and is more usual in the US or Japan.
  • Contributions to growth are derived for European aggregates since chain-linked volume series do not add up to GDP growth outside the reference year. They reflect the fact that a change in GDP can be attributed to changes in its components, hence showing which component contributed strongly to economic growth and which did not. A component's contribution depends on both its size and its growth. They are calculated as percentage point change over previous period (CON_PPCH_PRE) or the same period in previous year (CON_PPCH_SM). Except for rounding effects, all contributions should sum up to the GDP growth rate. The method applied by Eurostat corresponds to the one described by INSEE. While most countries agreed that this method could be applied to derive contributions to growth for their countries also, some countries preferred to transmit data based on a slightly different methods to be fully consistent with national dissemination. For these countries: Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and Portugal data dissemination may therefore not be fully complete. For those countries, the data are marked with a (d) flag (definition differs). The information for those countries is the same as published nationally. You could find below reference to national methodology. The component and adjustment for which calculation are made in those countries may differ from other (full coverage otherwise)
    • DE: Quarterly national accounts inventory based on ESA 2010 methodology - FS 18, Series S.31 Chapter 3 page 31.
    • NL: NL method for year on year series uses additive time series (constant prices, in average prices of the previous year) instead of the chain linked series.
    • DK: DST Site (In Danish) Please note that sign is inverted for “Final consumption expenditure of non-resident households on the economic territory”
    • PT: The contribution of a component to GDP year-on-year rate of change is equal to the rate of change of the component weighted by its weight in GDP at the same quarter of the previous year. The contribution of a component to GDP quarter-on-quarter rate of change is equal to the rate of change of the component weighted by its weight in GDP at the previous quarter. The volume contributions are based on chain linked volume series.

Implicit deflator series are derived as a ratio of current price to chain-linked volumes series and give indication of underlying price changes.

  • The series differ for national currency or euro series and can be expressed as an index (PD10_NAC or PD10_EUR) or growth rates (PD_PCH_PRE_NAC, PD_PCH_SM_NAC, PD_EUR, PD_PCH_PRE_EUR, PD_PCH_SM_EUR).

Population, employment and derived indicators

  • Estimates of population, employment and labour productivity data are presented in (thousands of) persons (THS_PER), total hours worked (THS_HW) and jobs (THS_JB). To facilitate the analysis of the indicator over time, series can also be expressed as index figures or growth rates.
  • Labour productivity and unit labour costs can be expressed in percent of EU total (PC_EU_PPS, PC_EU_EUR), index (I10) or growth rates (PCH_PRE, PCH_3Y, PCH_5Y, PCH_10Y).

Values of non-financial assets in the balance sheet data are presented in current replacement costs and previous year replacement costs, expressed in euros and units of national currency.

Quarterly data for the euro area and the European Union are derived from all countries for which the respective quarterly data are available. As not all Member States collect quarterly data in time for the different releases scheduled by Eurostat, the following procedure is used to produce quarterly estimates of the European aggregates:

  • All the available quarterly data from Member States are summed up in order to calculate indicators to be used for the estimation of euro area and European Union aggregates. The use of at least some of the data from the largest Member States (Germany, Spain, France, and Italy) is necessary for producing reliable indicators. Indicators are built at current prices and at prices of the previous year. These indicators are then used to produce a preliminary estimate in a statistical framework that links available quarterly and annual information to derive quarterly values for the target euro area and European Union aggregates. According to this procedure, the quarterly movement of the estimated aggregates is led by the quarterly indicators and reflects the movement and weights of the Member States for which data are available.
  • Preliminary estimates are balanced to ensure that the accounting constraints are obeyed. Therefore, both the use of all data available at a specific point of time and the accounting consistency are ensured. The balanced estimate at prices of the previous year is then chain-linked according to the annual overlap technique to produce chain-linked volume series.

For Eurostat's flash estimate of real quarterly GDP growth, the procedure is basically the same; the main difference with respect to the regular estimations is the nature of the basic statistics used. For the flash estimate, these are primarily the flash estimates of GDP provided by some Member States, and appropriate related indicators for some other countries that do not provide a flash estimate of GDP yet. A more detailed description of the GDP flash estimate methodology is presented in two statistical working papers for the European estimates and Member States estimates respectively. More information can be found in the dedicated section of Eurostat’s website.

Eurostat publishes national accounts data for the European Union, euro area and country data (for EU Member States, EFTA countries, candidate countries, the United States, Japan and some other countries on an ad hoc basis). Eurostat estimates the figures for EU and euro area (see section below '18.5. Data Compilation' for details); all the other data are produced by the statistical offices of the respective countries.

 

Countries use many sources to compile their national accounts, among them administrative data from government, population censuses, business surveys and household surveys. No single survey can hence be referred to. Sources vary from country to country and may cover a large set of economic, social, financial and environmental items, which need not always be strictly related to national accounts. In any case, there is no single survey source for national accounts.

 

In particular, different sources are used for calculating the different approaches of GDP mentioned above under '3.4 Concepts and definitions'. If more than one of these approaches is used, their results are usually balanced, i.e. forced to be coherent, so that a single value for GDP is obtained.

 

For further information about sources and collection methods in National Statistical Institutes (NSIs), please refer to National Statistical Institutes and National Central Banks (see Eurostat's web site, and after having chosen the language to be used, select menu: About us - European Statistical System - ESS Partners; you can also find a List of National statistical institutes (NSI) and other national authorities website).

Quarterly.

 

Each quarter Eurostat releases the following estimates European (EU and euro area) main aggregates:

 

Flash estimates: The only variable estimated is GDP growth rate (both seasonally adjusted and unadjusted) for the last quarter. Back series are not revised.

 

  • About 30 days after the end of the reference quarter ('t+30 days'): preliminary GDP flash estimate. Country data are published in the news release.
  • About 45 days after the end of the reference quarter ('t+45 days'): GDP and employment flash estimate. Country data for GDP are published in the news release.

Regular estimates: both quarterly and annual main national accounts (including employment) are estimated with a revision of the whole time series.

 

They are released after about t+65 days and 110 after the end of the quarter. Main findings for the T+65 are presented in a news release. The T+110 database release is associated with a Statistics Explained article.

Member States are required to transmit their data to Eurostat in compliance with the European System of Accounts ESA 2010 transmission programme, subject to derogations. 

The comparability is insured by the application of common definitions (European System of Accounts ESA 2010).

By using a common framework, the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010), data can be comparable over time. Where series cannot be comparable over time, for example those expressed as a percentage of the total EU, then an explanatory note is presented with the series.