Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg (STATEC)

Compiling the national accounts is the responsibility of the National Institute of statistics and economic studies of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg ( Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg  (STATEC)). Article 2 (2) of the Law of the 10th of  July 2011 on the organisation of the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies states that “STATEC’s remit is ... to draw up national, global or sectoral accounts”.
By the terms of the convention of the 18th of December 2009, STATEC collaborates with the Central bank of Luxembourg (BCL) for the compilation of the financial sector accounts. Nevertheless STATEC has the full responsibility for the transmission to Eurostat of the financial sector accounts tables of the ESA 2010 transmission program.

National accounts data concern all data produced and disseminated for an economy according to the definitions and guidelines of the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010).

National accounts provide data for the total economy, but may also include breakdowns of the total economy (into sectors, industries, products, regions, etc.). National accounts provide data for several domains:  annual and quarterly national accounts (main aggregates), sector accounts, financial accounts, supply and use and input-output tables, regional accounts and government finance statistics.

One of the main aggregates of national accounts is the change rate of the price-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP), which indicates the economic development of a country of region and is also referred to as economic growth rate.

In Eurobase, countries' data are presented following the usual data structure.

At national level, data are commonly available for 

- annual and quarterly national accounts: 'main aggregates'

- annual and quarterly sector accounts

- annual financial accounts and balance sheets

- annual non-financial balance sheets

- supply and use and input-output tables

- annual and quarterly government finance statistics data: 'main aggregates', quarterly financial government accounts and government debt

- industry breakdowns of main national accounts variables

- industry by asset breakdowns (stocks and transactions)

- detailed data on taxes, social contributions and government expenditure by function

- pension entitlements in social insurance

The ESA 2010 provides a methodology on common standards, definitions, internationally harmonised classifications and accounting rules that are used for compiling national accounts on comparable bases.

The ESA 2010 defines classifications to be used for: institutional sectors, transactions in products, transactions in non-financial non-produced assets, distributive transactions, transactions in financial assets and liabilities, other changes in assets, balancing and net worth items, balance sheet entries, non-financial assets, financial assets and liabilities.

In addition, for several breakdowns ESA 2010 makes use of other classifications: NACE Rev. 2 for economic activities, CPA 2014 for products by economic activities, COFOG for the functions of government, COICOP for individual consumption by purpose, COPNI for classification of the purposes of non-profit institutions serving households, NUTS 2013 for regional breakdowns.

A full overview of classifications is available in:

- ESA 2010 Chapter 23 Classifications

- Eurostat statistical classifications (including Eurostat's RAMON classification database)

National accounts describe the total economy of a country. All units that have their centre of predominant economic interest in the economic territory of that country are covered.

In addition, several breakdowns of the total are described. Two of the most important breakdowns are the breakdown by institutional sector and the breakdown by NACE Rev. 2 activity. Exhaustiveness is required for each of the breakdown items.

Concerning the institutional sector breakdown, ESA 2010 distinguishes five mutually exclusive domestic institutional sectors: (a) non-financial corporations; (b) financial corporations; (c) general government; (d) households; (e) non-profit institutions serving households. The five sectors together make up the total domestic economy. Each sector is also divided into subsectors.

Regarding the activity breakdown, ESA 2010 applies NACE Rev.2. Activities can be broken down into several levels of detail, for example into 3, 10, 21, 38, 64 or 88 activities. At the 'highest' level a breakdown into 3 categories is defined: (a) agriculture, forestry and fishing; (b) mining and quarrying, manufacturing, electricity gas steam and air conditioning supply, water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities, construction; (c) services.

All statistical concepts and definitions to be used in national accounts are described in Annex A of the ESA 2010 Regulation (link to blue book on ESA2010 methodology). The two main sets of tables concern: (a) the institutional sector accounts; (b) the input-output framework, and the accounts by industry.

The sector accounts provide, by institutional sector, a systematic description of the different stages of the economic process: production, generation of income, distribution of income, redistribution of income, use of income and financial and nonfinancial accumulation. The sector accounts also include balance sheets to describe the stocks of assets, liabilities and net worth at the beginning and the end of the accounting period. The variables/concepts described in the sector accounts include transactions in products, transactions in non-produced non-financial assets, distributive transactions, transactions in financial assets and liabilities, other changes in assets, non-financial and financial assets and liabilities.

The input-output framework, through the supply and use tables, sets out in more detail the production process (cost structure, income generated and employment) and the flows of goods and services (output, imports, exports, final consumption, intermediate consumption and capital formation by product group). These variables are broken down by industry (NACE Rev. 2) and product (CPA 2014).

ESA 2010 also encompasses concepts of population and employment. Such concepts are relevant for the sector accounts, the accounts by industry and the supply and use framework.

Regional accounts provide regional breakdowns for major aggregates such as gross value added by industry, gross fixed capital formation and household income. Regional breakdowns are based on the NUTS classification. National accounts concepts are also used for regional accounts. As a small country, Luxembourg does compile national accounts with a regional breakdown.

In addition Annex A of the ESA 2010 Regulation addresses and defines numerous other concepts and definitions, such as the definition of: statistical units and their groupings, flows and stocks, accounting rules (valuation, time of recording, consolidation and netting).  The main features and principles for the compilation of national accounts can be found in Chapter 1.

Following the ESA 2010 guidelines, in national accounts two types of units and two corresponding ways of subdividing the economy are used: (a) institutional unit; (b) local kind-of-activity unit (local KAU). The first type is used for describing income, expenditure and financial flows as well as balance sheets. The second type of units is used for the description of production processes, for input-output analysis and for regional analysis.

An institutional unit is an economic entity characterised by decision-making autonomy in the exercise of its principal function. A resident unit is regarded as constituting 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.

A local KAU groups all the parts of an institutional unit in its capacity as producer which are located in a single site or in closely located sites, and which contribute to the performance of an activity at the class level (four digits) of the NACE Rev. 2.

An institutional unit comprises one or more local KAUs; a local KAU belongs to one and only one institutional unit.

The national accounts population of a country consists of all resident statistical units (institutional units or local KAUs, see section 3.5). A unit is a resident unit of a country when it has a centre of predominant economic interest on the economic territory of that country, that is, when it engages for an extended period (one year or more) in economic activities on this territory.

National accounts are exhaustive. This means that all resident statistical units are covered.

The reference area for national accounts is the total economy of a country. The total economy of Luxembourg is not broken down into regions

National accounts data are usually compiled for years and quarters.

In general, the ESA 2010 transmission programme requires data starting in 1995 (years) and 1995Q1 (quarters) but some series start later.

The concept of 'base period' is not applied in national accounts. Instead, for some national accounts variables the concepts of previous year prices and chain-linked volumes are applied, as stipulated in Commission Decision 98/715/EC. Expressing variables at the prices of the previous year allows the calculation of volume indices between the current time period and the previous year. After a reference period is chosen as a benchmark, volume indices can be chain-linked and then applied to variables at current prices of the benchmark year. This generates volume estimates for any period of observation.

 Country currently uses 2015 as reference year for the compilation of chain-linked volumes. The method to compile quarterly chain-linked volumes is the annual overlap method.

With the exception of some variables concerning population and labour that are usually expressed in number of persons, hours or jobs, the ESA 2010 system shows all flows and stocks in monetary terms: in euros or other national currency (EUR for Luxembourg). Flows and stocks shall be measured according to their exchange value, i.e. the value at which flows and stocks are in fact, or could be, exchanged for cash. Market prices are, thus, the ESA's reference for valuation.

In addition to measurement in current (market) prices, some national accounts variables are also expressed in previous year's prices and chain-linked volumes, see section 3.9. Furthermore, it is possible to derive growth rates and indices, and various other measures '(e.g. percentages, per capita data, data expressed in purchasing power standards)' can be applied as well.

The usual reference period to be used for presenting national accounts data is the calendar year for annual data and the quarter for quarterly data.

Two basic kinds of information are recorded: flows and stocks. Flows refer to actions and effects of events that take place within a given period of time (year or quarter), while stocks refer to positions at a point of time (usually the beginning or end of a year or quarter).

Article 2 (2) of the Law of the 10th of  July 2011 on the organisation of the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies states that “STATEC’s remit is ... to draw up national, global or sectoral accounts”.

National accounts are compiled in accordance with the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010) which was published in the Official Journal as Annex A of Regulation (EU) No 549/2013. The ESA 2010 transmission programme is covered in Annex B

The ESA 2010 has the form of a Regulation and it provides for:

• a methodology (Annex A) on common standards, definitions, classifications and accounting rules that shall be used for compiling accounts and tables on comparable bases (link to blue book on ESA 2010 methodology);
• a programme of data transmission (Annex B) setting out the time limits by which Member States shall transmit to Eurostat the accounts and tables (link to ESA 2010 transmission programme).

Temporary derogations to the data transmission requirements have been granted to Member States, up to 2020, by the Commission Implementing Decision 2014/403/EU of 26 June 2014 thus allowing national data to deviate temporarily from the ESA 2010 transmission requirements.

Some other legal acts with relevance for national accounts concern:

- Commission Decision 98/715 of 30 November 1998 and Commission Decision 2002/990 of 17 December 2002 on measurement of price and volumes in national accounts.

- Legal act on the excessive deficit procedure

- Regulation (EU) 2019/516 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 March 2019 on the harmonisation of gross national income at market prices

Several separate acts, often regarding classifications such as: NACE Rev.2, CPA 2014, COFOG, COICOP, NUTS 2013.

On the Eurostat website, sections 'National accounts'  and 'Government finance and EDP', more legal acts relevant for national accounts can be found.

By the terms of the convention of the 18th of December 2009, STATEC collaborates with the Central bank of Luxembourg (BCL) for the compilation of the financial sector accounts. Nevertheless STATEC has the full responsibility for the transmission to Eurostat of the financial sector accounts tables of the ESA 2010 transmission program.

National accounts data are key datasets used and published by many international organisations to improve data consistency and exploit synergies for data collection and validation. An initiative to improve data sharing for National Accounts was launched in 2016 by the Inter-Agency Group on Economic and Financial Statistics (comprising representatives of the Bank for International Settlements, the European Central Bank, Eurostat, the IMF, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the United Nations, and the World Bank)  under the G20 Data Gap Initiative.

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. The European Statistics Code of Practice provides further conditions that have to be respected by statistical offices in regard to statistical confidentiality (Principle 5).

The Law of July 10, 2011 (Pdf, 232 Kb) on the organisation of the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (article 16) provide that the statistical institute is not allowed to publish confidential data.

In a statistical sense, ‘confidential data’ means data which allow statistical units to be identified, either directly or indirectly, thereby disclosing individual information. To determine whether a statistical unit is identifiable, account shall be taken of all relevant means that might reasonably be used by a third party to identify the statistical unit. Although national accounts data are usually highly aggregated, there may be possible cases for detailed breakdowns of aggregates and/or small economies. In these cases measures should be taken in order not to disclose data of a separate statistical unit.

National release calendar is published on the statistical portal of Luxembourg.

National release calendar is published on the statistical portal of Luxembourg.

In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice (Principle 6 on impartiality and objectivity, Principle 13 on timeliness and punctuality and Principle 15 on accessibility and clarity), national accounts data that meet the quality standards, including relevant metadata, should be made available to users. Users should be informed when the data become available and how they can be accessed.

National accounts data is available on the portal https://statistiques.public.lu/ und the themes Economy and prices and then National Accounts.

https://statistiques.public.lu/en/themes/economie-finances.html#comptes-nationaux

The release policy for national accounts in published on statistical portal of Luxembourg.

New quarterly national accounts data are published each quarter: 4 times per year. Annual national accounts data are published at least once a year: when data for a new year are added.

The most important results of national accounts are issued in news releases.

There are only occasionnaly specific publications on national accounts data.

All validated national accounts data is available on the statistical portal of Luxembourg.

Access to microdata is only possible for the NSI staff when this access is necessary to compile statistics. For people outside the NSI, such an access could only be granted exceptionally for a limited use of scientific interest and a under a strict controlled environment and procedures. When results are published, they cannot contain any confidential data, or even any data which enables the recovering of confidential data by reasonable means.

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The general methodological framework for the compilation of national accounts in the EU is ESA 2010.

In addition, several handbooks have been developed to help compilers to produce national accounts data. Some of the most important methodological manuals are the Handbook on quarterly national accounts, Manual on regional accounts methods, Eurostat Manual of Supply, Use and Input-Output Tables, Manual on Government Deficit and Debt. Also, guidance manuals on specific topics are available, e.g. compilation guide on land estimation, compilation guide on inventories, Manual on measuring Research and Development in ESA 2010.

The manuals above specifically apply to EU national accounts statistics. However, world-wide equivalents are often also available: SNA 2008, Quarterly National Accounts Manual, Handbook on Input-Output Table Compilation and Analysis, Government Finance Statistics Manual.

Quality of national accounts data is assured by strict application of ESA 2010 concepts and by applying the guidelines of the ESS handbook for quality reports.

During the overall compilation process, national accounts data undergo several kinds of quality checks, e.g. ex-ante (source statistics), ongoing (results), ex-post (methods used) and external checks (Eurostat).

Quality of national accounts data is assured by strict application of ESA 2010 concepts and by applying the guidelines of the ESS handbook for quality reports.

During the overall compilation process, national accounts data undergo several kinds of quality checks, e.g. ex-ante (source statistics), ongoing (results), ex-post (methods used) and external checks (Eurostat).

Eurostat provides methodological validation of GNI data and EDP data.

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National accounts data provide key information for economic policy monitoring and decision making, for forecasting, for administrative purposes, for informing the general public about economic developments (directly or indirectly via news agencies), and as input for economic research.

At national level, ministries, the Central Bank, business and professional organisations, scientific and academic communities and economic researchers are usually the entities who most use national accounts data.

National accounts data is used to calculate Gross National Income-based own resource of the European Union.

Within the EU's Stability and growth pact, Member Statec notify data concerning government deficit and debt data to EU Commission. This data is based on national accounts definition and data. Government deficit and debt should exceed the reference values of 3% and 60%, respectively, in terms of GDP, GDP being the lead indicator from national accounts. 

On EU level, the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP) is a surveillance mechanism that aims to identify potential macroeconomic risks early on relies on a scoreboard with 12 indicators. National accounts data are essentiel for certain indicators as some of them are expressed in terms of GDP and others are drawn directly from national accounts aggregates.

International organisations like EU Commission, European Central Bank, OECD, IMF are relying heavily on national accounts data when analysing the economic situation.

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National accounts cover the domains national accounts main aggregates, government accounts, sector accounts and supply and use tables.

The ESA 2010 transmission programme, consisting of 22 tables across all national accounts domains (see section10.3) defines the minimum national accounts data set that must be available in all Member States of the EU.

In recent years, overall completeness rate of National Accounts Main Aggregates, as required by ESA 2010 Transmission Programme, was almost at the highest level, except of information on inventories and a derived aggregate were missing in T2600 (Balance sheets for non-financial assets).

The revision analysis over recent 5 years shows the following results for two revision indicators foreseen in the Practical guidelines for revising ESA 2010 data.

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Not applicable.

Luxembourg transmitted all required main aggregates tables before or in line with the legal deadlines (including voluntary t+30 confidential employment flash estimates) except for 2021Q2, where one month delay was due to the implementation of a Benchmark revision. Since 2021, quarterly datasets were provided at T+60 days with P flags (provisional), and final data in line with national publication after about 75 days.

Luxembourg transmitted all required main aggregates tables before or in line with the legal deadlines (including voluntary t+30 confidential employment flash estimates) except for 2021Q2, where one month delay was due to the implementation of a Benchmark revision. Since 2021, quarterly datasets were provided at T+60 days with P flags (provisional), and final data in line with national publication after about 75 days.

The geographical comparability of national accounts in Member States of the EU is ensured by the application of common definitions of the European System of Accounts ESA 2010). Worldwide geographical comparison is also possible as most non-European countries apply the SNA 2008 guidelines, and SNA 2008 is consistent with ESA 2010.

As the data for all reference periods are compiled according to the requirements of the ESA 2010, national accounts data are fully comparable over time. Also, in the case of fundamental changes to methods or classifications, revisions of long time series are performed, usually going far back into the past.

Within the system of national accounts there is full consistency between the domains: annual and quarterly national accounts, government accounts, sector accounts, financial accounts, regional accounts, supply and use tables. However, in practice full consistency may not always be possible and temporary discrepancies might occur. They are usually the result of vintage differences.

Some minor discrepencies exists between National Accounts of Luxembourg and GFS data, due to vintage effects. GFS data has its own compilation process to comply with the notification requirements to the EU Commission of government deficit and debt within EU's Stability and growth pact. There some more recent source data included in GFS data when published compared to the main set of national accounts data.

Primary statistics like structural business statistics (SBS) and short term statistics (STS) are widely used as input for national accounts. However, there is no full consistency between these statistical domains and national accounts. Main reasons are differences in concepts/definitions and in coverage. Balance of payments is also used as an important source for national accounts. The definitions and coverage of balance of payments, as defined in the BPM6 manual, are nearly fully harmonised with those in ESA 2010. Therefore, balance of payments variables are in principle fully coherent with the corresponding national accounts variables. Nevertheless macroeconomic statistics of Luxembourg show some discrepencies between national accounts and balance of payments, due to different compilation methods and source data. Some vintage effects exists too. Luxembourg is engaged in a process to resorb those discrepencies.

The coherence between annual and quarterly national accounts main aggregates data of Luxembourg is very high.

The Luxembourgish data are also coherent in terms of the additivity of the series.

The internal coherence of the Luxembourgish data is at a very high level.

Not available.

National accounts data are subject to continuous revisions as new input data become available. They are called routine revisions and entail regular revisions of country data and of the European aggregates, which are derived from the former.

More rarely, exceptional revisions (called benchmark revisions) will result from major changes in data sources, classifications or methodology. For example, when changing from ESA95 to ESA 2010, a benchmark revision occurred at country level and at euro area/EU data level.

Two Task Forces developed proposals for a more harmonised approach for benchmark and routine revisions. The one under the auspices of the Directors of Macroeconomic Statistics (DMES) dealt with benchmark revision policy, the other under the auspices of the Committee on Monetary, Financial, and Balance of Payments Statistics (CMFB) on the European Harmonised Revision Policy dealing with routine revisions. 

Information concerning revision policy for national and regional accounts domains is published on statistical portal of Luxembourg.

Regarding revision policy implementation, the recommended harmonized revision policy is not yet fully applied. Nevertheless there is a commitment to comply fully with european harmonized revision policy by 2024.

While revisions should be seen as a process to progressively improve the quality of national accounts as e.g. better sources and/or methods become available, the availability of metadata on revisions is a key element for understanding  national accounts data and revisions between subsequent releases.

Therefore, information on the main reasons for revisions and their nature (new source data available, new methods, etc.) as well as possibly quantitative and qualitative assessment on the average size of revisions and their direction based on historical data is required.

Luxembourg performed the last benchmark revisions in 2021. The next is scheduled for 2024. For the other years Luxembourg performed or will perform routine revisions (revisions of the latest four reference years).

National accounts compilation builds up on statistics that are primarily collected for other purposes (primary statistics).  Data collections only for national accounts are exceptionnal.

National accounts rely on a variety of data sources, including administrative data: statistical business register, Luxembourgish business register, accounting statements, tax data, budgetary reports, population censuses, statistical surveys of businesses and households, employment data from the registration to mandatory social security, statements of supervising institutions and branch organisations especially in the financial sector, annual and quarterly reports, trade statistics on goods and services, R&D surveys, balance of payments information (results and source data on interests payments for banks (LU-NCB) and security-by-security reporting (LU-NCB) for the compilation of interests on securities), foreign direct invement statistics, Economic accounts for agriculture. National account deflators are based on different prices statistics: National consumer price index, Industry producer price index, Output price index in construction, Services producer price index or on compensation of employees if no better alternative is available. For some activities direct volume measures are used.

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National accounts are usually compiled on an annual or quarterly basis from other primary statistics. 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, excepted structural business survey data which is available only a yearly basis. Some households' surveys are available on an annual frequency. Availability of administrative data varies from source to source (monthly, quarterly or yearly). Population censuses are mostly collected every decade.

The frequency and timing of the compilation of national accounts are not necessary 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 or quarterly estimates. Therefore data sources used for annual national accounts and quarterly national accounts differ to some extent. Quarterly national accountes use essentially data with higher frequency (quarterly or monthly). These sources are completed with data sources with a yearly update for annual national accounts compilation purposes.

The Statistical Business Register serves as the basis for identifying economic units and as sampling base for every statistical business survey. STATEC manages the statistical register of businesses and legal persons in accordance to Regulation (EC) No 177/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 February 2008 establishing a common framework for business registers for statistical purpose.  The following sources are used:

• Répertoire national des personnes physiques et morales [National Register of Natural Persons and Legal Bodies] (Source : Centre des technologies de l’information de l’Etat)
• Répertoire signalétique des assujettis à la TVA [Register of VAT Taxpayers] (source : Administration de l’Enregistrement)
• VAT returns with annual, quarterly and monthly data turnover, input tva, output tax, intra-Community acquisition of goods, intra-Community supply of goods, extra-Community imports, extra-Community exports, acquisitions of goods within triangular operations, supply of goods within triangular operations] (Source: Administration de l’Enregistrement)
• Répertoire signalétique des employeurs figurant dans le fichier de la sécurité sociale [Register of Employers Listed in the Social Security Register] (Source : Centre d’Affiliation Commun de la Sécurité Sociale)
• File with data about paid Employment broken down by employer and by employee’s status (Source : Inspection Générale de la Sécurité Sociale and Centre d’Affiliation Commun de la Sécurité Sociale)

The Register is updated on a monthly basis.

National accounts departments typically do not collect data themselves but receive them from other departments or institutions.

• Reuse of other statistics from STATEC, NCB or other institutions
• Reuse of administrative data: employement, compensation of employees, indirect tax data, business accounts, prudential reporting to supervisory bodies, central and local gouverment accounts, social security accounts,

Especially in the latter case, STATEC has signed different Memorandum of Understanding defining the goal for the data exchange and principles to apply to the use of the data.

For different kind of data, national account compilers perform the data collection:

• R&D of higher education and general government (exhaustive survey),
• Encoding of financial statements data for Non-profit institutions serving households with complete accounts, other NPISHs with incomplete or missing annual accounts are taken from the statistical business register and estimated through proxy variables (Compensation of employees, cost structure of general government entities, declared turnover);
• Encoding of financial statements data for some public bodies
• Encoding of financial statements data for some type of institutions when supervisory data is not available
• Endocing of data for direct volume measures

Data validation refers to any activity aimed at verifying that the value of a data item comes from a given set of acceptable values. It is a key task performed in all statistical domains and particularly important for national accounts, which is a key dataset for economic analysis and policy decisions.

The confrontation of data from different sources is an integral part of the national accounts compilation. Source data used in national accounts undergo a sequence of plausibility and cohrence checks within NSIs. National accounts compilers perform supplementary checks to the data provided from other statistical domains.

In order to increase overall data quality and workflow efficiency, the European Statistical System (ESS) is moving towards more harmonisation of validation activities including the definition of common standards, tools and support for implementation (see ESS validation website). National accounts are a pilot in this area. An ESA 2010 Task Force on validation was established in 2015 to agree and document validation rules in an ESA 2010 validation handbook and progressively implement them in a pre-validation service for national accounts data.  For the validation of national accounts data, country 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 website.

Data sources, methods and compilation techniques are country specific, but should be employed in such a way that the definitions and concepts in ESA 2010 are met. Many guidance documents on general and specific national accounts compilation issues are available. See for more details section 10.6.

Key approaches and techniques for the compilation of national accounts in country Luxembourg can be summarised as follows:

The leading approach(es) to compile GDP in the framework of annual national accounts in country Luxembourg is the production approach. Some items excepted, most components of the expenditure approach are compiled independantly from the production approach. Consistency is obtained via reconciliation/balancing process in the supply and use tables. The income approach is calculated as a residual (Operating surplus) in Luxembourg. The same/another approach is used for the compilation of quarterly national accounts. Sector accounts are compiled after the main aggregates.

General government accounts are calculated independently from rest of the accounts in order to fullfill all the requests for the notification of public budget deficits and public debt to the European Union Commission. These results are then integrated in national accounts. Due to different time constraints with respect data sources, there may be some minor differences between General government accounts and the rest of the accounts, especially sector accounts, for the same deadline of publication. These discrepencies are only vintage differences and no methodological differences.

For related information see also sections 10.6. and 17.1.

The objectives of seasonal adjustment are to identify and remove seasonal fluctuations and calendar effects which can mask short and long-term movements in a time series and impede a clear understanding of underlying phenomena. Seasonal adjustment is therefore a fundamental process in the interpretation of time series to inform policy making (ESS guidelines on seasonal adjustment, 2015 Edition).

For quarterly national accounts (QNA), the series include:

- seasonal Adjustment (containing also Calendar Adjustment)of all QNA series;
- only Calendar Adjustment (without Seasonal Adjustment) of all QNA series;
- unadjusted QNA Series

Direct seasonal adjustment is applied. No Benchmarking for the Seasonally Adjusted series to the Calendar Adjusted series is performed, so additivity is not given. No Benchmarking of Seasonally Adjusted QNA Series to annual national accounts series is performed, but seasonal component should be 0 over the year. Hence additivity is given in case of absence of calendar effects. An X-13ARIMA-SEATS method with seasonal and calendar adjustment is applied, but without trend estimation. Detection for Additive Outliers, Transitory Changes, Level Shifts is performed. However, detection of Seasonal Outliers is not done.
The described adjustments are performed with the JDemetra+ 2.2.3 software.

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