Kosovo Agency of Statistics - KAS

Department for Economic Statistics and National Account - National Account

St. Zenel Salihu nr.4 10 000

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 in Kosovo* are estimated in annual and quarterly bases, in current and in the prices of previous year. The main economic indicator  of the national accounts system is the gross domestic product (GDP). The estimation of GDP by production approach represents the sum of the value added of all institutional units. Experimental Sector accounts are compiled for the first time within the IPA 2015 project. Also government accounts are compiled in annual and quarterly bases.

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.

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.

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).

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 Kosovo. The total economy 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. If backwards data exist, they may have been compiled according to earlier versions of ESA and can present conceptual breaks with those compiled under ESA2010.

National accounts annual data in  Kosovo exists from 2008, at current prices and prices of the previous year. Data are in line with ESA 2010 and NACE Rev. 2 and are available in the form of Press releases.

Quarterly national accounts data are available from 2010.

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.

GDP at constant prices uses the prices of the previous year so that the base year is always the previous year, for annual and quarterly estimates.

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. 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.

Kosovo follows the rules described above (Euro).

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).

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).

Statistical units, natural and legal persons, regardless of whether they have a legal personality or not, are obliged to provide complete, updated and truthful information to the KAS and other producers of official statistics in appropriate form, timely and free of charge determined by the producer of official statistics, defined in article 2, Law No. 04/L-036 ON OFFICIAL STATISTICS OF REPUBLIC OF KOSOVO.

Data are shared with other institutions in accordance with specific agreements: Ministry of Finance, Tax Administration, Customs Administration and Central Bank of Kosovo.

International institutions: Eurostat, World Bank, UN organizations and International Monetary Fund.

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 privacy of data providers (households, enterprises, administrations and other respondents), the confidentiality of the information they provide and its use only for statistical purposes are absolutely guaranteed.

Kosovo Agency shall ensure that individual data collected for statistical purposes, whether collected from natural or legal persons, or bodies and organizations of the public administration (hereinafter “Respondents”), are handled in a strictly confidential manner and used exclusively for statistical purposes. Law 04/L-036, Article 34.

All respondents shall be obliged, in accordance with the applicable law, to cooperate and provide timely and accurately statistical data to the Agency, and to cooperate with the Agency to verify the accuracy of the collected data. Law 04/L-036, Article 21: http://ask.rks-gov.net/media/2024/law-on-officiial-statistics.pdf.

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. Guidance on how to prevent disclosure can be found in the Handbook on Statistical Disclosure Control.

Access to confidential data in Kosovo shall be permitted only to persons who are in charge of producing the official statistics up to that level that these data are necessary for producing statistics. Article 37, Law No. 04/L-036. Data transmitted which are not for publishing are with notification letter. If  data are with a confidentiality flag, these data are not published.

Good practice requires that new national accounts data and associated news releases are announced in a release calendar that is published well in advance of the respective releases.

KAS publishes yearly an advanced release calendar for all its publication for the current year. The calendar is publicly accessible on the KAS website.

http://ask.rks-gov.net/en/kosovo-agency-of-statistics/news/release-calendar

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.

The general policy of KAS is: before the publishing of statistics on the KAS web site, a press release is available on the web site to inform users and media.

All users get access to data at the same time. Data is published on the KAS website, section National accounts.

Quarterly national accounts data are published each quarter: 4 times per year. However, depending on circumstances and national practices, initially released quarterly national accounts data may be revised and disseminated again. Annual national accounts data are published at least once a year: when data for a new year are added. But, depending on country practices and revision policy, annual data can also be published more often, e.g. publication of a provisional estimate early in the calendar year and a revised one later in the calendar year.

Annual national accounts data for Kosovo are published at t+9 months after the end of the period. The transmission requirements for each dataset are defined in the ESA 2010 transmission programme.

Quarterly national accounts data for Kosovo are published at 90 days after the end of the reference quarter.

The most important results of national accounts are issued in news releases. New key national accounts data may also be presented in press conferences or press briefings. The exact dates are pre-announced in release calendars http://ask.rks-gov.net/en/kosovo-agency-of-statistics/economy/national-accounts-gdp.

In addition to news releases, national accounts data may be disseminated in other publications, such as statistical papers, yearbooks, internal and external articles. Usually this concerns publications in which more in-depth analysis is carried out.

KAS publishes the following regular publications: GDP by production and Expenditure approach in current and constant prices in annual and quarterly bases, on web and yearbooks.

KAS publications, tables and material for press release are always available in three languages: Albanian, English and Serbian.

In order to enable easy access to national accounts data, all validated national accounts data should be made available to users by publishing them in an online database.

Annual and quarterly at: http://ask.rks-gov.net/en/kosovo-agency-of-statistics/economy/national-accounts-gdp.

Not applicable.

In addition to news releases and other publications (see sections 10.1 and 10.2), information on national accounts may be posted using social media.

https://bqk-kos.org/nsdp/

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.

A brief explanation of the definitions, key concepts and methodological explanations for users is presented in the publication of data: http://ask.rks-gov.net/en/kosovo-agency-of-statistics/economy/national-accounts-gdp.

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.

KAS is in the process of preparation of the quality report.

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.

The document 'GNI Inventory' in Kosovo elaborated under IPA multi-beneficiary  projects serves as a basis for assessing the quality of the results.

Not available for Kosovo.

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.

International users: Eurostat, World Bank, UN organizations and International Monetary Fund.

National users: Ministries and other public administration bodies, Local government and other local government bodies, Central Bank of Kosovo, Non-governmental organizations, Students and Researchers Media.

Views and opinions of users of national accounts statistics can be collected and analysed as one of the tools to 'measure' the relevance of national accounts data.

One of the key elements to ensure the quality of statistical data in KAS is the measurement of the satisfaction of users. The survey aims to gather comprehensive information on the needs and requirements of users for official statistical data. KAS has organized the User satisfactory survey and staff satisfactory survey. The results are published in KAS web.

In most countries national accounts cover the domains national accounts main aggregates, government accounts, sector accounts regional accounts and supply and use tables. However, the content of the data on these domains as well as the (details of the) various breakdowns (by region, sector, industry, product, etc.) may deviate per country, depending on national needs and available sources.

Kosovo national accounts cover the domains national accounts main aggregates, government accounts, (experimental sector accounts). Annual national accounts provide a basic view of the macroeconomic aggregates - Gross domestic product by production and expenditure approach using international methodology ESA 2010. KAS has transmitted the data according to the transmission programme (annual GDP and Quarterly GDP).

The compilation of national accounts is a complex task that involves many different data sources and therefore it is not possible to provide simple measures of accuracy estimate.

KAS makes the revisions and explanations of the data when this occurs.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

National accounts data should become available to users as timely as possible, taking into account the frequency of the data (annual or quarterly), the character of the data (info on the structure of an economy or on conjuncture developments) and an adequate balance between accuracy and timeliness.

The ESA 2010 transmission programme defines the required timeliness for all national accounts tables. Quarterly tables should become available between 2 and 3 months after the quarter-end. The annual tables have to be transmitted between 2 months (main aggregates) and 36 months (supply and use tables) after the end of the reference year.

The GDP main aggregates for annual and quarterly is transmitted on regular bases (within two week after publication on the KAS web).

Good practice requires that the dates on which national accounts data become available are pre-announced and that the pre-announced publication dates are met.

National accounts data transmissions in the framework of the ESA 2010 transmission programme should be punctually delivered to Eurostat at the timeliness defined in the transmission programme (or before).

Quarterly data are published in accordance with the Annual Plan of Kosovo agency of statistics and Statistical Release Calendar in the t+90 days after end of the reference quarter.

Annual data are published in accordance with the Annual Plan of Kosovo agency of statistics and Statistical Release Calendar, in  September of current year for previous year, respectively deadline for data transmission by Data transmission programme (t+9).

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.

The comparability is insured by the application of common definitions of ESA 2010 which enables the geographical comparability of data between Kosovo and other countries.

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.

By using a common framework, the European System of Accounts  ESA 2010, data for Kosovo can be comparable over time, for annual time series 2008-2017, using NACE rev.2 classification.

For quarterly data, time series are comparable starting with IQ 2010.

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.

Primary statistics like structural business statistics (SBS), short term statistics (STS) and labour force statistics (LFS) 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 fully harmonised with those in ESA 2010. Therefore, balance of payments variables are in principle fully coherent with the corresponding national accounts variables.

Annual and quarterly data for all sub domains of national accounts should be coherent.

After publishing annual GDP data quarterly data are revised to be in line with annual data in order to be coherent.

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.

No revision policy established in KAS.

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.

In KAS main reasons for revisions are: new source data available, new methods.

National and regional accounts compilation builds up 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.

The source data for calculation of GDP are:

a) Statistical data sources: Structural business survey, household budget survey (HBS), labor force survey (LFS), agriculture household survey (AHS), foreign trade statistics (import and export of goods), Consumer Price Index (CPI), Producer Price Index (PPI), IMPI, Input and Output agriculture Indices

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. Some households' surveys are available on quarterly or annual frequency (sometimes even less frequent). Availability of administrative data varies from country to country. Population censuses are mostly collected every decade.

Frequency of data collection in Kosovo is usually in quarterly and annual bases for the surveys organized in KAS and quarterly bases for the administrative data sources.

The data collection is very country specific and also varies according to the nature of the data source, e.g. administrative data, tax and car registers, surveys, accounting statements.  Guidance can be found in the Handbook of Recommended Practices for Questionnaire Development and Testing Methods in the ESS.

KAS receives the data from other departments in KAS regarding the survey data and from the ministries and CBK regarding the administrative data.

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 original received data are subject of checks, relying on the principles of completeness and consistency.

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.

Data processing of national accounts is based on the verification of eligibility and consistency of all statistical data used for continuous analysis of the results and cross-checking that are a part of the compiling GDP.

Key approaches and techniques for the compilation of national accounts in Kosovo can be summarised as follows: The leading approaches to compile GDP in the framework of annual national accounts in Kosovo are the production and expenditure approach. Consistency is obtained via reconciliation/balancing process. Notably, changes in inventories and valuables are derived as residuals. The same approach is used for the compilation of quarterly national accounts.

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, Annex, point 1).

There is not yet defined procedures for adjustment data. In order to meet the methodological requirements as much as possible the balancing adjustments are made. The seasonal adjustment was done with the support of IPA multi-beneficiary projects. Data are experimental.

No comment.