Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia - SURS

National Accounts Section, Macroeconomic Statistics Division

SURS, The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia
Litostrojska cesta 54
SI-1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia

The sector accounts systematically describe different stages of the economic process (i.e. production, generation of income, distribution and redistribution of income, use of income and financial and non-financial accumulation) for all institutional sectors. Data are produced and disseminated for total economy and individual sectors according to the definitions and guidelines of the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010).

The purpose of quarterly sector accounts is to show the quarterly dynamics of non-financial transactions and balancing items by institutional sector. Key statistics are set according to their importance in a particular sector. They include balancing items of individual accounts such as net lending / net borrowing of the total economy and individual sectors, balance of current transfers with the rest of the world, disposable income of households, etc., and indicators of individual transactions that are presented relative to their share in a particular aggregate: household saving rate, investment rate of non-financial corporations and others.

The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia publishes quarterly sector accounts data in its online SI-STAT Database: http://pxweb.stat.si/pxweb/dialog/statfile1.asp

Data are presented in the section “Economy-National Accounts” and organised in the "Non-financial sector accounts (ESA 2010)" group of tables:

In Eurobase, data for Slovenia are presented following the data structure as mentioned at Eurostat metadata.

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

It also 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 (ESA 2010 Chapter 23 Classifications).

The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia also uses the Standard Classification of Institutional Sectors (SKIS), which has been a national standard since 1998. The current version of SKIS is based on ESA 2010 classification of institutional sectors.

Link to the national classifications and code lists: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/Methods/Classifications. 

According to ESA 2010, total economy includes all institutional units that are resident in the economic territory of the Republic of Slovenia. A resident institutional unit is an institutional unit that has a centre of predominant economic interest on the economic territory of that country, irrespective of nationality, legal form or presence on the economic territory at the time it carries out the transaction. Resident institutional units are grouped into institutional sectors on common characteristics (non-financial companies in the sector of non-financial corporations, households in the household sector, etc.). ESA 2010 distinguishes five mutually exclusive domestic institutional sectors: (S.11) non-financial corporations; (S.12) financial corporations; (S.13) general government; (S.14) households; (S.15) non-profit institutions serving households which together make up the total domestic economy. In addition, the rest of the world sector covers all transactions between resident and non-resident units. Data on transactions on subsectors are not available in quarterly accounts.

S.11 Non-financial corporations

Non-financial corporations sector (S.11) consists of institutional units which are independent legal entities and market producers, and whose principal activity is the production of goods and non-financial services.

S.12 Financial corporations

Financial corporations sector (S.12) consists of institutional units which are independent legal entities and market producers, and whose principal activity is the production of financial services. Such institutional units comprise all corporations which are principally engaged in financial intermediation and auxiliary financial activities.

S.13 General government

General government sector (S.13) consists of institutional units which are non-market producers whose output is intended for individual and collective consumption, and are financed by compulsory payments made by units belonging to other sectors, and institutional units principally engaged in the redistribution of national income and wealth.

S.14 Households

Households sector (S.14) consists of individuals or groups of individuals as consumers and as entrepreneurs producing market goods and non-financial and financial services (market producers). Households as consumers may be defined as small groups of persons who share the same living accommodation, who pool their income and wealth and who consume certain types of goods and services collectively, mainly housing and food. Households as entrepreneurs are sole proprietorships and partnerships without legal status, which are market producers.

Households sector also includes individuals or groups of individuals as producers of goods and non-financial services for exclusively own final use (services of owner-occupied dwellings and domestic services produced by paid employees).

S.15 Non-profit institutions serving households (NPISH)

Non-profit institutions serving households (NPISHs) sector (S.15) consists of non-profit institutions which are separate legal entities, which serve households and which are private non-market producers. Their principal resources are voluntary contributions in cash or in kind from households in their capacity as consumers, from payments made by general government and from property income. Examples of NPISH are trade unions, professional or learned societies, political parties, cultural societies, sports clubs, charities, etc.

S.2   Rest of the world

Rest of the world sector (S.2) consists of non-resident units which are engaged in transactions with resident institutional units, or have other economic links with resident units. Its accounts provide an overall view of the economic relationships linking the national economy with the rest of the world. The institutions of the EU and international organisations are included.

Sector accounts provide a systematic description of different stages of the economic process: production, generation of income, distribution of income, redistribution of income, use of income and financial and non-financial accumulation by institutional sector.

In the quarterly sector accounts over 70 different non-financial transactions and balancing items for domestic economy sectors and the rest of the world sector are published. Data for households and NPISH sectors are published only for these two sectors together. Transactions in goods and services are marked with the letter "P", e.g. P.1 Output, P.2 Intermediate consumption, P.51 Gross fixed capital formation etc., distributive transactions with the letter "D", e.g. D.1 Compensation of employees, D.2 Taxes on production and imports, D.41 Interest etc. and balancing items are marked with the letter "B", e.g. B.1GQ Gross domestic product at market prices, B.6G Gross disposable income, B.9 Net lending (+) / net borrowing (-) etc.

Balancing items are summary indicators of the result of the activity of the total economy and institutional sectors and provide key information for the purposes of macroeconomic analysis and comparisons over time and space. They are calculated for total economy and various sectors by adding up the values of given transactions from both sides of the accounts, i.e. »resources« and »uses« side. Resources add to the economic value of a given sector and uses reduce the economic value of a given sector. Balancing items are shown gross, before the deduction of consumption of fixed capital.

This methodological information comprises of short definitions of balancing items while detailed and comprehensive definitions including all published transactions are described in Annex A of the ESA 2010 Regulation (link to blue book on ESA2010 methodology).

Gross domestic product

Gross domestic product (GDP) is the final result of the production activity of resident producer units. There are three approaches (production, expenditure and income approach) to compile and to define GDP. GDP by production approach is equal to the sum of gross value added of institutional sectors (plus taxes less subsidies on products). GDP by expenditure approach consists of domestic final uses of goods and services (final consumption and gross capital formation), plus exports and minus imports of goods and services. GDP by income approach is measured as the sum of uses in generation of income account, which shows the distribution of income between the production factors (via compensation of employees and gross operating surplus with mixed income) and government (via taxes on production and imports, and subsidies (-)). GDP is also the balancing item of the total economy production account.

Gross operating surplus

Gross operating surplus is an income that is a result of an activity before taking into account interests, rents and other costs payable or receivable by institutional unit. It represents the part of income that derives from capital used in the production process. It is the basis for calculating the profit share, the key performance indicator of non-financial corporations in national accounts.

Gross mixed income

Gross mixed income of total economy is equal to gross mixed income of the household sector. Household sector also consists of unincorporated enterprises that generate income from self-employment which consists of both capital income and labour income. To distinguish capital from labour income is often impossible and therefore a specific balancing item (characteristic only for the household sector) that includes both types of income is created.

Gross balance of primary income / GNI

Gross national income (GNI) consists of all primary income of resident institutional units (compensation of employees, taxes on production and imports less subsidies, property income (income minus expenses), operating surplus and mixed income).

Primary income is the income which resident units receive by virtue of their direct participation in the production process, and the income receivable by the owner of financial assets (dividends) or natural resources (rents).

GNI equals GDP minus primary income payable by resident units to non-resident units plus primary income receivable by resident units from non-resident units.

Gross disposable income

Gross disposable income is income available to the total economy or to an individual sector for consumption and saving. Disposable income of the total economy is the sum of disposable incomes of all institutional sectors and is equal to the national income, adjusted for current transfers between resident units and non-resident units (plus received from abroad minus payable abroad). Current transfers are current taxes on income, wealth, etc., social contributions and benefits and other current transfers. Gross disposable income is of particular importance for the household sector as the level of household consumption, which is one of the key criteria of material well-being, largely influences the level of household consumption.

Gross adjusted disposable income

Gross adjusted disposable income of the total economy equals the gross disposable income of the total economy. Indicators vary for the sectors involved in the redistribution of part of final consumption expenditure. Redistributed are general government and NPISHs expenditures for individual goods and services which are part of disposable income (but not part of adjusted disposable income) of general government and NPISHs. The concept of adjusted disposable income takes into account that those goods and services are ultimately consumed by the households. Therefore in order to derive adjusted disposable income, disposable income of households is increased, while disposable incomes of general government and NPISHs are decreased for the corresponding value. These transactions are shown in the accounts as social transfers in kind.

Gross saving

Gross saving is the part of disposable income (or adjusted disposable income) that is not spent for final consumption (or actual final consumption). Actual final consumption equals the value of goods and services that households actually consume, even if their acquisition is financed by the government or NPISHs (see also the definition of gross adjusted disposable income).

Gross saving represents the link between current and accumulation accounts. Its value is positive if the value of disposable income is higher than the value of final consumption (surplus may be used to obtain funds or for repayment of liabilities), or negative (assets may be liquidated or liabilities increased).

Net lending (+) / net borrowing (-)

Net lending (+) / net borrowing (-) represents, if positive, net resources that total economy makes available to the rest of the world, or if negative, net resources that the total economy receives from abroad. A positive value of the indicator for an institutional sector indicates that this sector is (directly or indirectly) financing other sectors and a negative that it borrows from other sectors. Typically, households are net lenders and non-financial corporations are net borrowers. This indicator is also known as surplus (+)/deficit (-).

Net lending (+) / net borrowing (-) of the total economy is equal to net lending (+) / net borrowing (-) of the rest of the world with the opposite sign.

Net lending (+) / net borrowing (-) is the balancing item of the capital account and an important link between non-financial and financial accounts. The balancing item of the capital account is conceptually identical to the balancing item of the financial account. The discrepancy between them is mostly due to different data sources used in the calculation of non-financial and financial accounts.

The balance of goods and services

The balance of goods and services is the difference between imports of goods and services and exports of goods and services. A positive value indicates that the total economy has generated a surplus with the rest of the world in the trade in goods and services.

The balance of goods and services is the balancing item of the external account of goods and services, which is part of the rest of the world account. Its value (as well as the value of other indicators) is shown from the rest of the world perspective, with the opposite sign.

Current external balance

Current external balance is the surplus (if positive) or the deficit (if negative) of the total economy with the rest of the world in current transactions (trade in goods and services, primary incomes and current transfers)

Current external balance is the balancing item of the external account of primary incomes and current transfers and is shown as all the other items in the rest of the world account from the rest of the world perspective.

Quarterly sector accounts data are compiled for institutional units as defined in ESA 2010.

All resident institutional units within the economic territory of the Republic of Slovenia are included in accordance with the Standard Classification of Institutional Sectors (SKIS). Coverage is full.

The reference area to which the sector accounts data refer is the territory of the Republic of Slovenia.

SURS produces quarterly sector accounts data in the scope of requirements and the lengths of the time series as defined in the transmission program of the ESA 2010 Regulation (link to ESA2010 transmission programme). By the ESA 2010 transmission programme SURS provides all data series obligatory according to the ESA 2010 transmission programme and additionally a number of voluntary items. Main aggregates for the total economy are available from 1995Q1 onwards; other obligatory transactions for the total economy and the rest of the world sector from 1999Q1 onwards and voluntary transactions form 2005Q1 onwards.

Not applicable.

Data are measured in the national currency (EUR) and presented in million EUR and %. Until 2006 inclusive the national currency was Slovenian tolar (SIT) and the fixed exchange rate of 1 EUR=239.64 SIT to convert historical data to euro is used.

The reference period used for presenting quarterly sector accounts data is a quarter. Data are published at T+3 months from the end of the reference period.

Quarterly non-financial sector 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).

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

Some other legal acts which are relevant for the compilation of sector accounts:

• Regulation (EC) No 1161/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2005 on the compilation of quarterly non-financial accounts by institutional sector.
• Commission Regulation No 2381/2015 of 17 December 2015 on implementing Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 regarding the transmission of the time series for the new regional breakdown.
• Council Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 of 25 May 2009 on the application of the Protocol on the excessive deficit procedure annexed to the Treaty establishing the European Community.
• Commission Decision (EC) No 527/1998 of 24 July 1998 on the treatment for national accounts purposes of VAT fraud (the discrepancies between theoretical VAT receipts and actual VAT receipts)
• 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.

In addition to the legal acts mentioned above, the main legal acts that determine the status of performing activities of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia are the National Statistics Act (OJ RS, No 45/95 and 9/01) (link to NSA) and the Programmes of Statistical Surveys (link to the medium-term programme and link to the annual programme). The Annual Program of Statistical Surveys is available in the Slovenian language only.

The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia is obliged to deliver quarterly non-financial sector accounts data in accordance with the ESA 2010 and the ESA 2010 transmission programme. The publication rule is to publish data in Slovenia before they are transmitted to Eurostat or any other data users. In practice the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia transmits QSA data to Eurostat via eDamis on the same day as they are published in Slovenia.

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 Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia provides the statistical confidentiality with the help of legal, organisational and technological procedures. The National Statistical Act (NSA) in Article 2 clearly states that national statistics shall be implemented on the principle of statistical confidentiality. Article 34, paragraph 6 explicitly stipulates that the collected data shall be disseminated by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia to the users in such a way that the reporting unit involved cannot be identified. Article 46 provides that data collected on the basis of the programme of statistical surveys may be used solely for statistical purposes, unless otherwise provided by law. Article 50 defines that statistics may be published in aggregate form only.

All employees at the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia are informed about the elements of statistical confidentiality pointing out the importance of information privacy and personal data protection. Every employee has to sign the confidentiality declaration at the same time as the contract of employment. The declaration includes also information on the consequences of violating legal acts.

The access to microdata for the scientific-research community (researchers) is allowed under the specific rules or protocols. The Committee on Statistical Confidentiality provide opinion regarding statistical confidentiality and microdata access for research purposes to the Director-General. After the approval is granted the researchers must sign the contract for microdata access before they can access to statistically protected microdata either in the secure room or as remote access or using a portable medium. 

Confidentiality regarding personal data is required in the Slovenian Personal Data Protection Act (ZVOP-1).

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.

In general, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia provides full confidence to data providers (i.e. persons, households, enterprises and other organisations), i.e. protects their identity and confidentiality of provided information. Also the disseminated data do not enable direct or indirect identification of an individual statistical unit due to different methods of statistical disclosure control for microdata and tabular data being used (link to the Statistical disclosure control for microdata) (link to the Statistical disclosure control for tabular data).

All quarterly sector accounts data are transmitted to Eurostat free for publication (F flag). Provisional data sent at T+85 days are under embargo for publication until T + 3 months when final data are sent and published in the national First Release.

The advance release calendar is publicly available and published at the end of the year for the following year and includes quarterly sector accounts releases. The release calendar contains the following information: original date, rescheduled date and reason for the date change. The search engine also allows browsing by theme, sub-theme, producers and time of release.

The release calendar is accessible from the home page of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia website (link to release calendar). Users can subscribe to the release calendar via email or RSS to receive notifications about releases. In the case of a change to the original schedule users are informed in advance.

The release policy of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia determines that all users have equal access to statistical releases at the same time and in the same manner. Users are informed when data will be available by the release calendar.

The dissemination policy of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia is presented in greater detail in the Guidelines for Quality Assurance (link to guidelines) in Chapter 7 “Dissemination of data”, and in the Style Guide (link to guide) (only in the Slovenian language) in Chapter 4 “Dissemination strategy” and in Chapter 11 “Releasing of statistical data and information”. In Chapter 13 basic rules and guidelines from different instructions (for correcting errors, revisions, citations, copyright, and use of statistical signs) are available to users too.

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), users of quarterly sector accounts data of Slovenia could obtain data on The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia web pages, via mail or email, phone and by visiting the Information Centre during office hours.

Quarterly sector accounts data are published quarterly according to the national release calendar which follows the ESA 2010 transmission programme. Preliminary data are disseminated quarterly to Eurostat under publication embargo at T+85 days. Finalised data are published and disseminated at T+ 3 months.

For additional information please see also sections 8.2. “Release calendar access” and 17.2. “Data revision – practice”.

The most important results of quarterly sector accounts are issued in news releases. New key data may also be presented in press conferences or press briefings. The exact dates are pre-announced in release calendars (see section 8.1. “Release calendar”).

The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia publishes first quarterly sector data in accordance with the release calendar as First Release at T+3 months at 10:30 (local time) in Slovenian and English. The first release contains the most relevant and interesting general data and information presented in a clear and understandable (comprehensible) way. At the same time of the day data are announced at a press conference. Sector accounts data are regularly presented at a press conference at the end of the calendar year. Press conferences are recorded and made available to the users (link to the press conference).

Quarterly sector accounts data are occasionally published also in other non-regular publications of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, such as the brochure "National Accounts on the Economic Crisis in Slovenia" in which the most important national accounts indicators during the financial and economic crisis were presented. All publications are published in Slovenian and English versions.

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

Quarterly sector accounts data are available in the SI-STAT Database. The access to the statistical database is on the first page of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia website. The database is divided by fields of statistics – select “Economy” – then by subject areas – select “National Accounts”.  “National Accounts” is divided into several groups of data sets (see section 3.1. “Data description”). Tables in PC-Axis format allow direct access via the web interface, a selection of categories to view and saving them in different formats. Users can download tables, charts, maps, metadata and methodological explanations. All national accounts data that are published are available to users free of charge.

Not applicable.

In addition to news releases and other publications (see sections 10.1. “Dissemination format - News release” and 10.2. “Dissemination format – Publications”), information on quarterly sector accounts may be posted using social media.

Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia Facebook messages can be accessed here: @StatSlovenija

Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia Twitter messages can be accessed here: @StatSlovenija

Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia publishes various publications also in English (link to catalogue of publications).

The general methodological framework for the compilation of quarterly sector accounts in the EU is ESA 2010 and the Inventory on Sources and Methods for Quarterly Non-Financial Sector Accounts, which is based on European countries’ practices and has been developed to help compilers to produce data.

The methodology of quarterly sector accounts data in Slovenia is clearly presented in the methodological explanations (in Slovenian and English) and is available to all potential users on the website: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/File/DocSysFile/7987.

The quality of data submitted to Eurostat by Slovenia is presented in the quality report which includes the overall assessment for the different quality criteria: relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, and coherence. The quality of data is reviewed and reported by regular procedures established by Eurostat. Eurostat also established a biannual forum for sector accounts compilers (Expert Group on Sector Accounts), where data quality is reviewed in depth with a view of further improving the comparability of data within the EU.

The quality of quarterly sector 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, data undergo several kinds of quality checks, e.g. ex-ante (source statistics), ongoing (results), ex-post (methods used) and external checks (Eurostat provides structural and content validation).

The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia regularly fulfils metadata reports from Eurostat which relate to sector accounts domain. Metadata reports are neither published on the national website nor on the Eurostat website, although some more important information is disseminated to data users.

Quarterly sector 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 the national level the most important data users are the Bank of Slovenia and the Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development of Slovenia (IMAD) as well as other economic and social bodies in the public and private sectors. These institutions mainly use the data for preparing economic policy measures and making decisions on investment, consumption and wages, drafting the state budget, for different analyses and forecasting purposes, for effective monitoring of the economic policy.

The next important groups of users are scientific and academic communities, economic researchers and survey methodologists from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia that use data to analyse the economy in different aspects.

International institutions such as the European Commission, the ECB, the OECD and the IMF receive national accounts data from Eurostat, which is responsible for the validation and sharing of the country data. These institutions use the data to prepare and implement the monetary policy, to maintain price stability, to support governments in implementing policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of its inhabitants.

In general, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia cooperates with stakeholders (users of statistical data and data providers) through the Statistical Council of the Republic of Slovenia and statistical advisory committees to provide quality, timely and relevant statistics. Users of national accounts data can express their views and opinions on the National Accounts, and Financial and Monetary Statistics Advisory Committee meetings which are organised on a regular basis.

The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia monitors and analyses the use of statistical data by using Google analytics (counts of page-views of First Releases and the individual tables in the SI-STAT Database). User satisfaction surveys are also regularly implemented. The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia organises the annual international statistical conference “Statistical Day” focused on the user perspective of different statistical challenges. Data about users’ requests are gathered also via the Information Centre and with bilateral contacts.

Quarterly non-financial sector accounts data are available from 1999 onwards for Total economy, General Government and Rest of the World Sector. For Non-financial, Financial and Households sector data are available from 2005 onwards. Slovenia provides a complete set of obligatory data according to the ESA 2010 transmission programme (including numerous data which are disseminated on a voluntary basis).

Quarterly sector accounts data are constantly exposed to accuracy checks by verifying any change implemented during the same production round with respect to the previous version of the same quarter and with respect to the previous release. The changes are examined in absolute values and as a percentage change. The difference that arises is the result of the revisions caused by routine revisions and/or by changes in methods and sources. Revised sector accounts data are published with regular publications in line with the Release Calendar.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The ESA 2010 transmission programme defines the required timeliness for all national accounts tables including quarterly sector accounts Table 801. Data are disseminated and published quarterly. According to the ESA2010 transmission programme publication is scheduled at T+3 months after the end of the reference quarter.

Data are published in a timely manner as pre-announced in the national release calendar.

The geographical comparability of the national accounts in EU Member States 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, quarterly sector accounts data are fully comparable over time. In the case of changes in methods or classifications entire time series are revised.

Quarterly sector accounts are consistent with annual sector accounts throughout the year, while full consistency with all other national accounts domains is achieved at T+9 months. In the period between this may not always be feasible and temporary discrepancies occur. Most frequent are discrepancies with government finance statistics due to different revision policy. Differences occur mostly because of EDP notifications in April and October.

Some vertical inconsistencies still exist between non-financial sector accounts and financial sector accounts, in particular in the households sector.

Cross-domain inconsistencies are regularly monitored by Eurostat and constant efforts are made to minimize them. In this regard a dedicated Task Force on ESA 2010 cross-domain consistency was set up. It will focus mainly on the priority tables of the ESA 2010 Transmission Programme (T1, T2, T8, T6 and T801).

See section 15.3. "Coherence - cross domain".

Not available.

Quarterly sector accounts data are subject to continuous revisions as new input data become available. The revision policy is mostly in compliance with harmonized European revision policy.

The revision policy of national accounts is defined by ESA 2010 and does not determine the status preliminary or final data. Quarterly sector accounts data are revised in accordance with the revision policy every quarter and the revision covers all quarters of the current year. Once a year (in September), data are revised also for the previous four years and brought in line with the newly revised data of annual sector accounts and other areas of national accounts (annual and quarterly GDP, government finance statistics, balance of payments, etc.).

Quarterly sector accounts routine revision for a calendar year T is as follows:

-          1^st quarter: first estimate of annual data of year T-1 is published and the first three quarters of year T-1 are revised;

-          2^nd  quarter: publication of the first quarter of year T; no revisions;

-          3^rd  quarter: data for the first quarter of year T plus annual data (T-3, T-2, T-1) are revised;

-          4^th quarter: the first two quarters of year T are revised.

Benchmark (major regular) revision is scheduled for 2019 and covers the entire time series. Revised data are published in the 3rd quarter (at the end of September).

Quarterly non-financial sector accounts compilation relies on a variety of data sources, including administrative data (registers, accounting statements, tax data, budgetary reports, etc.) and statistical surveys of businesses and households. The list of all data sources is very long and each of them cover a large set of economic, social and financial items.

Therefore, sector accounts use data collected from existing statistical surveys and administrative sources, either directly (e.g. Quarterly Survey on Performance of Business Entities) or indirectly, in the phase in which data are already incorporated in the national accounts system and then included in the compilation of sector accounts. In the system of sector accounts, these data are combined with data from other sources, e.g. balance of payments, central and local government budgets, social security funds (Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia, Pension and Disability Insurance Institute of Slovenia), financial statements for banks and insurance companies, etc.

In general, the frequency of data collection is quarterly.

National accounts in general receive data from other statistical domains in the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia and from other institutions. Notwithstanding the legal basis described above, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia shall sign a separate agreement and technical protocol with the institution (e.g. AJPES, Tax and Customs Administration, Ministry of Finance, Bank of Slovenia, etc.).

Quarterly sector accounts combine data from many source statistics and most of them are collected through already prepared excel files (compiled by national accountants) which are available on a common share point. Some data are collected also directly from data sources in the form of excel files accessible on a determined site on the server. The exceptions are some individual smaller sets of data, which are received by e-mail in an appropriate manner and by prior arrangement.

Quarterly sector accounts data are calculated by using data from different sources. All data sources are regularly cross-checked, verified and validated with the aim to achieve relevance and accuracy of the estimations of national accounts. For data validation, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia applies minimum validation rules agreed with Eurostat and provides metadata to support the validation process with respect to revisions and outliers. The validation of data sources is carried out in various ways:

1)      time consistency - comparison of data between quarters either by calculating differences or indices

2)      accuracy - the detection of some unusual (very high or very low) or unexpected values

3)      completeness - missing values for some variables or some reference periods

4)      additivity checks - control of the sum of sub-items

Any lack of quality in this respect is solved before and during the compilation. 

Also additional horizontal checks (payable and receivable side of the accounts should be equal for each transaction) and vertical checks (comparison of non-financial and financial accounts) are done. 

Consistency with other national accounts domains (GDP, government finance statistics) is checked as well.

Quarterly sector accounts compilation is based on a system of interlinked excel working files with validation controls and is separated from annual sector accounts compilation.

Roughly, there are three compilation steps which are overlapping:

1)      compilation of the Rest of the World Sector

2)      addition of Government Finance Statistics data

simultaneous compilation of other institutional sectors (non-financial corporations, financial corporations and households with non-profit institutions serving households).

Seasonal adjustment

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).

For seasonal adjustment of time series we use the TRAMO/SEATS method and JDemetra+ software. A time series model is set up, which is revised in detail and corrected about once a year.

Using the model the time series is decomposed into:

- the trend-cycle component (which consists of the trend and cyclical movements over a period longer than one year),

- the seasonal component (which consists of the seasonal effects and the calendar effects; the calendar effects are composed of the working day effect, the leap-year effect, the holiday effect and the Easter effect),

- the irregular component (which consists of random fluctuations and some outliers).

Seasonally adjusted data are original data from which the seasonal and calendar effects are eliminated.

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