Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

Eurostat, C1, National accounts methodology. Indicators

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Functional mail box: ESTAT-MIP@ec.europa.eu

The indicators Net lending/borrowing and Net savings are published as explanatory variables in the context of Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP).

The net lending or borrowing of the total economy is the sum of the net lending or borrowing of all institutional sectors. It represents the net resources that the total economy makes available to the rest of the world (if it is positive) or receives from the rest of the world (if it is negative). The aggregate of net lending/net borrowing of the domestic sectors in the European System of Accounts (ESA) is conceptually the same as the value of net lending/net borrowing in the international accounts. This results from the fact that all the resident-to-resident flows cancel out. It is also equal to the opposite of net lending/net borrowing of the rest of the world sector in the ESA.

The Net savings measure the portion of national disposable income not used for final consumption expenditure. Net national saving is the sum of the net savings of the various institutional sectors, according to the European System of Accounts 2010 edition (ESA 2010) definition.

See also the sector accounts dedicated website for more information.

The standard followed is the European System of Accounts 2010 and ESA 2010 data transmission programme. The main categories are the institutional sectors and the transactions recorded between the sectors. The transactions are grouped into a sequence of accounts, namely: the production, generation, distribution and redistribution of income, use of income and capital accounts.

The institutional sectors combine institutional units with broadly similar characteristics and behaviour: households and non-profit institutions serving households (NPISHs), non-financial corporations, financial corporations, and the government. Transactions with non-residents and the financial claims of residents on non-residents, or vice versa, are recorded in the "rest of the world" account.

ESA 2010 Classification of sectors:

• Total economy (S.1)
• Non-financial corporations (S.11)
• Public non-financial corporations (S.11001)
• Financial corporations (S.12)
• Public non-financial corporations (S.12001)
• General government (S.13)
• Households and non-profit institutions serving households (NPISH) (S.14_15)
• Households (S.14)
• Non-profit institutions serving households (S.15)
• Rest of the World (S.2)

Annual sector accounts cover all (institutional) sectors of the economy. For details, please refer to section 3.2.

Transmission of annual data on sub-sectors of public non-financial and financial corporations is voluntary according to ESA 2010 transmission programme. Thus these data may not be available for all countries and periods.

The concepts, definitions and classifications are based on the European System of Accounts 2010 edition (ESA 2010). Non-financial 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 non-financial accumulation. Transactions with non-residents are recorded in the "rest of the world" account. These accounts thus show the interactions among the different sectors of the resident economy and between the resident economy and the rest of the world.

Non-financial Annual Sector Accounts (ASA) are compiled in accordance with the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010) and are transmitted to Eurostat following the ESA2010 transmission programme (Table 8) established by the Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union (annexes A and B respectively).

The ASA record the economic flows of institutional sectors in order to illustrate their economic behaviour and interactions between them. They also provide a list of balancing items that have high analytical value in their own right: value added, operating surplus and mixed income, balance of primary incomes, disposable income, saving, net lending / net borrowing. All of them but net lending / net borrowing, can be expressed in gross or net terms, i.e. with and without consumption of fixed capital that accounts for the use and obsolescence of fixed assets. 

Net lending/net borrowing is derived from the capital account by comparing "gross capital formation" (mainly investment in capital goods and software) plus the net acquisition of "non-produced, non-financial assets" (such as land or licenses) with "gross saving" plus net "capital transfers" (such as an investment grants). If saving plus net capital transfers received exceeds non-financial investment, a sector has a surplus of funds and becomes a net lender to other domestic sectors and/or the rest of the world.

The elementary building block of ESA2010 statistics is the institutional unit (see ESA2010, 2.12.), "an elementary economic decision-making centre characterised by uniformity of behaviour and decision-making autonomy in the exercise of its principal function". This can be, amongst others, a household, a corporation or a government agency.

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The tables presents national data for each EU Member State.

According to the legislation, EU countries should transmit data from 1995 onwards. However, the lengths of series vary according to country and its derogations. Information on derogations for each country could be found in the Commission implementing decision on granting derogations to Member States with respect to the transmission of statistics pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 concerning the European system of national and regional accounts in the EU.
Details on data availability are available under the links: tipsnf10 and tipsnf11.

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Data are presented in million units of national currency.

The reference period is the calendar year.

The non-financial Annual Sector Accounts (ASA) are compiled in accordance with the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010) and are transmitted following the ESA 2010 transmission programme (Table 8) both established by Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union, annexes A and B respectively).

Data received via the ESA2010 transmission programme are shared with other international institutions in accordance with specific agreements, notably with the ECB and the OECD.

Data sharing with ECB is governed by service level agreement signed between Eurostat and ECB in February 2008.

A Protocol for co-operation between Eurostat and the OECD in the area of National Accounts signed in June 2013 specifies agreed data exchange and data validation arrangements.

The Regulation 2015/759 of 29 April 2015, amending Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics of 11 March 2009 [(recital 24 and Article 20(4))], 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 data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

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According to the legal data transmission deadline as defined in ESA2010 transmission programme the countries should submit annual sector accounts data by 30^th of September each year. Once received, data are subject to validation procedures and are normally released within one month. However, the publication may be delayed if Eurostat has detected data quality issues (e.g. imbalances, implausible data). 

In general, annual sector accounts by country are updated before the end of November for data up to the previous year including later data submissions. 

Significant inconsistencies between sector accounts data and related national accounts datasets (main GDP aggregates, GFS) may result in countries' data not being disseminated until the quality issues are resolved

Please refer to Eurostat release calendar and News releases section. 

In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see §10 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

National data are disseminated once a year. In case of updates, the new data are released shortly after the transmission by the country.

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Data are disseminated on the MIP dedicated websection and the Sector accounts dedicated websection.

See data availability for each table: tipsnf10 and tipsnf11.

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The methodological framework is defined in the European System of Accounts 2010 edition (ESA 2010).

Eurostat's mission is to provide the European Union with a high-quality statistical information service - see: Eurostat quality framework.

Quality is assured by application of the ESA 2010 concepts and by a validation process on the data delivered by the EU Member States.

Data are collected from reliable sources applying high standards with regard to methodology and ensuring high comparability. ESA 2010 data transmissions are subject to regular quality assessment reviews. Article 4 of Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 (ESA 2010 Regulation) specifies that the data covered by that Regulation is subject to the quality criteria, namely relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, comparability and coherence, as set out in Article 12(1) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council. 

Annual sector accounts offer complete and consistent description of the economic cycle from production to the accumulation of non-financial assets for the whole economy and institutional sectors. Sector accounts allow for an analyses of the interactions among institutional sectors as well as between them and the rest of the world, and the derivation of key macroeconomic indicators.

The indicators Net lending/borrowing and Net savings provide complementary information under the MIP framework.

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Annual sector accounts offer complete and consistent description of the economic cycle from production to the accumulation of non-financial assets for the whole economy and institutional sectors, including rest of the world.

Overall accuracy is supported by ensuring that total uses and total resources are balanced at the level of individual transaction categories giving a coherent set of data for the total national economy and transactions with the rest of the world.

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According to the ESA 2010 Transmission Programme (see also § 8.1), Member States have to transmit annual data to Eurostat within 9 months after the end of the reference year. Eurostat normally publishes the data shortly after delivery by countries; sometimes, the validation process may lead to some delay.

Eurostat monitors closely punctuality of data delivery by countries. Except in the case of special derogations, limited in time, countries generally meet the data transmission deadline (9 months after the end of the reference year).

Comparability is ensured by the application of common definitions and methodological framework established by European System of Accounts, ESA 2010, which is  based on internationally agreed System of National Accounts 2008 (SNA 2008).

The application of a common framework (European System of Accounts 2010) ensures data comparability over time. Wherever series are not comparable, data breaks are appropriately flagged in Eurostat statistical database.

For national data, there may be discrepancies between annual and quarterly sector accounts as well as with the data released by other national accounts domains due to different revision/release calendars as well as different data sources/methods across data sets. 

Such discrepancies across national accounts domains are expected to be temporary and should reconciled at the first available opportunity (at the next data transmission or at least once a year if earlier revisions are not feasible). Discrepancies in back series are normally reconciled during benchmark revisions.

Cross-domain discrepancies are regularly monitored by Eurostat and constant efforts are made to minimise them. Recommendations for harmonised European revision policy for national accounts and balance of payments are being developed under the umbrella of Committee on Monetary, Financial and Balance of Payments Statistics (CMFB).

See also the sector accounts dedicated metadata for more information.

European sector accounts are internally consistent. This is supported by the fact that Total uses and Total resources are balanced at the level of individual transaction categories, giving a coherent set of data for the total national economy and transactions with the rest of the world.

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Annual sector accounts are produced from a large variety of data sources with varying degrees of timeliness, taking up to three years or more in the case of structural sources. As users need national and international data as fast as possible, particularly on certain key aggregates, data are produced using the sources and related indicators that are more readily available. As more complete source data are obtained, the statistics are updated to incorporate the new information. A distinction should be made between 'routine' revisions and 'major' or 'benchmark' revisions.

•             Routine revisions refer to the changes made to the economic data published initially and to its subsequent releases for a particular reference year.

•             Benchmark revision is carried out at much longer time intervals. Its purpose is to incorporate the main new data sources and major changes in international statistical methodology (such as ESA 2010 or BPM6). In benchmark revision, many years are open for revision in order to create the longest possible consistent time series.

Such revisions of macroeconomic statistics are necessary to improve data quality. To minimise the inconvenience for data users, the European Statistical System (ESS) and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) try to strike the right balance between incorporating the necessary statistical revisions and maintaining an acceptable degree of consistency across domains and countries. To this end, the two systems have worked together to draw up guidelines for a harmonised revision policy for macroeconomic statistics. 

National Statistical Offices and National Central Banks agreed to gradually implement a common harmonised European revision policy for national accounts and balance of payments statistics. The level of adherence to the guidelines of Member States' revision policies will be monitored regularly.

National revision practices of sector accounts data should follow the harmonised revision policy for the national accounts and balance of payments statistics.

Routine revisions for annual data

Annual estimates are usually revised retrospectively for up to four years to incorporate annual data sources as well as changes following Excessive Deficit Procedure and Own Resources notifications, although the policy allows unlimited revisions for transmissions at t+9 months.

Major or benchmark revisions

In 2014, all Member States disseminated revised data according to ESA 2010. The agreed guidelines specify that Member States should disseminate the results of the next benchmark revisions in 2019 and 2024 respectively. Disseminating the results of a benchmark revision always involves revising all, or at least a large part of the time series.

Figures are collected and transmitted to Eurostat by the National Statistical Institutes of the EU Member States following ESA 2010 transmission programme (Table 8) introduced by the Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union (annex B).

National sector accounts compilation relies on a variety of data sources, including administrative data (registers, accounting statements, tax data, budgetary reports etc.), censuses, and statistical surveys of businesses and households. No single type of survey can be referred to. Sources vary from country to country and may cover a large set of economic, social, financial and environmental items, which may not be strictly related to National Accounts. For further information about sources and collection methods, please refer to National Statistical Institutes.

Member States transmit sector accounts data to Eurostat upon national publication and/or in line with the deadlines specified in the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010) transmission programme (please see section 14 for details).

Underlying data are collected from national sources. As data sources vary, so does the frequency of collection, from monthly to annually, and in the case of population censuses they are mostly collected every decade.

Data are transmitted to Eurostat based on SDMX which introduced standardised codes. Techniques of data collection vary widely, depending on the compilation approach, the source statistics available, the particular account in the system of accounts, timeliness of data release and other factors.

Data input by National Statistical Institutes is regularly checked by Eurostat for accuracy (accounting consistency, time-consistency between quarterly and annual accounts, consistency over time), completeness (coverage of reference periods and variables) and coherence with related national accounts data sets (GDP main aggregates, Government finance statistics). Validation against Balance of Payments and financial accounts are performed on an ad-hoc basis. Any lack of quality in this respect is regularly followed up with national authorities.

Data in national currency are converted to euro using the annual average of current market exchange rates.

More details on European sector accounts compilation can be consulted in dedicated webpage.

Member States' accounts may show statistical discrepancies (explicit or implicit) between GDP and the sum of components. In order to compile coherent and balanced set of sector accounts, some variables may be used to adjust for any possible lack of additivity between the total and the sum of its components, i.e. these variables are effectively used as balancing items.

For the expenditure approach of GDP, the balancing variable is most often changes in inventories (P.52).
For the income approach of GDP the balancing variables are gross operating surplus and mixed income (B.2g + B.3g).
For the output approach of GDP, the balancing variable is value added (B1G).

Some NSIs may also choose not to balance the statistical discrepancy. Statistical discrepancies are not explicitly recorded in sector accounts tables. In such cases these are manifested as discrepancies between the respective totals and sum of the components, as well as between total economy and sum of domestic sectors.

For the purpose of calculation of European aggregates, Eurostat corrects country data for such lack of additivity in order to produce coherent and balanced European sector accounts.

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