System of National Accounts

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The System of National Accounts or SNA (until 1993 known as the United Nations System of National Accounts or UNSNA [1] ) is an international standard system of concepts and methods for national accounts. [2] It is nowadays used by most countries in the world. The first international standard was published in 1953. [3] Manuals have subsequently been released for the 1968 revision, the 1993 revision, and the 2008 revision. [4] The pre-edit version for the SNA 2025 revision was adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission at its 56th Session in March 2025. [5] Behind the accounts system, there is also a system of people: the people who are cooperating around the world to produce the statistics, for use by government agencies, businesspeople, media, academics and interest groups from all nations. [6]

Contents

The aim of SNA is to provide an integrated, complete system of standard national accounts, for the purpose of economic analysis, policymaking and decisionmaking. When individual countries use SNA standards to guide the construction of their own national accounting systems, it results in much better data quality and better comparability (between countries and across time). In turn, that helps to form more accurate judgements about economic situations, and to put economic issues in correct proportion — nationally and internationally.

Adherence to SNA standards by national statistics offices and by governments is strongly encouraged by the United Nations, but using SNA is in principle voluntary and not mandatory. What countries are able to do, will depend on available capacity, local priorities, and the existing state of statistical development. Government agencies determine their own policies for economic statistics. However, cooperation with SNA has a lot of benefits in terms of gaining access to data, exchange of data, data dissemination, cost-saving, technical support, and scientific advice for data production. Most countries see the advantages, and are willing to participate. [7]

The SNA-based European System of Accounts (ESA) [8] is an exceptional case, because using ESA standards is compulsory for all member states of the European Union. This legal requirement for uniform accounting standards exists primarily because of mutual financial claims and obligations by member governments and EU organizations. [9] Another exception is North Korea. North Korea is a member of the United Nations since 1991, but does not use SNA as a framework for its economic data production. Although Korea’s Central Bureau of Statistics does traditionally produce economic statistics, using a modified version of the Material Product System, its macro-economic data area are not (or very rarely) published for general release (various UN agencies and the Bank of Korea do produce some estimates). [10]

SNA has now been adopted or applied in more than 200 separate countries and areas, [11] although in many cases with some adaptations for unusual local circumstances. [12] Nowadays, whenever people in the world are using macro-economic data, for their own nation or internationally, they are most often using information sourced (partly or completely) from SNA-type accounts, or from social accounts "strongly influenced" by SNA concepts, designs, data and classifications. [13]

The global grid of the SNA social accounting system continues to develop and expand, and is coordinated by five international organizations: United Nations Statistics Division, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, [14] and Eurostat. The European Commission is also involved, via membership of the Intersecretariat Working Group on National Accounts (ISWGNA) set up by the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) to promote cooperation between statistical agencies worldwide. All these organizations (and associated/related organizations) have a vital interest in internationally comparable economic and financial data, based on yearly data sets from national statistics offices, and they play an active role in the regular publication of international statistics for data users worldwide. The SNA accounts are also "building blocks" for a lot more macro-economic data sets which are created using SNA information.

History and actuality

The first attempts at national accounting by individual researchers, from the 17th century through most of the 19th century, aimed mainly to estimate national income and national wealth. The first known attempt in England was by William Petty, in 1665. Petty tried to work out how best to spread the tax burden caused by the second Anglo-Dutch War (1665-1667). For this purpose, he estimated the income and capital of England. The first estimate of “value-added” in England was created by Arthur Young around 1770, in a production account for agriculture; he also created a national income estimate for England. [15] The first official estimates of national income were made in Australia (1886), Canada (1925), Soviet Russia (1925), Germany (1929), Netherlands (1931), New Zealand (1931), United States (1934), Turkey (1935), Yugoslavia (1937) and Switzerland (1939). [16] In Britain, the Central Statistics Office established in 1941 created the first official white papers with annual estimates of national income and expenditure, which subsequently became a standard feature of the Blue Book. [17]

At first researchers in different countries followed their own approach, although they borrowed ideas from each other. Subsequently interventionist governments began to organize much more statistical research, and used national income & wealth estimates to inform their fiscal, social and economic policies. [18]

The first global national accounts standard, SNA 1953, was an initiative of the United Nations Statistical Commission. The UN believed that the creation of internationally comparable economic data was essential for its own work, and that such data would also serve many other policymaking needs of government and intergovernmental agencies. UNSD provides a useful overview and summary of the historical evolution of SNA across the last 70 years, with supporting documentation. [19]

Nowadays, the role of the state in the economy has become much larger (see Wagner's Law). [20] As a corollary, the standard national accounts have become much more sophisticated and comprehensive. The aim is now to account systematically for almost everything that happens in the national economy, plus its external transactions. This has to be done in a way that both follows standard recording principles and measurement criteria, and satisfies the data needs of a much wider group of data users.

These data users are not just governments or international and intergovernmental organizations, but also corporations, business people, academics, NGO's, thinktanks, research institutes, interest groups and political parties, media organizations and individual researchers. The global rollout of SNA is no longer the task of the United Nations only. It is shared with other intergovernmental organizations, each of which has its own area of expertise (principally the IMF, OECD, World Bank and Eurostat). Regional SNA advisory organizations and individual experts are also involved.

In the modern world, national accounts data has become essential for macro-economic forecasting; decision making on monetary policy, state subsidies and debt management; fiscal policy and fiscal surveillance; government policy analysis in many other areas; macro-economic research and sector studies; and academic, business and investor research about all kinds of economic trends. Globalization has greatly increased demand for detailed economic data on international transactions, international investment, and international comparisons of economies.

All of this means that detailed data is nowadays produced for “which types of economic actors do what, with whom, in exchange for what, by what means and rights, for what economic purpose, and how this changes the financial position of the national economy (or parts of it)”. [21] To create comparable data for all countries, requires a conceptually rigorous, logically consistent accounting system, and standardized measurement practices. SNA provides that unitary framework, for the whole world.

The Penn World Tables project provides long-run historical time series for SNA-based gross product, national income and capital formation statistics, covering most countries in the world. This data is used by economists, econometrists and economic historians for statistical comparisons and trend analysis across longer intervals of time. [22] The flagship academic journal for research on national accounts is the online Review of Income and Wealth, published since 1951 by the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth. Other journals include the Journal of Income and Wealth, the National Accounting Review, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Survey of Current Business ,and the Review of Economics and Statistics. Series of technical papers and documentation covering national accounts topics include the United Nations Statistics Division publications, the OECD Statistics Working Papers, IMF Staff Papers, IMF Working Papers, World Bank documents and reports and Eurostat statistical working papers. Often national statistics offices publish their own methodology papers.

The SNA framework

The SNA framework links together (i) social accounting concepts and methods, (ii) macro-economic concepts and theories, (iii) statistical measurement and aggregation methods, (iv) terminology standards, (v) classification and categorization systems, (vi) information design principles, and (vii) relevant laws, regulations, agreements, obligations and official rules/procedures which govern aspects of the national accounting work done by a national or intergovernmental statistics office. [23]

The framework informs SNA data producers about what to do, how to do it and why it should be done in a specific way. There is often room for some flexibility of interpretation, but if the standard is accepted, then data have to be produced in line with the standard. It is not possible to set out the whole SNA framework here; this article gives only some of the main points. The official SNA manuals (and associated handbooks and guidelines) provide in-depth and detailed coverage. [24]

Components

To compile an entry in an SNA account, basic logical steps are: accounting goal → economic concept → accounting rules → appropriate measure → measurement technique → data collection → data collation, registration and storage → data calculation/estimation → data result (a statistic) → data vetting/testing → data approval → inclusion in the new accounts table(s) → data publication.

In reality, however, the sequence of the data production process may not be so linear and straightforward. Considerable methodological discussion may occur before the decision is made to use an estimate for the official accounts. There may be lot of information to assemble and collate, at different stages of the work. One accounting entry may be derived from other accounting entries, or it has to fit exactly with other accounting entries. There are often many different rules and guidelines to follow, at different levels of abstraction. There may be a long way to go from "a general economic measuring idea" to "a precisely defined measurement technique" that yields the correct empirical estimate for an economic concept.

In practice, the SNA framework used by national accounts statisticians has the following main components: [25]

  1. Calendars, scripts, planning agenda's and deadlines for the annual and quarterly production/publication cycles of SNA data and for statistical development projects.
  2. Required economic observations and observational data, collected from various sources.
  3. Survey instruments (including questionnaires, sampling frames, data collection and data coding systems, data compilation methods and econometric models).
  4. Coding, categorization and classification systems for observations and data sets.
  5. Purpose-built secure data storage and information storage systems. [26]
  6. A legal framework and NSO protocols for the process of SNA data production, publication, and dissemination.
  7. Registers of institutional units, sectors and sub-sectors defined by institutional type and economic activity.
  8. A set of logically related economic processes, concepts, equations and categories, for which empirical measures are produced.
  9. Price and volume indexation methods and rules.
  10. Definitions of accounting terms, accounting concepts, account equations, account derivation principles and standard accounting procedures.
  11. Accounting and recording rules for timing, valuation, grossing, netting and consolidation.
  12. Statistical aggregation rules and inclusion/exclusion rules.
  13. Measuring techniques, data calculation methods and estimation methodologies.
  14. Specifications of standards for the structure and content of core accounts and supplementary accounts.
  15. Information design specifications for account formats, layouts and publishing.
  16. A compilation system for allocating data entries/lines to the accounts.
  17. Systems for storing finalized economic statistics, and the publication of data series (the finished products, which can also be used to derive/create other statistics).
  18. Methods and models for testing and checking data quality, data reliability, and revision effects.
  19. Systems for providing access to data collections online and offline, and for sending/receiving statistical information internationally.
  20. Systems for outreach, advocacy, training and knowledge-sharing about SNA theory and practice.

All these aspects have to be identified, decided on, approved and documented by the national accounts team and the NSO management, as the official methodology. The NSO has to be able to "account for the accounts", i.e. what was done, how it was done, why it was done, where it was done and who did it. It must be possible to track down the whole data production process for every part of the accounts, from beginning to end.

From observables to estimates for SNA stock values and flow values

The observables about the national economy which are the basis for SNA accounts concern the recorded activities of buying and selling; owning, paying and renting; lending and borrowing; disbursing, receiving, depositing and saving; leasing and hiring; financial gains and losses; insuring, charging, taxing and levying; and various other types of financial claims and counter-claims. These economic observables can be identified, allocated and grouped for accounting purposes using six criteria:

  1. Economic actions involving flows of money, goods and services which create, transform, exchange, transfer or destroy (extinguish) economic value, or which change the value, volume or composition of assets and liabilities. The question here is: what sort of economic action is this?
  2. Human purposes for the actions, behaviors and functions of transactors involved in transactions. A transaction is defined as an interaction between separate institutional units which occurs by mutual agreement or through the operation of law, and involves an exchange of value or a transfer of value. The question is: what is the aim or function of the transaction or group of transactions?
  3. Context, location or setting of the transactions or assets/liabilities. Where or under whose authority does a transaction occur, or how does an ownership title/claim arise and change?
  4. Transaction records expressed as money prices or physical volumes (sales, purchases, transfers, incomes & expenditures, and other payments, whether in cash, on credit or in kind). What and where is the registered price data required to estimate an accounting category?
  5. Ownership records for, and changes of, all kinds of asset holdings, liabilities, debts, deposits and financial claims owned by persons and by organizations. What and where is the registered ownership data required to estimate an accounting category?
  6. Effects (measurable impacts or consequences) of economic activity. What can observable and quantifiable economic effects tell us about the magnitudes of economic variables and accounting categories? For example, the data about a natural disaster can help to estimate the value of capital losses for the country.

Using information about these six criteria and SNA accounting rules, statisticians categorize, group, aggregate and reaggregate all the observables into a large set of stock values and flow values. These stocks and flows are the basic units of all the accounts in the SNA system. Each line item in the SNA core accounts is either a stock value, or a flow value. Each item can increase in value, stay constant or decrease across time, so that the trend can be measured. There are three noteworthy exceptions:

Part of the work involved in allocating observables to categories can be automated with the aid of computer programmes, but part of the work requires the human judgement of SNA statisticians. Some transactions are easily identifiable and countable, because they always occur in the same way, and for the same purpose. The way these transactions are recorded is plain, straightforward and uncontroversial. But there are other transactions which are much more complex and changeable - they may not be consistently recorded, and therefore they are more challenging to categorize and allocate correctly for accounting purposes.

Institutional units

To compile the whole inventory of SNA stock values and flow values, a complex grid of concepts, definitions and rules is applied. In this way, all the base data collected to build the accounts is ordered and structured. It begins with grouping the types of “institutional units” of a country, guided by the Classification of Institutional Sectors. An institutional unit is a separate economic entity which can in its own right engage in production and/or trade with other entities, receive income, own assets and incur liabilities (debts, or obligations to pay). Normally an institutional unit maintains its own accounts. Institutional units are usually legally defined organizations, social groups, or households consisting of one or more economically active persons. The main types of institutional units are:

• Financial corporations.

• Non-financial corporations.

• Non-incorporated enterprises.

• Government organizations.

• Households.

• Non-profit institutional units.

• Foreign institutional units (a source of balance of payments data about external transactions such as foreign trade, investment, transfers, taxes and remittances).

Institutional units can be grouped in sectors, and institutional sectors also contain sub-sectors, which identify and distinguish e.g. public and private, market and non-market enterprises, and domestically owned and foreign-owned enterprises, as well as different types of households. Usually the characteristics of all units are registered in large databases with metadata, and are regularly updated. These databases are the largest, most detailed collection of information about all the organizations active in the national economy.

Industrial classification

All economic activities of institutional units in a country are identified and grouped with the aid of the 2023 International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC version 5) or one of its predecessors. [29] When all economic activities are registered in databases with metadata, according to their characteristics, it is possible to sort the data in a huge variety of different ways, at higher or lower levels of generality/specificity. This makes detailed and comprehensive comparisons possible for different economic activities, both within countries and between countries.

Other classifications

There are dozens of other classification systems which are applied to categorize stocks and flows in SNA accounts and sub-accounts. Some classifications are universal, others are tailored to local conditions. At more detailed levels, the classification systems may be guided by existing SNA standards, but they may also be adapted to local circumstances or specific purposes (depending on the economic structures and processes involved). For example, the IMF Balance of Payments statistics modify and expand the SNA standards for external transactions.

The standard classification systems are designed to enable international comparisons. But they are also designed to provide data that give insight into local economic conditions. Statisticians normally try to design categories which combine standardization requirements plus technical essentials with the known needs of data users. If the data categories are not suited to the analyses that researchers want or need to do, or if they are not consistent with what the government requires, then the statistical information is not useful. So this matter has to be thought through carefully.

Categories and classifications in SNA are not so easily changed, because that can create new problems of statistical comparability, and because it can change the estimates of related statistical aggregates. Any classification change must be consistent with SNA concepts. Usually the majority of changes occur when a new SNA revision is released. Examples of some other global standard classifications that are, or will be applied in SNA are:

Ten core accounts

Traditionally, the SNA framework provides a set of ten core accounts. The detailed design and terminology has changed somewhat through successive revisions, but conceptually the design remains more or less the same. The accounting principles for each of these core accounts are explained in the SNA manual. Broadly speaking, the ten accounts deal with four main topics: (1) national income & product, (2) capital formation and investment, (3) the national financial position, and (4) foreign transactions of the nation. This provides economic insight into what is happening with production, the generation, distribution and use of income, and the accumulation of wealth of the nation. The ten core accounts can be described as follows:

  1. The production account of economic activity that generates new incomes (the components of gross output and gross value-added).
  2. The primary distribution of income account (the distribution of gross national income generated).
  3. The redistribution of income account (including transfers and social spending by governments).
  4. The use of income account (consumption expenditure and saving, sometimes also supplemented with household assets/liabilities).
  5. The capital account (investment, capital formation and accumulation).
  6. The (domestic) financial transactions account ("flow of funds", tracking changes in assets/liabilities and debt financing).
  7. The revaluation account (price changes in assets/liabilities, including capital gains and losses).
  8. The other changes in assets account (changes in assets, liabilities and net worth which are not caused by transactions).
  9. The balance sheet account of assets, liabilities and net worth.
  10. The external transactions ("rest of the world") account (integration of current accounts, capital accounts and financial accounts).

Most member countries of the United Nations compile these ten "core" accounts. However, national statistics offices do not provide a complete national set of all “possible” SNA accounts. They might not even provide a 100% complete set of national SNA data for the accounts they do publish. The reasons could be (1) that some sorts of data are not applicable/relevant/useful, (2) that it is currently too difficult or costly to produce the data, (3) that the data is already published elsewhere, or (4) that there is some kind of official restriction on data production. For example, if there is a lot of tourism in a country, a standard tourism account makes sense. But if there is very little tourism, then producing a standard tourism account may lack a good justification.

An important new step in SNA 2025 is the acceptance of more comprehensive household accounts, which according to many experts ought to be a standard feature of the SNA framework (household income, expenditure, assets, liabilities, debts and net wealth). The experience of the 2008 financial crisis revealed that changes in the financial position of households can have very large macro-economic effects. Traditionally, statistics offices have collected data on household income and spending, but not for the whole financial position of households. The main reason usually was that some respondents find the financial survey questions too intrusive, and do not want to cooperate. However, in the digital era (and because of legal changes), people's attitudes have changed, so that they are more willing to provide information (with proper data custody, and anonymized by the statisticians), because they recognize its national importance.

Supplementary accounts and supplementary tables

Each of the SNA core accounts can be complemented with annexes providing extra details, sub-accounts within the core accounts, satellite accounts separate from the core accounts, and supplementary tables (or account variants) providing additional information. Some of these added accounts follow an existing SNA standard, but others could be mainly designed by a national statistics office for its own (limited) uses in local conditions. Ideally all extra national accounts or tables produced by an NSO should be internationally comparable, but that may not always be the case. The non-core accounts are in principle always optional (there are exceptions to this norm in the European Union). Whether extra accounts or extra tables are compiled and published by a national statistics office, depends mainly on their practical usefulness. National statistics offices produce them, if there is a need or demand for such accounts, and if there is a budget to produce the accounts. In some countries, it is not yet feasible to produce particular ancillary or satellite accounts, or it is too costly for them to do that.

Starting with the 1968 SNA revision, standards are provided for input-output tables (I/O tables) showing interactions between production sectors within the national economy (the enterprises of each sector make payments when they purchase inputs from other sectors, and receive revenue when they sell outputs to other sectors). The supply and use tables (SUT tables) [31] are a further development of the input-output analysis for which standards were first created in SNA 1993. These SNA tables provide a detailed breakdown of the origin and use of goods and services in the national economy. They show in matrix format the supply of goods and services from production and imports, and their destined uses (intermediate and final consumption, capital formation and exports). In the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010), it is compulsory for EU member states to provide both SNA standard input-output tables and SNA standard supply & use tables to Eurostat, with a deadline of three years. [32]

The term "satellite accounts" (comptes satellites) originated in France. [33] French statisticians created the first satellite accounts in the late 1960s, initially with experimental housing accounts in 1968. By the 1970s, they had developed systematic satellite accounts for health, education, research, social protection, and transportation. [34] The goal was to provide detailed analysis of specific sectors to support government planning – maintaining consistency with the central national accounts framework without altering it. [35]

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) developed auxiliary accounts for its NIPA framework already in the 1950s, but they were not called "satellite" accounts. [36] In the late 1980s, the demand for environmental accounts was met by the creation of satellite accounts. [37] The US Bureau for Economic Analysis officially adopted a satellite account framework for research & development in 1994 and later for tourism and the space economy, referring to SNA guidelines. [38]

Satellite accounts were officially recognized and defined for the first time in SNA 1993, and elaborated in SNA 2008. [39] [40] Several standards for satellite accounts were outlined in SNA 2008 and SNA 2025. Often more comprehensive explanations of standards have been given in special handbooks, brochures or working papers. The OECD provides a guide to designing satellite accounts. [41] In 2019, a review suggested that satellite accounts had been implemented for 21 different topics, with another 11 account topics being planned. [42] Another source claimed that over 80 countries had implemented satellite accounts by 2019, with more than 20 different topics. [43] A 2020 survey about the national use of SNA satellite accounts discovered that 241 satellite accounts had been created by 80 countries for 20 different account topics. The number of satellite accounts per country varied from 1 to 15 accounts, with a median number of 2 accounts, and an average of 4 accounts. The countries with the most satellite accounts were Canada (15), Portugal (13), Israel (9), Australia (8), Finland (8), Lithuania (8), China (7), and Mexico (7). [44]

In SNA 2025, the term "satellite account" has been formally abandoned in favour of the terms "thematic account" and "extended account". Thematic accounts disaggregate and rearrange already existing items in SNA core accounts, to make particular aspects of economic relations more visible and explicit. In other words, they provide extra details and breakdowns for the totals given in core accounts. Extended accounts go beyond the conceptual boundaries of the SNA integrated framework, often linking SNA accounting data to external data, with the aim of enabling more comprehensive insight about a topic of interest (for example, demographic data, geographic data, employment data, population data, data on natural resources). In this case, SNA data is linked to non-SNA variables, following standard conventions to assist comparability.

Proposed standards for satellite accounts

New satellite accounts standards proposed for SNA 2025 include: [45]

SNA data sources

National accounts are integrated, composite statistical systems. They bring together raw data, computed data and ready-made statistics from a great variety of sources. Typically, hundreds (or even more than a thousand) separate data sources are used for a complete set of annual national accounts, depending on the size and complexity of the country’s economy.

For example, the British Office of National Statistics (ONS) uses around a thousand different data sources. The same applies to many European countries. The US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) obtains data from more than 300 major surveys and administrative sources, and exchanges data with the IRS, the Census Bureau, the Federal Reserve, the Department of Labor, and other government agencies.

The source of the data could be a survey, a publication, a government agency, a business agency or institution, a model, or an unofficial source etc. Some of the data sets are fully produced by the national statistics agency itself, some data is imported readymade from other agencies, and some data is obtained from elsewhere but reworked for use in SNA accounts.

National accountants often act as "statistical engineers", who reconcile thousands of inconsistencies between different sources, to obtain valid estimates which conform to national accounting standards. [48] An economic "map" is created for all measured transactions in the national economy. In this map, all stocks and flows are allocated and categorized according to SNA rules. For every entry in the SNA accounts, the appropriate measurement methodology is defined by statisticians, consistent with the SNA manual. [49] In principle, there is a place in SNA for almost every type of transaction in the economy. However, some things that happen in the economy are not measured in SNA accounts. [50] That is either because they are conceptually excluded from the SNA framework, or because it is practically difficult to estimate them accurately (for example, specific changes occurring within an accounting interval, or across several accounting intervals; the sales of specific types of used goods; illegal transactions).

SNA statisticians get the data and information they need to compile the accounts from ten types of sources:

• Direct surveys of business units, institutional units, household units, and consumer units, or special sector-specific sample surveys. These are often sample surveys for specific areas and sectors in the economy (for example, labour force surveys) which are generalized to the whole economy, using a Sampling frame based on a geostatistical database for the survey population and mathematical models. Some direct surveys are taken exclusively for the purpose of compiling national accounts, but the national accounts statisticians also use relevant data from other surveys which are not specifically carried out only for national accounts purposes.

• Census data obtained from population censuses, economic censuses, agricultural censuses and housing & dwelling censuses. Normally a census involves surveying the complete population of an area or sector, not just a sample of it. A national population census is normally taken every five or ten years (sometimes this is temporarily not possible, because of crises, wars or disasters).

• Administrative data. This includes corporate records, company records, institutional records, personal income records and value-added tax records; inventory data; social security contributions and pension records; bookkeeping records and company registers; land and property registers; financial reports of companies and institutions; customs records of imports and exports; licensing databases; and employment registers.

• Public finance statistics and related data sets obtained from central government, state government, provincial government, district government and local government authorities. Included are the general government accounts, budget allocation and expenditure reports, and expenditures on specific items (for example, defence and education).

• Central bank, financial institution and corporate bank statistics, including balance sheet data; data on bank loans, deposits and interest paid/earned; insurance and pension fund reports; data on stocks, bonds, derivatives and other asset transactions; and data on various other financial markets and types of financial intermediation.

• Satellite data imported from other statistical agencies for use in standardized SNA satellite accounts (for example tourism, health, labour utilization etc.). This material can be supplied to SNA ready-made, or it can be adjusted somewhat for alignment with SNA standards.

• Mathematical models which estimate the value for particular accounting items using observed trends in related contemporaneous data which are already available. Models are not only used for sample surveys. They are also used to extrapolate data sets which are too costly, impractical or impossible to obtain from an alternative source. Models are also useful to test the reliability of the data series that are produced. Quarterly economic data is often obtained with the aid of mathematical models and leading empirical indicators that can reliably predict the quarterly trends.

• Price indexes, including price and volume indexes for traded goods and services; consumer price indexes; producer price indexes for inputs and outputs; capital expenditure indexes; asset price indexes; export and import price indexes; real estate and construction cost indexes. A national statistics office in the larger countries typically uses 500 to 2000 price indexes. Most price indexes are usually produced by the national statistics office itself, but in some cases, they are produced by other government agencies, by research institutions, or by foreign agencies. They are crucial for the accurate estimation and uniform valuation of entries in the national accounts.

• Online data sources. Increasingly, national statistics offices make use of publicly accessible online data and databases maintained by private sector organizations, as a source of data. Examples are web-sourced price information, retail prices and retail volumes, and tourism & transport data. Different government agencies also share or exchange information from their digital databases.

• International sources: information is obtained from government agencies in other countries, for export and import statistics, balance of payments statistics, international trade in services statistics, tax and pension treaty statistics, foreign income & remittances, and foreign direct investment statistics.

SNA statisticians can refer to all kinds of national and international documentation, including scientific or other academic literature and news stories. But they cannot collect data from any source at will. [51] Much of the detailed source data used to produce statistics is confidential or secret information (for privacy, military, official and business reasons). Normally only the anonymized aggregates derived from the detailed base data are accessible and published in the accounts (typically many more tables and accounts are produced by national accounts staff which are not accessible to the general public, or which are not officially published).

There exists a legal framework for data collection and data publication, which defines (1) the obligations to supply data, (2) legitimate use of data, (3) protection of data, (4) privacy rights and (5) the release of data. The national statistics office must specify "under whose authority" the information is collected, and "for what purpose". National accounts data can only be collected if it is really necessary to produce the national accounts. In this way, the response burden is kept within acceptable bounds for data suppliers, unnecessary costs are avoided, and there is less chance of response error, data sabotage or non-compliance with information requests.

An important reason why some types of information are traditionally not collected, is simply because there is resistance to supplying it, or a lack of trust. Ultimately SNA statistical research cannot be done successfully, if people do not cooperate with information requests. Different countries have different laws, but usually there are norms and rules for data collection. A lot of thought goes into finding the best ways to approach individuals and organizations for information requests, so that the response rate is high, the response burden is low, response errors are low, and response quality is high.

The world's largest national accounts

Annual SNA-based estimates for the People's Republic of China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) were first produced for 1985. For 1985-1992, separate national accounts were compiled according to the Material Product System (MPS) and SNA 1993, although at that time the SNA data were mainly derived from MPS accounts (using a conversion method created by the United Nations Statistics Division). [52] In 1992, the SNA was adopted by the National Bureau of Statistics of China as the official accounting system. From that time, the MPS system was abandoned, and Chinese national accounts were directly compiled in accordance with SNA principles. [53]

India first introduced national income estimates in 1952, and has progressively integrated SNA updates in its National Accounting System (NAS), including the 1968, 1993, and 2008 revisions. NAS adheres broadly to SNA concepts (such as GDP, Gross Value Added, and sectoral accounts), but also uses country-specific methods to deal with data limitations, a large informal sector, and local administrative practices. India's Central Statistics Office continues to revise the NAS to improve harmonization with SNA standards, but retains methods specially designed for Indian economic conditions.

Eurostat uses a version of the SNA for the European Union, called the European System of Accounts (ESA). [54] Participation in the ESA system is mandatory for European Union member states. [55] All EU Member States are legally obliged to use ESA 2010 for their national and regional accounts. [56] This includes providing standardized macroeconomic data to Eurostat, consistent with the ESA framework. The ESA concepts are uniformly applied in budget reports by EU member governments and in their official financial statistics, as well as in EU financial surveillance systems for member governments. For example, according to the EU Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), EU government budget deficits must ordinarily not exceed 3% of GDP, and the norm for EU government debts (the public debt) is that they must not exceed 60% of GDP.

The American-designed National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA), used uniquely in the United States, feature broadly the same concepts as SNA, but they differ from the SNA in details of methodology, classifications and presentation. [57] The traditional similarity between the SNA and the NIPA exists, because the original design of the SNA in 1953 was to a certain extent modeled on the NIPA accounting system already adopted by the US federal government in 1947. [58] The subsequent SNA revisions were also informed or influenced by developments in the NIPA accounts. Since 1993, the American Bureau of Economic Analysis has made an effort to achieve greater conceptual consistency with SNA standards. [59] The differences in data and presentation between the two systems are not an insurmountable problem, because the NIPA and the SNA both provide sufficient information to rework statistics to match each other's concepts, categories and classifications.

The national accounts of Brazil, Indonesia, Pakistan and Nigeria are all based on SNA concepts and methods, but with differences in the SNA versions used, implementation quality, and institutional capacity. The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) uses the SNA 2008, and is highly advanced in social accounting, with full implementation of institutional sector accounts, supply and use tables, quarterly national accounts and integration of satellite accounts (e.g., environmental accounts, health, and education). Statistics Indonesia uses SNA 2008, and its accounts are quite comprehensive. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics uses SNA 1993 and SNA 2008, but complete data is not yet available for all standard SNA accounts. The National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria (NBS Nigeria) uses SNA 2008, aiming to rebase the data sets to 2019. [60]

Regional organizations for SNA development

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) set up in 1947 by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) promotes the implementation of SNA in UNECE countries, especially in South-East European (SEE) countries and East European, Caucasus and Central-Asian (EECCA) countries. [61] UNECE maintains its own statistical database.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, there is the regional program Sistema de Cuentas Nacionales (SCN), coordinated by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) [62] together with the UNSD, IMF, and World Bank. Its aim is to organize, standardize and harmonize the implementation of SNA 2008 across the region. There are 33 participating countries.

The ASEAN Guidelines on National Accounts aim to improve SNA 2008 alignment, harmonize national accounts, strengthen capacity, and improve data quality and dissemination in the ASEAN region. The program involves 10 countries and is sponsored by ASEANstats, IMF, UN ESCAP, and Asian Development Bank (ADB). [63] The Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) provides trainings in SNA knowledge. [64]

In West Africa and Central Africa, there is the Observatoire économique et statistique d'Afrique subsaharienne (AFRISTAT) created in 1993 by WAEMU countries and other associated countries. The organization promotes harmonized national accounts, following SNA 1993 and moving to SNA 2008. In East Africa and Southern Africa, there are regional organizations like Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Southern African Development Community (SADC), and East African Community (EAC) which have statistical committees supporting SNA implementation. These are backed by AfDB, the IMF's AFRITAC organizations, and UNECA.

The GCC Statistical Center (GCCStat, Gulf Cooperation Council) coordinates statistical work, including national accounts, for Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman. It is moving toward SNA 2008-compliant national accounts. The focus is now on non-oil sectors, satellite accounts, and price indices.

The Caribbean Community framework (CARICOM) provides SNA technical cooperation for Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Haiti, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago. It coordinates with UNSD and ECLAC on SNA 2008 implementation, with a special focus on tourism satellite accounts (TSA) and remittances.

To support and harmonize the implementation of SNA across the Pacific region, several organizations provide technical assistance and capacity-building initiatives. Pacific Community's Statistics for Development Division offers guidance and training to enhance statistical systems. The Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Centre (PFTAC) aims to strengthen institutional capacities in macroeconomic and financial management, including national accounts statistics. The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) conducts regional programs to improve economic statistics in Asia and the Pacific. In addition, the National Transfer Accounts (NTA) network is also active in the region.

Publication of SNA data

No single agency has a monopoly on publishing SNA statistics. There are few universal standards for how they are published. Published SNA statistics can be freely used by the public, if the source is acknowledged correctly by the user. Statistics offices typically provide a lot of information free of charge (as a government-funded public service). But they do charge fees for many printed publications, for the supply of specialized data sets, and for specialized data services. How exactly the boundary between paywall data and free data is drawn, and what the costs are, can vary from country to country. It may depend on who the data users are, how the data is used, and what the local laws and policies permit.

For particular sorts of SNA data sets, one national or international agency is usually the "primary" publisher. For example, international agencies are more likely to publish comprehensive international comparisons of SNA data on a regular basis. Detailed national SNA statistics are usually available from national statistics offices or national governments. Data users have the option of getting their national data sets either from national statistics offices, or from intergovernmental bodies, or from some third-party source (such as central banks, economic research institutes or academic collections).

International agencies will often include adjusted United States data sets in their comparative SNA statistics, even though the US has its own NIPA accounting system. Sometimes estimates for core variables are included for countries/areas which are at present still outside the SNA aegis.

Economic and financial data produced by UN member countries are used to compile comparable annual (and sometimes quarterly) data on the gross product, national income, investment, capital transactions, government expenditure, and foreign trade. The results are published by national statistics offices, but also in two UN Yearbooks: (1) National Accounts Statistics: Main Aggregates and Detailed Tables and (2) National Accounts Statistics: Analysis of Main Aggregates. From 2025 onward, the yearbooks are published in line with the SNA 2025 standards. The values provided for the accounts of individual countries in the UN yearbooks are cited in the national currency.

Current and constant US dollar equivalents can be found in the online UN National Accounts Main Aggregates Database. Additional variables can be accessed online in the UNdata Portal. Alternative sources of GDP and components in US dollars at current and constant prices are the World Development Indicators (WDI) of the World Bank, and the World Economic Outlook Database of the IMF. Both the World Bank and the IMF use exchange-rate converted GDP estimates and PPP-adjusted measures. The IMF publishes comprehensive SNA-based Balance of Payments statistics for the world's countries, as well as comparative statistics on government finance. The OECD [65] and the World Bank publish a lot of SNA-based comparative economic statistics, country reports and regional reports. To make the comparisons, the data series often have to be converted to a common currency (usually US dollars or euro's).

National statistical offices typically publish SNA-type national data series using their own formats and styles. More detailed accounts data at a lower level of aggregation is often available on request. International organizations like the IMF, OECD, the World Bank and Eurostat sometimes adjust national SNA data according to their own methodologies.

National accounts data is notoriously prone to revision. A very large number of different data sources, entries and estimation procedures are involved that have impact on the totals. Discrepancies can occur between the totals cited for the same accounting period in different publications issued in different years. The "first final figures" may later be revised several times. The revisions may be quantitatively slight, but cumulatively across e.g. ten years they can sometimes alter a trend significantly. The researcher has to bear this in mind when seeking to obtain consistent data series. Often it is possible to link old and new data series using some suitable chaining method. Data revisions are another reason for correctly citing the source of the data.

Quality and coverage

SNA data quality is relatively good, because there are data standards and because the data are regularly checked and monitored by several agencies, not just by the data producers. Nevertheless, the data sets of some countries are much more complete than others. Both the quality and the comprehensiveness of national accounts data that are available can differ between countries. There are five main reasons:

The United Nations has rather little power to enforce the actual production of statistics to a given standard, even if international agreements are signed by member states. But it can help with technical advice, training and capacity building. The UNSD collects national accounts statistics from most of the world's countries and territories. [68] Some of the world's states are part of other international/interstate unions (for example the European Union, the OECD, or the United States), which oblige member states to supply standardized data sets, for the purpose of interstate or international comparisons and coordination. In exchange for supplying data, countries also receive foreign data and expert scientific advice. So there are incentives and benefits for countries to cooperate, for the sake of obtaining more useful, comprehensive, and internationally comparable statistical information. If they cooperate, countries can obtain vastly more foreign statistical information and expertise at a lower cost, which matters if the information is essential to have for local, national and international decision making.

SNA Developments

SNA continues to be developed further. International conferences are regularly held to discuss various conceptual and measurement issues, and proposed revisions. This is necessary, because the world changes, new data needs emerge, new coordination/integration challenges arise, and new production techniques become available. The proposed SNA 2025 features many new standards for supplementary SNA tables on different topics. [69] Many of the new supplementary tables aim to link SNA financial data with social or physical statistics from other international or national agencies, with the aim of providing standardized, comparable national data sets on specific topics (such as labor use, natural resources, productivity, health etc.).

There are many ongoing projects, such as developing standard accounts for environmental resources, [70] the measurement of the trade in various services and of productivity, the treatment of insurance payments, the grey and informal economy, employee compensation in the form of non-wage income, intangible capital, cryptocurrencies, labor economics etc. Projects related to the SNA 2025 revision are mentioned on the UNSD webpage. [71]

Revisions of the SNA national accounts system are normally coordinated by the Intersecretariat Working Group on National Accounts (ISWGNA), comprising the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat) and the United Nations regional commissions. The ISWGNA working group has its own website under the UN Statistics Division [72] and works with the Advisory Expert Group (AEG). [73]

Discussions and updates are reported in the news bulletin SNA News and Notes. [74] Official SNA Revisions are always documented at the UN Statistics Division site. [75] For the 2008 SNA Revision, the full final text is available online. [76] For the 2025 Revision, only the pre-edit document is available so far; the final official text still has to be approved and published. [77]

Achievements of SNA

Debates

SNA data is used by tens of millions of public servants, private sector data professionals, businesspeople, media and academics worldwide. Without SNA data (whether published by the UN, or published by other agencies), they would have no internationally comparable data on the economy of different countries. So the data users appreciate that the information is available. However, SNA has also been criticized for its shortcomings. [78] That is to be expected — with so many users of SNA data worldwide, and given the limits of what the SNA accounts can provide for different countries, it is simply impossible to satisfy everybody's economic data needs all of the time. For example, it has been argued that SNA should include measures of happiness, but this idea has never been implemented. [79]

Representation issues

The criticism most often made of SNA is that its design, concepts and classifications do not adequately reflect the interactions, relationships, and activities of the real world. [80] The effect of that is (allegedly) a distorted picture of the world. For example, there are the following sorts of criticisms:

  1. The SNA system allegedly does not provide explicit detail for particular economic phenomena, suggesting thereby that they do not really exist or are of no significance (for example, Islamic banking, large multinational corporations and small business, the value of natural resources, the value of housework). The largest global capital asset is residential housing (and more generally, real estate), [81] but there are few internationally comparable economic statistics for it. [82] In many countries, the national statistics office does already survey and provide household financial statistics, but the statistics are not (or not fully) standardized, often incomplete and therefore not internationally comparable (or difficult to compare).
  2. There is allegedly something wrong with the valuation scheme that is being assumed (for example, the productive contribution of capital assets, the income of banks and similar financial institutions, and owner-occupied housing).
  3. In the valiant attempt to include transactions of all "micro" business activities under general "macro" headings, the true situation is allegedly misrepresented because a large portion of micro-transactions does not easily fit under the general conceptual headings (for example, the informal economy).
  4. It is claimed that the traditional structure of SNA, based on the concepts of value-added and capital formation, plus a particular view of assets and liabilities, is in reality no longer adequate to describe the modern economy. This is caused for example by (1) successive piecemeal or "patchwork" revisions, which aim to preserve continuity and comparability, but which are now (allegedly) out of step with economic science and economic reality, (2) the increase of non-traditional transactions and economic activities as well as totally new financial phenomena, and (3) changes in the weighting and composition of many different kinds of economic activities which are not adequately reflected in SNA categorization and classification systems — within countries, between countries and between regions.
  5. National accounts data on their own are, it is claimed, not useful to solve many of society's problems, because those problems really require quite different kinds of data to solve them (for example, population data, behavioral data, attitudinal data, legal data, or physical data. So, SNA data really need to be integrated with other data in a standard way, to provide useful international comparisons.
  6. National accounts data are often revised after the first release. The effect can be, that financial markets overreact in the wrong way, when the first estimates are published, and that politicians try to interfere with the figures that are released, to calm the markets.
  7. The international streams of past and present publications about SNA and SNA data can appear to data users as a complex jungle, which lacks oversight, transparency, coherence and consistency. It may take a lot of time and effort to track down the comparative statistics that researchers want to use. Cognitively helpful information design, clear fonts and layouts, and comprehensible language are allegedly often lacking in official publications. Online databases may not be user-friendly. Little comparative research of good quality is done about SNA data users — what data users are looking for, how they use the data, what problems they encounter, what improvements could be made etc. There is no standard user survey with good questions that provides essential and useful information about data users (both organizations and individuals), so that communicating about data can be improved on the basis of reliable evidence.

SNA authorities have responded to such criticisms in many different ways, large and small.

Criticism of GDP

The most popular criticism of national accounts concerns the concept of gross domestic product (GDP). GDP is criticized for what it does not measure, or because it allegedly mismeasures the national economy. Economists like Joseph Stiglitz have argued that a measure of "well-being" is needed to balance a measure of output growth. [84] Such measures have already been designed, but so far they have not been widely included in SNA accounts. However, SNA 2025 does broaden the national accounts framework, to account better for elements affecting wellbeing and sustainability, and inform various policy goals of governments and international organizations.

In part, the criticism of GDP is misplaced, because the fault is not so much with the concept itself. It is useful to have a measure of the value of a country's total net output and measures of national income, showing their changes over time – that's better than having no measure at all. The fault is more with the actual use that is made of the concept by governments, intellectuals, and businessmen in public discourse.

GDP measures are frequently misused by writers who do not understand what they mean, how the measures were produced, or what the measures can be validly used for. Many of the critics of SNA have no real knowledge about the main purpose of SNA, never mind the possibilities and limits of the accounting design. GDP is used for an enormous diversity of comparisons, but many of those comparisons are conceptually not valid or not appropriate.

In the US, for example, it is very common for politicians and the media to equate GDP with "the economy", but this is plainly false — GDP does not measure all economic activity, it is only a measure of the new gross value added generated by production during an interval of time (the net value of a country's output) which, in the production account, equates to certain measures of national income/expenditure. [85]

For another example, a popular statistic is "public debt as a percentage of GDP". This debt/GDP ratio could be understood (wrongly) to mean that the public debt, or its annual repayment, is a component of expenditure on GDP, or that it represents the proportion of national income required annually to pay off the national debt. What this debt/GDP ratio ignores, is that the coverage of the public debt variable and the coverage of the GDP variable are quite different. GDP includes only flows of incomes/expenditures and taxes considered to be inside the production boundary, i.e. flows directly generated by production. GDP does not include all the revenues and expenditures of the government, it does not include all the revenues and expenditures in the economy, and it is not a measure of assets and liabilities. To assess a financial position, debt liabilities incurred must in principle always be related to the total assets held and the total revenues from which the debt can be repaid. For example, if (say) a couple applies for a home mortgage loan from a bank, the bank usually wants to know much more financial information than just their annual net salary.

The main response by statistical authorities to the criticism and misuse of GDP data has not been to abandon or abolish the GDP measure. [86] Instead, statisticians have provided additional, complementary data sets about phenomena which GDP does not measure, and cannot measure. [87] With this approach, most data users can get the data that they want, most of the time, without denying the data needs of other users. There are official limits to the varieties of data that can be made available, but with the aid of modern technology, a vastly greater variety of data can be made accessible to the public, at the touch of a button.

Feminist concerns

SNA has been criticized as biased by feminist economists such as Marilyn Waring [88] and Maria Mies [89] because no imputation for the monetary value of unpaid housework or for unpaid voluntary labor (mainly done by women) is made in the accounts, even although GDP does include things like the "imputed rental value of owner-occupied dwellings" [90] and an imputation for "financial intermediation services indirectly measured" (FISIM). This SNA omission of unpaid housework is said to obscure the reality that market production depends to a large extent on non-market labor being performed. [91] In turn, that lacuna in the data allegedly promotes a distorted picture of economic life (which in reality includes both paid and unpaid work). [92]

However, such criticism does raise technical issues [93] for the statisticians who would have to produce the standard data, such as:

The intention of those who would like to produce standard data for the imputed market value or imputed cost of women's voluntary labor can be perfectly honorable. However, the production and cost of creating the data has to be practically justifiable in terms of technical/scientific feasibility and real utility. It could be argued that attaching an imaginary price to housework as a standard international procedure, might not be the best data to have about housework. It míght not make people who do housework more valued in the eyes of others, and it might not result in a general improvement of social attitudes and behaviour. There is certainly a permanent need for data on housework and voluntary work, because so many people are involved in it. But SNA might perhaps not be the best place to supply that data. This controversy is not yet finished, and there is not yet a completely satisfactory and definitive standard solution (there are proposals for an SNA satellite account).

In most OECD countries, statisticians have estimated the value of housework using data from time use surveys. The valuation principle applied is usually that of how much a service would cost on average, if it was purchased at market rates, instead of being voluntarily supplied. Sometimes an "opportunity cost" method is also used: in this case, statisticians estimate how much women could earn in a paid job, if they were not doing unpaid housework. [97] Robert Eisner estimated that the market value of unpaid housework in money terms was equivalent to about 33% of the value of US GDP in 1981. [98] Nancy Folbre provides more recent comparative data. [99]

When she was the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde reportedly claimed at an IMF/World Bank annual meeting in Tokyo (October 2012) that women could rescue Japan's stagnating economy, if more of them took paid jobs instead of doing unpaid care work. A 2010 Goldman Sachs report had calculated that Japan's GDP would rise by 15 percent, if the participation of Japanese women in the paid labor force was increased from 60 percent to 80 percent, matching that of men. [100]

The difficulty with this type of argument is, that domestic and care work would still need to be done by someone, meaning that either women and men would need to share household responsibilities more equally, or that parents would have to rely on childcare and eldercare supplied by paid caregivers from the public sector, or from the private sector. Many mothers don't care about a GDP number from a statistics office, they care about their children, and do not want to outsource their parenting. With a greying population, the economy will need more children that can replace retired workers in the future; that makes raising children properly a priority (particularly in the first five years of life). The majority of young people with young children cannot afford to hire caregivers themselves. [101]

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), about 75.6 million domestic workers are employed in the world, mostly women and migrants, representing 4.5% of all workers (among every 22 workers, one worker is a domestic worker). In terms of their social status, domestic workers remain largely "undervalued, underprotected, and underrepresented". In 2021, the ILO estimated that 81% of all domestic workers were "informally" employed. [102] They are mainly servants of wealthy people and the professional middle classes.

Left-wing criticism

The Marxist/socialist criticism is basically that SNA categories (1) hide the exploitation of the workers and farmers who produce the wealth, and (2) hide the sources and growth of economic inequality [103] among the social classes of a country, in terms of disparities in income, wealth and consumption. [104] The neoclassical and Keynesian concepts used in SNA are in many cases regarded as unreal, incoherent or non-observable (and therefore scientifically not verifiable or provable). More specifically, Marxian economists have criticized SNA concepts from a different theoretical perspective on the new value added or value product and on capital accumulation. [105]

From a Marxist perspective, the distinctions drawn in SNA to define income from production and property income are rather capricious or eclectic, obscuring thereby the different components and sources of realized surplus value; the categories are said to be based on an inconsistent view of newly created value, conserved value, and transferred value. One result is that the true profit volume is underestimated in the accounts – since true profit income in a country is larger than operating surplus [106] – and workers' earnings are overestimated since the account shows the total labor costs to the employer rather than the "factor income" which workers actually receive. If one is interested in what incomes people actually get, how much they own, or how much they borrow, national accounts often do not provide the required information.

Additionally, it is argued by Marxists that the SNA aggregate "compensation of employees" does not distinguish adequately between pre-tax and post-tax wage income, the income of higher corporate officers, and deferred income (employee and employer contributions to social insurance schemes of various kinds). "Compensation of employees" may also include the value of stock options received as income by corporate officers. Thus, it is argued, the accounts have to be substantially re-aggregated, to obtain a true picture of income generated and distributed in the economy. The problem there can be, that the detailed information to do it may not made available, or may be available only at a prohibitive cost.

Marxists are also critical of the lack of integrated statistical information about the financial sector (banking, investment finance, funds management, insurance and real estate) and the lack of interest in stock-flow consistent accounting. In this they are not entirely alone; US government statisticians admit frankly that "Unfortunately, the finance sector is one of the more poorly measured sectors in national accounts". [107] The financial sector is nowadays the biggest player in international transactions, and strongly influences the developmental path of the world economy, through international financing/directing investment and through assets/funds management. Yet oddly it is precisely this leading sector in the world economy for which systematic, comprehensive, and comparable data sets are not available. [108]

SNA statisticians acknowledge that alternative interpretations of the gross product and capital formation accounts are possible. However, they would emphasize that considerable opportunities exist for researchers to reaggregate/rework standard statistical measures, to create their own alternative measures. Examples are Alan Freeman's Marxist national accounts group [109] and the socialist Distributional National Accounts (DINA) framework pioneered by Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman. [110] The DINA approach combines tax records, household survey data and national accounts data, to show the real distribution of national income among different income groups. [111] In the DINA design, the sum of individual incomes aligns with standard SNA macroeconomic aggregates, providing a consistent and comprehensive picture of income distribution. Future SNA accounts will address some of the concerns raised, via satellite accounts, on topics such as labor inputs, income distribution and financial activities.

Environmentalist criticism

Originally, SNA was designed to provide standard, comparable measures for magnitudes and changes in national income, output, investment, capital wealth and external trade. All of these are essential to understand the causes and patterns of economic growth. However, that approach is nowadays deemed to be deficient (and for some, totally wrongheaded), because it leaves out crucial variables, such as environmental variables which impact on the whole economy.

The debates about including environmental variables in SNA accounts have carried on for half a century. Nowadays a very large scientific literature exists about the subject. However, for many years it proved difficult to reach a workable international consensus about a feasible SNA methodology for creating meaningful environmental accounts – standard SNA accounts which would be both useful and internationally comparable (keeping in mind the great diversity of environmental conditions in 200+ different countries and territories).

There have been ten main sorts of environmentalist criticisms of alleged deficiencies in SNA accounts. [112] Most of the criticisms are about things that are not accounted for by SNA, but which (it is argued) ought to be accounted for as a standard procedure. Each criticism has been elaborated in much more detail by many different researchers.

  1. SNA traditionally does not account for most of natural environment (the land, the biosphere, the atmosphere) which contains and supports the whole economy, and from which resources are extracted.
  2. SNA’s approach to the valuation of goods, services and assets does not recognize that many environmental variables require a different valuation approach, or a different cost/benefit approach with a different logic.
  3. SNA does not account systematically for existing stocks of renewable and non-renewable resources, the use of those resources, and the value of their depletion.
  4. SNA does not account for the value of many environmental functions and ecosystems which provide essential supports for human production, consumption and habitats.
  5. SNA does not include environmental "externalities" (such as the social costs of pollution) as part of the economy, so that national accounts overstate the net benefits of economic activity for enterprises as against true costs for communities.
  6. SNA does not explicitly account for the costs that result from environmental degradation, and the costs of recovery from environmental damage.
  7. SNA does not provide adequate data to understand, monitor and evaluate what is required for sustainable economic growth.
  8. SNA lacks standard satellite accounts which link economic activity to physical resource flows, pollution impacts, and ecosystem changes.
  9. SNA’s concept of value excludes cultural values or any other valuations than what can be expressed in money-units. Spiritual and social dimensions of nature are absent in SNA reports.
  10. SNA sends out the wrong message about the macroeconomic future for humanity, if it does not account properly for the environment (the latter which contains the economy, and is a primary source of its wealth).

Each of these ten concerns has been elaborated in much more detail by many different researchers.

Statisticians' critical views

Statisticians have also criticized the validity of international statistical comparisons using national accounts data, on the ground that in the real world, the SNA estimates are rarely compiled in a truly uniform way – despite appearances to the contrary. People often assume that the data are "precisely accurate", although the data may only be a "best estimate" under the given conditions, or "approximately true" and "indicative". There is often little official transparency about data errors in national accounts. [113]

Jochen Hartwig once provided evidence to show that "the divergence in growth rates [of real GDP] between the U.S. and the EU since 1997 can be explained almost entirely in terms of changes to deflation methods that have been introduced in the U.S. after 1997, but not – or only to a very limited extent – in Europe". [114] It can happen that the reported percentage change in a macro-economic variable is equal to the possible margin of error in the statistical estimates for that variable.

The "magic" of national accounts is that they provide an instant source of detailed international comparisons. [115] However, critics argue that, on closer inspection, the numbers are often not really so comparable as they are made out to be. The practical result is, that all sorts of easy comparisons are tossed around by policy scientists, which, if the technical story behind the numbers was told, would never be attempted, because the comparisons are scientifically dubious or untenable. Had there been better education in the use of economic data, a lot of controversies would have been quickly resolved, or they would not occur. The counterargument is, that because countries are applying the same statistical standards and concepts, this already makes an enormous positive difference to data comparability. This positive difference far outweighs the effects of remaining methodological discrepancies in the data of different countries.

SNA producers do not have control over how SNA data will be used. National statistics offices only control what information is released, and when it is released. They act in accordance with a legal framework, and follow directives from the government officials in charge. The data can be used for purposes which are not valid, or used for purposes which the data were never meant to serve. [116] That is not the fault of SNA producers, but a matter of data awareness, statistical knowledge and data user education.

Both the strengths and the weaknesses of national accounts are, that they are based on an enormous variety of data sources. The strength consists in the fact that a lot of cross-checking between data sources and data sets can occur, to assess the credibility of the estimates for the bigger picture. In each account, things do have to "add up" correctly, and the different accounts have to be mutually consistent. The weakness is, that the sheer number of inferences made in compiling data sets increases the possibility of data errors, and can make it more difficult to trace the causes of errors.

SNA data quality has been criticized, on the ground that what pretends to be "economic data" may involve extrapolated estimates using mathematical models, and not direct observations. These econometric models are designed (sometimes with great ingenuity) to predict what particular data values ought to be, based on sample data for "indicative trends". One can, for example, observe that if variables X, Y, and Z go up, then variable P will go up as well, in a specific proportion. In that case, one may not need to survey P or its components directly, it is sufficient to get available trend data for X, Y, and Z and feed them into a mathematical model, which then predicts what the values for P will be at each interval of time.

Because statistical surveys can be costly or difficult to organize, or because the data has to be produced quickly to meet a deadline, statisticians often try to find cheaper, faster, and more efficient methods to produce the data. They make use of inferences from data that they already have, or from selected data which they can get more easily. Sometimes this procedure can be proved to supply accurate data successfully. But the purist objection to this approach is often that there is a loss in data accuracy and data quality.

Statisticians do admit that data errors and inaccuracies can occur. It would be preferable to have comprehensive survey data available as a basis for estimation. But it is usually possible to find estimation techniques that keep margins of error within acceptable bounds. The real problem may be that errors can be corrected only quite some time after the publication deadline, in the light of fresh data or additional data. If governments refuse to pay for the production of quality data with qualified staff, statisticians can only do what they are able to do, with the techniques they have. Imperfect statistics may be better to have, than no statistics at all. In the future, digital technology and artificial intelligence will most likely make the production of economic statistics easier, cheaper, faster and better. [117] In particular, artificial intelligence can potentially provide much faster data error detection. However, artificial intelligence is not a panacea and it may introduce new errors in information systems: “Hundreds of Wikipedia articles may contain AI-generated errors. Editors are working around the clock to stamp them out.” [118]

Technical and conceptual criticism can always be made of national accounts statistics. Statisticians make criticisms themselves. However, in the end people want to have comparable data, to understand the proportions and magnitudes of an economic situation. If the demand for quality data grows, investment by countries in data production will have to grow as well. If data users are not satisfied with the data they get, they may be able to create their own data sets, starting out from publicly available information from a statistical agency. Behind the published statistical totals, there also exist databases, archives and registers with more detailed information used to compile the totals. With appropriate authorization, it may sometimes be possible to obtain extra data and more details. Usually the NSO staff is willing to help, within the constraints of the relevant laws and rules. The bottom line for the quality of national accounts data is adequate funding and staffing, cooperation and trust. [119]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The name-change from "United Nations System of National Accounts (UNSNA)" to "System of National Accounts (SNA)" occurred during the 1993 revision of the SNA. Other major international organizations — the OECD, IMF, World Bank, and Eurostat — had become significantly involved in the development, revision, and dissemination of the SNA. The name "System of National Accounts" without the "UN" prefix was meant to reflect the collaborative, international ownership of the standard. It emphasized that SNA is a globally agreed framework and not solely a UN product, and facilitates wider adoption and legitimacy of the framework beyond the UN system.
  2. ↑ "The System of National Accounts (SNA) is the internationally agreed standard set of recommendations on how to compile measures of economic activity in accordance with strict accounting conventions based on economic principles. The recommendations are expressed in terms of a set of concepts, definitions, classifications and accounting rules that comprise the internationally agreed standard for measuring such items as gross domestic product (GDP), the most frequently quoted indicator of economic performance." SNA 2025, chapter 1, para. 1.3.
  3. ↑ United Nations,A System of National Accounts and Supporting Tables, Studies in Methods, Series F No 2 Rev. 1, New York, 1953.
  4. ↑ "System of National Accounts". United Nations. Retrieved 16 February 2023. For a brief historical summary of the revisions, see e.g. the relevant section in the manuals System of National Accounts 1993 and System of National Accounts 2008
  5. ↑ The SNA 2025 manual is available only in draft form. United Nations Statistical Commission, Report on the fifty-sixth session (4–7 March 2025), Economic and Social Council Official Records, 2025, Supplement No. 4. Introducing the System of National Accounts 2025.
  6. ↑ For example, the different task teams behind the SNA 2025 revision are listed in the Towards the 2025 SNA document, on the UNSD site.
  7. ↑ If for example a government requests a loan from a foreign creditor, this creditor needs economic data to judge (1) the capacity to repay the debt, (2) what the sovereign credit risks are, and (3) on what terms the loan could be granted. Sovereign credit ratings are influenced by economic data reports, so the data has to be available.
  8. ↑ European Commission, European System of Accounts, ESA 2010. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2013.
  9. ↑ European Commission, Questions and Answers: European System of Accounts 2010. Brussels, 16 January 2014.
  10. ↑ See UNdata search.
  11. ↑ The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) provides a Country/Area List detailing entities for which national accounts data are collected. This list includes separate territories and regions beyond the UN's 193 member states, and includes countries and areas outside the SNA framework.
  12. ↑ UNSD provides a list of affiliated national statistics offices in the world..
  13. ↑ Some macro-economic data is not sourced from SNA accounts at all. This may include industry and household surveys by NSO's, price indexes, government financial and monetary data, data from the largest multinational corporations, and economic data collected by some national or international private sector organizations on own initiative, such as NGO's, research foundations, interest groups, industry associations etc. Nevertheless, international standards are often applied in these cases, for the sake of comparability.
  14. ↑ The OECD has 38 member states (mainly industrialized, post-industrial and developed countries) which account for around half of global net output. The OECD assists economic reforms in more than a hundred countries. It regularly publishes economic reports for member countries and makes a big contribution to developing standard statistical and econometric methodologies.
  15. ↑ Richard Stone, Some British Empiricists in the social sciences 1650-1900. Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 26-31 and pp. 147-150.
  16. ↑ Paul Studenski, The Income of Nations. New York: New York University Press, 1958, p. 151. “The Income of Nations by Paul Studenski”. Review by Alvin E. Coons, in:Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. 8, No. 3, April 1960, pp. 322-328.
  17. ↑ Paul Studenski, The Income of Nations. New York: New York University Press, 1958, p. 457. Historical series of national income estimates for Britain since the mid-19th century are provided in C.H. Feinstein, National income, expenditure and output of the United Kingdom 1855-1965. Cambridge University Press, 1972.
  18. ↑ Paul Studenski, The Income of Nations; Theory, Measurement, and Analysis: Past and Present. New York: New York University Press, 1958; M. Yanovsky, Anatomy of Social Accounting Systems. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1965; Zoltan Kenessey (ed.), The Accounts of Nations, Amsterdam IOS, 1994; Andre Vanoli, A History of National Accounting, IOS Press, Amsterdam, 2005; Frits Bos, The national accounts as a tool for analysis and policy: in view of history, economic theory and data compilation issues (2nd edition). Amsterdam, VDP publishers, January 2009; Frits Bos, "The History of National Accounting". Voorburg, Netherlands: Central Bureau of Statistics, National accounts occasional paper No. 48, 1992..
  19. ↑ Historic Versions of the System of National Accounts
  20. ↑ Vito Tanzi & Ludger Schuknecht, Public spending in the 20th century: a global perspective. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
  21. ↑ Kim Zieschang (IMF Statistics Department), “SNA 2008: an essential tool for economic policy and monitoring”. Module I of Joint Meeting of Experts on National Accounts United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Geneva April 30, 2012.
  22. ↑ See also:Angus Maddison, “Measuring and Interpreting World Economic Performance 1500–2001.” Review of Income and Wealth, Vol. 51, no. 1, 2005, pp. 1–36; Jutta A. Bolt and Jan Luiten van Zanden, “The Maddison Project: Collaborative Research on Historical National Accounts.” The Economic History Review, Vol. 67, no. 3, August 2014, pp. 627–651.
  23. ↑ Legal frameworks are not explained in the SNA manuals, but both national statistics offices and intergovernmental organizations have their own legal frameworks for the production of national accounts statistics.
  24. ↑ There are also downloadable pdf introductions to SNA (periodically revised) which are published by national statistics offices and by international organizations, e.g. François Lequiller & Derek Blades, ‘’Understanding National Accounts’’, 2nd edition. Paris: OECD 2014.
  25. ↑ See further Unstats Handbook on measuring data in the System of National Accounts
  26. ↑ UNECE, Data Stewardship and the Role of National Statistical Offices in the New Data Ecosystem (April, 2024).
  27. ↑ Bulletin by the National Bureau of Statistics of China on the Revision of Annual GDP Data for 2023, December 28, 2024.
  28. ↑ European system of national and regional accounts — ESA 2010.
  29. ↑ UNSD, ISIC Revision 5 2023
  30. ↑ BPM7/2025 SNA Implementation Strategy. IMF Statistics Department Discussion Paper BOPCOM—24/05, Forty-Fourth Meeting of the IMF Committee on Balance of Payments Statistics, Washington, D.C. November 5–7, 2024.[ https://www.imf.org/external/Pubs/FT/BOP/2024/pdf/44/BOPCOM%2024-05%20-%20BPM7-2025%20SNA%20Implementation%20Strategy.pdf]
  31. ↑ Handbook on Supply and Use Tables and Input-Output Tables with Extensions and Applications. New York: UN Statistics Division, 2018.
  32. ↑ See the ESA 2010 Manual, chapter 9 and ESA 2010 Transmission programme of data (Eurostat/Annex B to Reg. 549/2013)..
  33. ↑ Bos, Frits (1992). "The History of National Accounting" . SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.1032598. ISSN   1556-5068.
  34. ↑ "Satellite Accounts in the Framework of National Accounts: Methodological and Practical Issues". OECD Statistics Working Paper 2001/3. Paris: OECD, 2001, p. 13. See also: Maryvonne Lemaire, "Satellite Accounts: A Relevant Framework for Analysis in Social Fields". In: The Review of Income and Wealth,'Series 33, Number 3, September 1987, pp. 305-326.
  35. ↑ F. Lequiller & D. Blades, Understanding National Accounts (2nd ed.). Paris: OECD, 2014, p. 505.
  36. ↑ J.S. Landefeld, B.R. Moulton, B.R., & C.M. Vojtech, “Satellite Accounts: Improving the SNA Framework for Analysis”. In Carol Corrado, John Haltiwanger & Daniel Sichel (eds.), Measuring Capital in the New Economy. University of Chicago Press, 2003, pp. 9–34 at p. 11.
  37. ↑ In 1982, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) was given the mandate to develop methodological guidelines on environmental accounting. By 1989, it became clear that, given the lack of international consensus, a fundamental change in the SNA was not possible. Instead, it was resolved that a satellite account for integrated economic and environmental accounting would be pursued. See: "Integrated Economic and Environmental Satellite Accounts". Survey of Current Business, April 1994, pp. 33-49, at pp. 36-37.
  38. ↑ J.S. Landefeld, B.R. Moulton, B.R., & C.M. Vojtech, “Satellite Accounts: Improving the SNA Framework for Analysis”. In Carol Corrado, John Haltiwanger & Daniel Sichel (eds.), Measuring Capital in the New Economy. University of Chicago Press, 2003, pp. 9–34, at p. 10–12.
  39. ↑ SNA 1993, p. 508; Statistics Canada briefing, Satellite Accounting in Canada, July 28, 2020.
  40. ↑ See also the background document for the SNA 1993 revision
  41. ↑ Peter van de Ven, “Developing thematic satellite accounts. The example of a thematic satellite account for transport”. OECD Statistics Working Papers, 2021/02. See also: W. Alfred Maul, Household Satellite Accounts: Experiences in OECD Countries. Paris: OECD Statistics Directorate, 2005.
  42. ↑ Review of Satellite Accounting, SNA/M1.19/5.2 13th Meeting of the Advisory Expert Group on National Accounts, 1-3 October 2019, Washington D.C., USA, Agenda item: 5.2.
  43. ↑ Handbook on Satellite Accounts. Paris: OECD, 2020, p. 9.
  44. ↑ James Tebrake, “The role of satellite accounting in expanding the System of National Accounts”. Eurostat Review on National Accounts and Macroeconomic Indicators (EURONA) 2020, pp. 53-76.
  45. ↑ Progress report on the SNA update. UNECE Group of Experts on National Accounts, Geneva 23–25 April 2024]
  46. ↑ UNECE, Satellite Account for Education and Training Compilation Guide. New York: United Nations, 2020.
  47. ↑ International, North American and European Statistical Classifications for Space Economy Measurement, December 2023.
  48. ↑ As Eurostat puts it: “The accounts are based on a wide variety of often-conflicting and incomplete data sources, which must be reconciled in multiple dimensions to achieve a fully balanced set of detailed accounts. To deal with this, national accountants need a broad knowledge, good judgement and strong commitment to working closely with data suppliers.” Eurostat, Statistics explained: national accounts background 2025.
  49. ↑ Frits Bos, “Compiling the national accounts demystified”. National accounts occasional paper, nr. NA-95. Voorburg: Statistics Netherlands, 2007.
  50. ↑ See e.g. Alexandra Fernandes, The non-observed economy in the national accounts. An update and the link with the undeclared economy (University of Louvain, Belgium). Presented at the 24th Meeting of the Group of Experts on National Accounts, Palais des Nations, Geneva, 8-10 April 2025 (powerpoint) and Alexandra Fernandes, “The non-observed economy in the national accounts: New evidence for EU and EFTA Member States”. In: Economic Analysis and Policy, Volume 86, June 2025, pp. 137-164.
  51. ↑ 2013/21. Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics. Resolution adopted by the Economic and Social Council, United Nations, 24 July 2013. E/RES/2013/21 28 October 2013.
  52. ↑ UN Department of international economic and social affairs, Statistical office, Basic principles of the System of Balances of the National Economy. Studies in Methods, Series F, no. 17, ST/STAT/ser. F/2/17. New York: United Nations, 1971; UN Department of international economic and social affairs, Statistical office, Comparisons of the system of national accounts and the system of balances of the national economy (2 Volumes). Studies in methods. Series F / Statistical Office, ISSN 0498-014X; no. 20. New York: United Nations, 1977-8; National Accounts and Balances: Links Between the System of National Accounts (SNA) and the System of Balances of the National Economy (MPS), E/CN.3/1985/6. A paper for the 23rd session of the U.N. Statistical Commission, 1985; UN Department of international economic and social affairs, Statistical office, Basic methodological principles governing the compilation of the system of statistical balances of the national economy, Volumes 1 and 2. Studies in Methods, Series F, no. 17, rev. 1, ST/ESA/STAT/SER.F/rev.1. New York: United Nations, 1989.
  53. ↑ IMF, Special Data Dissemination Standard for the People's Republic of China, 15 January 2024. OECD, National Accounts for China: Sources and Method. Paris: OECD, 2001. English-language Chinese economic statistics can be accessed at National Bureau of statistics of China website, NBS national data, and EPS China Statistics.
  54. ↑ ESA was established by European Community, Council Regulation nr. 2223/96 of 25 June 1996, on the European system of national and regional accounts in the Community (ESA 95), OJ L 310, 30.11.1996, pp. 1–469.
  55. ↑ EU Regulation nr. 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (21 May 2013) on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union (known as the ESA 2010 Regulation, nr. OJ L 174, 26.6.2013, pp. 1–727. The first initiative in this direction was by the Council of the European Communities, Decision 79/833/EEC of 16 October 1979 on the European System of Integrated Economic Accounts (ESA 1979, OJ L 318, 09/12/1979, pp. 0027–0058) establishing one collective system of accounts.
  56. ↑ See: European System of Accounts, ESA 2010. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2013.
  57. ↑ See e.g. SNA and the NIPAs.
  58. ↑ For the historical background, see e.g. Robert William Fogel et al., Political Arithmetic. Simon Kuznets and the empirical tradition in econometrics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013. A standard national accounting system had been in development since a report to the US Senate in 1934, based on the results of initial studies of US national income. At its eighth session held in April 1939, the UN Committee of Statistical Experts had officially decided to create global standards for national accounts (as had previously been recommended in 1928). Standards for banking accounts and balance of payments accounts were also to be created. However, the activities of the UN Committee were interrupted by World War 2 (1939-1945) and only resumed in December 1945 with its Princeton conference. The UN approach taken was “no radical innovation, but a logical development of recent investigations in the field of national income” — Richard Stone et al., Measurement of national income and the social accounts. Report of the Sub-committee on National Income Statistics of the League of Nations Committee of Statistical Experts. Geneva: United Nations, 1947, 116 pp., at p. 6, 8.
  59. ↑ Stephanie H. McCulla, Karin E. Moses, and Brent R. Moulton, "The National Income and Product Accounts and the System of National Accounts 2008. Comparison and Research Plans". Survey of Current Business, June 2025, pp. 1-17.
  60. ↑ Emeka Anyasi, "Nigeria’s economic blueprint reshaped through GDP rebasing." The Conclave (Abuja), 22 January 2025.
  61. ↑ UNECE online national accounts page with links and resources.
  62. ↑ See: Annual Seminar on National Accounts for Latin America and the Caribbean, 2024: Towards the 2025 SNA.
  63. ↑ Important documents include: ASEAN Framework on Regional National Accounts (ASEANstats, 2019); Guidelines on Compilation of Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP); and various training and technical manuals tailored to ASEAN needs.
  64. ↑ SIAP e-learning .
  65. ↑ See: Tips for a better use of the OECD Annual National Accounts statistics and OECD Publications — Insights and context to inform policies and global dialogue .
  66. ↑ Compiling national accounts, balance-of-payments and foreign trade statistics in the framework of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) health emergency. Statistics Division of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), June 2020.
  67. ↑ Morten Jerven, Poor Numbers: How We Are Misled by African Development Statistics and What to Do About It. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2013.
  68. ↑ See the Country/Area List detailing entities for which national accounts data are collected. This list includes separate territories and regions beyond the UN's 193 member states.
  69. ↑ System of National Accounts 2025.
  70. ↑ Nordhaus W.D. and Kokkelenberg C. (ed.), Nature's Numbers: Expanding the National Economic Accounts to Include the Environment. Washington: National Academy Press, 1999.
  71. ↑ UNSD, Towards the 2025 SNA.
  72. ↑ Intersecretariat Working Group on National Accounts (ISWGNA)
  73. ↑ Advisory Expert Group
  74. ↑ SNA News and Notes
  75. ↑ Historic Versions of the System of National Accounts
  76. ↑ System of national Accounts 2008
  77. ↑ System of National Accounts 2025.
  78. ↑ See e.g. Yoshiko M. Herrera, Mirrors of the economy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2010.
  79. ↑ Fabrizio Antolini, "The Evolution of National Accounting and New Statistical Information: Happiness and Gross Domestic Product, Can We Measure It?". Social Indicators Research, Volume 129, October 2015, pp. 1075–1092.
  80. ↑ Robert Eisner, The Total Incomes System of Accounts. University of Chicago Press, 1989.
  81. ↑ Yolande Barnes et al., “World real estate accounts for 60% of all mainstream assets”, Savills Research, 25 January 2016. The main report is also available See also: Isabelle Fraser, "What is all the property in the world worth? The Telegraph (London), 24 January 2016. Shawn Langlois, "Some perspective on how real estate dwarfs the rest of the asset universe". MarketWatch, 25 January 2016.
  82. ↑ William R. White, "Measured wealth, real wealth and the illusion of saving" — Keynote speech, at the Irving Fisher Committee Conference on "Measuring the financial position of the household sector", Basel, 30–31 August 2006. In SNA, land values and the value of land sales fall outside the production boundary, and are therefore excluded from gross value-added and gross fixed capital formation. Land is not regarded as a produced good. Only the value of land improvements is included. Sometimes supplementary accounts are created for land values and trade in land. A measurement problem is that land and land sales are often not valued in a uniform way. For more information about the world's land, see e.g. Kevin Cahill and Rob McMahon, Who Owns the World? The Surprising Truth About Every Piece of Land on the Planet. New York: Grand Central Publications/Hachette Book Group, 2010.
  83. ↑ 2013/21. Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics. Resolution adopted by the Economic and Social Council, United Nations, 24 July 2013. E/RES/2013/21 28 October 2013.
  84. ↑ Joseph E. Stiglitz, Amartya Sen, Jean-Paul Fitoussi, Mismeasuring Our Lives: Why GDP Doesn't Add Up. The New Press, 2010.
  85. ↑ On 11 October 2007, a White House press release stated: "As a percentage of the economy, the deficit is now lower than the average of the last forty years." What it meant was: "The total US federal budget deficit, stated as a percentage of GDP, is now lower than the percentage of GDP which this deficit represented on average across the last forty years."
  86. ↑ Anne Harrison, "W(h)ither the SNA?", in: Review of Income and Wealth, Series 63, Supplement 2, December 2017, pp. 208-222.
  87. ↑ In 2022, the British statistics office proposed a new measure of “inclusive income”, to be supplied in gross and net terms. It is defined as “GDP plus the [value of] flows of additional wider economic benefits [obtained] from unpaid household service activity, the environment (natural capital), human capital, and the value of improved public service outcomes." — Richard Heys, “New ‘Beyond GDP’ measures for the UK: a workplan for measuring inclusive income”. UK Office for National Statistics briefing paper, 12 May 2022. and Richard Heys & Cliodhna Taylor, “Inclusive Income Accounts: Practical Measures to Go Beyond GDP.” Review of Income and Wealth, Volume 71, Issue 3, August 2025.
  88. ↑ Marilyn Waring, Counting for Nothing: What Men Value and What Women are Worth (1988). Reprinted in 1996 by Bridget Williams Books, New Zealand and republished by University of Toronto Press, 1999.
  89. ↑ Maria Mies, Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labour. London: Zed Books, 1999.
  90. ↑ That is, the market-rents which owner-occupiers would receive, if they rented out the housing they occupy.
  91. ↑ Meg Luxton, "More Than a Labour of Love: Three Generations of Women's Work in the Home" [1980]. Toronto: Women's Press, 2009 reprint. Meg Luxton, "The UN, women, and household labour: Measuring and valuing unpaid work." Women's Studies International Forum, Vol. 20 Issue 3, May–June 1997, pp. 431–439.
  92. ↑ Gaëlle Ferrant, Luca Maria Pesando and Keiko Nowacka, “Unpaid Care Work: The missing link in the analysis of gender gaps in labour outcomes”. Paris: OECD Development Centre, December 2014.
  93. ↑ J. Steven Landefeld & Stephanie H. McCulla, “Accounting for nonmarket household production within a national accounts framework”. Review of Income and Wealth, Volume 46, Issue 3, September 2000, pp. 289-307; J. Steven Landefeld, Barbara M. Fraumeni, Cindy M. Vojtech, “Accounting for household production: a prototype satellite account using the American time use survey”. Review of Income and Wealth, Volume 55, Issue 2, June 2009, Pages 205-225; Katharine G. Abraham and Christopher Mackie (eds.), Beyond the Market: Designing Nonmarket Accounts for the United States. Washington: The National Academies Press, 2005; Unpaid Household Service Work, Agenda item: 6.7, 14th Meeting of the Advisory Expert Group on National Accounts, 5-9 October 2020 (SNA/M1.20/6.7).
  94. ↑ SNA/M1.20/6.7, “Unpaid Household Service Work”, Agenda item: 6.7, 14th Meeting of the Advisory Expert Group on National Accounts, 5-9 October 2020 (Virtual Meeting).; Daniel DeRock, “Unpaid Work and the Governance of GDP Measurement”. E-international relations, Jan 11 2019.
  95. ↑ Surajit Deb, “Unpaid Work in the SNA Revisions: Implications for the Care Economy”. (University of Delhi) Paper prepared for the 38th IARIW General Conference August 26-30, 2024, Session 2D-2, Unpaid Household Work, August 27, 2024 (PDF); Indira Hirway, “Unpaid work and the economy: Linkages and their implications”, Working Paper, No. 838, Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, 2015 (PDF).
  96. ↑ Jacques Charmes, "The Unpaid Care Work and the Labour Market. An analysis of time use data based on the latest World Compilation of Time-use Surveys". International Labour Office, Geneva: ILO, 2019.; Daniel DeRock, “Hidden in Plain Sight: Unpaid Household Services and the Politics of GDP Measurement”. New Political Economy, 26(1), 2019.
  97. ↑ Amanda Sinclair & Sandy Besporstov, “Estimating the Economic Value of Unpaid Household Work in Canada, 2015 to 2019” (Paper prepared for the 37th IARIW General Conference August 22-26, 2022). Statistics Canada, March 2022.
  98. ↑ Richard Ruggles, “Review of ‘The total incomes system of accounts’ by Robert Eisner”. In: Review of Income and Wealth , Series 37, Number 4, December 1991, p. 455.
  99. ↑ Nancy Folbre, “Valuing Non-market Work”. New York: UNDP Human Development Report Office, 2015.
  100. ↑ Harumi Ozawa, "Woman is Japan's secret economic weapon." Agence France-Presse, 23 November 2012.
  101. ↑ For a global overview, see: Laura Addati, Umberto Cattaneo, Valeria Esquivel and Isabel Valarino, Care work and care jobs for the future of decent work. Geneva: International Labour Office, June 2018; Rhea Crisologo Hernando, Unpaid Care and Domestic Work: Counting the Costs. Policy Brief No. 43, APEC Policy Support Unit. Singapore: Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, March 2022.
  102. ↑ ILO Topic portal Domestic workers [accessed May, 2025]. See also: Willem Adema and Jonas Fluchtmann, Bringing Household Services Out of the Shadows. Formalising non-care work in and around the house. Paris: OECD Publishing, 2021.
  103. ↑ UNDP, Human Development Report 2019. Beyond income, beyond averages, beyond today: inequalities in human development in the 21st century. New York: United Nations Development Programme, 2019.
  104. ↑ Charles Reitz, “Accounting for Inequality: Questioning Piketty on National Income Accounts and the Capital-Labor Split”. Review of Radical Political Economics, Vol. 48, Issue 2, September 2015. Reprinted in: Lauren Langman and David A. Smith, (ed.), Twenty-First Century Inequality & Capitalism: Piketty, Marx and Beyond. Leiden: Brill, 2018, pp. 186-200; Thomas Piketty et al., “Distributional National Accounts Guidelines: Methods and Concepts Used in WID.world”. World Inequality Database at WID.world – Working Paper N° 2016/2; Thomas Piketty et al., Distributional National Accounts Guidelines. Methods and Concepts used in the World Inequality Database, 27 February 2024.
  105. ↑ Anwar Shaikh and Ahmet Tonak, Measuring the Wealth of Nations. Cambridge University Press, 2011. Anwar Shaikh, Capitalism: competition, conflict, crises. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
  106. ↑ True profit income of a country is larger than SNA operating surplus for at least six reasons: (1) depreciation write-offs and various subsidies typically contain elements of profit, for example because of government incentive programs for business enterprises; (2) profits on land sales, natural resource depletion and subsoil rents are conceptually excluded from operating surplus, because they fall outside the production boundary — this is changing somewhat with the adoption of SNA 2025; (3) many profits on asset (property) transactions and capital gains are conceptually excluded from operating surplus, because they are not regarded as a component of gross value added, and fall outside the production boundary; (4) the component of net profit receipts/payments in foreign transactions which is included in GNP and GNI, is excluded in GDP (for some countries, their net gains or losses of profit money through foreign transactions can be quite large); (5) the profits of banks are not explicitly stated in the financial sector account, or are regarded as equal to their net interest receipts (the value of bank services) even although commercial banks also make profits from asset trades, dividends, securities, derivatives, foreign exchange and properties they own; (6) a fraction of profit receipts is routed to tax havens, and is not registered in the resident country of the owners.
  107. ↑ Dennis J Fixler, Marshall B. Reinsdorf and Shaunda Villones, "Measuring the services of commercial banks in the NIPA." IFC Bulletin No. 33 (Irving Fisher Committee on Central Bank Statistics, Bank of International Settlements), 2007.
  108. ↑ David Schwimmer,"Why the global financial system needs high-quality data it can trust". World Economic Forum , 20 Jan 2025.
  109. ↑ See further Paul Dunne (ed), Quantitative Marxism. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991 and the IWGVT/COPE site.
  110. ↑ Thomas Piketty et al., Distributional National Accounts Guidelines. Methods and Concepts used in the World Inequality Database, 27 February 2024.
  111. ↑ Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman, Simplified Distributional National Accounts. World Inequality Database, WID.world Working Paper N° 2019/01.
  112. ↑ There also exist environmentalist criticisms which, in effect, completely reject SNA accounting practice as such, but these views are not discussed here, because they do not alter the SNA framework and delete the validity and merit of the whole SNA endeavour.
  113. ↑ Peter A.G. van Bergeijk, “On the inaccuracies of macroeconomic observations”. National Accounting Review, Volume 6, Issue 3, 2024, pp. 367-383.
  114. ↑ Jochen Hartwig, "On Misusing National Accounts Data for Governance Purposes" Archived 11 November 2014 at the Wayback Machine . Working Papers, Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research & Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, No. 101, March 2005, i + 23 pp.
  115. ↑ "The miracle of national accounts statistics is that all over the world, very incomplete, imperfect, and partly outdated datasets are transformed into complete, consistent, and up-to-date standardized pictures of national economies. This miracle of the national accounts is often misunderstood". Frits Bos, "The art and craft of compiling national accounts: statistics and their implication for reliability". Review of Income and Wealth, Series 55, nr. 4, December 2009.
  116. ↑ See further Frits Bos, “Use, misuse and proper use of national accounts statistics”. National accounts occasional paper Nr. NA-096. Voorburg/Heerlen: Statistics Netherlands, 2007.
  117. ↑ Osuolale Peter Popoola, Artificial Intelligence for Official Statistics: Opportunities, Practical Uses and Challenges. Research report, Kiel/Hamburg: Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, 2024.
  118. ↑ Wu, Daniel (8 August 2025). "Volunteers fight to keep 'AI slop' off Wikipedia". The Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286. Archived from the original on 8 August 2025. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
  119. ↑ Andrea Shalal and Davide Barbuscia, “Trust in US economic data on the line: Easy to lose, hard to restore”. Reuters, August 5, 2025.

References

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