Annual National Accounts: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Gross Domestic Product is the standard measure of the value of final goods and services produced by a country during a period. GDP is the most common used indicator to compare economic performance across countries or relatively to other data. It combines in a single figure all the production (also called output) carried out by all the firms, the non-profit institutions, government bodies and households in a given country during a given period, regardless of the type of goods and services produced, provided that the production takes place in the country's economic territory. Though it is a good indicator to capture production, it is not a good measure of societies' progress or well-being.

GDP at market prices can be measured in three different ways that provide the same result:

• Production approach: as output less intermediate consumption (i.e. value added) plus taxes on products (such as Value Added Tax (VAT)) less subsidies on products;
• Income approach: As the income earned from production, equal to the sum of: employee compensation; the gross operating surplus of enterprises and government; the gross mixed income of unincorporated enterprises; and net taxes on production and imports (VAT, payroll tax, import duties, etc., less subsidies);
• Expenditure approach: as the expenditure on final goods and services minus imports: final consumption expenditures, gross capital formation, and exports less imports. 
• Annual GDP and components - expenditure approach
• Annual GDP and components - output approach
• Annual GDP and components - income approach

GDP is valued at market prices (as paid on the market by the purchaser) on the whole economy (S1), therefore it includes taxes less subsidies on products (mainly VAT paid by the purchaser). The quality of data and sources on taxes are very good on S1 but their detail across industries and institutional sectors is not.

Value added is reported at basic prices, i.e. excluding taxes less subsidies on products, so it can be split among industries and institutional sectors.

• Annual value added and its components by economic activity
• Annual simplified non-financial accounts by institutional sector: Revenue | Expenditure | Balancing items
• Value Added, annual growth rate  

EU countries usually publish the main aggregates between February and April. More detailed breakdowns are reported in October. Fixed assets broken down by industry and product type are released after 24 months.

Non-European OECD countries loosely follow this schedule: Japan releases data in February, Canada and New Zealand in March, Colombia, Costa-Rica, Chile and Türkiye in April, Israel and Korea in September, Australia, Mexico and USA in November.

The data are revised on a regular basis, usually two or three times a year. In general, revisions depend on the national statistics institutes’ changes or adjustments. Revisions mainly concern the latest three years and reflect readjustments of previous estimates.

A benchmark revision is a comprehensive update of a country's national accounts, conducted at regular intervals (e.g., every 5 or 10 years). These revisions are more extensive than routine annual or quarterly updates and aim to improve the accuracy and consistency of the national accounts. A benchmark revision often incorporates new data sources (census, business survey), methodological improvements (implementation of a new classification such as COICOP 2018 or a new version of the standard (2008 SNA), structural changes (new base year). A benchmark revision usually has impact on the time series, meaning that historical data may be revised to ensure consistency with the new framework. Benchmark revision may also temporarily result in breaks in time series, and it can affect key indicators (GDP, national income, saving etc.). In the context of the EU member countries there exists a coordinated approach to benchmark revisions in the national accounts through the harmonized revision policy with the latest benchmark revision implemented in 2024. In case of a benchmark revision, the OECD incorporates the new data series into a blank version to clearly distinguish the new version from the old one. This may also lead to a reduced coverage of the time period until the country is able to submit historic data in accordance with the new methodology.

If countries have recently changed their methodology for compiling certain series but are only able to provide a shorter time length than the one of previous versions, the OECD estimates historical data using so called linkages. This methodology ensures to respond to the demands of users for long and continuous time series and to avoid breaks in the annual accounts database. 

The method used by the OECD to link two time series from two different definitions is the following: for each individual series, the ratio between the new definition data and the old definition data in the first common year is calculated. This ratio is then multiplied by old definition series for the time period that data have not been provided with. The same method is applied to both current and volume estimates data.

The linked data avoid the break that would exist if the two definitions were to be put end to end. These estimated data are presented in the OECD electronic releases with an estimation mark attached to each datum estimated. Thus users are well informed that these data have been estimated by the OECD and thus can differ from the data published by a national statistical office. As soon as the OECD receives longer time series from the statistical office, the estimated data are replaced by the actual data.

Current prices (also called nominal values), record transactions using the prices actually observed in each period.

Over time, the value of GDP value can be affected by both changes in quantities and price changes. The drawback of looking at changes in GDP at current prices is that it can give the false impression that quantities have changed, while in reality it was due to a change in price (inflation or deflation).

Constant prices (also called volume measures) revalue transactions by removing the effect of price changes, thereby isolating the changes in quantities or volumes.

There exist two ways of measuring volume estimates: revalue transactions using the prices of a fixed base year (oftentimes referred to as constant prices) and chain linked estimates where each year’s prices are used to revalue the next year’s quantities.

Chain linked estimates are more accurate for measuring volume than using a fixed base year because they use the previous year price structure (and thereby are closer to the price structure of the studied year). The problem with chain linked estimates is that additivity is lost (so that an aggregate is no longer equal to the sum of its components), and that they cannot be directly applied for transactions presenting positive and negative data (such as inventories). Despite these drawbacks, the SNA recommends the use of annual chain-linking for deriving time series.

In the database, the volume measure depends on the country's submission to the OECD. All OECD member countries present chain linked estimates with the exception of Mexico which releases constant prices. A country note gives details about the method, reference year etc. of the particular country, and is accessible by clicking on the blue “ï” next to the country’s name.

Each country applies its own national reference year, which varies across countries. By selecting the price base “chain linked volume” - coded "L" - users can view the national reference year. To ascertain comparability, the price base “chain linked volume (rebased)” - coded "LR" - displays all data at the same OECD reference year, which is currently 2020. To calculate chain-linked volumes, you compare quantities this year and the previous year, but value both sets of quantities using the same year’s prices, so that the effect of price changes is removed. An example in Excel of how to calculate chained linked volumes from current and previous years prices is provided here. The Excel file also provides an example of deriving previous year prices (year t) from available current prices and chain-linked volumes by applying the growth rate of the volume data to the current prices of (t-1).

National data are expressed in Euros for all member countries of the European Monetary Union (EMU).

Data relating to years prior to entry into the EMU have been converted from the former national currency using the appropriate fixed conversion rate, defining the euro on 1^st January 1999 (2001 for Greece, 2009 for Slovak Republic etc.). The fixed conversion rates can be found on European Central Bank website. 

The method facilitates comparisons within a country over time and ensures that the historical evolution (i.e. growth rates) is preserved. However, pre-EMU euros are a notional unit and are not normally suitable to form area aggregates or to carry out cross-country comparisons.

Government deficit reflects when the fiscal balance – also referred to as net lending (+) minus net borrowing (-) – is negative. The fiscal balance represents the difference between the revenue and expenditure of general government for a specific reference period, The fiscal balance covers all entities within the government sector, including central, local, and state governments, as well as social security institutions. It excludes public corporations – entities controlled by government but classified in the corporate sector because they produce market output – which taken together with general government make up the broader public sector. A positive balance indicates that the government has earned more than it has spent, allowing it to reduce the government debt or to invest. A negative balance (i.e., government deficit) makes the government a net borrower, requiring additional funds to finance its activities. It is often expressed as a percentage of GDP, providing a useful measure of fiscal sustainability. 

For further reading please see the following blog article: What is government deficit and why does it matter?

• Annual government non-financial accounts and key indicators: Revenue | Expenditure | Balancing items
• General government net lending/borrowing as a percentage of GDP

General government debt represents the amount of debt on the balance sheets of general government, which is stock data as it represents the situation at a specific point in time (in contrast to the government deficit or surplus) which correspond to flows). Debt is a commonly used concept, defined as a specific subset of liabilities identified according to the types of financial instruments included or excluded. Generally, debt is defined as all liabilities that require payment or payments of interest or principal by the debtor to the creditor at a date or dates in the future. Consequently, all debt instruments are liabilities, but some liabilities such as shares, equity and financial derivatives are not debt  [System of National Accounts, 2008, par. 22.104]. At the OECD, the concept of debt used is based on the 2008 SNA definition. This definition differs from the definition of debt applied under the Maastricht Treaty for European countries. For additional information please see following blog article: Tips for reading government debt-to-GDP ratios

• General government debt as a percentage of GDP

General government expenditure corresponds to total actual expenditure, meaning monetary payments made by general government and mainly includes intermediate consumption (i.e., purchases of goods and services used as input for government output), employee compensation (including employer social contributions), social benefits, subsidies and other transfers to households, interest charges, and gross fixed capital formation (investments). General government expenditure is widely used to measure the size of the role played by general government in the national economy.

Details of government expenditure by function (called COFOG) can be found at the following links:

• Annual government expenditure by function (COFOG)
• Total government expenditure as a percentage of GDP
• Annual government non-financial accounts and key indicators: Revenue | Expenditure | Balancing items  

Government revenue mainly consists of “compulsory levies”, i.e., taxes and social contributions. However, it also includes other sources such as from sales of goods and services (typically provided by government entities at below market prices), property income and various other public revenues. 

• Annual government taxes and social contributions receipts

The national accounts contain many other relevant indicators besides GDP and its components such as: 

• Annual household final consumption expenditure by purpose (COICOP 2018)
• Annual household final consumption expenditure by purpose (COICOP)
• Annual population and employment, national concept
• Annual employment by economic activity, domestic concept
• Annual value added and its components by economic activity
• Annual employment by detailed economic activity, domestic concept
• Annual capital formation by economic activity
• Annual fixed assets by economic activity and by asset
• Annual balance sheets for non-financial assets
• Annual simplified non-financial accounts by institutional sector: Revenue | Expenditure | Balancing items
• Annual non-financial accounts by institutional sector: Expenditure | Revenue

Household's savings: Net saving is a balancing item of the households institutional sector that reports the difference between the net disposable income of households and their final consumption expenditures. 

• Households’ savings

Households' net lending/net borrowing represents the amount available for the purchase of financial assets or debt repayment. It is almost always positive for the households sector. It is sometimes also called "financial saving". 

• Household's net lending/net borrowing

Households’ debt: The concept of households’ debt is based on the 2008 SNA definition. Debt is obtained as the sum of the following liability categories, whenever available / applicable in the financial balance sheet of the relevant institutional sector(s): currency and deposits (AF2), debt securities (AF3), loans (AF4), insurance, pensions and standardized guarantee schemes (AF6) and other accounts payable (AF8). The OECD publishes an indicator showing the stock of debt obtained from the financial balance sheet of the households and NPISHs sectors (S14+S15) as a percentage of their net disposable income.  For the households sector, liabilities primarily consist of loans, and more particularly of mortgages.

• Households debt as a percentage of net disposable income

OECD publishes long time series of GDP as from 1970 for most of the countries. 

Quarterly national accounts are accessible here.

Monthly GDP and other monthly national accounts data are not available.

All OECD countries provide their series by activity according to ISIC rev 4 classification, whereas they used to provide them according to ISIC Rev.3. Countries are expected to switch to ISIC Rev.5 when implementing the 2025 SNA (around 2030).

Since some countries publish data in more detail or for a longer time period, there is also an archive for analysts wishing to use the ISIC Rev.3 breakdown. Archived annual data (SNA93 methodology) is accessible from the GDP and non-financial accounts webpage.

These two ISIC classifications and their correspondence are available on UNSD web site:

• ISIC Rev.5
• ISIC Rev 4
• ISIS Rev 3

The System of National Accounts (SNA) is the internationally agreed standard set of recommendations on how to compile measures of economic activity for countries in accordance with strict accounting conventions based on economic principles. The SNA is a statistical framework consisting of a set of concepts, definitions, classifications and accounting rules to ensure the comparability of national accounts across countries. The SNA is published by the United Nations Statistics Division, the European Commission, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group. The SNA standard is regularly revised.

The 2025 SNA was adopted by the UN Statistical Commission in March 2025.

Countries are now developing implementation plans, with results by individual countries expected to become available from 2030 onwards.

The 2025 SNA will affect key macro-economic indicators such as GDP, NDP, net savings due to the following conceptual changes: recognition of data as a produced asset; recording of depletion of natural resources as a cost of production; including a return to capital in the sum-of-cost approach to measure non-market output; changes in the measurement of the output of central banks, by treating all central bank output as non-market output; accounting for biological resources such as timber. For more information on the 2025 SNA as well as the update process see the UNSTATS website.

The 2008 SNA is the standard currently used for country reporting (until it will be replaced by the 2025 SNA). The 2008 SNA replaced the 1993 SNA.

The 2008 SNA introduced 44 conceptual changes and 29 clarifications. However, only a few of these changes had a significant impact on the GDP, the two biggest ones concern the treatment of research and development (R&D) and of military weapon systems.

In the 2008 SNA, expenditures on R&D are no longer recorded as intermediate consumption but treated as investment (also referred to “gross fixed capital formation” in the SNA), being part of the gross capital formation. Due to this change, the GDP level of the OECD Member countries rose on average by 2.2%.

Military weapon systems are also recorded as part of the gross fixed capital formation instead of intermediate consumption. This change led to an increase of the GDP level of the OECD Member countries on average by 0.3 %.

Some other changes concern the recording of pension entitlements, exports, and the inclusion of illegal economic activity in national accounts.

All OECD Member states compile their accounts according to the 2008 SNA.

Further information on the SNA 2008 and its impact on national accounts can be found here:

• OECD Statistics Brief: New standards for compiling national accounts: what’s the impact on GDP and other macro-economic indicators?
• EUROSTAT: Manual on the changes between ESA 95 and ESA 2010 Manuals and guidelines 2014

SNA 2008 definition
Paragraph 26.25: The most commonly used concept of economic territory is the area under the effective economic control of a single government. However, currency or economic unions, regions, or the world as a whole may be used, as they may also be a focus for macroeconomic policy or analysis.

Paragraph 26.26: An economic territory includes the land area including islands, airspace, territorial waters and territorial enclaves in the rest of the world (such as embassies, consulates, military bases, scientific stations, information or immigration offices, that have immunity from the laws of the host territory) physically located in other territories. Economic territory has the dimensions of physical location as well as legal jurisdiction, so that corporations created under the law of that jurisdiction are part of that economy. The economic territory also includes special zones, such as free trade zones and offshore financial centres. These are under the control of the government so are part of the economy, even though different regulatory and tax regimes may apply. (However, it may also be useful to show separate data for such zones.) The territory excludes international organizations and enclaves of other governments that are physically located in the territory.

This definition applies for all OECD countries with the following exceptions:

France
The French economic territory encompasses the French shelf including the “Departements d’Outre Mer” (DOM). These DOM were included in the 95 base published in May 1999, before that they were part of the Rest of the World. The DOM consist of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane, La Réunion et Mayotte (Since April 2011).

Netherlands
The Dutch economic territory consists of the Netherlands that is the geographic territory of the Kingdom in Europe. It excludes any overseas territories.

Italy
The Italian national accounts cover the Italian economic territory but exclude extraterritorial enclaves (the Vatican State and San Marino).

Denmark
The Danish national accounts cover the economic territory of the Kingdom of Denmark except for the Faroe Islands and Greenland (in accordance with the Commission regulation (EC) No 109/2005)

Norway
The economic territory includes the Norwegian Continental shelf and Svalbard, but excludes overseas territories.

Portugal
The geographic coverage is the entire economic territory of Portugal, including Madeira and Azores.

United Kingdom
The UK economic territory includes Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It excludes Crown dependencies (Channel Islands and the Isle of Man).

United States
Geographic coverage: The geographic coverage of the data for the NIPAs is the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and U.S. military installations, embassies, and consulates abroad.

The accounts exclude Puerto Rico, and other islands in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that are designated as commonwealths or territories of the United States (A Statistical Improvement Program funded by the Office of Insular Affairs of the U.S. Department of the Interior has allowed BEA to develop separate GDP accounts for American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.)

National accounts include information about labour inputs in a manner consistent with other national accounts variables, such as output and compensation of employees (i.e. wages, salaries and social contributions). Employment in the SNA is defined as all persons, both employees and self-employed persons, engaged in some productive activity that falls within the production boundary of the SNA and that is undertaken by a resident institutional unit (19.19). Differences may exist with labour statistics which uses different concepts.

A key distinction can be made between the domestic and national concept of employment:

National concept: employment is measured based on individuals’ place of residence, covering all resident individuals in employment whether they work domestically or abroad. This includes, for example, residents commuting to work in another country or working remotely for a foreign employer not recorded domestically.

Domestic concept: employment is measured based on individuals’ place of work, covering all individuals working within the territory of a  country, irrespective of their place of residence.

Employment data are measured in terms of: persons, jobs, hours worked and full-time equivalents.

Population data refers to the total number of persons who are resident in the economic territory of a country. Persons are resident in the country where they have the strongest links thereby establishing a center of predominant economic interest.

It is common to express the volume of GDP (or of household final consumption expenditure) in per capita terms in order to adjust for the size of countries based on their populations. Per capita volumes of major aggregates are often used as a measure of the relative standard of living in countries.

You may find population data, national accounts employment data (national, domestic concepts), employment by institutional sector etc. here:

• Annual population and employment, national concept
• Annual employment by economic activity, domestic concept
• Annual employment by detailed economic activity, domestic concept
• Annual employment by institutional sector, domestic concept
• Annual employment by subsector of general government, domestic concept

The main differences between employment data in the national accounts and LFS-based employment figures are as follows: 

1. Purpose: National accounts employment data measures employment as part of economic production (e.g., GDP, productivity). In contrast, LFS data emphasize labour market participation and provide insights into the demographic and social characteristics of the working-age population (e.g., age, gender, and education) and characteristics of jobs (e.g. occupation and type of contract).

2. Coverage: The System of National Accounts (SNA) recognizes two employment concepts:

> National concept: employment is measured based on individuals’ place of residence, covering all resident individuals in employment whether they work domestically or abroad. This includes, for example, residents commuting to work in another country or working remotely for a foreign employer not recorded domestically.
> Domestic concept: employment is measured based on individuals’ place of work, covering all individuals working within the territory of a  country, irrespective of their place of residence.

The main difference between these two concepts is the net number of cross-border workers. National accounts prioritize the domestic concept of employment, as it is more relevant for analyzing employment in conjunction with GDP. LFS data, however, cover resident households, aligning more closely with the national concept of employment.

3. Population coverage: LFS-based employment figures do not include certain groups, such as individuals living in institutional or collective households (e.g. conscripts), unpaid apprentices and trainees and, those on extended parental leave. National accounts employment data covers all these groups.

4. Recording threshold: LFS data exclude individuals below or above specific age thresholds from the definition of employment (e.g., 15-64 years old, though this varies by country). National accounts do not exclude individuals from employment based on age.

5. Frequency: National accounts employment data are typically published quarterly or annually while LFS data are released monthly and/or quarterly.