Key figures by sector; National Accounts

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This table presents a number of key figures of the sector accounts. These main indicators provide the most important information on the total economy and on the main institutional sectors of the economy: non-financial corporations, financial corporations, general government, households including non-profit institutions serving households and the rest of the world.

Data available from:
Annual figures from 1995.
Quarterly figures from first quarter 1999.

Status of the figures:
The figures from 1995 up to and including 2020 are final. Data of 2021, 2022 and 2023 are provisional.

Changes as of March 25th, 2024:
Data on the fourth quarter of 2023 and the year 2023 have been added.

When will new figures be published?
Annual figures:
The first annual data are published 85 day after the end of the reporting year as the sum of the four quarters of the year. Subsequently provisional data are published 6 months after the end of the reporting year. Final data are released 18 months after the end of the reporting year. Furthermore the financial accounts and stocks are annually revised for all reporting periods. These data are published each year in June.
Quarterly figures: The first quarterly estimate is available 85 days after the end of each reporting quarter. The first quarter may be revised in September, the second quarter in December. Should further quarterly information become available thereafter, the estimates for the first three quarters may be revised in March. If (new) annual figures become available in June, the quarterly figures will be revised again to bring them in line with the annual figures.
Please note that there is a possibility that adjustments might take place at the end of March or September, in order to provide the European Commission with the latest annual and quarterly figures.

Description topics

Total domestic sectors
The domestic sectors consist of non-financial corporations, financial corporations, general government, households and non-profit institutions (NPI) serving households. The breakdown into institutional sectors is based on international rules.
Gross domestic product
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a quantity that expresses the size of an economy. The volume change of GDP during a reference period expresses the growth or shrinkage of the economy. Gross domestic product at market prices is the final result of the production activity of resident producer units. It can be defined in three ways:

- production approach: GDP is the sum of gross value added of the various institutional sectors or the various industries plus taxes and less subsidies on products (which are not allocated to sectors and industries). It is also the balancing item in the total economy production account;
- expenditure approach: GDP is the sum of final uses of goods and services by resident institutional units (final consumption and gross capital formation), plus exports and minus imports of goods and services;
- income approach: GDP is the sum of uses in the total economy generation of income account (compensation of employees, taxes on production and imports less subsidies, gross operating surplus and mixed income of the total economy).

Net domestic product at market prices (NDP) can be obtained by deducting consumption of fixed capital from GDP.
Consumption of fixed capital
The decline in value of fixed assets owned, as a result of normal wear and tear and obsolescence.

For the estimation of the consumption of fixed capital the perpetual inventory method (PIM) is applied. The capital stock at the beginning of the year is brought to replacement value because of price changes. The fixed capital formation during the year is added to this capital stock. Next it is diminished with the value of capital goods discarded. This gives to value of capital stock at the end of the year. The consumption of fixed obtained by applying a depreciation percentage.
This method may differ considerably from the method used to calculate depreciation in business accounts, which is based on historical costs or fiscal life span.

Gross operating surplus and mixed income
The surplus that remains after compensation of employees and taxes less subsidies on production and imports have been subtracted from the sum of value added at basic prices. For the self-employed (who are part of the sector households) the surplus is called mixed income, it is partly a reward for their entrepreneurship compensation for their labour.

In the system of national accounts 'gross' means that consumption of fixed capital (depreciation) has not been subtracted. When it has, 'net' is used. Depreciation must be paid for from the gross operating surplus.
Gross national income
Total primary income received by resident institutional units: compensation of employees, net operating surplus / mixed income, net property income and net taxes on production and imports less subsidies. Incomes flowing from one domestic sector to another have no effect on net national income. Gross national income (at market prices) equals GDP minus primary income paid by resident institutional units to non-resident institutional units plus primary income received by resident institutional units from the rest of the world. The division of payments by member states to the European Union is largely based upon differences in gross national income.

National income is not a production concept but an income concept, which is more significant if expressed in net terms, i.e. after deduction of consumption of fixed capital.
Gross disposable national income
The sum of the net disposable incomes of the institutional sectors. Gross national disposable income equals gross national income (at market prices) minus current transfers (current taxes on income, wealth et cetera, social contributions, social benefits and other current transfers) paid to non-resident units, plus current transfers received by resident units from the rest of the world. Because disposable national income is not a production concept but an income concept, it is usually expressed in net terms, i.e. after deduction of consumption of fixed capital.
Gross national saving
The portion of national disposable income that has not been used for final consumption expenditure. This equals is the sum of the net saving of the various institutional sectors. It is usually expressed in net terms, i.e. after deduction of consumption of fixed capital.
Gross fixed capital formation
Expenditure on produced assets that are used in a production process for more than one year. This may concern a building, dwelling, transport equipment or a machine. This in contrast with goods and services which are used up during the production process, the so-called intermediate use (e.g. iron ore). Fixed capital does lose value over time as a result of normal wear and tear and obsolescence. This is called consumption of fixed capital (also called depreciation). The value of fixed capital formation in which the consumption of fixed capital is not deducted is called gross fixed capital formation. Deduction of the consumption of fixed capital results in net fixed capital formation.

The following types of fixed assets exist: dwellings and other buildings and structures, machinery and equipment, transport equipment, weapon systems (included in machinery and equipment), computers, software, telecommunication equipment, research and development, cultivated biological resources, mineral exploration and evaluation, and costs of ownership transfer on non-produced assets, like land, contracts, leases and licences.
Net lending (+) or net borrowing (-)
The national financing balance (net lending or net borrowing) is the balance of resources and expenditure on the current account and the capital account of the joint domestic sectors. In the financial account the balance gives the amount new loans are entered into with financial assets abroad and/or are sold (at a deficit) or for any amount to be repaid debts abroad and/or financial assets are purchased (at a surplus). In theory net lending or borrowing equals the change in assets less liabilities. In practice a statistical difference between the two remains.
Net lending to private sector
The difference between borrowed short-term and long-term credits and repayment of the non-financial corporations and households to other monetary financial institutions and other financial intermediaries in a period.
Lending to private sector, end of period
Total of short-term and long-term loans by other monetary financial institutions and other financial intermediaries to the non-financial corporations and households at the end of the period concerned.