- What are the national accounts for?
National accounts occupy a prominent place in the national statistical system and play several roles:
- they provide decision-makers with a comprehensive and periodic information base on a country’s economic activity;
- for the sake of completeness, they make it possible to identify gaps in basic statistical information, and thus help to fill them;
- They make it possible to know the structure and functioning of the national economy, and to make comparisons both in space and in time
- they serve as a database for short- and medium-term economic forecasting, and for long-term planning;
- They are a decision-making tool for public authorities, and allow them to assess the direct and indirect consequences of the economic decisions they plan to take.
2. What is the rebasing of the year of the national accounts?
The rebasing of the national accounts, or the change of the base year of the national accounts, is a statistical operation, which consists of renewing the reference year of a series of national accounts. Indeed, national accounts statistics are compiled in homogeneous and coherent series, with a year chosen as the reference for the estimates for a period during which the conceptual and methodological frameworks (definitions, classifications, estimation methods, data sources) do not change. The accounts for the other years in the series are then drawn up with reference to those of the chosen year, known as the “base year”.
The change of base year is a methodological requirement, which is justified, on the one hand, by taking into account revisions to the SNA framework (which is not fixed), and on the other hand, more by the fact that the further away from the base year the more the national accounts estimates become less precise and no longer accurately reflect the structure of the national economy.
The SNA recommends that the base year change be made every five to ten years.
3. What does it consist of?
The rebasing exercise consists of revising the estimates of the national accounts series on the basis of new conceptual and methodological frameworks applied to the recent year, which is generally considered to be stable, i.e. not to have suffered significant economic shocks, for which comprehensive and detailed statistical data sources are available. The aim is to have new estimates that better reflect the current structure of the economy and that should serve as a basis for estimation for the new set of accounts. This involves taking into account new data sources, renewing classifications (to take into account, for example, the appearance of new products or the disappearance of certain products), taking into account any changes in the SNA, etc.
4. What is changing?
In addition to the base year, which is generally used as the reference year for prices, four elements are generally subject to change:
- Concepts and definitions: in the event of a revision of the SNA, it is recommended to apply the latest version of the SNA;
- Estimation methods: it is possible to revise or refine estimation methods by applying more precise or more appropriate methods;
- Nomenclatures: in the event of revisions to international nomenclatures or to better adapt them to the national context or to correct errors detected in previous versions;
- Data sources: to take into account new data sources, or newer and more comprehensive ones.
5. How can we understand this change?
As mentioned in paragraph 9), this is a methodological requirement inherent in the way national accounts are compiled, i.e. in series, with reference to a base year and following the same conceptual and methodological frameworks (concepts and definitions, classifications, estimation methods, data sources). The aim is to renovate the measurement tool so that it better reflects the current structure of the economy.
6. What happens to past national accounts?
At the end of the work to change the base year, a new set of accounts is available; developed with reference to a new base year and following new frameworks. It is now this new series that is in use, because it is more current and better reflects the current structure of the national economy. The production of the past national accounts stops as soon as the new set of accounts is published. They are therefore only of historical interest, and are therefore destined for archiving.
Interview by Flore Behalal