Report: joint UNSD/ECA workshop on the implementation of the 1993 SNA with special emphasis on the Household sector

Abstract

The workshop noted that as data used in compiling the national accounts originated from many different sources, and was not collected in the format required by the national accounts there was a need to ensure the data were standardized and harmonized. Conversion was required to ensure full integration of the data into the SNA. However, standardization was not always easy particularly for data on non-financial corporations as business accounts did not always render conversion or standardization easy. The workshop considered the following as means of addressing the issue: use of questionnaires which were designed to be understood by business accountants; collection of profit and loss and balance sheet data directly from supervisory organizations with responsibility over corporations; use of financial statements, and where possible supplementing them with tax data; with regard to selection of fiscal year versus calendar year, the data should be taken to relate to the calendar year in which largest part of the data was reported; choice of a base year and how often it should be changed.