NATIONAL ACCOUNTS
OBJECTIVES
The National Accounts program provides quarterly and annual data about the level of economic activity, pattern of economic growth, and structure of the Australian and state economies within a coherent system of concepts and classifications.
The main clients of the program are Australian Government agencies (in particular the Department of the Treasury); Reserve Bank of Australia; state and territory government agencies (in particular state and territory treasuries); international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; economic analysts in the private sector; the media; and academics.
National Accounts information is used to formulate and assess government fiscal and monetary macroeconomic policies, assist in allocating Australian Government funds to state governments, formulate industry development policies, undertake financial and business planning, and facilitate international economic comparisons.
OUTPUTS
The main outputs of the program are the following publications, which provide comprehensive measures of Australia's macroeconomic performance and economic structure:
The key series relate to current price and volume measures of Australia's Gross Domestic Product broken down into its components. In the quarterly publications, most data are published in seasonally adjusted and trend terms. The publications also show estimates for income and capital accounts for the nation and sectors. Data on financial transactions, intersectoral flows and financial and household balance sheet positions are provided quarterly. Balance sheets for the nation and sectors are compiled annually. The annual publication also includes a range of economic data by industry as well as capital stock and productivity estimates.
Other key outputs are:
- Australian National Accounts: State Accounts (cat. no. 5220.0), which provides annual estimates of economic growth for each state and territory
- Australian National Accounts: Input-Output Tables (cat. no. 5209.0.55.001), which provides a detailed articulation of the structure of economic production by detailing the flows of products into and between industries and their use for consumption, investment or export
- Estimates of Industry Multi-factor Productivity (cat. no. 5260.0.55.002), which provides a range of productivity estimates at the industry level, as well as productivity estimates on both a value added and gross output basis, presented on an hours worked and quality adjusted hours worked basis.
The program provides seminars, training courses and other information to assist economic analysts in understanding and using National Accounts statistics.
DEVELOPMENTS
The main medium-term developments in the program are to:
- improve coverage of services industries by increasing the scope of input collections and investigating additional data sources - ongoing
- improve inputs into productivity estimates, taking on board insights gained from the compilation of these estimates. Produce combined capital, labour, energy, materials and services productivity estimates on an experimental basis - due in 2017
- contribute to international research of topics identified as needing further work during the update of the System of National Accounts, with an emphasis on the concept of income and of capital services - ongoing.
PROGRAM MANAGER
Ian Ewing
National Accounts Branch
RESOURCES
| Program costs | $m |
| 2015-16 | 8.3 |
| 2016-17 | 9.3 |
| 2017-18 | 9.3 |
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