Australian System of National Accounts: Concepts, Sources and Methods

The national accounts explain how the Australian economy operates, and how it evolves over time, by measuring, classifying, and aggregating these transactions. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the highest profile estimate, but the Australian System of National Accounts (ASNA) cover a range of other economic measures. These include a full set of flow accounts for each sector of the economy (income, capital and financial), input-output (I-O) tables, supply-use (S-U) tables, satellite accounts, state-based estimates, balance sheets, reconciliation accounts, and productivity estimates.

This publication is a guide to the Australian System of National Accounts. It outlines the major concepts and definitions, describes the data sources and methods used to prepare the estimates, and discusses the accuracy and reliability of the national accounts.

It is designed for both intensive users, such as economic and financial analysts, as well as less intensive users looking to gain a better understanding of national accounts, or the Australian economy in general.

This is the seventh edition of Australian System of National Accounts: Concepts, Sources and Methods. The chapters released in this edition have been updated to reflect changes made to the sources and methods used to compile the Australian System of National Accounts undertaken since the sixth edition.

This is consistent with the following ABS publications, inclusive of the most recent releases:

• Australian System of National Accounts (annual publication)
• Australian National Accounts: State Accounts (annual publication)
• Australian National Accounts: Tourism Satellite Account (annual publication)
• Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product (quarterly publication)
• Australian National Accounts: Finance and Wealth (quarterly publication)

The first edition of the Australian System of National Accounts: Concepts, Sources and Methods, in its current format, was published in July 2012. This was timed to reflect implementation of the 2008 System of National Accounts (2008 SNA), the Sixth Edition of the IMF’s Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6) and the 2006 Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC06).

The second edition was published in September 2012, and included the chapter on the concepts, sources and methods that underpin the Australian input-output tables.

The third edition was published in December 2012, and included five additional chapters covering productivity and analytical measures; state accounts; satellite and environmental-economic accounts; and the quality of the national accounts.

The fourth (December 2013), fifth (January 2015), sixth (March 2015) and seventh (July 2021) editions reflected changes to the sources and methods used to compile the Australian System of National Accounts. None of these editions included new chapters.

The seventh edition was the last to be released in a pdf format before the ABS launched a web-based version of this publication in 2022.

Katherine Keenan

Program Manager, Production, Income and Expenditure

In 2024, the ABS embarked on a program to update the web-based version of Australian System of National Accounts: Concepts, Sources and Methods on an ongoing basis. This will ensure users have access to the most up-to-date concepts, data sources and methodologies used to compile the National Accounts.

Updates are listed below by chronological order starting with March 2024. The specific details of content changes are provided under the relevant section along with previous content for comparison.

To view the original version of the seventh edition as a pdf file click here.