National accounts
The first calculations of national income in Norway were made in about 1890 by A. N. Kiær, then Director of Statistics Norway. In the 1930s, important work was carried out at the University of Oslo, under the supervision of Professor Ragnar Frisch, to solve the theoretical problems involved in the compilation of national accounts. After the Second World War, Statistics Norway intensified its work on solving empirical problems, and the first comprehensive national accounts based on modern principles were published in 1953. Dr. Odd Aukrust played an important role in this pioneer work. Subsequently, the time series were extended to cover all years back to 1865.
In 1968, the UN published the report "A System of National Accounts" and it was decided that the Norwegian national accounts should adopt these international recommendations. The first accounts figures based on the revised system were published in 1973. In addition to changes in definitions, new and improved computation methods were introduced. The revised figures covered the years back to 1962 with detailed calculations, and back to 1949 with main figures. As a consequence of this revision, figures from before 1949 are not quite consistent with the figures for the subsequent years.
In the 1980s, the national accounts system was further expanded with integrated quarterly national accounts (back to 1978) and income accounts for institutional sectors (back to 1975). A labour accounting system was also developed with employment figures specified by industry, sex and job status back to 1962. Statistics Norway also publishes regional accounts with three or four years intervals.
The national accounts statistics are designed to provide a systematic and comprehensive survey of the entire Norwegian economy and its transactions with the rest of the world. One important aim is to serve as a framework for integrating and coordinating economic statistics from different sources. The reliability of the national accounts depends on the quality of the primary statistics and the compilation methods.
The national accounts may be divided into two main parts: (i) the production and commodity accounts and (ii) income and outlay and capital finance accounts. The production and commodity accounts comprise integrated input-output tables, and constitute the core of the Norwegian national accounts. The transaction items in the income and outlay and capital finance accounts consist of incomes and outlays, and changes in real capital and financial assets and liabilities from transactions during the course of the period. Four main types of domestic institutional sectors are specified: general government, financial institutions, incorporated enterprises and households. In addition, the rest of the world may be regarded as an institutional sector. Transactions with the rest of the world are described by balance of payments accounts and capital accounts. Gross domestic product (GDP) is considered to be one of the most important of the national aggregates. GDP shows the nation's overall gross output in a year less intermediate consumption. GDP is equal to the sum of private final consumption expenditure, government final consumption expenditure, gross capital formation and the export surplus. GDP may also be defined from the income point of view as the sum of compensation of employees, operating surpluses, the consumption of fixed capital and net indirect taxes (indirect taxes less subsidies). Thirdly, GDP is equal to the sum of gross value added in all industries (GDP by kind of activity), plus certain correction items not distributed by kind of activity.
The national accounts provide figures in current prices. Volumes and price changes are also estimated for many items.
More detailed information on the Norwegian national accounting system is available in "National Accounts Statistics 1991" and No. 45 in the series "Social Economic Studies", both published by Statistics Norway. An English version is available in the publication "National Accounts of Norway - System and Methods of Estimation" (REP No. 81/1).
The national accounts statistics may be used to illuminate some long-term changes in the Norwegian economy. In the period 1865-1990, private final consumption expenditure has been reduced from about 80 to 50 per cent of GDP, while government final consumption expenditure has increased from 4 to about 21 per cent. The gross capital formation percentage of GDP has also inreased on a long-term basis, but with considerable short-term fluctuations. These figures are, however, to some extent influenced by changes in definitions over the period.
The Norwegian economy has also experienced major long-term changes in the distribution of GDP by kind of activity. In 1930, gross value added in agriculture, forestry and fishing amounted to 16.7 per cent of GDP, while gross value added in manufacturing was 23 per cent of GDP (old definitions). In 1990, these percentages were reduced to 3.1 and 13.7, respectively. The most important growth industry has been oil production, where value added during less than 20 years has increased to the same level as the manufacturing industry. Service indus- tries, like financial and business services and government services, have also experienced substantial growth in GDP percentages.