Planned changes in the national accounts statistics

Norway complies with international guidelines on national accounts provided for in the UN’s System of National Accounts (SNA) and the European version European System of National and Regional Accounts (ESA). Norway has an obligation under the EEA agreement to comply with the EU’s guidelines on preparing national accounts statistics. International guidelines have recently been revised, 1993 SNA has been updated with 2008 SNA, and ESA 1995 has been updated with ESA 2010. Eurostat requires all EEA countries to implement the ESA 2010 by autumn 2014.

Statistics Norway is now in the process of implementing the new international guidelines and the new source data for some statistics. This work started in 2012 and is referred to as the Main Revision 2014. The guidelines entail changes in a number of the statistics that serve as source data for the national accounts. New time series will be published in November and December 2014.

GDP level will increase

The most important change is that research and development services and major military expenditure will now be treated as fixed capital formation. This will raise the level of the gross domestic product (GDP). Other changes that will affect the accounts include new sector classifications for the government sector, non-profit organisations and the financial sector. The new sector classifications will also impact the financial accounts.

Several sets of guidelines form part of the Main Revision 2014

New versions of two other international guidelines have also been issued; the IMF’s guidelines Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6) and the OECD’s Benchmark Definition of Foreign Direct Investment (BD4). BPM6 is harmonised with SNA 2008. These guidelines will mainly affect the balance of payments, international investment position and direct investment statistics, which have a correlation to, or are part of, the national accounts.