Introduction to National Accounts

Course Description

Governments need accurate measures of aggregate economic activity for planning purposes. These measures arise from diverse sectors and activities. The system of national accounts (SNA, NA or NAS) is a framework and methodology that has been developed and refined for over a century for the systematic measurement of annual performance of national economies. The one of the leading aggregate measure of national economic performance is the gross national product (GPD). This module presents an overview of the system of national accounts as well as the different approaches used to measure GDP. The course is organized into 4 modules, namely:

Module 1: Overview of System of National Accounts
Module 2: Essential Concepts in National Accounts
Module 3: GDP and its measurement
Module 4: Sequence accounts

Learning Outcomes

The program is split up into 4 Modules and contains 14 sessions. By the end of the program, the national accounts compilers will;

1. Have an understanding of the SNA and its uses
2. Know the key SNA concepts (production, consumption, stocks, flows, GDP, etc.)
3. Be able to calculate GDP using the 3 approaches to its compilation
4. Understand the sequence of current and capital accounts