Introduction to National Accounts
- Data management and Harmonisation, Producing Statistical Reports
- 3 (Registered)
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;
- Have an understanding of the SNA and its uses
- Know the key SNA concepts (production, consumption, stocks, flows, GDP, etc.)
- Be able to calculate GDP using the 3 approaches to its compilation
- Understand the sequence of current and capital accounts
Course Content
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Module 1: Overview of System of National Account
This module presents an overview of the National Accounts, its history and what types of questions the Sequence of National Accounts (SNA) can answer? It addresses the basic SNA question: “Who does what, where, by what means, for what purpose, with whom, in exchange for what, with what change in stocks.”
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Module 2: Essential Concepts in National Accounts
This module introduces the key conceptual boundaries included in the SNA and provides national account compilers with an introduction to the concept of institutional units,institutional sectors, establishments, enterprises and industries.
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Module 3: GDP and its measurement
This module covers What we measure and how - Stocks vs. flows and how are the accounts presented? It discusses Production-based GDP and how it is recorded, as well as the goods and services account.
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Module 4: Sequence Accounts
We conclude this module with an introduction to Sequence of Accounts, which refers to a way of "organizing all the transactions in the economy in a logical way". These accounts include balance sheet accounts, income statement accounts, production accounts, etc., each of which describes one stage in the economic cycle of transactions.
Pre-requisites
- Basic knowledge of statistics and economic concepts
Course Provider
- This course is adapted from a 4-day workshop conducted by the PRASC project in the Caribbean
Target audiences
- Staff in the National Statistics organisations and System involved in the production, management and dissemination of official data. Staff involved in compilation of National accounts data and computation of sectoral and aggregate GDP.
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