Introduction to National Accounts

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.”

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.

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.

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.