2008 SNA RESEARCH AGENDA
9 TOPICS GROUPED UNDER THE HEADING
BASIC ACCOUNTING RULES
EUROSTAT’S OPINION ABOUT THE ORDER OF
URGENCY / IMPORTANCE OF THE 9 TOPICS (1)
 More important topics:
- The relationship of SNA and IASB
- Consolidation of enterprise groups
- Measuring the output of government services
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EUROSTAT’S OPINION ABOUT THE ORDER OF
URGENCY / IMPORTANCE OF THE 9 TOPICS (2)
Less important topics:
- Trusts
- Final consumption of corporations
- The treatment of social transfers in kind to the rest of the world
- Output of central banks: taxes and subsidies on interest rates
applied by central banks
- The treatment of establishments in the SNA
- The inclusion of international organisations in the SNA
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The relationship of SNA and IASB
 The development of a regular dialogue between the
national accounts community and the IASB would be
a way to assure the needs of national accountants
were represented to the IASB and national
accountants were aware of the possible developments
in the data sources.
4
Consolidation of enterprise groups
 A way forward could be to develop supplementary
tables in which enterprise groups are considered as
single entities and to consolidate the accounts of their
members. This could impact industry value added and
sectoral balance sheets.
5
Measuring the output of government services
 The value of non-market production provided without
charge, or at prices that are not economically significant,
should be estimated as the sum of production costs.
 Research would try to find alternative ways to measure
the output of government
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Trusts
 The SNA recommends that trusts be treated as quasicorporations. In some cases, though, when one is used
in effect as an SPE for a corporation, it is merged with
its parent so long as they are both resident in the same
economy.
 Further clarification is needed on when the assets of the
trusts should be treated as belonging to separate units
and when they should be merged with the assets of their
owners.
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Final consumption of corporations
 Large corporations often undertake sponsoring of
cultural and sporting events. These payments could be
considered as a form of individual consumption and
treated as final consumption expenditure of corporations
and social transfers in kind to households
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The treatment of social transfers in kind to the rest
of the world
 SNA assumes that the amounts of social transfers in
kind payable to the rest of the world are negligible or
offset by similar benefits received from the rest of the
world.
 In some cases, these assumptions may be inappropriate
and an explicit way of recording could be elaborated,
considering the consequences of having a difference
between total consumption expenditure and total actual
consumption.
(Solution in ESA 2010 : these flows are registered
as social benefits other than social transfers in kind)
9
Output of central banks: taxes and subsidies on
interest applied by central banks
 When the financial intermediation of central banks
includes policy measures setting interest rates higher or
lower than market interest rates, this can disturb the
measure of their output and value added.
(Solution in ESA 2010 : By convention, the output of
the central bank is to be measured as the sum of its
costs)
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The treatment of establishments in the SNA
 The rationale to have a unit that relates as far as
possible to only one activity in only one location was to
have a clear link with the physical production process.
 Should the concept of establishment be kept,
considering the change of emphasis from the physical
view of input – output to an economic view, and from
product – by - product to industry – by – industry ones?
(Observation : European countries will continue to
transmit a symmetric input – output table (product – by product) in the context of ESA 2010)
11
The inclusion of international organisations in the
SNA
 Should international organisations be treated as a
standard subset of the rest of the world, with a full set of
accounts compiled for them?
12
Thank you!
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