Home > Statistics > Quarterly national accounts > 2007 > Calculation method of quarterly accounts revised, new time series start from 1990

Calculation method of quarterly accounts revised, new time series start from 1990

The revision of the method for calculating volume series and value added in quarterly national accounts that was started in 2006 has now been finalised. All volume figures are published as series expressed at reference year 2000 prices, chained from quarterly volume figures calculated from average prices of the previous year with the so-called annual overlap method. The chained volume series do not have a fixed base year determining the price weights; the base year used is always the previous year.

Value added by industry is calculated by deducting intermediate consumption from output. In volume calculations output at current prices and intermediate consumption are deflated separately into average prices of the previous year and value added at the average prices of the previous year is derived as the difference between these figures (so-called double deflation method). The calculation method can make figures on value added for individual industries volatile. Thus, they should be regarded as an interim stage in the calculation, in which the eventual aim is to produce as reliable as possible summed up value added for all industries in the whole economy.

In the new time series published on 5 December 2007, all volume series have at first been deflated from figures at current prices into volumes at average prices of the previous year by using appropriate price indices and then chained into reference year 2000 prices with the annual overlap method. The series on value added at current prices have been recalculated starting from 1995Q1 by exploiting data on turnover. The series on the volumes of value added have been calculated with the double deflation system since 2001Q1. For the value added series for the years 1990 to 2000, the volumes at average prices of the previous year have been calculated by deflating increases in the value added at current prices with changes in the producer price index or a corresponding price index. The original series have been benchmarked to the levels of annual accounts.

The old quarterly time series 1975Q1-2007Q2 are still available from Statistics Finland's ASTIKA service or upon request. The old time series are not comparable with the time series published now, and should not be combined with them.

More information on the methodological revision of National Accounts can be found on Statistics Finland's website at: http://tilastokeskus.fi/til/vtp/2006/vtp_2006_2006-03-31_men_001_en.html

Information on the quarterly accounts volume calculations can be found in chapter 9 of the IMF Quarterly National Accounts Manual: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/qna/2000/textbook/ch9.pdf

---

Last updated 28.3.2008