Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
The QSA encompass non-financial accounts that provide a description of the different stages of the economic process: production, generation of income, distribution of income, redistribution of income, use of income, and non-financial accumulation. The QSA record the economic flows of institutional sectors in order to illustrate their economic behaviour and interactions between them. They also provide a list of balancing items that have a high analytical value in their own right: value added, operating surplus and mixed income, balance of primary incomes, disposable income, saving, net lending / net borrowing. All of them but net lending / net borrowing can be expressed in gross or net terms, i.e. with or without consumption of fixed capital that accounts for the use and obsolescence of fixed assets.
In terms of institutional sectors, a broad distinction is made between the domestic economy (ESA 2010 classification code S.1) and the rest of the world (S.2). Within S.1 and S.2 in turn more detailed subsectors are distinguished, as explained in more detail in section 3.2 ‘Classification system’.
Data are presented in the table ‘Non-financial transactions’ (nasq_10_nf_tr).
The table contains data, as far as they are available, expressed in millions of euros or of national currency in current prices.
In line with the ESA 2010 transmission programme requirements, data series start from 1999 Q1 (unless subject to voluntary transmission option and/or country-specific derogations).
Available level of detail by sectors and transactions may also vary by country due to voluntary transmission of some items (as defined in the ESA 2010 transmission programme) and country-specific derogations.
The institutional sectors combine institutional units with broadly similar characteristics and behaviour: non-financial corporations, financial corporations, the government, and households and non-profit institutions serving households. Transactions with non-residents and the financial claims of residents on non-residents, or vice versa, are recorded in the ‘rest of the world’ account.
ESA 2010 classification of sectors:
Total economy (S.1);
Non-financial corporations (S.11);
Financial corporations (S.12);
General government (S.13);
Households and non-profit institutions serving households (NPISH) (S.14_15);
Rest of the world (S.2).
The non-financial corporations sector comprises all private and public corporate enterprises that produce goods or provide non-financial services to the market.
The financial corporations sector comprises all private and public entities engaged in financial intermediation, such as monetary financial institutions (the Central bank and other banks, money market funds), investment funds, insurance corporations and pension funds.
The general government sector consists of all government units and all non-market non-profit institutions that are controlled by government units. It also comprises other non-market producers. For details on when enterprises are considered to belong to this sector, see the subheading ‘Market/non-market delineation’ of the ESA 2010 Regulation.
The households sector comprises all households, including unincorporated household enterprises. These cover most sole proprietorships and most partnerships that do not have a legal status independent from their owners. Therefore, the households sector also generates output and entrepreneurial income. In quarterly sector accounts, both national and European, non-profit institutions serving households (NPISHs), such as charities and trade unions, are grouped with households since their economic weight is relatively limited.
Rest of the world sector consists of non-resident units insofar as they are engaged in transactions with resident institutional sectors. As regards the EU and the euro area aggregates, consolidated rest of the world accounts are produced. This means that cross-border transactions among the EU / euro area Member States have been removed from the rest of the world accounts and that, in particular, the asymmetries in the bilateral trade statistics have been eliminated. Consequently, imports and exports are much smaller than they would have been if a simple aggregation of the national data had been used; about half of the external trade of the individual Member States is within the EU / euro area.
An additional ‘not sectorised’ category (S.1N) is introduced for sector accounts data transmission/presentation purposes. The ‘not sectorised’category describes transactions that conceptually cannot be allocated to domestic institutional sectors. This is the case only for transactions in taxes and subsidies on products (D.21 and D.31) as elements of GDP by production approach.
2. Transactions
The transactions are grouped into a sequence of accounts, namely: the production, the generation, distribution, redistribution and use of income, and the non-financial accumulation.
Each non-financial transaction is recorded as an increase in the ‘resources’ of a certain sector (coded as ‘received’) and an increase in the ‘uses’ of another sector (coded as ‘paid’). For instance, the resources side of the ‘dividends’ transaction category records the amounts of dividends receivable by the different sectors of the economy, whereas the uses side shows dividends payable. For each transaction category, total resources of all sectors and the rest of the world equal total uses. Each account leads to a meaningful balancing item, the value of which equals total resources minus total uses. Typically, such balancing items, such as GDP or saving, are important economic indicators. They are carried over to the next account.
The production account records the output of goods and services as its main resource, to which taxes less subsidies on products are added to obtain total resources of an economy at market prices. The main use in the production account is ‘intermediate consumption’, such as the consumption of fuel in a production process. The difference between resources and uses is the balancing item ‘gross value added’ for individual domestic sectors and gross domestic product (GDP) for the total economy. This gross value added is then carried over as a resource to the subsequent set of accounts, the generation and distribution of income accounts, which eventually yield ‘disposable income’ as a balancing item. ‘Net lending / net borrowing’ is derived from the capital account by comparing ‘gross capital formation’ (mainly investment in capital goods and software) plus the net acquisition of ‘non-produced, non-financial assets’ (such as land or licences) with ‘gross saving’ plus net ‘capital transfers’ (such as investment grants). If saving plus net capital transfers received exceed non-financial investment, a sector has a surplus of funds and becomes a net lender to other domestic sectors and/or the rest of the world. This conceptual and numerical inter-linkage of the accounts ensures the consistent derivation of key economic indicators.
The transactions are recorded on an accrual basis (not on a cash basis), that is, when economic value is created, transformed or extinguished.
The transactions between institutional sectors are grouped into various categories that have a distinct economic meaning (for instance, ‘compensation of employees’ comprising wages and salaries before the deduction of taxes and social contributions and including social contributions paid by the employers).
The coding of transactions:
Transactions in goods and services have the code ‘P’, e.g. P.1 Output, P.2 Intermediate consumption, P.51g Gross fixed capital formation.
Distributive transactions have the letter ‘D’, e.g. D.1 Compensation of employees, D.2 Taxes on production and imports, D.41 Interest.
Letter ‘B’ is used for the balancing items of the non-financial accounts, e.g. B.1GQ Gross domestic product at market prices, B.6G Gross disposable income, B.9 Net lending (+) / net borrowing (-). They are calculated as resources minus uses.
For a complete review of the classifications used, please refer to:
ESA 2010 Chapter 23 ‘Classifications’;
the European System of Accounts 2010 transmission programme.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Quarterly sector accounts cover all institutional sectors of the economy. For details, please refer to section 3.2 ‘Classification system’.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
The non-financial Quarterly Sector Accounts (QSA) are compiled in accordance with the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010) and are transmitted by the EU Member States and EFTA Members (except Liechtenstein) following the ESA 2010 transmission programme (Tables 801 and 801SA). The non-adjusted data have a more extensive coverage, in terms of transactions and/or sectors, than the seasonally-adjusted data (for full detail, please consult the Tables 801 and 801SA ). After validation, these data are published on the Eurobase as nasq_10_nf_tr.
A set of key indicators, deemed meaningful for economic analysis, is available in the table ‘Key indicators’ (nasq_10_ki) for the EU and euro area, as well as for most of the EFTA Members. Key indicators are generally released in non-adjusted terms. Only the aggregate EU/EA key indicators are also available in a seasonally adjusted form.
Key ratios are derived from non-financial transactions as follows:
Gross investment rate of households (S.14_S.15): P51G/(B6G+D8rec-D8pay)*100;
Gross investment rate of non-financial corporations (S.11): P51G/B1G*100;
Gross profit share of non-financial corporations (S.11): B2G_B3G/B1G*100.
With the following transaction codes:
B8G: Gross saving;
B6G: Gross disposable income;
D8rec / D8pay: the adjustment for the change in pension entitlements (receivable/payable);
P51G: Gross fixed capital formation;
B1G: Gross value added;
B2G_B3G: Gross operating surplus / mixed income.
In the above, all ratios are expressed in gross terms, i.e. before deduction of consumption of fixed capital.
The following seasonally adjusted key indicators are calculated in real or nominal terms, for European aggregates only:
Nominal growth of household adjusted disposable income per capita (percentage change on previous period, S.14_S.15): B7G/(POP_NC);
Real growth of household adjusted disposable income per capita (percentage change on previous period, S.14_S.15): B7G/(POP_NC*Price Deflator);
Real growth of household actual consumption per capita (percentage change on previous period, S.14_S.15): P4/(POP_NC*Price Deflator).
With the following codes (the codes already described above have not been listed):
B7G: Gross adjusted disposable income (adjusted for social transfers in kind);
P4: Actual final consumption (adjusted for social transfers in kind);
POP_NC: Total population, national concept (source: quarterly national accounts, Eurobase domain namq_10_pe);
Price deflator: Price index / implicit deflator, calculated as CP_MEUR/CLV10_MEUR – both indicators refer to household and NPISH final consumption expenditure (P31_S14_S15) (source: quarterly national accounts, Eurobase domain namq_10_gdp).
The following key indicator combines non-financial with financial accounts:
Household net financial assets ratio BF90/(B6G+D8net)*100.
With the following code referring to the financial sector accounts (source: financial balance sheets, Eurobase domain nasa_10_f_bs):
BF90: Financial net worth.
In the above, ‘rec’ means ‘resources’, that is, transactions that add to the economic value of a given sector, while ‘pay’ means ‘uses’, that is, transactions that reduce the economic value of a given sector.
See also the dedicated website on sector accounts for more information.
3.5. Statistical unit
The elementary building block of ESA 2010 statistics is the institutional unit (see ESA 2010, 2.12.), ‘an economic entity characterised by decision-making autonomy in the exercise of its principal function’. Some examples would be a household, a corporation or a government agency.
3.6. Statistical population
National accounts combine data from many source statistics. The concept of statistical population is not applicable in the national accounts context.
3.7. Reference area
Based on ESA 2010, Eurostat collects and disseminates in its database aggregated data for the European Union and the euro area and country data for EU Member States and EFTA Member States (except Liechtenstein).
In the framework of a data sharing agreement with the OECD, Eurostat also receives and disseminates annual non-financial sector accounts data received from the OECD, based on the SNA 2008. The applied key statistical concepts can be consulted on the OECD Data Explorer website. For more details on the coverage, please refer to the metadata of the dataset naidsq_10_nf_tr.
3.8. Coverage - Time
The ESA 2010 regulation requires submitting the data back to 1999 Q1. Given the existence of derogations regarding the transmission programme and voluntary series, the length of the series available varies from one country to another.
The aggregate European Union and euro area Quarterly Sector Accounts are also available as from 1999 Q1.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Data are presented in millions of euros or of national currency (for non-financial transactions) and as percentage ratios (for key indicators).
The reference period is the quarter.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Data received in accordance with the ESA 2010 transmission programme are shared with other international institutions in accordance with specific agreements, notably with the ECB and the OECD.
Data sharing with the ECB is governed by a service level agreement signed between Eurostat and ECB in February 2008.
If Member States transmit data with a confidentiality flag or an embargo date, these data are not disseminated until the confidentiality flag is lifted in a subsequent data transmission or the embargo has expired.
8.1. Release calendar
The QSA data (both national data and the European Union and euro area aggregates) are released on a quarterly basis.
The complete sequence of accounts for the European Union and euro area by institutional sectors is released 120 days after the reference quarter (the final data release). This data release also includes seasonally adjusted key indicators (gross household saving rate, gross investment rate of households, gross profit share of non-financial corporations, and gross investment rate of non-financial corporations) for the European Union and euro area.
For the euro area only, selected transactions and key indicators for the corporation and household (including NPISH) sectors are first published around 94 days after the reference quarter (the early data release). To avoid inconsistencies in euro area accounts due to data revisions, the data for the total economy, general government and rest of the world sectors are only updated in the database on the date of the final release (around 120 days after the reference quarter).
The national non-adjusted and seasonally adjusted data are published in the Eurostat database at around 94, 110, and 120 days after the reference quarter, according to data availability. National key indicators are published in the Eurostat database at around 94 and 120 days after the reference quarter, depending on data availability.
Quarterly sector accounts data by country, as validated by Eurostat, are first published excluding S.13 (general government) sector until the validated government finance statistics (GFS) data are released. Following the release of GFS at around t+112 days, the full sector accounts data are published, including the S.13 data.
Significant inconsistencies between sector accounts data and related national accounts datasets (main GDP aggregates, GFS) may result in country data not being disseminated until the quality issues are resolved (see section 19 ‘Comment’ for more details by country).
In line with the EU legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice, Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see section 10 ‘Accessibility and clarity’) respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner whereby all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.
The sector accounts dedicated website provides data, information on methodology and analysis. On this website, the quarterly EU and euro area aggregates are also presented in the standard ESA 2010 sequence of accounts format.
For a methodological overview of European sector accounts please refer to chapter 19 of ESA 2010 and to the sector accounts dedicated website.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
National quality reports on all the ESA 2010 domains in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/2304 are analysed in annual quality reports on national and regional accounts that are published on a dedicated website.
11.1. Quality assurance
Quality is assured by a strict application of ESA 2010 concepts and by a thorough validation of the data transmitted by countries.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
ESA 2010 data transmissions are subject to regular quality assessment reviews. Article 4 of Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 (ESA 2010 Regulation) specifies that the data covered by that Regulation is subject to the quality criteria, namely relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, and comparability and coherence, as set out in Article 12(1) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council. Member States are to provide the Commission with a report on the quality of the transmitted data on national and regional accounts. The modalities, structure, periodicity and assessment indicators of the quality reports on data transmitted have been specified in the Commission Implementing Regulation 2016/2304 of 19 December 2016. The implementation of the quality reporting and assessment started in 2017 and is carried out annually. As part of the annual exercise, Eurostat assesses the results and prepares and publishes an overall quality report based on the national quality reports and other available information. The Commission also, on a 5-year basis, reports to the European Parliament and the Council on the application of the ESA 2010 Regulation, including the data quality aspects. The latest such report was published in 2023.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Reflecting the user needs, quarterly sector accounts offer a complete and consistent description of the economic cycle from production to the accumulation of non-financial assets for the whole economy and institutional sectors.
Sector accounts allow for an analysis of the interactions among institutional sectors as well as between them and the rest of the world, and the derivation of key macroeconomic indicators.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not available.
12.3. Completeness
European quarterly sector accounts offer a complete and consistent description of the economic cycle from production to the accumulation of non-financial assets for the whole economy and institutional sectors, including the rest of the world.
As for the national data, the ESA 2010 transmission programme provides that Member States whose GDP at current prices represents less than 1% of the corresponding European Union total (calculated as a moving average based on the three latest available years) have a limited reporting obligation and are only required to transmit quarterly data for the sectors of general government (S.13) and rest of the world (S.2) and selected variables for the total economy (S.1).
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The overall accuracy is supported by ensuring that total uses and total resources are balanced at the level of individual transaction categories, providing a coherent set of data for the total national economy and transactions with the rest of the world.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
According to the ESA 2010 transmission programme, Member States have to transmit to Eurostat quarterly (1) non-adjusted data within 85 calendar days after the reference quarter and (2) seasonally adjusted data within 85 calendar days plus 3 working days after the reference quarter. National data are published in the Eurostat database at around 94, 110 and 120 days after the reference quarter, according to data availability (see also section 8.1).
Quarterly European Union and euro area aggregates are available within 4 months after the reference quarter. For the euro area only, selected transactions and key indicators for the corporation and household (including NPISH) sectors are first published around 94 days after the reference quarter (the early data release).
14.2. Punctuality
Eurostat closely monitors the punctuality of data delivery by the countries. Except in the case of special derogations, limited in time, countries generally meet the data transmission deadlines set out in the previous section.
Wherever series are not comparable, data breaks are appropriately flagged in the Eurostat database.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
European aggregates
The quarterly accounts published in the table ‘Non-financial transactions’ (nasq_10_nf_tr) of the domain ‘Quarterly Sector Accounts’ are fully consistent with the annual series of the EU and euro area aggregates (nasa_10_nf_tr).
The rest of the world accounts, as compiled by Member States, record transactions between the national economy and all non-resident units, including those in other EU Member States. To measure the external transactions of the EU / euro area, cross-border flows within the area concerned are consolidated. With this procedure, inconsistencies in country data, such as the so-called ‘asymmetries’ are eliminated. Furthermore, the transactions of the European institutions are included. Therefore, European sector accounts are internally consistent but have differences with EU / euro area aggregates released by other national accounts domains.
It should be stressed that European sector accounts are not a simple sum of national sector accounts and cannot be used to derive unavailable national series as a residual.
National data For national data, there may be discrepancies between quarterly and annual sector accounts as well as with the data released by other national accounts domains due to different revision/release calendars and different data sources/methods across datasets.
Differences between main aggregates(nama)and non-financial sector accounts(nasq) In line with the ESA 2010 transmission programme requirements, quarterly main aggregates are transmitted at 60 calendar days after the reference period (t+60), whereas sector accounts at t+85. Consequently, sector accounts may include more recent information for the latest period (e.g. for transactions related to general government), as compared to the main aggregates that were transmitted earlier.
Differences between general government statistics(gov)and non-financial sector accounts(nasq) General government statistics are used as an input to sector accounts for the institutional sector of general government. If general government statistics are revised during Eurostat validation process after the national data transmission (in particular, in April and October within the EDP procedure), this may result in differences with sector accounts in these periods.
Differences between balance of payments (bop) and non-financial sector accounts(nasq) The balance of payments data should be aligned with rest of the world sector (S.2) of the non-financial sector accounts. Eurostat analyses the consistency between these two sets of data. More information can be found on the page on consistency between national accounts and balance of payments statistics.
Differences in back series (any tables) may occur if data revisions are not fully co-ordinated at national level: major revisions are implemented in one dataset (most often in general government data), but not yet in other related datasets. Discrepancies in back series are normally reconciled during benchmark revisions.
Other differences (any tables) may occur in case of insufficient methodological co-ordination at national level when different sources/methods are used without due justification to compile identical/related variables in different tables.
Such discrepancies across national accounts domains are expected to be temporary and should be reconciled at the first available opportunity.
Cross-domain discrepancies are regularly monitored by Eurostat and constant efforts are made to minimise them. Recommendations on national accounts and balance of payments are presented in the Harmonised European Revision Policy for Macroeconomic Statistics.
Certain transaction values may differ due to accepted differences in the treatment of statistical discrepancy between GDP values calculated by different approaches. Such discrepancy is explicitly disclosed in main aggregates, but not in sector accounts that are expected to be balanced. In order to balance the accounts, countries may choose to allocate the statistical discrepancy in sector accounts to changes in inventories (expenditure side, done by AT, IE), value added (output side, done by IE), or operating surplus (income side).
Possible statistical discrepancy for net lending / net borrowing between non-financial and financial accounts is recognised by ESA 2010 due to the use of different statistical data (in particular for the sectors of non-financial corporations and households). Countries should nonetheless aim to reduce the discrepancies through improvements in sources and methods.
Information on cross-domain consistency by country can be consulted in section 19 ‘Comment’.
15.4. Coherence - internal
European sector accounts are internally consistent. This is supported by the fact that the total uses and total resources are balanced at the level of individual transaction categories, giving a coherent set of data for the total national economy and transactions with the rest of the world.
However, it should be stressed that European sector accounts are not a simple sum of national sector accounts and cannot be used to derive unavailable national series as a residual. Differences between European (EU/EA) accounts and the sum of the country data can be explained by the following:
to measure the external transactions of the EU / euro area, cross-border flows within the area concerned are consolidated, and thus inconsistencies in country data, such as the so-called ‘asymmetries’, are eliminated;
the transactions of the European institutions are included.
Quarterly sector accounts are produced from a large variety of data sources with varying degrees of timeliness. As users need national and international data as fast as possible, particularly on certain key aggregates, data are produced using the sources and related indicators that are more readily available. As more complete source data are obtained, the statistics are updated to incorporate the new information.
Such revisions of macroeconomic statistics are necessary to improve data quality. To minimise the inconvenience for data users, the European Statistical System (ESS) and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) try to strike the right balance between incorporating the necessary statistical revisions and maintaining an acceptable degree of consistency across domains and countries. To this end, the two systems have worked together to draw up the HERP. According to HERP, a distinction should be made between ‘routine’ revisions and ‘major’ or ‘benchmark’ revisions.
Routine Revisions
Routine revisions refer to the changes made to the initially published economic data and to their subsequent releases for a particular reference quarter. Quarterly non-adjusted non-financial sector accounts are transmitted at t+85 calendar days after the reference quarter. These estimates can subsequently be revised in future quarters and years to align them with new annual data.
According to HERP, the depth of the quarterly routine revisions is limited as follows: at most 15 quarters in the first calendar quarter; at most 16 quarters in the second quarter; unlimited in the third quarter; at most 18 quarters in the fourth quarter.
HERP requires that national revision practices are aligned across statistical domains. This implies that quarterly routine revisions are carried out with identical timing and depth of revision across all statistical domains, to eliminate vintage differences as a source of inconsistencies. This part of the policy is also important in the context of ensuring consistency between national accounts and the balance of payments. HERP requires at least one point in time where cross-domain consistency and alignment between quarterly and annual tables must be achieved, namely, in the third quarter.
Benchmark revisions
Benchmark revision is carried out at much longer time intervals. Its purpose is to incorporate the main new data sources and major changes in international statistical methodology (such as ESA 2010 or BPM6). In a benchmark revision, all quarters can be revised, where necessary, in order to create the longest possible consistent time series. Disseminating the results of a benchmark revision always involves revising all, or at least a large part of the time series. HERP requires that benchmark revisions result in break-free series at least for the timespan required on a mandatory basis by the ESA 2010 transmission programme. Breaks in the series should be temporary and appropriately flagged with the ‘B’ flag. The coordination and communication of benchmark revisions are prepared well in advance. Benchmark revisions are publicly announced in advance of the release date, at least a quarter in advance. The actual release of the results of a benchmark revision is accompanied by sufficient documentation that allows users to appropriately assess the new presentation of the macroeconomic and/or social situation.
Eurostat plays a central role in the communication of European harmonised benchmark revisions. The impact of benchmark revisions is analysed in statistical publications and presented to various technical fora, including key users and policymakers.
Unscheduled revisions
Unscheduled revisions take place on an ad hoc basis, outside the European harmonised approach. While there is no comprehensive set of recommendations agreed at EU level for when unscheduled revisions should take place, good practices regarding metadata and communication on unscheduled revisions are discussed in the Practical guidelines for revising ESA 2010 data. Since unscheduled revisions could confuse users and thus damage user confidence in official statistics, they should always be an exception and should be avoided where possible. If the benefits of carrying out an unscheduled revision are assessed as clearly outweighing the disadvantages of waiting to integrate the results into a forthcoming benchmark revision, there should be a clear communication strategy. Unscheduled revisions are often related to errors. Reported errors are assessed for seriousness to determine whether they should trigger a correction of already disseminated data. Reported errors in national data that are deemed to be significant are corrected in the disseminated data as soon as the correct data have been validated. Corrections of other errors in national data are most often carried out during the regular scheduled data dissemination or during the next scheduled regular revision. The EU aggregates are revised according to the pre-announced release calendar. Errors in national data rarely have a substantial impact on aggregates. National Statistical Institutes and National Central Banks agreed to gradually implement a common harmonised European revision policy for national accounts and balance of payments statistics. The level of adherence to the guidelines of Member State revision policies is monitored regularly.
Information on adherence to HERP and the national revision policies is available on the data revision page.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Reported errors are assessed for seriousness to determine whether they should trigger a correction of already disseminated data. Data may be published even if they are missing for certain variables and/or countries or flagged as provisional or of low reliability. They are replaced with final data once transmitted and validated. European aggregates are updated according to the pre-announced release calendar. The vast majority of NSIs have aligned their national release dates with the calendar of Eurostat so that European aggregates are consistent with revised country data. Routine revisions are communicated through metadata files and dedicated statistical analyses. A thorough analysis based on pre-selected revision indicators is also included in the annual national quality report.
European Union and euro area quarterly aggregates are revised four times per year based on national data. Revisions of national input data are respectively reflected in the EU and euro area sector accounts aggregates.
Routine revisions for quarterly data
Non-financial sector accounts quarterly data at country level are subject to continuous routine revisions as new input data becomes available. Country data are revised according to country schedules, and revisions become visible in the Eurostat online database as soon as new data are transmitted to and validated by Eurostat. The dates are pre-announced in the release calendar on Eurostat's website.
Quarterly non-adjusted non-financial sector accounts are transmitted at t+85 calendar days after the reference quarter. Quarterly estimates can subsequently be revised in future quarters and years to incorporate data sources available later and to align them with new annual data. Quarterly estimates are usually revised retrospectively for up to four years, although the policy allows unlimited revisions in the third quarter.
Major or benchmark revisions
In 2014, all Member States disseminated revised data according to ESA 2010. The agreed guidelines specified that Member States should perform next benchmark revisions in 2019 and 2024. The majority of EU countries were able to meet the 2019 and 2024 targets.
Figures are collected and transmitted to Eurostat by the National Statistical Institutes of the EU Member States following the ESA 2010 transmission programme (Tables 801 and 801SA) in accordance with the amended Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union (Annex B).
National sector accounts compilation relies on a variety of data sources, including administrative data (registers, accounting statements, tax data, budgetary reports etc), censuses, and statistical surveys of businesses and households. Sources vary from country to country and may cover a large set of economic, social and financial items, which may not be strictly related to national accounts. For further information about sources and collection methods, please refer to country-specific metadata.
For the aggregation purposes (the EU and euro area aggregates), missing data concerning specific countries, transactions and sectors may be estimated by Eurostat, but such estimates are not published separately.
Accounts of the EU Institutions are compiled by Eurostat on the basis of respective balance of payments (BoP) data. The accounts of the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) are compiled by the ECB.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Member States transmit sector accounts data to Eurostat upon national publication and/or in line with the deadlines specified in the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010) transmission programme (please see section 14 for details).
Underlying data are collected from national sources. As data sources vary, so does the frequency of collection, from monthly to annual. In the case of population censuses, they are mostly collected every decade.
18.3. Data collection
ESA 2010 data are transmitted to Eurostat based on SDMX which introduced standardised codes.
National accounts combine data from many source statistics. Techniques of data collection vary widely, depending on the compilation approach, the available source statistics, the particular account in the system of accounts, the timeliness of data release, and other factors.
18.4. Data validation
Data input by National Statistical Institutes is regularly checked by Eurostat for accuracy (accounting consistency, time-consistency between quarterly and annual accounts, consistency over time), completeness (coverage of reference periods and variables) and coherence with related national accounts datasets (GDP main aggregates, government finance statistics, balance of payments). Cross-domain checks against financial accounts are performed on an ad-hoc basis. Any lack of quality in this respect is regularly followed up with national authorities.
The same checks are applied to data used for the European aggregates.
The checks are classified under four levels and can be summarised as follows:
Level 1: within-file checks:
completeness;
monitoring of status and confidentiality flags;
zero and negative values;
accounting consistency checks (respect of accounting identities in the dataset based on ESA 2010).
Level 2: intra-domain, intra-source checks:
revisions vs previous version of the same reference quarter;
Several steps are necessary to convert the national accounts data transmitted by countries into aggregates for the EU and euro area.
1. Validation of the core variables of the national data
All inconsistencies are removed from the data received from the Member States.
2. Conversion to euro
For the Member States outside the euro area or those which joined the euro area after 1999, the amounts prior to joining the euro area are converted into euro by using the average exchange rates for each quarter. The EU-level growth rates for transactions are thus affected by movements in exchange rates and should be viewed with caution. On the other hand, the exchange rate movements have almost no impact on ratios (such as profit shares or saving rates) and hardly affect the euro area accounts.
3. Estimations for missing countries, sectors, or transactions
The countries having a GDP lower than 1% of the EU total have a limited quarterly reporting obligation: they are only required to transmit data for the general government, the rest of the world, and selected variables for the total economy. This is currently the case for Estonia, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia (euro area) and Bulgaria (outside the euro area). For incomplete or missing accounts, the Eurostat and the ECB therefore produce the necessary estimations (which are not published separately).
4. Estimations for the European institutions
The sector accounts provided by the Member States do not record the activities of institutions and bodies set up by EU treaties as resident entities. For the general government sector, these are the following:
Council; Commission; European Parliament; Court of Justice; Court of Auditors; Economic and Social Committee; Committee of the Regions; European agencies whose accounts are part of the general budget of the EU.
Voluminous transactions, especially transfers, take place between the above institutions and Member States. This is particularly the case for the Commission which is in charge of the EU policies. The accounts of the European institutions are included in the aggregated European accounts, specifically, in the government and the rest of the world sectors.
The European institutions, except the European Central Bank, are not included in the euro area accounts because their administrative competence goes beyond the boundaries of the monetary union.
Moreover, the accounts of the European Central Bank, the European Investment Bank, the European Investment Fund, as well as the accounts of the European Stability Mechanism (up to reference period 2020Q2) are included in the financial corporations sector (S.12). From reference period 2020Q3 onwards, the accounts of the European Stability Mechanism and the European Financial Stability Facility are included in the general government sector (S.13) of the European Union accounts.
5. The European rest of the world sector (RoW)
Transactions between the national economy and non-resident units, including those residing in other European Union Member States, are recorded in the rest of the world (RoW) sectors compiled by the Member States. For instance, imports recorded in a Member State’s national accounts include goods and services bought from abroad, regardless of them being sold by a resident of another European Union Member State or of a third country.
However, in the European accounts, to appropriately reflect the transactions between European areas and third countries, it is necessary to remove from the sum of national RoW all the economic flows within the area considered (either the European Union or the euro area).
Such ‘intra transactions’ are estimated by using the geographical breakdown sourced from the balance of payments (BoP) data. Because of different data vintages and conceptual differences, at this stage it is not possible to ensure full consistency between the European RoW sector and the BoP statistics.
For ‘intra transactions’, total resources should theoretically equal total uses. For instance, total imports from the euro area should equal total exports to the euro area. However, this is not the case in practice. The comparison of total intra-flows in resources and uses reveals imbalances called ‘asymmetries’.
As a consequence, the European accounts cannot be derived by simply removing the intra-flows of each transaction. In order to re-balance the European accounts, the resulting discrepancies have to be allocated to the different sectors, with the exception of government sector (S.13).
18.6. Adjustment
The QSA transactions may be subject to seasonal fluctuations that can be removed either by seasonal adjustment techniques or by comparing a given quarter with the same quarter of the previous year. The latter method allows tracing developments over a full year but not between two consecutive quarters. Therefore, seasonal adjustment using the TRAMO-SEATS method is performed on a selection of analytical ratios (and their components), namely the household saving rate, household investment rate, profit share of non-financial corporations, and investment rate of non-financial corporations. Some details on the methodology of seasonal adjustment, as well as on ARIMA models and parameters are available on the dedicated section of the sector accounts website. The rest of the European sector accounts data are not seasonally adjusted.
Member State accounts may show statistical discrepancies (explicit or implicit) between the GDP and the sum of components. In order to compile a coherent and balanced set of sector accounts, some variables may be used to adjust for any possible lack of additivity between the total and the sum of its components, i.e. these variables are effectively used as balancing items.
For the expenditure approach of GDP, the balancing variable is most often changes in inventories (P.52).
For the income approach of GDP, the balancing variables are gross operating surplus and mixed income (B.2g + B.3g).
For the output approach of GDP, the balancing variable is value added (B1G).
Some NSIs may also choose not to balance the statistical discrepancy. Statistical discrepancies are not explicitly recorded in sector accounts tables. In such cases these are manifested as discrepancies between the respective totals and the sum of components, as well as between the total economy and the sum of domestic sectors.
For the purpose of calculating European aggregates, Eurostat corrects country data for such lack of additivity in order to produce coherent and balanced European sector accounts.
More details on sector accounts consistency with related datasets, as well as other relevant issues by country are available in a regularly-updated document.
The QSA encompass non-financial accounts that provide a description of the different stages of the economic process: production, generation of income, distribution of income, redistribution of income, use of income, and non-financial accumulation. The QSA record the economic flows of institutional sectors in order to illustrate their economic behaviour and interactions between them. They also provide a list of balancing items that have a high analytical value in their own right: value added, operating surplus and mixed income, balance of primary incomes, disposable income, saving, net lending / net borrowing. All of them but net lending / net borrowing can be expressed in gross or net terms, i.e. with or without consumption of fixed capital that accounts for the use and obsolescence of fixed assets.
In terms of institutional sectors, a broad distinction is made between the domestic economy (ESA 2010 classification code S.1) and the rest of the world (S.2). Within S.1 and S.2 in turn more detailed subsectors are distinguished, as explained in more detail in section 3.2 ‘Classification system’.
Data are presented in the table ‘Non-financial transactions’ (nasq_10_nf_tr).
The table contains data, as far as they are available, expressed in millions of euros or of national currency in current prices.
In line with the ESA 2010 transmission programme requirements, data series start from 1999 Q1 (unless subject to voluntary transmission option and/or country-specific derogations).
Available level of detail by sectors and transactions may also vary by country due to voluntary transmission of some items (as defined in the ESA 2010 transmission programme) and country-specific derogations.
28 August 2025
The non-financial Quarterly Sector Accounts (QSA) are compiled in accordance with the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010) and are transmitted by the EU Member States and EFTA Members (except Liechtenstein) following the ESA 2010 transmission programme (Tables 801 and 801SA). The non-adjusted data have a more extensive coverage, in terms of transactions and/or sectors, than the seasonally-adjusted data (for full detail, please consult the Tables 801 and 801SA ). After validation, these data are published on the Eurobase as nasq_10_nf_tr.
A set of key indicators, deemed meaningful for economic analysis, is available in the table ‘Key indicators’ (nasq_10_ki) for the EU and euro area, as well as for most of the EFTA Members. Key indicators are generally released in non-adjusted terms. Only the aggregate EU/EA key indicators are also available in a seasonally adjusted form.
Key ratios are derived from non-financial transactions as follows:
Gross investment rate of households (S.14_S.15): P51G/(B6G+D8rec-D8pay)*100;
Gross investment rate of non-financial corporations (S.11): P51G/B1G*100;
Gross profit share of non-financial corporations (S.11): B2G_B3G/B1G*100.
With the following transaction codes:
B8G: Gross saving;
B6G: Gross disposable income;
D8rec / D8pay: the adjustment for the change in pension entitlements (receivable/payable);
P51G: Gross fixed capital formation;
B1G: Gross value added;
B2G_B3G: Gross operating surplus / mixed income.
In the above, all ratios are expressed in gross terms, i.e. before deduction of consumption of fixed capital.
The following seasonally adjusted key indicators are calculated in real or nominal terms, for European aggregates only:
Nominal growth of household adjusted disposable income per capita (percentage change on previous period, S.14_S.15): B7G/(POP_NC);
Real growth of household adjusted disposable income per capita (percentage change on previous period, S.14_S.15): B7G/(POP_NC*Price Deflator);
Real growth of household actual consumption per capita (percentage change on previous period, S.14_S.15): P4/(POP_NC*Price Deflator).
With the following codes (the codes already described above have not been listed):
B7G: Gross adjusted disposable income (adjusted for social transfers in kind);
P4: Actual final consumption (adjusted for social transfers in kind);
POP_NC: Total population, national concept (source: quarterly national accounts, Eurobase domain namq_10_pe);
Price deflator: Price index / implicit deflator, calculated as CP_MEUR/CLV10_MEUR – both indicators refer to household and NPISH final consumption expenditure (P31_S14_S15) (source: quarterly national accounts, Eurobase domain namq_10_gdp).
The following key indicator combines non-financial with financial accounts:
Household net financial assets ratio BF90/(B6G+D8net)*100.
With the following code referring to the financial sector accounts (source: financial balance sheets, Eurobase domain nasa_10_f_bs):
BF90: Financial net worth.
In the above, ‘rec’ means ‘resources’, that is, transactions that add to the economic value of a given sector, while ‘pay’ means ‘uses’, that is, transactions that reduce the economic value of a given sector.
See also the dedicated website on sector accounts for more information.
The elementary building block of ESA 2010 statistics is the institutional unit (see ESA 2010, 2.12.), ‘an economic entity characterised by decision-making autonomy in the exercise of its principal function’. Some examples would be a household, a corporation or a government agency.
National accounts combine data from many source statistics. The concept of statistical population is not applicable in the national accounts context.
Based on ESA 2010, Eurostat collects and disseminates in its database aggregated data for the European Union and the euro area and country data for EU Member States and EFTA Member States (except Liechtenstein).
In the framework of a data sharing agreement with the OECD, Eurostat also receives and disseminates annual non-financial sector accounts data received from the OECD, based on the SNA 2008. The applied key statistical concepts can be consulted on the OECD Data Explorer website. For more details on the coverage, please refer to the metadata of the dataset naidsq_10_nf_tr.
The reference period is the quarter.
The overall accuracy is supported by ensuring that total uses and total resources are balanced at the level of individual transaction categories, providing a coherent set of data for the total national economy and transactions with the rest of the world.
Data are presented in millions of euros or of national currency (for non-financial transactions) and as percentage ratios (for key indicators).
Several steps are necessary to convert the national accounts data transmitted by countries into aggregates for the EU and euro area.
1. Validation of the core variables of the national data
All inconsistencies are removed from the data received from the Member States.
2. Conversion to euro
For the Member States outside the euro area or those which joined the euro area after 1999, the amounts prior to joining the euro area are converted into euro by using the average exchange rates for each quarter. The EU-level growth rates for transactions are thus affected by movements in exchange rates and should be viewed with caution. On the other hand, the exchange rate movements have almost no impact on ratios (such as profit shares or saving rates) and hardly affect the euro area accounts.
3. Estimations for missing countries, sectors, or transactions
The countries having a GDP lower than 1% of the EU total have a limited quarterly reporting obligation: they are only required to transmit data for the general government, the rest of the world, and selected variables for the total economy. This is currently the case for Estonia, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia (euro area) and Bulgaria (outside the euro area). For incomplete or missing accounts, the Eurostat and the ECB therefore produce the necessary estimations (which are not published separately).
4. Estimations for the European institutions
The sector accounts provided by the Member States do not record the activities of institutions and bodies set up by EU treaties as resident entities. For the general government sector, these are the following:
Council; Commission; European Parliament; Court of Justice; Court of Auditors; Economic and Social Committee; Committee of the Regions; European agencies whose accounts are part of the general budget of the EU.
Voluminous transactions, especially transfers, take place between the above institutions and Member States. This is particularly the case for the Commission which is in charge of the EU policies. The accounts of the European institutions are included in the aggregated European accounts, specifically, in the government and the rest of the world sectors.
The European institutions, except the European Central Bank, are not included in the euro area accounts because their administrative competence goes beyond the boundaries of the monetary union.
Moreover, the accounts of the European Central Bank, the European Investment Bank, the European Investment Fund, as well as the accounts of the European Stability Mechanism (up to reference period 2020Q2) are included in the financial corporations sector (S.12). From reference period 2020Q3 onwards, the accounts of the European Stability Mechanism and the European Financial Stability Facility are included in the general government sector (S.13) of the European Union accounts.
5. The European rest of the world sector (RoW)
Transactions between the national economy and non-resident units, including those residing in other European Union Member States, are recorded in the rest of the world (RoW) sectors compiled by the Member States. For instance, imports recorded in a Member State’s national accounts include goods and services bought from abroad, regardless of them being sold by a resident of another European Union Member State or of a third country.
However, in the European accounts, to appropriately reflect the transactions between European areas and third countries, it is necessary to remove from the sum of national RoW all the economic flows within the area considered (either the European Union or the euro area).
Such ‘intra transactions’ are estimated by using the geographical breakdown sourced from the balance of payments (BoP) data. Because of different data vintages and conceptual differences, at this stage it is not possible to ensure full consistency between the European RoW sector and the BoP statistics.
For ‘intra transactions’, total resources should theoretically equal total uses. For instance, total imports from the euro area should equal total exports to the euro area. However, this is not the case in practice. The comparison of total intra-flows in resources and uses reveals imbalances called ‘asymmetries’.
As a consequence, the European accounts cannot be derived by simply removing the intra-flows of each transaction. In order to re-balance the European accounts, the resulting discrepancies have to be allocated to the different sectors, with the exception of government sector (S.13).
Figures are collected and transmitted to Eurostat by the National Statistical Institutes of the EU Member States following the ESA 2010 transmission programme (Tables 801 and 801SA) in accordance with the amended Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union (Annex B).
National sector accounts compilation relies on a variety of data sources, including administrative data (registers, accounting statements, tax data, budgetary reports etc), censuses, and statistical surveys of businesses and households. Sources vary from country to country and may cover a large set of economic, social and financial items, which may not be strictly related to national accounts. For further information about sources and collection methods, please refer to country-specific metadata.
For the aggregation purposes (the EU and euro area aggregates), missing data concerning specific countries, transactions and sectors may be estimated by Eurostat, but such estimates are not published separately.
Accounts of the EU Institutions are compiled by Eurostat on the basis of respective balance of payments (BoP) data. The accounts of the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) are compiled by the ECB.
Quarterly.
According to the ESA 2010 transmission programme, Member States have to transmit to Eurostat quarterly (1) non-adjusted data within 85 calendar days after the reference quarter and (2) seasonally adjusted data within 85 calendar days plus 3 working days after the reference quarter. National data are published in the Eurostat database at around 94, 110 and 120 days after the reference quarter, according to data availability (see also section 8.1).
Quarterly European Union and euro area aggregates are available within 4 months after the reference quarter. For the euro area only, selected transactions and key indicators for the corporation and household (including NPISH) sectors are first published around 94 days after the reference quarter (the early data release).
