System of national accounts. System of National Accounts (SNA) System of indicators and general principles for constructing the SNA

A national economy is impossible without national public accounting. The information provided by macroeconomic indicators makes it possible to judge the economic health of a society and correctly determine economic policy.

System of National Accounts is a national accounting system based on aggregated data from surveys and sample surveys, and statistical reporting. The result of processing this information is a set of balance tables in the form accounting accounts characterizing the process of production, distribution and final use of the country's GDP.

The system of national accounts was developed back in the late 1920s by American economists, employees of the National Bureau of Economic Research under the leadership of the American economist Simon Kuznets, Nobel Prize winner in economics.

The system of national accounts (SNA), adapted to the conditions of a market economy, is successfully functioning in the world. It was formed in the leading capitalist countries in the 1940s and 1950s, when, after the Great Depression, the need arose for state regulation of the market economy.

The SNA exists on the basis of national income statistics and a large number of other international statistical indicators: government budget statistics, intersectoral balance, balance of payments statistics, etc. It is a comprehensive statistical model of a market economy.

In February 1993, at the regular session of the UN Statistical Commission in New York, a new improved SNA was adopted. When preparing it, the peculiarities of the economy and statistics of the countries in transition were taken into account, that is, those that embarked on the path of economic reforms with the aim of transforming the administrative economy into a market economy.

At the end of 1992 the Supreme Council Russian Federation approved the state program for the transition of domestic statistics to international standards, and since 1993 Russia began to move from the balance of the national economy (BNH), which was adapted to serve a centrally planned economy (based on the concept of K. Marx and A. Smith on the labor theory of value, on material production as the main area for creating national income) and was used in the USSR for 70 years, on the international system of national accounts (SNA).

SNA in the Russian Federation includes:
- account of goods and services;
- production;
- income generation;
- distribution of primary income;
- secondary distribution of income;
- use of disposable income;
- capital transactions;
- financial Accounting.

For the economy as a whole, national accounts include the following 6 accounts:
1. Account of goods, services and production.
2. Income and consumption account.
3. Savings account.
4. Account of value creation outside of production (revaluation).
5. Opening balance.
6. Closing balance.

For further study, it is necessary to highlight some of the concepts of the SNA, which are needed in order to understand the macroeconomic indicators that are published by federal Service state statistics of the Russian Federation (Rosstat).

Institutional unit is an economic unit that can, in its own name, own assets, incur liabilities and engage in economic activity with other business units.

An institutional unit is resident if it has a center of economic interests in the territory of a given country. Thus, residents of the Russian Federation are legal and individuals operating on its territory for at least one year, regardless of citizenship.

Institutional Sectors in the SNA– differ depending on institutional units – residents

Scheme 1.
Sectors of institutional units in the 1993 SNA

All institutional units grouped into institutional sectors Depending on their main functions, behavior and goals, there are five such sectors in the 1993 SNA:
1. non-financial enterprises or firms;
2. financial institutions (banks);
3. government institutions;
4. non-profit organizations serving households (political parties, religious organizations, trade unions, public associations);
5. households.

The 1993 SNA version also assumes accounting for economic activity in the shadow, or non-observed, economy.

The SNA accounts include:

Key indicators of the SNA

The system of national accounts includes such indicators as:

GDP (Gross Domestic Product)- measures the value of the final product produced in the territory of a given country, regardless of whether the factors of production are owned by citizens of this country or they are owned by foreigners. The value of intermediate goods and services is not included in GDP.

GNP (Gross National Product)- This market price final goods and services produced in the economy in a certain period (year). It measures the value of products produced by factors of production owned by the citizens of a given country, as well as in the territory of other countries.

GNI (Gross National Income) - represents the current market value of all final goods and services created by factors of production owned by residents, including in the territory of other states. GNI is influenced by the “residency” factor.

Residents- all economic units, regardless of their nationality and citizenship, engaged in production activities in the economic territory of a given country (or residing in the country) for at least 1 year.

GNI = GDP (plus or minus) balance of primary income from abroad

NDP (net domestic product) = GDP – Depreciation

NNI (net national income)= GNI - Depreciation

ND (national income, that is, the income of suppliers of factors of production from participation in current production - the total amount of wages, rents, interest and profits, or the sum of prices of factors of production) = FVP - Indirect taxes.

LD (personal income- income received as opposed to national income, i.e. earned income) = NI - Contributions to social insurance, Corporate taxes, Retained earnings of corporations + Transfer payments (transfers are not the result of labor activity).

DI = NNI - (indirect taxes + social security contributions + corporate income taxes + corporate retained earnings) + transfer payments.

RD (disposable income- income after taxes) = LD - individual taxes.

Thus, the system of national accounts not only allows us to consider the results of the business activity of the country's population at the stages of production, distribution and use of GDP, but also gives the government the opportunity to determine the main macro goals. economic policy based on indicators.

Final goods and services- these are goods or services that are purchased during the year for final consumption and are not used for intermediate consumption (that is, for the production of other goods or services).

In macroeconomics there are problems with estimating GDP as the main indicator of the results of economic activity.

I. GDP indicator does not reflect the impact of production on the environment (whether the increase in production was accompanied by environmental disasters, poisoning of rivers and land with acid rain, soil contamination).

II. In GDP it is difficult to account for activities in the shadow economy, although the 1993 SNA provides guidance on accounting for underground activities in GDP. There are other terms for the shadow economy: informal economy, underground economy, illegal economy, etc. There is a term used by both international organizations and Rosstat: non-observed economy.

Non-observed economy divided into 4 types of production:

1. shady. GDP does not take into account the flow of goods and services within the framework of shadow production, or the shadow economy, which refers to legally permitted activities that are not officially declared or are underestimated by economic entities engaged in it in order to evade taxes, social contributions, etc.

2. illegal.GDP does not take into account truly illegal activities - the manufacture and sale of drugs, prostitution and other destructive activities - because their subjects are not registered with official bodies, and incomes are not declared. It is noteworthy that in the case of the legalization of activities previously considered illegal, the market valuation of the latter will be included in GDP.

3. informal sector, which is defined as “all productive activities carried out by those non-incorporated enterprises in the household sector that are not registered or whose size in terms of the number of employees is less than a certain threshold and which have any market production”. For example, if the family is baking buns in their own apartment for sale and the company is not registered.

4.households for own final use, that is, that which is not “put on the market” and has no market value.

III. When calculating GDP, as a rule, the amount of value added is determined by the market. But this is difficult to do in relation to services that belong to the public sector and are provided more or less free of charge: education, medicine, etc. The value added when taking into account the contribution to GDP of teachers, nurses and officers is determined in accordance with their salary, which does not necessarily reflect their individual contribution to value added, as it is established not by the market, but by the state.

American scientists W. Nordhaus and J. Tobin tried to eliminate these shortcomings. They suggested using the indicator of net economic well-being (NEW), for calculating which from GDP it is necessary to subtract the monetary value of factors that negatively affect the well-being of society, and add the monetary value of factors that positively affect it. The most difficult thing in implementing this concept is to give a monetary value of factors affecting the CEB.

The net national product is:

Methods for calculating GDP

In macroeconomics, it is customary to single out three methods of calculating GDP:
1. production (value added);
2. cost summation (end-use method);
3. summation of income (distributive method).

Using either method results in the same value of GDP. However, the sources of information for the system of national accounts are very diverse. They can be reports and surveys of the activities of enterprises, balance sheets, statistics retail sales, sample surveys of various industries, bank profit and loss reports, household budget surveys, tax returns of economic entities and other sources.

System of National Accounts (SNA) - modern system information used in almost all countries of the world to describe and analyze the development of a market economy at the macro level. The indicators and classifications of this system reflect the structure of the market economy, its institutions and mechanisms of functioning. The SNA was created about 50 years ago in the most developed capitalist countries, when there was a need for state administration bodies for the information necessary to regulate a market economy.

In the recent past, in the USSR, another system of indicators was used to describe and analyze macroeconomics - the balance of the national economy (BNE). BNH was based on Marxist concepts of social reproduction and is designed to analyze such an economic model, which is based on public ownership of the means of production and central planning. Therefore, when carrying out economic reforms in Russia and other CIS countries, it was necessary to move from the balance of the national economy to the system of national accounts.

The SNA uses some important techniques accounting(for example, the principle of double entry of transactions), and its goals are in many ways similar to those of accounting: providing information for making management decisions. However, in accounting, information is used to make decisions at the enterprise (company) level, while in the SNA it is used to make decisions related to the economy as a whole. In a sense, the SNA is accounting for the economy as a whole. In this regard, it should be recalled that the term “national accounting” was proposed about 50 years ago by the Dutch economist W. Cliff, who understood national accounting as a system of tables resembling accounting accounts and balance sheets containing a systematic description of the economy at the macro level. A great contribution to the development of the SNA was made by J. Keynes, who believed that the SNA is a system of interrelated indicators (income, consumption, savings) and its data should be of interest to government bodies when making decisions on economic policy and developing measures to regulate the market economy. economy.

In a modern market economy, various economic transactions are carried out: enterprises acquire raw materials and materials, produce a variety of products, pay wages to workers and employees and taxes to the government, borrow money from banks, invest free and borrowed resources in machinery and equipment, etc. In addition to enterprises, other economic entities participate in the economic process: financial institutions (banks, investment funds, Insurance companies), government bodies, households, various non-profit organizations (trade unions, political, religious organizations, etc.). They also perform a wide variety of transactions with goods and services, money, loans, stocks and other financial instruments. All these economic entities interact with each other, exchange goods, services and assets in the process of creating new value. In order to understand what is happening in the economy and determine the most important results of the economic process, it is necessary to somehow organize information both about the economic entities themselves and about the various operations that they carry out, as well as about their assets and liabilities. This ordering is carried out within the framework of the SNA with the help of special rules and procedures. Its goals are: a description of the general picture of the state and development of the economy at the macro level, establishing relationships between the most important macroeconomic indicators, such as gross domestic product (GDP), final consumption, investment, savings, disposable income, etc. Information obtained on the basis of such ordering, you need:

• government bodies to make decisions on macroeconomic policy issues;
• entrepreneurs and businessmen who wish to better navigate the general macroeconomic situation in which their enterprises and companies operate;
• international organizations (UN, IMF, The World Bank, OECD) To address various issues related to the organization of international economic cooperation (for example, providing assistance to countries for their economic development, providing loans, etc.).

International organizations not only collect information on the most important indicators of the SNA, but are also more involved in the theory and methodology of the SNA, the development of international standards in the field of national accounting. Currently, this standard is the 1993 SNA, approved by the UN Statistical Commission. As a result of the further development of national accounting, the 1993 SNA replaced the previously existing 1968 SNA, while taking into account 25 years of experience in applying the SNA in various countries of the world and developments on certain theoretical and methodological issues. Approved by the UN in 1993, the International Standard in the field of national accounting marked the beginning of a new stage in the development of the SNA, which, apparently, will continue for about 10-15 years. The main efforts at this stage will be focused on the introduction of the new SNA into the practice of UN member countries, which should inevitably stimulate further research in this area.

In order for the SNA to organize various data on economic transactions and economic entities (i.e., distribution into homogeneous groups) most effectively and contribute to the identification of macroeconomic patterns and relationships, it must be based on some political economy concepts, as well as postulates that determine the rules information processing. According to one of these concepts, it is necessary to define the boundaries of "economic production", that is, the areas where the production of gross domestic product and the creation of national income take place.

It is known that the concept of economic production has undergone significant changes in economics as the productive forces have developed. At one time, its formation was influenced by the works of F. Caene, A. Smith, K. Marx, A. Marshall and other prominent economists. In the balance sheet of the national economy, which was used in the USSR to analyze macroeconomics, only material production belonged to the sphere of economic production. In the sphere of intangible services (management, defense, health care, education, etc.), according to the BNH concepts, only the redistribution of national income and the final consumption of national income take place. The SNA uses a broader concept of economic production, which covers the production of almost all goods and services, with the exception of services provided by housewives for cooking, keeping homes clean, raising children, etc. This one exception is made for practical reasons, since the activity of housewives is very difficult to assess. Thus, according to the SNA concepts, economic production includes the following types activities:

• production of goods, including goods for own consumption (for example, production of agricultural products for own consumption by farmers);
• provision of services for implementation;
• activities of financial intermediaries (banks, investment funds, insurance companies);
• the provision of non-market services by public administration institutions (collective services in the field of management - defense and individual services in the field of health, education, etc.);
• provision of non-market services by non-profit organizations serving households;
• the provision of services by hired servants (cooks, gardeners, drivers);
• provision of housing services by homeowners for their own consumption.

GDP production does not include changes in the environment (e.g. depletion of coal, oil and other minerals, air and water pollution, etc.), but activities aimed at protecting environment, to be measured and included in GDP. Many experts in the field of macroeconomic analysis believe that in determining the results of economic activity and calculating GDP, negative changes in the environment should be taken into account. They. .propose to calculate the indicator of "environmentally friendly GDP". Experimental calculations are being made in some countries to calculate GDP adjusted for mineral depletion, pollution, etc. However, in most countries it will take a long time to introduce such calculations into regular statistical practice.

Another important concept of the SNA, on which the calculation of the main indicators of income (national income, disposable income, primary income, etc.) is based, reflects the political economy content of the “income” category. It was developed by the English economist J. Hicks. According to this concept, income represents the co-ordinating maximum amount of money that can be spent on the purchase of consumer goods and services without becoming poorer, that is, without reducing one's accumulated wealth and without incurring any financial obligations. The next concept of the SNA is to determine the role of various factors of production in value creation. In contrast to the Marxist theory, according to this concept, land and capital are considered as factors involved in the creation of value along with labor. It should be noted that the new 1993 SNA does not explicitly refer to factors of production and factor costing. This is largely due to the desire of the authors of the SNA to bypass the controversial Questions on this topic. The concept of factor income is replaced in the 5993 SNA by the concept of primary income, which is very close in content to the category of factor income, but at the same time has some differences. In this regard, it should be noted that in some countries, such as the United States, until recently, national income was calculated at factor cost, that is, at market prices, minus indirect taxes, but with the addition of subsidies on products. This practice is a well-known deviation from the international GHC standard, which recommends that all indicators be valued at market prices. At the same time, the SNA provides for the possibility of calculating some indicators at factor cost.

An important feature of the SNA is the grouping of all economic entities into institutional sectors. The 1993 SNA distinguishes five sectors:

• non-financial corporations and quasi-corporations;
• financial corporations and quasi-corporations;
• public administration;
• households;
• non-profit organizations serving households.

All economic entities belong to one of these sectors in accordance with the function they perform in the economic process. For example, the function of non-financial corporations is to produce goods and non-financial services for sale on the market at prices that reimburse production costs; the function of financial corporations is to accumulate free financial resources and provide them on certain conditions to investors. Thus, financial corporations play the role of intermediaries between those who save resources and those who use them to finance investments.

The function of public administration institutions is to carry out the redistribution of national income and wealth, as well as to provide free services both to society as a whole (governance, defense, scientific research, etc.) and to individuals or groups of the population (education, health care, etc.). .d.).

Units included in the household sector participate in production by providing their labor force and purchase goods and services in the market. In addition, households own small unincorporated businesses (farms, family restaurants, shops, etc.). These unincorporated enterprises produce goods and services for sale on the market, but sometimes partly for their own consumption by the owners of unincorporated enterprises. The financial result of the activities of unincorporated enterprises is mixed income, which includes both elements of profit and wages. Unincorporated enterprises are included in the household sector for practical reasons, since in practice it is difficult to separate the income and expenses of unincorporated enterprises from the income and expenses of their owners.

The function of non-profit organizations serving households (social, political, religious organizations) is to provide free services to members of these organizations.

Thus, the uncountable number of economic entities is summarized in the SNA into five relatively homogeneous groups. For all sectors, the SNA provides a standard set of accounts that record economic transactions related to production, education, distribution and redistribution of income, saving and accumulation, acquisition financial assets and making financial commitments. Based on the information contained in sectoral accounts, it is possible to analyze the economic and financial situation of individual sectors of the economy, as well as the relationships between them in the economic process.

The most important accounts (production account and income generation account) are also compiled in the SNA for sectors of the economy, i.e. for aggregates of homogeneous units of enterprises and organizations engaged in similar activities (for example, the production of industrial, agricultural, construction goods, etc.). ). The information contained in the sectoral accounts, as well as in the sectoral accounts, is ultimately used to obtain the so-called aggregates, i.e. the most important macroeconomic indicators:

• gross national income (GNI);
• gross national disposable income (GNDI);
• final consumption;
• gross capital formation;
• the balance of exports and imports;
• national savings;
• net lending and net borrowing;
• national wealth.

GDP is the central indicator of the SNA, which characterizes the value of final goods and services produced by the residents of the country for a given period. GDP is calculated at end-use market prices, i.e. at prices paid by the buyer, including all trade markups and taxes on products (VAT, excises, etc.). GDP is used to characterize the results of production, the level of economic development, economic growth rates, analysis of labor productivity in the economy, etc. Very often this indicator is used in combination with other indicators, for example, if the ratio of the state budget deficit to GDP is analyzed, etc. The GDP indicator is calculated, as its name implies, on a gross basis, before deducting the consumption of fixed capital, which is associated with practical difficulties in obtaining reliable data on the consumption of fixed capital. However, the SNA recognizes that from a theoretical point of view, net domestic product is more correct.

GNI is the sum of primary incomes received by residents* of a given country in a given period. GNI differs from GDP in both qualitative and quantitative terms. In qualitative terms, the difference between GDP and GNI is that the first indicator characterizes the flow of final goods and services, or newly created value, while the second indicator represents the flow of primary income received by residents of a given country as a result of their participation in the creation of the country's GDP. , as well as the GDP of other countries. Quantitatively, GNI differs from GDP in the balance of primary income received from abroad or transferred abroad. Primary income in the SNA is usually classified as wages, profits, income from property, as well as taxes on production and imports. Primary income from or paid abroad typically includes wages and property income such as interest and dividends, as well as reinvested income from foreign direct investment.

GNI differs from GNI in the balance of current redistributive payments (current transfers) transferred abroad or received from abroad. These transfers may include humanitarian aid, gifts to relatives received from abroad, fines and penalties paid by residents abroad, etc. Thus, GNDI covers all income received by residents of a given country as a result of primary and secondary distribution of income. GNDI can be obtained by summing the gross disposable income of all five sectors of the economy. GNI is subdivided into final consumption expenditure and national saving.

Final consumption includes final consumption expenditures of: households; government controlled; non-profit organizations serving households. The final consumption expenditures of government and non-profit organizations serving households essentially coincide with the cost of non-market (free) services provided by these organizations and institutions.

Gross capital formation covers fixed capital formation, changes in inventories, and net acquisition of valuables (jewelry, antiques, etc.).

The balance of exports and imports is an important element of the final use of GDP. Exports are valued at FOB prices and imports at CIF prices.

The sum of final consumption, gross capital formation and the balance of exports and imports gives GDP by the final use method. Theoretically, this value should coincide with the GDP calculated by the production method, that is, by summing up the gross value added of all sectors or branches of the economy. Value added is defined at basic prices, i.e. at prices that include subsidies on products, but do not include taxes on products, so to move from value added to GDP, taxes on products must be added to it and subsidies on products must be excluded. GDP can also be calculated by the distribution method, i.e. by summing up the wages paid by enterprises and organizations of a given country to their workers and employees, regardless of whether they are residents or non-residents of this country, gross profit and gross mixed income, taxes ( net of subsidies) for production and imports.

National saving is an important indicator of the SNA. It can be obtained by subtracting final consumption from the GNI. Saving is a source of funding for accumulation, i.e., the growth of fixed assets, inventories, values, etc. If we abstract from the existence of other countries, then national saving is equal to the value of national accumulation.

Net lending / net borrowing is an indicator that characterizes the amount of financial resources temporarily provided by a given country to other countries or temporarily received from them.

National wealth is the sum of the net capital of all economic entities in the country. In other words, national wealth is equal to the sum of all the country's assets (non-financial and financial) minus financial liabilities. Residents' financial claims on each other cancel each other out, and ultimately national wealth includes (along with non-financial assets) financial claims on other countries less financial liabilities to other countries.

All of these important indicators are mutually consistent, and therefore they can be used in combination with each other. They complement each other, revealing various aspects of the economic process.

The relationship between the most important macroeconomic indicators of the SNA is presented below:

A. Gross domestic product

B. Consumption of fixed capital

C. Net domestic product (A-B)

D. Balance of primary income received from abroad

E. Gross National Income (A+D)

E. Net National Income (D-B)

G. Balance of current transfers received from abroad

3. Gross national disposable income (G+W)

I. Final consumption

K. National savings (3rd)

K. Balance of capital transfers received from abroad

M. Sources of investment financing (C+L)

H. Gross capital formation (as an element of GDP)

O. Net acquisition of non-produced intangible non-financial assets

P. Net lending/net borrowing (M-N-O)

Recording economic transactions in the SNA accounts reveals a number of important relationships between the most significant economic indicators. These relationships can be represented as equalities. The following are the most important of these equalities:

GDP = C + I + E,

where GDP - gross domestic product; С - final consumption; I - investments (gross capital formation, growth in inventories, net acquisition of valuables); E - net export.

GDP = W + Q + R + P + T,

where W is the wages paid by enterprises and organizations of a given country to their workers and employees, regardless of whether they are residents or non-residents of this country; Q - deductions for social insurance; R - gross profit; P - gross mixed income; T - taxes on production and imports (net of subsidies).

GDP = D + N - U,

where D is the value added of all sectors of the economy in basic prices; N - taxes on products; U - subsidies for products.

GNI = GDP + LM,

where GNI - gross national income; L - primary income received by residents of this country abroad (wages, interest, dividends, reinvested income from foreign direct investment); M - primary income transferred by residents of this country abroad.

GNDI = GNI + B - G,

where GNDI is gross national disposable income; B - current transfers received by residents of this country from abroad; G - current transfers transferred by residents of this country abroad.

where C - final consumption; S - national savings.

S + K \u003d f + Z + J - O,

where S - national savings; K is the balance of capital transfers received from abroad; I - accumulation of produced assets; Z - accumulation of non-produced intangible assets (patents, licenses, etc.); J - net lending/net borrowing; O - consumption of fixed capital.

where J - net lending/net borrowing; F - acquisition of financial assets from non-residents; Y - acceptance of financial obligations to non-residents.

Source - Economic statistics. 2nd ed., additional: Textbook / Ed. Yu.N. Ivanova. - M.: INFRA-M, 2002. - 480 p.

Historical reference. 1

Structure and main categories of the system.. 2

Production boundaries in the SNA.. 4

Grouping of economic units by institutional sectors.. 5

Regional indicators of the system of national accounts. 5

The main indicators of the SNA and methods for their calculation. 7

Evaluation principles.. 11

Historical reference

System of National Accounts ( SNA) is a national accounting corresponding to a market economy, completed at the macro level by a system of interrelated statistical indicators, built in the form of a specific set of accounts and balance tables that characterize the results of economic activity, the structure of the economy and the most important relationships in the national economy.

The development of the system of national accounts, as a theoretical basis for macroeconomic statistics, is based on the works of W. Petty and G. King, J. M. Keynes, P. Boisguillebert, R. Stone, J. Tinbergen, R. Frisch, V. Leontiev, K. Clark, S. Kuznets, A. Marshall, A. Pigou, J. Hicks (XVII - XX centuries) and other economists and statisticians devoted to national income statistics and the theory of the business cycle.

It should be noted that the fundamental principles that laid the foundation for the modern SNA are formulated in the Appendix published in 1947 to the Memorandum of the Committee of Experts on Statistics of the League of Nations "Measurement of National Income and the Construction of Social Accounts" by Richard Stone1).

Stone's work differs fundamentally from earlier attempts in that it explicitly incorporated national income into a double-entry bookkeeping framework that included household, private sector, and government income and expenditure data, allowing for the production comparative analysis results of activities both in various sectors of the economy and in different countries.

Summarizing the theoretical and practical experience of developed countries in national accounting in 1953, the UN, with the support of other international organizations, published the System of National Accounts. It was followed by the 1968 version. In 1993, the modern version of the SNA was adopted. In 2003, the UN Statistical Commission decided to complete the work on the creation of a new SNA standard in 2008.

In Russia, the SNA has been introduced since the early 1990s. The introduction of the SNA required the improvement of national statistical practices, revision of the forms of organizing statistical observations, methods for constructing classifications and calculating indicators in statistics of enterprises and households, labor, prices, public finances, balance of payments, etc.

The modern SNA not only determines the output parameters of the economy, but also shows how the economy functions, how these parameters are achieved.

Structure and main categories of the system

System of National Accounts (SNA)- the central section of economic statistics, representing a system of interrelated indicators that reflect the economic behavior of participants in economic activity, their relationships and the results of economic activity. The SNA is intended for a quantitative description and analysis of the generalizing results of the economic development of countries.

SNA provides a description of the state and development of not only the economy as a whole, but also its most important structural units - industries and institutional sectors, allows you to identify the level of inter-sectoral interaction, the degree of interconnection between institutional sectors.

SNA is a tool for coordinating all economic statistics, since it is a special form of streamlining and systematizing statistical information on various aspects of the economic process. The SNA makes it possible to identify the key macroeconomic variables necessary to analyze the state and dynamics of the economy, its structure, and the relationships between the various phases of the reproduction process. This streamlining is based on a number of concepts and postulates that define the boundaries of economic production, the content of indicators of income and wealth, the principles for assessing flows and stocks, a system of interconnected classifications of economic transactions, assets and liabilities, and methods for assessing indicators.

SNA provides a consistent description of all aspects of the economic process: production, distribution and redistribution of income, consumption and savings, investment financing, operations with financial instruments, foreign economic relations, the formation of national wealth. In a generalized form, the SNA contains information on all economic entities (institutional units), on all economic transactions (with goods and services, income and financial instruments), on all assets and liabilities of economic entities.

Currently SNA includes a system of macro-level accounts, accounts of economic sectors and sectors of the national economy. The system of accounts for the macro level corresponds almost exactly to the structure of the accounts for industries and sectors. A system of accounts is distinguished for the internal economy and for the external economy.

Each account refers to one aspect of economic activity. Each economic transaction is reflected in the accounts twice: once - in resources, the other - in use. The totals of economic transactions on each side of the account are balanced by definition or by means of a balancing item, which in itself is important in economic analysis and serves as a transition to the next account. The system of accounts reflects the relationship between the initial formation of resources, the movement of income and their use and the final financial performance, financial and economic situation, including changes in the balance sheet of assets and liabilities (Fig. 1).

That. accounts SNAs are flow accounts, that is, they reflect the movement of flows of goods, services and income through all stages - from production to use, as well as changes in non-financial assets and financial assets and liabilities.

The system ends with the construction of balance sheets that reflect the presence of assets and liabilities on a particular date (as a rule, at the beginning and end of the year), the change in national wealth in reporting period, and "Input-output" tables, in which the production and use of goods and services is shown by industry.

System of National Accounts in Russia currently includes the following accounts:

goods and services account;

production account;

income generation account;

secondary distribution of income account;

capital account.

Production boundaries in SNA

Production boundaries defined in the SNA as all activities of resident units of the national economy(including the activities of foreign and mixed enterprises that have a center of economic interests in Russia and operate there on a permanent basis) for the production of goods and services. Production activities cover business activities, producing goods and services, both market and non-market (sold free of charge or at prices that do not have economic significance and do not have a significant impact on demand).

To the borders production also includes production household activities. It covers the production of all goods, whether they are sold or not, including agricultural products obtained from personal subsidiary plots, self-construction and various services sold to the outside, including trade, intermediary, etc. Services produced by household households for own consumption (domestic services) are not included in the production boundary, except for the imputed value of services provided in connection with the owners living in their own dwellings.

To the borders production is also included covert and informal production. The concept of hidden production in Russian statistics includes economic activities that are permitted by law, but hidden or downplayed in order to evade taxes and other obligations to the state.

Informal production refers to the production activities of unincorporated household enterprises that produce market products. In Russian statistics, informal production also includes the production by unincorporated household enterprises of products for own use.

Calculations of indicators of the hidden and informal economy are carried out on the basis of indirect information, the use of balance sheet and other specific methods and expert assessments. Adjustments for covert and informal activities are made for both GDP production figures and GDP composition measures in terms of income and expenditure. The total allowance for various types of hidden and informal activities and economic transactions not normally recorded has been between one-fifth and one-fourth of Russia's GDP in recent years.

Illegal (shadow) activity for the production of goods and services, such as the production and sale of drugs and weapons, are recommended to be included in the production boundary in accordance with the international SNA standard. However, in international practice results of economic activity not permitted by law, within the boundaries of production not included.

Grouping of economic units by institutional sectors

The SNA uses a grouping of economic units according to institutional sectors. Sector is a collection institutional units(i.e., economic entities that may, on their own behalf, hold assets, incur liabilities, engage in economic activities and transactions with other units), homogeneous in terms of functions performed and. The Russian SNA distinguishes the following sectors of the national economy: non-financial corporations; financial corporations; public administration ; non-profit organizations serving households; households. Relationships of sectors of the domestic economy with other countries are reflected in the accounts "rest of the world" (not developed at the regional level) , uniting all non-resident institutional units in the part in which they interact with residents of the national economy. Residents are enterprises, organizations and households that have a center of economic interest in the economic territory of the country for a long period (at least a year).

Regional indicators of the system of national accounts .

As part of the creation of the system of national accounts, the Federal State Statistics Service is developing a methodology and organizational solutions for building system of indicators for the development of the regional economy in accordance with the methodology of the SNA. These indicators do not repeat the national accounts indicators of the federal level, but are comparable with them and allow for regional analysis in accordance with the general direction of development of Russian macroeconomic statistics and international standards.

Final consumption expenditure of non-profit institutions serving households- expenses of public organizations (political parties, religious organizations, trade unions, public associations), in respect of which it is conventionally considered that they provide only individual goods and services. This also includes the value of non-market services provided by independent socio-cultural divisions of corporations and quasi-corporations to their employees. From the point of view of who benefits from final consumption expenditure, it can be defined as actual final consumption of goods and services. For households, it includes the final consumption of goods and services at the expense of household expenditures, as well as social transfers in kind, that is, free or subsidized individual goods and services received by households from the general government and non-profit organizations serving households. For public institutions, actual final consumption is equal to the cost of collective services, for non-profit organizations serving households, there is no actual final consumption. The total volume of final consumption expenditure and actual final consumption for the economy as a whole are equal.

Saving- the part of disposable income that is not spent on the final consumption of goods and services.

Gross capital formation includes gross fixed capital formation, changes in inventories and net acquisition of valuables.

Gross fixed capital formation represents the investment by resident units of funds in fixed assets to create new income in the future by using them in production. Gross fixed capital formation includes the following components: a) acquisition, net of disposals, of new and existing fixed assets; b) the cost of major improvements to the produced tangible assets; c) the cost of improving non-produced tangible assets; d) costs associated with the transfer of ownership of non-produced assets.

Change in inventories includes changes in inventories, work in progress, finished products and goods for resale. The change in the value of inventories during a given period is calculated as the difference between the value of inventories at the end and at the beginning of the period, valued at average annual market prices to eliminate the effect of price changes.

Net acquisition of value- the cost of acquisition less the cost of disposal of assets acquired as a store of value: precious metals and stones, antiques, collections and other works of art.

Valuation principles

Accounting for economic transactions in the system of national accounts is carried out in prices at the time of their completion (in current prices).

GDP is estimated in current market prices(in the prices of the final buyer).

The final buyer price includes trade and transport margins, taxes on products and does not include subsidies on products.

To eliminate the impact of different rates of taxes and subsidies in various sectors of the economy on the structure of production and income generation, sectoral indicators are given in the assessment at basic prices.

Basic price - the price received by the producer for a unit of a good or service, excluding taxes on products, but including subsidies on products.

Non-market goods and services are valued using the market price for similar goods and services sold on the market, if it can be established, or at the cost of production, if there is no market price. In particular, the costs of production evaluate the services of the state administration and non-profit organizations serving households.

Valuation at comparable prices is carried out both in terms of the production of gross domestic product and its use, at the regional level, only in terms of the produced GRP.

The revaluation of GDP production indicators in comparable prices is carried out by deflation(revaluation of output and intermediate consumption of industries according to the corresponding price indices) or by the method extrapolation the basic level of added value of the industry with the help of quantitative indicators that adequately reflect the dynamics of the development of production in this industry.

Real Volume Indices GDP and its components to the corresponding period of the previous year are calculated as the quotient of dividing the indicator of the reporting period in prices of the previous year by the same indicator of the corresponding period of the previous year in prices of the previous year.

William (William) Petty (1623-1687). founder of English classical political economy. "Labor is the father of wealth, and land is its mother."

KING GREGORY () demographer and national income statistician (economic statistician)

1) STONE, Richard (1913-1991), British economist, awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1984 in recognition of his "pioneering work" and "his significant contribution to the development of economic science", honorary degrees from the Universities of Oslo , Brussels, Geneva, Warwick, Paris and Bristol, is considered the founder of the system of national accounts.

- a system of interrelated indicators used to describe and analyze macroeconomic processes in more than 150 countries with a market economy. The SNA arose in the most economically developed countries in connection with the need for information necessary for the practical adoption of measures to regulate the market economy and the formation of economic policy.

SYSTEM OF NATIONAL ACCOUNTS(SNA) is a system of interrelated statistical indicators presented in the form of tables and accounts that characterize the results of a country's economic activity.

The formation of market relations in Russia required the introduction of a system of indicators that could most fully and objectively characterize the results of the functioning of a market economy. First of all, this concerned macroeconomic indicators, i.e., indicators that characterize the most important results and proportions of the national economy. This necessitated the transition domestic statistics to the unified methodology recommended by the UN and other international organizations, based on national accounting, accepted in international practice, i.e. system of national accounts.

The unity of statistical methodology ensures the comparability of economic indicators of all countries, their reducibility at the world level, the determination of the place and role of the national economy in the world economy, and contributes to the reliability of international comparisons.

The information provided by the SNA is the basis for the formation and implementation of state policy aimed at optimizing economic processes, i.e. for making managerial decisions.

The consumers of SNA data, in addition to government bodies, are also scientific and analytical centers involved in the study and forecasting of economic and political processes, representatives of large businesses whose participation in the investment process depends on the economic situation, various socio-political organizations that need to get a comprehensive understanding of the social - the economic situation of the country.

Of considerable interest are the indicators calculated on the basis of the SNA for various international organizations, since the level of economic development of the country depends on the forms of international cooperation, the size and terms of loans provided to it, the amount of contributions to international organizations, etc.

The essence of the SNA is the formation of a system of generalizing macroeconomic indicators that are interrelated and characterize the development of the economy at various stages of reproduction. Each stage of reproduction (production, primary distribution of income, secondary distribution of income, use of disposable income for final consumption and accumulation) corresponds to a special account or group of accounts. The assessment of the final results of activity is carried out at the level of each economic entity, in the context of sectors and branches of the economy, as well as the economy as a whole. Accounts that reflect the economy as a whole are called consolidated.

Basic concepts, categories and structure of the SNA

Institutional units- these are economic entities that have autonomy in making economic decisions on all issues of economic activity.

Exist two types of institutional units :

• legal entities - enterprises, corporations, quasi-corporations (units similar to corporations, but not formally having the status of a corporation), government agencies, banks and insurance companies, public organizations and etc.;
• households (which are considered as institutional units because they independently make economic decisions that determine their behavior).

Institutional units associated with the economic territory of a country by economic interest for a relatively long period (usually a year or more) are residents of the country.

Economic territory - it is a territory administered by the government of a country within which persons, goods and money circulate freely.

In practice, all legal entities operating on its territory are residents of the country, regardless of whether they are controlled by foreign capital or not.

The concept of a resident is not related to the concept of nationality or citizenship.

National the economy covers the activities of residents, regardless of their location (in the territory of a given country or outside it).

For example, construction crews working temporarily in other countries are treated as residents of the country from which they came.

Internal The economy takes into account the activities in the economic territory of the country, both residents and non-residents.

Construction of production accounts based on the following information about the economic performance of the country for the year:

1. Output of goods and services at basic prices;
2. intermediate consumption;
3. Taxes on products and imports;
4. Subsidies for products and imports (-);
5. wages of employees;
6. Production and import taxes;
7. Subsidies for production and imports (-);
8. Property income received from the "rest of the world";
9. Property income transferred to the "rest of the world";
10. Current transfers received from the "rest of the world";
11. Current transfers transferred to the "rest of the world";
12. Final consumption expenditures;
13. Gross saving;
14. Gross capital formation;
15. Import of goods and services;
16. Export of goods and services;
17. Statistical discrepancy;
18. Gross fixed capital formation;
19. Change in inventories;
20. Capital transfers received from the "rest of the world";
21. Capital transfers transferred to the "rest of the world", etc.

The stage of production of goods and services is characterized by the following indicators:

• gross output (BB);
• intermediate consumption (IP);
• gross value added (GVA);
• gross domestic product (GDP).

Gross output - this is the total value of all goods and services produced by residents in the period under review, which have a market and non-market nature.

The calculation of VV in each industry has its own specifics.

Goods and services are valued at basic prices, so BB is calculated at basic prices.

Where output is valued at producer prices, the following adjustment is necessary to obtain data at basic prices:

output (at producer prices) - taxes on products included in producer prices - subsidies on products = output (at basic prices).

Gross domestic product - the most important indicator of the SNA, which characterizes the cost of final goods and services at end-customer prices (in market prices) produced by residents of a given country for a given period of time. GDP is used to characterize the results of production, the level of economic development, economic growth rates, etc.

It should be noted a number of features of GDP:

• Firstly, it is an indicator that characterizes the total cost of final goods and services produced. The cost of products and services previously used in its production (raw materials, materials, fuel, energy, seeds, feed, freight transport services) wholesale trade, commercial and financial services, etc.) is not included in GDP for the second time, which excludes a second count. For example, the cost of coal is included in the cost of steel, but when determining the cost of a car, only the cost of steel is included;
• secondly, it is a domestic product, because it is produced by residents;
• thirdly, it is the gross product, because it is calculated before deducting the consumption of fixed capital, i.e., the consumed value of fixed capital is included in GDP.

To determine the results of economic activity of any economic entity, the amounts of income and expenses for a certain period of time reflected in its reporting are compared. The results of the comparison allow us to draw a conclusion about its economic condition and take the correct management decisions. For the country's economy, the same role is assigned to national accounting, which is the basis for analyzing the economic state of the country.

Purpose of national accounting- to give quantitative information about the production, distribution and use of the social product as an aggregate indicator of the economic results of the country's national economy.

To analyze complex macroeconomic relationships, a system of complementary indicators is needed, because the quality of management depends on the degree of reliability and efficiency of information flows.

System of National Accounts- a set of basic macroeconomic indicators that characterize the conditions, processes and results of the national production of goods and services.

F. Quesnay is considered the founder of national accounting: in 1758 he first developed a macroeconomic balance, in which social production was studied from the point of view of both the cost and natural-material content of the social product, and the main classes of society (production and non-production).

National accounting as a means of analyzing the economy has been used since the late 1930s. XX century, but as a means official statistics- after the end of the Second World War (in the USA, England, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway). The increasing internationalization of national economies, integration processes in the world economy have necessitated the creation of a universal international system of national accounting. In 1950, the Simplified Standard SNA was adopted by the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (EEC). Three versions of the SNA were adopted in turn within the framework of the UN (1952-1953, 1968, 1993).

In the modern SNA The following key innovations stand out:

· breakdown of indicators by sectors of the economy;

· allocation of the financial sector and flows of financial assets;

introduction of property balances.

Since February 1993, a new improved standard has been in force, taking into account the characteristics of countries transitioning to a market economy.

In modern conditions, the SNA is an international standard for assessing the main economic indicators of countries for their comparative analysis.

The value of the SNA and its use in economic practice:

1) widespread use by the government and territorial authorities in the development of economic policy measures, models and forecasts;

2) use by large companies to analyze market conditions and make strategic decisions;

3) use as information base scientific research to develop recommendations to the government;

4) use by international organizations that determine the quotas of countries in their financing.

There are a number of methodological principles for constructing the SNA:

All factors of production (labor, capital, land, entrepreneurial ability) are sources of value creation;

The sphere of production is an activity for the production of economic benefits (goods and services), in which all sectors are equivalent (tangible and intangible production);

· the main indicators are of a balance character and reflect the process of value creation and movement;

· at the heart of balance constructions are groupings and classifications from the standpoint of individual objects and business entities;

· breakdown of the economy into sectors;

· use of accounting principles (system of accounts and correspondence of transactions, double entry, balance of assets and liabilities).

Added value- this is the value created by an economic unit (enterprise), which includes the costs of producing a product (wages, depreciation, other costs) and profit. The cost of consumed raw materials and materials purchased from suppliers (material costs) and payment for work, services from the outside, in the creation of which the given enterprise did not participate, are not included in the value added. Hence, added value - this is the gross output of the enterprise in market prices minus material costs. In the macroeconomic sense, this is the value created (added) at each intermediate stage of processing the country's gross product.

The national economy consists of a set of resident institutional units, which are the primary units of account in the SNA.

Institutional unit- an independent business entity, which is a legal entity and has a complete set of financial statements.

Residents(from lat. residens, residentis - sitting, remaining in place) - these are economic entities registered in a given country (individuals and legal entities) and engaged in economic activities on economic territory of this country, including enterprises with foreign investments, branches of foreign firms, etc., established in accordance with the legislation of this country.

Legal entities or individuals are considered residents of a given country if the center of their economic interests is connected with the economic territory of the country. This concept does not include persons who come to the country for a short period (less than a year) - tourists, artists, seasonal workers, etc. Employees of diplomatic missions and military personnel of other countries are also excluded. In general, the criteria for referring to the residents of the country are the permanence of the place of residence, location, place of management, place of registration.

If an economic entity does not have all the characteristics of an institutional unit, then additional criteria are used to identify it:

a) households do not maintain a complete set of accounts, but always manage their own resources, so they are considered institutional units;

b) units, other than households, that do not maintain a complete set of accounts (do not have an independent balance sheet) are those institutional units where their accounts are an integral part;

c) units that maintain a complete set of accounts but are not legal entities, refer to those institutional units that control them.

The set of institutional units with homogeneous production is called industry .

The industry breakdown is as follows:

1) industry;

2) construction;

3) agriculture, forestry, fisheries;

4) transport and communications;

5) trade, procurement, logistics and marketing;

6) other shaken material production;

7) branches of the sphere of non-material production.

In addition to the main industries, in accordance with the international classification, there are more than a hundred sub-sectors. But in the SNA, the focus is not on grouping by industry, but by sector.

A more enlarged grouping of the economy by sectors is central in the statistical model of the market economy. It is carried out in order to study the flow of income and expenses, changes in assets and liabilities in an institutional unit.

Institutional units are grouped according to sectors economy by functions performed, i.e. according to the type of economic behavior. The SNA distinguishes five domestic economic and one foreign economic sectors:

1. Sector of non-financial institutions

It includes business entities of a corporate nature (or similar to them) that produce goods and non-financial services with the aim of selling them on the market at prices that reimburse production costs.

2. Financial institutions sector

It includes banks, insurance companies, investment funds and other financial institutions whose main function is financial intermediation. Most of them reimburse their costs at the expense of the difference between the interest received for the provided financial resources and the interest paid for their attraction (margin).

3. Sector of government institutions (public administration)

It is formed at the expense of budgetary state institutional units, the main function of which is the redistribution of income and wealth and the provision of non-market services to society as a whole and to individual groups and individuals. These units are mainly characterized by budget financing, partly from income from their property.

4. Sector of non-profit institutions serving households

This includes public, political, trade union, religious organizations, the main function of which is to provide non-market services to the participants of these organizations. They are financed by contributions, donations, income from their property.

5. Household sector

This includes the population as the institutional units that lead the household, i.e. consumer activities. This sector includes small non-cooperative enterprises owned by households - small firms, small shops, etc., as well as self-employed persons. Their costs are covered by wages, property income, redistributive income, proceeds from the sale of their products.

6. Rest of the world

It reflects foreign economic relations and financial relationships with foreign institutional units to the extent that they carry out transactions with residents of this country.

Operation- this is the creation, movement or consumption (creation with a "-" sign) of goods, services, rights.

Unlike the grouping of economic entities, the grouping of economic transactions is carried out on the basis of a single criterion, i.e. they are grouped equally by industry and sector.

In general, they are divided into three groups:

1) transactions with goods and services;

2) distribution operations;

3) financial transactions.

Operations with goods and services and characterize their origin (domestically produced or imported) and use (intermediate and final consumption, exports, investments) during the period.

Distribution operations are divided into two types:

Distribution of income - operations related to the payment of wages, dividends, taxes, insurance and social payments;

Transfer of capital - operations to transfer the right to own registered securities, transfers (transfers) of currency and gold between countries.

Financial operations reflect changes in assets and liabilities associated with the movement of cash and various types of debt.

The economic transactions of institutional units are combined into accounts.

National accounts- these are balance constructions in the form of a system of interrelated indicators characterizing the production, distribution, redistribution and use of the final product and income in the economy. The SNA is a set of interrelated tables compiled in the form of accounts, acting as a way to streamline information about the national economy of the country.

In accordance with the principle of double entry, each economic transaction is reflected in the sets twice: in resources (debit) and in use (credit). The set of bilateral accounts forms a balance sheet. There are 10 accounts according to international standards.

In Ukraine, six accounts are currently used:

1) goods and services account- displays the process of formation of resources, products and services due to their production and import and their use for final consumption, accumulation, export;

2) production account- reflects the operations related to the production process. At the same time, production activity covers the activities of enterprises, organizations and individuals both in the field of material production and in the field of non-material services;

3) income generation account- distribution operations are reflected that are directly related to the production process, which lead to the formation of the primary income of its participants: wages, net taxes on production, gross profit of enterprises and mixed incomes of the population;

4) income distribution account- reflects the total amount of income received and transferred by economic units as a result of production activities, from property, as well as as a result of redistribution processes. In the new UN SNA, this account is divided into two accounts: appropriation of primary income And secondary distribution of income;

5) disposable income account- reflects the final consumption expenditure of households, government agencies and non-government non-profit (public) organizations, and the remaining part of disposable income, which is gross saving;

6) capital cost account- shows the formation of resources for capital expenditures and their use for the accumulation of fixed assets and material working capital, the acquisition of land and intangible assets. The difference between the sum of resources and use characterizes the final financial result of economic activity in a given period.

The relationship diagram of the most important indicators of the SNA (see Table 1) is given for the macro level and each sector of macroeconomics. In this scheme, there is no account of goods and services, since it is not a "cross-cutting", i.e. is not compiled simultaneously for the national economy as a whole and its individual sectors.

The balance of the final financial result of economic activity (net loans and net debts) should, in principle, be equal to the balance of changes in financial assets and liabilities of the balancing indicator of the financial account, which characterizes the change in financial assets and liabilities by their types and allows us to analyze structural changes in the financial condition of the country or the sector of the national economy.

Table 1

Formation of national accounts

For each sector and for the economy as a whole, special accounts are built: for each sector - 9 accounts (except for the "Rest of the World" sector - 2 accounts), for the entire economy - 6 accounts.

Institutional sector accounts(except for the Rest of the World sector):

1. Opening balance;

2. Production report;

3. Income generation account (exploitation account);

4. Income distribution account (income account);

5. Income use account;

6. Capital account (accumulation account);

7. Financial account;

8. Account of changes in the value of property;

9. Closing balance.

Rest of the World Sector Accounts:

1. Account of non-financial transactions;

2. Account of financial transactions.

Accounts for the country's economy as a whole:

1. Opening balance;

2. Account of goods, services and production;

3. Income and consumption account;

4. Accumulation account;

5. Account of value creation outside of production (revaluation account);

6. Concealing balance.

The accounts of all sectors are combined into consolidated national accounts.

The structure of the SNA includes the input-output table (intersectoral balance), introduced into macroeconomic analysis by the American economist Wassily Leontiev (1958).