While the national income and GNP, state budget and balance of payments accounts record cash and material resource flows, the cash accounts are inventory accounts. Thus, the SNA accounts may reflect:
Flows, which determine the activities of a given institutional unit for a certain period of time. Flows are carried out through operations and can also be financial and non-financial; Stocks, which characterize the residual value of an indicator at a given time.
Within the framework of the SNA, macroeconomic accounts are compiled, which can be divided into three groups:
current accounts reflect the value of the volume of production of goods and services, the creation of income, its distribution, redistribution and use for consumption or saving; savings accounts reflect the acquisition and sale of financial and non-financial assets and liabilities by institutional units; balance sheet accounts show the value of assets and liabilities at the beginning and at the end of the reporting period.
Each of the accounts determines the most important macroeconomic indicator, which is its balancing item (Table 1).
Table 1 Resource requirements by component
Macroeconomic accounts in the SNA
Account group | Account Names | Indicator to be determined (balancing item) |
Current Accounts | Production account | Gross/net domestic product of the economy as a whole, gross/net value added in industries |
Revenue Creation and Placement Account | Payments to the employed, taxes on production and imports (net of subsidies), reserve capital, interest and dividends, gross (net) national income | |
Income Distribution Account | Taxes on income and property, current remittances, gross (net) disposable income | |
Revenue Usage Account | Consumption, savings, current account balance | |
Savings accounts | Capital Account | Gross capital investments, capital transfers, changes in inventories, provision and receipt of loans |
Financial Transactions Account | Net acquisitions of financial assets and liabilities | |
Other changes in assets account | Changes in assets as a result of unforeseen circumstances | |
Revaluation account | Gains and losses, changes in equity due to gains and losses | |
Balance accounts | Initial account | Non-financial and financial assets, liabilities and equity |
Intermediate account | Changes in equity reflected in savings accounts | |
Final account | Non-financial and financial assets, liabilities and equity |
Brief conclusions. So, the economy consists of four main sectors of economic activity – real, budgetary, monetary and external. The main relationships between sectors are most clearly defined through the System of National Accounts, a set of internationally accepted rules for the accounting of economic activity. The basis of accounting is institutional units (non-financial corporations, households, non-profit institutions, government agencies, financial corporations) that can own goods and assets, have economic liabilities and on their own behalf carry out transactions with other agents. Accounting for their activities records either flows that determine the activities of a given institutional unit for a certain period of time, or reserves that characterize the residual value of an indicator at a given time. The main macroeconomic indicators are recorded on current, savings or balance sheet accounts. As a result, all macroeconomic accounts are combined into an interrelated structure of cash flows, which with a certain degree of conditionality reflects the state and development of the country’s economy as a whole.