REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1161/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2005 on the compilation of quarterly non-financial accounts by institutional sector
Date: 2010-09-30
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU Member State, Economic and Monetary Union, Eurostat, data transmission, economic statistics, national accounts

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EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Brussels, 30.9.2010 
COM(2010) 535 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL 

on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1161/2005 of the European Parliament 
and of the Council of 6 July 2005 on the compilation of quarterly non-financial accounts 
by institutional sector 

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REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL 

concerning the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1161/2005 of the European 
Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2005 on the compilation of quarterly non-
financial accounts by institutional sector 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE 
COUNCIL on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1161/2005 of the European 
Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2005 on the compilation of quarterly non-financial 
accounts by institutional sector .................................................................................................. 1 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE 
COUNCIL concerning the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1161/2005 of the European 
Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2005 on the compilation of quarterly non-financial 
accounts by institutional sector .................................................................................................. 2 

1. 

2. 

2.1 

2.2 

2.3 

3. 

3.1 

3.2 

3.3 

3.4 

3.5 

4. 

4.1. 

4.2. 

Introduction .................................................................................................................. 3 

Compliance with reporting obligations........................................................................ 3 

The reporting obligations ............................................................................................. 3 

Compliance with reporting obligations........................................................................ 4 

Consistency with related datasets................................................................................. 5 

Quality of the statistics produced................................................................................. 5 

Relevance ..................................................................................................................... 6 

Accuracy ...................................................................................................................... 7 

Timeliness and punctuality .......................................................................................... 8 

Accessibility and clarity............................................................................................... 9 

Coherence and comparability....................................................................................... 9 

Benefits and potential improvements......................................................................... 12 

Benefits in relation to their costs................................................................................ 12 

Potential improvements.............................................................................................. 13 

Timeliness................................................................................................................................. 13 

Reliability ................................................................................................................................. 14 

Coverage .................................................................................................................................. 14 

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1. 

INTRODUCTION 

Regulation  (EC)  No  1161/2005  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  (hereafter 
referred to as “the QSA Regulation”) has set the legal framework for compiling quarterly non-
financial accounts by institutional sector ("QSA"). 

The compilation of QSA for the euro area had been identified as a priority in the Action Plan 
on Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) Statistical Requirements endorsed by the ECOFIN 
Council  in  September  2000.  The  QSA  of  the  euro  area  were  deemed  urgently  needed  and 
should be made available within 90 days of the end of the quarter concerned. 

Indeed,  as  stated  in  the  third  recital  of  the  QSA  Regulation,  the  analysis  of  cyclical 
movements in the European Union economy and the conduct of monetary policy within the 
EMU require macroeconomic statistics on the economic behaviour and the interrelationship of 
individual institutional sectors which are impossible to identify in data compiled at the level 
of the economy as a whole. 

This report covers the implementation of the QSA Regulation, as required by its Article 9:  

"Within  five  years  of  the  entry  into  force  of this  Regulation,  the  Commission  shall  submit  a 
report to the European Parliament and the Council on its implementation. In particular, this 
report shall: 

(a) 

provide information on the quality of the statistics produced; 

assess the benefits accruing to the Community, the Member States and the providers 

(b) 
and users of statistical information of the statistics produced in relation to their costs; 

identify  areas  for  potential  improvement  and  amendments  considered  necessary  in 

(c) 
light of the results obtained." 

The report provides information on these items according to the following structure: Section 
2; how Member States met their legal obligations; Section 3; the quality of the national and 
European  statistics  produced  and;  Section  4;  the  current  benefits  for  users  compared  to 
collection/compilation costs together with plans for future enhancement. 

2. 

COMPLIANCE WITH REPORTING OBLIGATIONS 

2.1 

The reporting obligations 

The  QSA  regulation  provides  for  the  transmission  of  a  limited  set  of  transactions  that  still 
cover the full sequence of non-financial accounts. For countries whose GDP is above 1% of 
the  European  total,  the  sector  breakdown  required  is  the  following:  Non-financial 
corporations (S11) / Financial corporations (S12) / Government (S13) / Households together 
with non-profit institutions serving households (S1M) / Rest of the World (S2). The reporting 

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obligations of the below-threshold countries are limited to the government and the Rest of the 
World sectors. 

QSA data had to be transmitted at the latest 95 days after the reference quarter, until August 
2008, and up to 90 days afterwards. Transmissions should include back data starting from the 
first quarter of 1999. 

Whereas  temporary  derogations  were  granted  to  some  Member  States  at  the  time  the  QSA 
regulation  was  adopted  and  by  subsequent  EU  enlargements,  all  of  them  have  now  expired 
and the QSA regulation applies to all EU Member States and, under the EEA agreement, to 
Norway and Iceland. 

2.2 

Compliance with reporting obligations 

Countries with full reporting obligations 

To  assess  whether  a  country  shall  transmit  a  complete  set  of  QSA  data,  the  Commission 
determines  its  GDP,  as  a  percentage  of  the  European  GDP,  on  the  basis  of  the  arithmetic 
mean of the latest three years' annual data (c.f. article 3.2 of the QSA Regulation). 

In  December  2009,  the  17  countries  with  full  reporting  obligations  were  the  following: 
Belgium (BE), the Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Ireland (IE), Greece 
(EL), Spain (ES), France (FR), Italy (IT), the Netherlands (NL), Austria (AT), Poland (PL), 
Portugal (PT), Finland (FI), Sweden (SE), the United Kingdom (UK) and Norway (NO). 

For the last delivery of 2009 (data up to 2009Q3), Member States broadly met the deadline of 
t+90 days (29 December). 

Most countries delivered the full datasets whereas NO, SE and PL delivered partial datasets 
with  NO  transmitting  only  data  for  the  households  sector.  However,  the  situation  has 
improved in the latest transmissions and Norway has announced it will transmit QSA data for 
all sectors before September 2010. 

Back series were missing for EL and ES (1999 data) and IE (1999-2001). This was generally 
due to missing Annual Sector Accounts that are being compiled and should be transmitted to 
Eurostat, together with the quarterly accounts, by September 2010. 

Countries with partial reporting obligations 

In  December  2009,  the  12  countries  with  partial  reporting  obligations  were  the  following: 
Bulgaria (BG), Estonia (EE), Cyprus (CY), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), 
Hungary (HU), Malta (MT), Romania (RO), Slovenia (SI), Slovakia (SK) and Iceland (IC). 

Among  Member  States  with  limited  reporting  obligations,  only  LU  has  not  transmitted  any 
data but has committed to do so by December 2010. RO transmitted full QSA on a voluntary 
basis, thus preparing for crossing the 1% threshold and becoming a full QSA reporter. 

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Timeliness requirements were broadly met whereas some countries failed delivering a limited 
number of transactions. 

2.3 

Consistency with related datasets 

Consistency  between  different  domains  of  macroeconomic statistics is required by the QSA 
Regulation.  As  stated  in  the  fourth  recital  of  the  QSA  Regulation:  "Production  of  these 
accounts is part of the overall aim to compile a system of annual and quarterly accounts for 
the  European  Union  and  for  the  euro  area.  The  system  includes  the  main  macroeconomic 
aggregates and the financial and non-financial accounts by institutional sector. The aim is to 
achieve  consistency  across  all  these  accounts  and,  with  regard  to  the  rest  of  the  world 
accounts, between the balance of payments and the national accounts data." 

Furthermore,  Article  5  of  the  QSA  regulation  requires  that  data  transmitted  by  the  Member 
States  for  the  purposes  of  this  regulation  are  consistent  with  the  quarterly  non-financial 
accounts  of  the  general  government,  quarterly  main  aggregates  of  the  total  economy  and 
corresponding  annual  data  transmitted  to  the  Commission  under  the  data  transmission 
programme of the ESA regulation1. 

Inconsistencies  are  generally  minor  except  with  BoP  data  where  they  may  be  sizeable  (see 
§3.5  for  details).  In  few  cases,  discrepancies  with  Quarterly  Main  Aggregates  (QNA)  and 
Annual  Sector  Accounts  (ASA)  have  been  noticed  in  the  past  but  they  have  decreased  to 
"minor" levels in latest transmissions. Further improvements are expected with the revision of 
the  ESA  transmission  programme  that  should  harmonize  the  release  and  revision  calendars 
across National Accounts tables and possibly BoP data. 

3. 

QUALITY OF THE STATISTICS PRODUCED 

One first way of assessing the quality of the statistics produced consists in documenting the 
sources  and  methods  used  by  the  Member  States  and  European  institutions  to  compile  the 
national  and  European  accounts.  This  inventory  has  been  completed  in  March  2010  and 
shared  among  compilers  with  a  view  to  exchange  and  foster  best  practices.  It  should  be 
released  on  Eurostat's  website  (http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/sectoraccounts)  by  the  end  of 
2010. 

The quality of the statistics produced has been assessed on the basis of the following criteria, 
as  set-up  in  Regulation  223/2009  of  11  March  2009  on  European  statistics2:  relevance, 
accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, coherence and comparability. 

1 
2 

Regulation (EC) N° 2223/96 
Published in OJ L87 of 31.3.2009 

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3.1 

Relevance  

Relevance  is  a  quality  aspect  that  characterises  how  well  a  statistical  product  meets  users' 
needs.  It  implies  the  identification  of  users  and  knowledge  of  their  needs  and  expectations. 
The third recital of the QSA Regulation specifies the main objectives of QSA production as 
follows: 

"The  analysis  of  cyclical  movements  in  the  European  Union  economy  and  the  conduct  of 
monetary policy within the EMU require macroeconomic statistics on the economic behaviour 
and the interrelationship of individual institutional sectors which are impossible to identify in 
data compiled at the level of the economy as a whole. There is, therefore, a need to produce 
quarterly accounts by institutional sector, for the European Union as a whole and for the euro 
area." 

Thus,  QSA  data  are  of  main  interest,  first  of  all,  for  institutional  users  as  the  ECB  and  DG 
ECFIN of the Commission, as well as for economic governance purposes.  

European accounts 

Eurostat  and  the  ECB  publish  a  full  set  of  quarterly  sector  accounts  for  the  euro  area  that 
includes  non-financial  accounts,  as  well  as  financial  accounts  and  balance  sheets.  Eurostat 
also publishes quarterly non-financial sector accounts for the European Union. 

Eurostat  issues  a  quarterly  news  release  with  a  focus  on  a  set  of  seasonally  adjusted  key 
indicators, for the euro area and the EU. These non-financial indicators, which are meant to 
illustrate the behaviour of non-financial corporations and households, are the following: 

–  Profit  share  of  non-financial  corporations  defined  as  gross  operating  surplus  divided  by 
gross  value  added.  This  profitability-type  indicator  shows  the  share  of  the  value  added 
created during the production process remunerating capital. 

–  Gross  investment  rate  of  non-financial  corporations  defined  as  gross  fixed  capital 
formation divided by gross value added. This ratio relates the investment of non-financial 
businesses  in  fixed  assets  (buildings,  machinery,  software,  major  improvements  to  fixed 
assets etc.) to the value added created during the production process. 

–  Gross  household  saving  rate  calculated  as  gross  saving  divided  by  gross  disposable 

income3. 

–  Gross  household  investment  rate  calculated  by  dividing  gross  fixed  capital  formation  of 

households by gross disposable income4. 

The ECB publishes a press release that covers both the quarterly financial and non-financial 
sector accounts of the euro area. ECB's press release analyses the annual percentage changes 

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After adjustment for the change in the net equity of households in pension funds reserves. 
Idem. 

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of  main  transactions  that  underpin  the  decisions  of  the  various  sectors  in  the  economy.  In 
addition,  it  produces  regularly  more  detailed  briefing  material  for  its  Executive  Board  and 
Governing  Council.  This  material  is  the  basis  for  a  comprehensive  analysis  of  quarterly 
developments in the euro area which is published in the Monthly Bulletin of the ECB. 

Country breakdown 

The  feedback  from  non-institutional  users  (bank  analysts,  consultants,  journalists,  etc.) 
confirms their great interest in short-term data by institutional sector. However, in addition to 
European aggregates, users require more information on individual countries. 

The  number  of  countries  releasing  QSA  data  beyond  the  government  and  rest  of  the  world 
sectors has increased over the latest years. In 2010, eight out of seventeen countries with full 
reporting obligations publish QSA data; either seasonally adjusted (FR, UK) or not (CZ, DK, 
ES,  NL,  PT  and  SE).  Four  additional  countries  (AT,  DE,  IT  and  NO)  disclose  selected 
indicators on  households and, in the case of IT, non-financial corporations.  Among the five 
remaining countries, one (BE) is considering the possible publication of these data in the near 
future. 

The  countries  concerned  generally  release  QSA  data  at  t+90  days  or  shortly  afterwards 
(maximum t+93 days for CZ, t+97 days for NL, by t+98 days for IT and between 90 and 100 
days for ES). 

At  European  level,  Eurostat  has  started  disseminating  country  data  for  each  of  the  above 
mentioned  key  indicators  and  their  underlying  components.  As  most  Member  States  do  not 
yet compile seasonally adjusted QSA, these indicators are published as four quarter cumulated 
sums. 

3.2 

Accuracy 

As  mentioned  in  Regulation  223/2009  on  European statistics, the latter  must  accurately  and 
reliably  portray  reality.  The  accuracy  and  reliability  of  statistics  depend  on  many  variables. 
One  important  factor  in  this  respect  is  the  extent  to  which  direct  data  sources  are  used 
compared  to  indirect  methods  based  on  past  trends  and  model  assumptions.  National  QSA 
production relies to a large extent on three statistical input sources, namely the quarterly main 
aggregates for the total economy, the quarterly general government accounts and the quarterly 
balance  of  payments.  These  are  supplemented  with  administrative  data  sources  (e.g.  tax 
records,  other  information  from  industry  supervisory  authorities),  which  normally  contain 
direct  data  that  could  be  used  as  indicators  of  the  short-term  developments  of  particular 
sector/transactions. 

Fairly good infra-annual statistical information exists with respect to the activities of financial 
corporations (profit and loss accounts, detailed balance sheets information with breakdown by 
counterparts,  interest  rates  statistics,  quarterly  financial  accounts),  which  is  used  by  many 
countries in the QSA compilation process. These sources primarily cover monetary financial 

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institutions,  investment  funds  and,  to  a  lesser  extent,  insurance  corporations  and  pension 
funds. In many cases, data of official supervisory agencies, industry business associations and 
stock exchanges are also used. 

However, only a few countries (e.g. CZ and UK, NL for the non-financial corporations sector) 
reporting  full  QSA  data  use  direct  source  data  to  support  the  compilation  of  individual 
estimates  for  the  household  and  non-financial  corporations  sectors,  for  the  production  and 
generation of income accounts in particular. 

The majority of the other countries make extensive use of indirect methods employing annual 
data as the benchmark and quarterly indicators to capture short term movements including the 
seasonal component. In these cases, the quality of QSA depends directly on the accuracy of 
ASA.  Although  annual  accounts  are  based  on  a  broader  range  of  sources,  income  flows 
between corporations and households are not always well captured, leading to e.g. implausible 
household  saving  rates  or  business  profit  shares.  The  annual  key  indicators  published  by 
Eurostat  have  proven  to  be  an  efficient  tool  to  detect  such  implausible  levels  /  movements 
which are then investigated with the country concerned (See §3.5 below – "comparability"). 
Finally, in some cases, countries use pure model based estimates which are not supported by 
direct or indirect quarterly information. However, these (model based) methods are generally 
restricted to transactions that play a minor role in the accounts. 

3.3 

Timeliness and punctuality 

European statistics must be disseminated in a timely manner, in particular when they are used 
for  economic  policy  purposes.  This  is  the  case  for  European  QSA  that  include  relevant 
information  for  the  conduct  of  the  monetary  policy  within  the  euro  area  and  for  the 
coordination of budgetary policies within the EU. Since mid-2007, European QSA have been 
punctually published, within 120 days after the reference quarter. 

The periodicity of European statistics should take into account user requirements as much as 
possible.  There  is  a  strong  demand  from  the  institutional  users  to  speed  up  the  compilation 
and dissemination of QSA data to enable its usage as a timely input for the decision-making. 
The current dissemination date of t+120 days still falls short of the t+90 days target set by the 
ECOFIN Council in September 2000. In particular, this better timeliness is necessary to meet 
the  needs  of  the  Governing  Council  of  the  ECB  that  decides  on  the  monetary  policy  of  the 
euro area. However, better timeliness for euro area accounts depends in the first instance on 
the  earlier  availability  of  input  data  such  as  quarterly  government  statistics,  Balance  of 
Payments and quarterly financial accounts (MUFA). 

As  an  intermediate  step,  the  validation  and  compilation  has  been  reduced  to  10  (calendar) 
days  after  the  transmission  of  national  QSA,  which  allows  the  internal  availability  of 
preliminary estimates for the euro area and EU non-financial accounts within 100 days after 
the reference quarter. 

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3.4 

Accessibility and clarity 

European statistics must be disseminated in a convenient manner and presented in a clear and 
understandable form. It should be available and accessible on impartial basis with supporting 
metadata and guidance. 

- Euro area/European aggregates 

Eurostat's release covers full QSA data series starting from 1999Q1 (non-seasonally adjusted) 
for the euro area and the EU as well as key indicators focusing on the behaviour of the non-
financial corporations and household sectors (both raw and seasonally adjusted) as described 
in section 3.1 above. 

Data  are  disseminated  via  different  channels:  press  release,  statistical  database  and  Eurostat 
website  section  dedicated  to  sector  accounts5.  That  dedicated  section  presents  integrated 
quarterly non-financial and financial sector accounts for the euro area and non-financial QSA 
for  EU  in  a  form  of  sequence  of  accounts  as  defined  in  ESA95.  This  format  helps  users  to 
understand and analyse the relationships between different sectors and transactions.  

Data  are  accompanied  with  methodological  information  on  European  QSA  compilation  and 
the ESA95 sequence of accounts. Moreover, the collection of QSA news  releases issued by 
Eurostat is provided together with an Excel file that includes the underlying data. Finally, a 
set of about 30 analytical charts and tables is updated every quarter so that users can easily 
relate changes in total economy with developments in each institutional sector. 

In  addition,  the  ECB  releases  a  detailed  press  release  on  the  integrated  euro  area  accounts 
(EAA),  it  makes  all  the  EAA  data  available  via  its  Statistical  Data  Warehouse  (SDW)6  and 
publishes main indicators in its Monthly Bulletin and Statistical Pocket Book. Methodological 
information is also available on its website. 

- Country breakdown 

Annual sector accounts are published by Eurostat for each country, next to and in the same 
ESA95  format  as  the  QSA  of  the  euro  area  and  of  the  EU.  In  addition,  the  quarterly  key 
indicators listed in section 3.1 have been published, in whole or in part, for all Member States 
that report full QSA except BE, EL, IE, and FI whose inclusion is planned in the near future.  

3.5 

Coherence and comparability 

Coherence 

Consistency  between  related  statistical  domains  is  defined  as  one  of  the  essential  quality 
aspects  of  statistical  output  (see  section  2.3  of  the  document).  In  the  case  of  QSA,  this 

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See at: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/sectoraccounts 

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concerns  annual  sector  accounts  (ASA),  main  aggregates  (QNA),  quarterly  non-financial 
accounts of government (STPFS), quarterly financial accounts (MUFA) and BoP statistics. 

QSA  have  generally  achieved  a  good  level  of  consistency  with  other  related  statistics,  in 
particular STPFS (except for UK) and QNA. 

Concerning  QSA/BoP  consistency,  some  countries  still  have  sizeable  discrepancies  due  to 
different  concepts  used  in  both  fields.  For  example,  in  National  Accounts  several  Member 
States use the national concept for trade in goods, excluding in particular quasi-transit trade, 
whereas they resort to the EU concept for BoP. 

Other QSA/BOP discrepancies stem from differences in the respective manuals Fifth edition 
of  the  Balance  of  Payments  manual  –  BPM5  and  European  System  of  Accounts  -  ESA95 
respectively).  These  concern  adjustment  for  Financial  Intermediation  Services  Indirectly 
Measured (FISIM) with respect to imports, exports and interest flows in National Accounts, 
and the different treatment of construction and government services and income from mutual 
funds.  These  conceptual  differences  are  expected  to  vanish  when  the  new  versions  of  the 
Manuals (BPM6 and ESA2008) are released. 

The outstanding reasons for inconsistencies are the following: 

–  different data requirements; 

–  different  timeliness  and/or  revision  policies  of  related  statistics  (so  called  vintage 

differences); 

–  institutional  arrangements  (different  data  sources  used  by  different  compiling  units; 

particularly relevant for BoP and financial accounts); 

–  asymmetrical recording of cross-border flows. 

Inconsistencies  due  to  different  data  requirements  may  be  caused  by  different  treatments  of 
the statistical discrepancy between the output and expenditure approaches of Gross Domestic 
Product.  Unlike  QNA  transmissions  where  the  statistical  discrepancy  can  be  separately 
reported, QSA are reported balanced across uses and resources. Therefore, the discrepancy on 
the output side is typically allocated to gross value added (B.1G), whereas the discrepancy on 
the expenditure side typically falls on changes in inventories/valuables (P.5N).  

Vintage  differences  may  occur  occasionally  at  some  periods  in  the  year  due  to  different 
annual data revision policies. In particular, ANA are generally updated on the basis of QNA 
and  become  available  at  t+3  months,  while  ASA  are  revised  between  t+6  and  t+9  months. 
QSA,  which  are  generally  benchmarked  on  ASA,  may  then  diverge  from  QNA  in  the 
meantime. Moreover, the annual public finance statistics (APFS) must be consistent with EDP 
notifications  made  at  t+3  and  t+9  months.  If  ASA  data  are  not  compiled  /  revised  at  these 

6 

See at: http://sdw.ecb.europa.eu  

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precise  moments  in  time,  this  may  create  discrepancies  between  the  QSA  that  are 
benchmarked on ASA and the STPFS/APFS data, in March and September especially. 

Vintage differences may also recur every quarter because of different timeliness requirements 
and/or  revision  policies  across  statistical  domains.  For  example,  QNA  are  available  at  t+70 
days  whereas  STPFS  and  QSA  are  transmitted  at  t+90,  making  use  of  the  additional 
information  available  between  t+70  and  t+90  days.  As  higher  priority  is  attributed  to  QSA 
alignment  with  STPFS,  this  triggers  vintage  differences  with  QNA  indicators  produced 
earlier. 

results 

institutional  arrangements  across  countries  often 

in 
Furthermore,  different 
differentiating  data  sources  and  methodological  approaches,  as  well  as  in  differentiating 
revision policies across statistical domains. This concerns, first of all, discrepancies with BoP 
and  MUFA  data  (apart  from  conceptual  and  vintage  differences  discussed  above).  In  most 
countries,  non-financial  accounts  including  RoW  are  estimated  by  National  Statistical 
Institutes (NSI), whereas National  Central Banks (NCB’s) are typically responsible for BoP 
and  financial  accounts.  Reconciliation  of  data  sources  used  by  the  different  institutions, 
mutual agreements on the level of detail required in the input data, regular communication on 
methodological  issues  between  NSI  and  NCB  are  of  utmost  importance  from  the  point  of 
view of statistical coherence. 

At European level, discrepancies do not only stem from the national inputs but also from the 
asymmetrical  recording  of  cross-border  flows  between  Member  States.  Theoretically,  intra-
flows  should  be  equal  on  the  uses  and  resources  sides  (e.g.  goods  exported  by  all  Member 
States within the Community should be equal to total imports). However, this is not the case 
in  practice  due  to  the  so-called  "asymmetries".  Adjustment  of  these  asymmetries  requires 
balancing European accounts which eventually leads to some differences with other national 
accounts  publications,  in  which  cross  border  flows  within  the  area  concerned  have  not  yet 
been removed. 

Comparability 

Comparability can be analysed from both the conceptual and the empirical perspectives. 

As stated in Article 4 of the QSA regulation, comparability is ensured on the conceptual side 
by using common standards, definitions, classifications and accounting rules as laid down in 
the ESA Regulation. 

The ESA Regulation defines in particular institutional units, sectors and the content of each 
individual  transaction  that  belongs  to  the  sequence  of  accounts.  To  foster  the  proper 
application of these standards, the QSA (and ASA) questionnaires have been designed in such 
a way that they only allow the transmission of the relevant sectors/transactions combinations. 
Moreover,  ESA  codes  and  accounting  rules  are  systematically  checked  by  Eurostat  upon 
receipt of QSA transmissions. 

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On  the  empirical  side,  comparability  over  time  is  verified  by  monitoring  revisions  over 
consecutive  transmissions  and  inquiring  of  Member  States  about  any  sudden  leap  in  key 
variables. 

The ESA Regulation also sets rules on the time of recording of transactions. These rules, that 
implement the accrual recording concept, are particularly important in the QSA context where 
all related transactions must be recorded simultaneously for all the counterparties. To check 
comparability  over  time  and  the  uniform  application  of  time  of  recording  rules  across 
countries, a list of economically meaningful charts is updated every quarter and submitted to 
QSA  compilers  for  peer  review.  This  allows  the  detection  of  implausible  quarterly  patterns 
that may point to an inconsistent recording of related flows.  

Comparability  over  space  is  monitored  by  making  cross-country  comparisons  of  ASA  key 
indicators such as the household saving rate in relation to household disposable income. 

4. 

BENEFITS AND POTENTIAL IMPROVEMENTS 

4.1. 

Benefits in relation to their costs 

Costs 

The  compilation  of  QSA  data  mainly  builds  upon  pre-existing  Annual Sector  Accounts  and 
quarterly data for the government and rest of the world sectors (BoP). 

These data are generally completed by the use of existing surveys or administrative data. In a 
few cases, additional surveys have been introduced to fulfil the requirements of the QSA. 

This is the case  for NL that surveys the 300 biggest firms of the  non-financial corporations 
sector,  covering  about  50  %  of  the  balance  sheet  total,  and  a  significant  proportion  of  units 
belonging  to  the  financial  corporations  sector7.  PT  and  FI  have  also  introduced  additional 
surveys with respect to the non-financial corporations sector. 

The  UK  case  is  very  specific  as  this  country  compiles  quarterly  sector  accounts  which  are 
then used to derive annual sector accounts. QSA are based on a number of quarterly surveys 
in particular, for households: the "wages and salaries" survey; for non-financial corporations: 
"the quarterly profits survey" and for financial corporations: a number of surveys run by Bank 
of England and, with respect to pension funds, insurance companies and trusts, by the Office 
for National Statistics (ONS).  

7 

Surveyed units cover 90% of the balance sheets totals for Monetary and Financial Institutions (35% of 
total S12); 100% for investment funds (1% of S12) and 85% for Insurance Corporations and Pension 
Funds (15% of S12).  

EN 

12 

   EN 

                                                 
The  compilation  of  QSA  data  for  the  households  and  corporations  sectors  also  required 
additional  staff.  The  additional  workload8  has  been  estimated  in  Full  Time  Equivalents  as 
follows: Eurostat (5), ECB (2.5), BE (0.6), CZ (1.5), DK (1), DE (1.5), IE (2), EL (0.3), ES 
(2), FR (1), IT (1.5), NL (3), AT (2), PL (1.5), PT (2), RO(2), FI (1), SE (2), NO (1). 

Benefits 

The  QSA  regulation  has  fostered  the  compilation,  in  Member  States,  of  quarterly  series  for 
the income side of the National Accounts. These data complete the quarterly series for output 
and  expenditure  that  were  already  collected  through  the  ESA  transmission  programme.  At 
European  level,  the  compilation  of  QSA  data  has  triggered  methodological  developments 
whilst leading to a wide range of new statistical products. 

On  the  methodological  side,  it  was  necessary  to  revisit  the  compilation  of  European 
aggregates  so  that  they  describe  the  euro  area  (EA)  /  EU  as  a  whole.  First,  the  QSA  of  the 
Member States have been completed by the accounts of EU institutions and the ECB. Second, 
the rest of the world account has been estimated on the basis of Extra-EA / EU BoP data as it 
should record flows vis-à-vis third countries only. Third, the accounts have been re-balanced 
so that domestic sectors match the re-estimated rest of the world account. 

The  publication  of  a  full  set  of  integrated  (non-financial  and  financial)  institutional  sector 
accounts for the euro area and non-financial sector accounts for the EU has been considered a 
major  success  by  compilers  and  institutional  users9.  As  set  in  the  project's  specifications, 
quarterly non-financial sector accounts now allow the analysis of the behaviour of economic 
agents  and  their  interactions  in  the  real  economy.  Combined  with  the  quarterly  financial 
accounts, a fuller picture emerges. 

4.2. 

Potential improvements 

Although  the  core  needs  expressed  in  the  Action  Plan  on  Economic  and  Monetary  Union 
(EMU) Statistical  Requirements endorsed by the ECOFIN Council  in  September 2000 have 
been met by QSA, some improvements can be proposed to extend their use further. 

Timeliness 

As a first priority, the Member States and Eurostat / ECB seek to improve the timeliness of 
euro  area  /  EU  accounts.  However,  as  referred  to  in  section  3.3  above,  better  timeliness  for 
euro area accounts depends on the earlier availability of input data.  

8 

9 

EN 

As UK compiles the Annual Sector Accounts (ASA) as the sum of QSAs, the QSA-specific workload 
cannot be estimated.  
See minutes of the 34th meeting of the CMFB, §6.1.4 at: http://www.cmfb.org/reports/meetings.htm and 
the 
at: 
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/sector_accounts/introduction.  

conference 

archives 

press 

2007 

June 

held 

the 

on 

of 

1 

13 

   EN 

                                                 
Under the ongoing revision of the revised ESA transmission programme, it is thus foreseen to 
shorten  the  deadlines  for  QSA  transmissions  to  allow  the  compilation/publication  of  euro 
area/EU accounts by t+90 days instead of t+120 days. 

Reliability 

Another source of possible improvement lies with better quarterly sources for the households 
and  non-financial  corporations  sectors.  In  some  cases,  countries  use  pure  model  based 
estimates which are not supported by direct or indirect quarterly information. It is important 
that the latter (model based) method is used only for transactions that play a minor role in the 
accounts. 

On  the  other  hand,  some  countries  have  already  started  collecting  direct  data,  e.g.  from 
company  accounts.  Ideally,  statistics  would  be  generated  as  a  by-product  of  the  regular 
accounting of enterprises, at least for listed companies and administrative data / payrolls for 
households. 

Eurostat  will  continue  monitoring  and  improving  the  quality  of  quarterly  sector  accounts 
through  systematic  data  checks  including  cross-country  comparisons.  It  will  also  foster  the 
spreading  of  best  compilation  practices  under  the  auspices  of  the  CMFB  task  force  on 
quarterly accounts by institutional sectors. 

Coverage 

As outlined in section 2.1 of the document, QSA data users regularly express their interest in 
national  QSA  data  availability.  Consequently,  publication  of  a  harmonised  set  of  national 
data, including seasonally adjusted figures, is one of the QSA development priorities for the 
near future. 

In the same vein, it would be extremely useful to extend the set of key indicators calculated in 
real terms. Such volume data on household and business investment would complete current 
publications  on  real  household  income  and  consumption.  A  country  breakdown  should  be 
possibly released at the same time as the corresponding European indicators. 

The provision of seasonally adjusted data in real terms, for a limited set of indicators, is under 
discussion in the context of the revision of the ESA transmission programme. 

EN 

14 

   EN