26 Total intermediate demand must add up to total<sup>intermediate purchases by</sup> firms. In general there is no good methodology<sup>to assign the portion of total</sup> supply that goes to intermediate demand<sup>(except when the characteristics of</sup> the good makes such assignment obvious). Again,<sup>there is heavy reliance on</sup> fixed coefficients ID/VP in those sectors or products<sup>where the assignment is</sup> not obvious. The fixed coefficients are known<sup>from the base year. Of course,</sup> applying fixed coefficients to most sectors would not produce in general a total intermediate demand equal to the total<sup>intermediate purchases of firms,</sup> **so** ad-hoc adjustments are necessary to produce<sup>such a match. In general</sup> however, because these coefficient are mostly<sup>determined by technological</sup> factors, this part will not produce too much<sup>deviation from actual figures.</sup> Besides, the aggregate intermediate demand<sup>must add up to aggregate</sup> intermediate purchases by firms, which means<sup>that at least at the aggregate</sup> level intermediate demand is "allegedly"<sup>well measured.'6</sup> From the discussion so far we can conclude<sup>that with the exception of</sup> fix gross capital formation, private consumption<sup>and stocks accumulations, all</sup> other measured demand components are relatively<sup>accurate measures of actual</sup> series (at least at the aggregate level).<sup>Indeed, the series of investment.</sup> private consumption and stock accumulations<sup>are Potentiallv the ones with more</sup> measurement errors.

Although looking at the good characteristics is often sufficient<sup>to</sup> differentiate between goods that should be assigned<sup>to investment or</sup> consumption, that is not enough to differentiate<sup>when a good goes to stock</sup> accumulation or is actually invested or consumed.<sup>In order to do that, we</sup> need to have good survey data on sales at<sup>the sector or company lovel. The</sup> difference between what is produced and what is sold<sup>is the stock accumulation</sup> in the case of domestically produced goods.

With the total supply of forei-gn goods we have a similar<sup>problem. The</sup> total of goods imported is the supply of foreign<sup>goods available, but we need</sup> to know the actual sales from commerce (distributors<sup>of imported goods) in</sup> order to differentiate between stock accumulation and actual consumption/investment.

Surveys on sales and stocks. therefore are<sup>the critical information</sup> needed to have a aood distribution between investment/consumotion<sup>and stocks</sup> accumulation. This leads to the issue of which<sup>data frequency is of better</sup> quality. Quarterly information is less accurate<sup>precisely because good-</sup> quality surveys on sales and stocks are not available at this<sup>frequency, and</sup> therefore the distribution between consumption,<sup>investment and stocks</sup> accumulation is more cumbersome. Even at the<sup>annual level this is a large</sup> problem, but presumably due to bettex surveys and<sup>monitoring at the year</sup> level, facilitated by the normal cycle of business<sup>reporting (balance sheets,</sup> tax payments, etc.), the annual data is better. Among<sup>the three noisy</sup> components (fixed investment, private consumption<sup>and stock accumulation),</sup> stock accumulation is likely to be the most<sup>noisy. The reason for that is</sup> that the lack of sales information normally<sup>require to use again fixed</sup> distribution coefficients from the base period.<sup>The coefficients are more</sup> likely to be stable or less variable for<sup>consumption and investment, and</sup> therefore stock accumulation is often the<sup>residual variable.</sup> In short, gross domestic product, exports,<sup>imports and government</sup> consumption are relatively well measured at<sup>the aggregate level. Thus, the</sup> summation of fixed investment, private consumption<sup>and stock accumulation is</sup> also accurate. However, the distribution<sup>of this summation among the three</sup> ' We say "allegedly" because it is not obvious that<sup>intermediate</sup> purchases by firms is well measured as discussed<sup>above. However, we suspect</sup> that the most substantive measurement errors are not due these<sup>series.</sup>