Australian National Accounts: State Accounts - Annual

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    NAME OF ORGANISATION
    Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

    OVERVIEW
    Australian National Accounts: State Accounts (ABS Cat No. 5220.0) contains annual income-based estimates of gross state product at factor cost and its principal components - compensation of employees and gross operating surplus (GOS) by industry. It also contains detailed State estimates of household income, farm income, household final consumption expenditure (HFCE) and private and public gross fixed capital formation; together with income and outlay, and capital accounts for public trading enterprises and general government by state, for state and local governments combined and for the Commonwealth government.

    PURPOSE
    State accounts are relevant when there are important differences between the economic and social development of various regions of a country.

    SCOPE
    Scope and coverage include all Australian resident units engaged in productive activity (as defined by the SNA).

    DATA DETAIL

    Conceptual framework
    National estimates are based on the concepts and conventions embodied in the System of National Accounts (SNA), but for regional estimates there is no separate international standard. Although the national concepts are generally applicable to state accounts, there remain several conceptual and measurement issues that either do not apply or are insignificant nationally. Most of the problems arise in the measurement of gross state product for the transport and communication industries, where production often takes place across state borders. In these cases, a number of conceptual views can be applied to the allocation of production to states.

    Main outputs
    Contents include:

    Gross State Product (GSP)

    • at constant prices
    • at constant prices per head of mean population
    • at market prices
    • at market prices per head of mean population
    • at factor cost by industry
    Household
    • household income
    • household income per head of mean population
    • household disposable income
    Detailed breakdown tables
    • agricultural income
    • household final consumption expenditure
    • private gross fixed capital formation

    Classifications
    Industry using the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Calssification (ANZSIC) divisions.
    Institutional sector (households, general government and public trading enterprises).
    Level of government (Commonwealth, State and local)

    Other concepts (summary)
    Conceptual Framework: The state accounts share the central concepts of the national accounts. Although the national concepts are generally applicable, there remain several conceptual and measurement issues that either do not apply or are insignificant nationally.

    The central concept in a national accounting system is economic production. Production is the process whereby labour, natural resources, accumulated capital assets and knowledge are applied to the provision of goods and services. The aim of the accounts is to cover the production of all goods and services which legally enter the market, and also that part of production which does not enter the market but for which it is possible to impute a value using closely related or analogous market transactions.

    Although illegal goods and services are purchased in the market, and should be regarded as part of production, no attempt has been made to include them in the national accounts because of the unavailability of adequate data. It is possible that some illegal activities may be included by default to the extent that moneys are laundered through legitimate activities. However, allowances are made to take account of the value of legal goods and services produced but not declared for income tax purposes.

    Most goods and services provided by general government bodies (as distinct from public enterprises such as government railways) are not normally sold but are nevertheless regarded as part of production. In practice, they are valued at a cost comprising the total of the wages and salaries paid to the employees of general government bodies and the cost of purchased goods and services used including an allowance for the consumption of fixed capital. Similar considerations apply to non-profit institutions - examples are clubs, trade unions, chambers of commerce and churches - whose costs are largely or wholly met by members and benefactors so that the goods and services produced need not be sold at a commercially determined price. As with general government bodies, the production of non-profit institutions is valued at cost in the national accounts.

    Imputations are made for some goods and services which are not sold in the market place and therefore are not amenable to direct measurement. Imputation is confined to a small number of cases where a reasonably satisfactory basis for the valuation of the implied transaction is available, and where their exclusion could result in distortions in the accounts.

    GEOGRAPHIC DETAIL
    Australia
    New South Wales
    Victoria
    Queensland
    South Australia
    Western Australia
    Tasmania
    Northern Territory
    ACT

    Comments and/or Other Regions
    All areas of Australia are within scope of national accounts series

    COLLECTION FREQUENCY
    Annually

    Frequency comments
    no comment

    COLLECTION HISTORY
    First release of annual state accounts in May 1987. Gross State Product (Income) data were published for the period 1977-78 to 1985-86 in the initial release of 5220.0.

    DATA AVAILABILITY
    Yes

    Data availability comments

    Data are available in electronic and paper format with a broader range of data being available electronically. Time series of data are available for a limited period in the paper release and over the full time series electronically. A complete listing of the data tables available in contained in the publication which is available through the ABS website.


    DATE OF LAST UPDATE FOR THIS DOCUMENT
    06/05/2016 11:47 AM