Part B - Transactions in non-financial assets

Transactions that increase a unit's holdings of a non-financial asset are called acquisitions of assets. Transactions that reduce a unit's holdings of a non-financial asset are called disposals of assets in GFS. Paragraph 8.3 of the IMF GFSM 2014 lists important types of transactions in non-financial assets as:

• Existing assets of all types - these can be acquired from or disposed to other units by purchase / sale, barter, or transfer in kind. 
• Newly produced non-financial produced assets, inventories, and valuables - these can be sold or otherwise disposed of by their producers in the same manner as existing assets, or the producers can retain them for their own use.
• Assets produced on own-account capital formation - these transactions involve goods and services produced by government units for their own use and are classified as acquisitions of non-financial produced assets.
• Renovations, reconstructions, or enlargements that significantly increase the productive capacity or extend the service life of an existing non-financial produced asset - these are classified as acquisitions of non-financial produced assets even though physically they function as part of the existing asset. Land improvements are a separate category of non-financial produced assets, distinct from the non-produced land asset.
• Depreciation - this is an internal transaction that records the decrease in the value of non-financial produced assets because they have been used repeatedly or continuously in production. See paragraphs 7.36 to 7.40 of this manual for further information on depreciation.
• Inventories acquired or disposed of through internal transactions as well as transactions with other units - for example, withdrawals from inventories of materials and supplies for use in the production of general government services and transfers of completed production from work-in-progress inventories to inventories of finished goods are internal transactions. Recurrent losses and spoilage of goods held in inventories are also treated as internal transactions.