Other parts of the accounting structure

2.70    2008 SNA states that the detailed analysis of production by industries and flows of goods and services by kind of products is an important part of the integrated central framework. A detailed analysis of production activities and product balances is made in the S-U tables presenting:

• the resources and uses of goods and services for each type of product;
• the production and generation of income accounts for each industry according to kind of economic activity; and
• data on factors of production (labour and fixed capital) used by industries.

2.71    S-U tables are a powerful tool to compare and contrast data from various sources and improve the coherence of the economic information system. They permit an analysis of markets and industries and allow productivity to be studied at this level of disaggregation. S-U tables show, for the economy as a whole and for groups of products, the total resources in terms of domestic output and imports, and the uses of goods and services in terms of intermediate consumption, final consumption, gross capital formation and exports. They also provide information on the generation of income from production.

2.72    The S-U tables reconcile how the supply of products (either by domestic production or imports) within the economy in an accounting period is used for intermediate consumption, final consumption, capital formation or exports. Once both sides are equal (i.e. supply = use) for all products, the S-U tables are said to be balanced. Balanced S-U tables provide the benchmarks for the annual current price and chain volume measure for GDP.

2.73    The ASNA includes symmetric I-O tables which provide a means of undertaking more detailed analysis of the process of production and the use of goods and services (products), and of the income generated by that production than is possible with S-U tables. 'Symmetric' means that the same classifications or units (e.g. the same groups of products) are used in both rows and columns.

2.74    The I-O tables serve two purposes: statistical and analytical. They provide a framework for checking the consistency of statistics on flows of goods and services obtained from different kinds of statistical sources, for example, industrial surveys, household expenditure data, investment surveys, foreign trade statistics, etc. They serve as a coordinating framework for economic statistics, both conceptually for ensuring the consistency of the definitions and classifications used, and as an accounting framework for ensuring the numerical consistency of data drawn from different sources. The I-O framework is also appropriate for calculating much of the economic data contained in the national accounts and detecting weaknesses. This is particularly important for the decomposition of the values of flows of goods and services into prices and volumes for the calculation of an integrated set of price and volume measures. As an analytical tool, I-O data are conveniently integrated into macroeconomic models in order to analyse the link between final demand and industrial output levels.

2.75    The symmetric I-O tables are derived out of the S-U tables. As the latter are data-oriented in nature, adjustments are required in the compilation of the former, particularly with respect to valuation, the treatment of imports, and classifications. The links between the I-O tables and the S-U tables are described in Chapter 22 Input-Output Tables.

2.76    In concept, the accounts show which sectors acquire which financial assets and incur which liabilities. In order to examine the workings of the financial sector, the financial account in ASNA distinguishes various subsectors within financial corporations and eleven categories of financial assets and liabilities.

2.77    Australian National Accounts: Finance and Wealth includes financial instrument market tables for the twelve financial instruments in a from-whom-to-whom framework with nineteen available counterparty sectors and subsectors. Each financial instrument is presented by issuing/accepting/borrowing sector/subsector by counterparty. Transactions and stocks between intra-sector/subsector are also presented for these tables; for example, authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs) deposits held by other ADIs. If required, the financial market tables would enable the ASNA to produce the flow-of-funds matrix as described in paragraph 2.150 of the 2008 SNA.