Chapter 21 State accounts

21.1    The state accounts are a geographic disaggregation into states and territories of the national accounts data presented in the ABS publications, Australian System of National Accounts, and Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product. Experimental accounts¹⁰⁷ were published in 1984, followed by the first official estimates three years later.¹⁰⁸ Those estimates are now published annually in Australian National Accounts: State Accounts.

21.2    The state accounts provide a picture of state and territory economies comparable to the three measures of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and other key national accounts concepts, such as household income and household consumption.

21.3    The key output of the state accounts is annual Gross State Product (GSP) which is directly comparable in concept to the national measure of Gross Domestic Product. The ABS does not produce quarterly GSP, but quarterly state final demand (SFD) is calculated. SFD is directly comparable to domestic final demand at the national level. It is a partial measure of GSP measured by the expenditure approach, in that this measure excludes both international and interstate trade, as well as changes in inventories. As such, the two measures should not be directly compared.

21.4    Throughout this chapter, the term 'state' refers to all states and territories of Australia.