Australian System of National Accounts: Concepts, Sources and Methods

The Concepts, Sources and Methods (CSM) manual is a guide to the Australian System of National Accounts (ASNA), which measures, classifies and aggregates economic transactions. The CSM manual:

• outlines the major concepts and definitions used in the ASNA
• describes the data sources and methods used to prepare estimates for the National Accounts
• discusses the accuracy and reliability of those estimates.

The manual is designed for:

• intensive users such as economic and financial analysts
• less intensive users looking to gain a better understanding of the National Accounts or the Australian economy in general.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the highest profile estimate in the ASNA. Other components include:

• balance sheets
• productivity estimates
• reconciliation accounts
• supply-use (S-U) tables
• input-output (I-O) tables
• satellite and thematic accounts
• national, state and territory estimates
• a full set of flow accounts (income, capital and financial).

The current manual is the eighth edition of Australian System of National Accounts: Concepts, Sources and Methods. The chapters released in this edition have been updated to reflect changes to the sources and methods used to compile the ASNA since the release of the seventh edition.

This manual is consistent with the following ABS publications:

• Australian System of National Accounts (annual)
• Australian National Accounts: State Accounts (annual)
• Australian National Accounts: Finance and Wealth (quarterly)
• Australian National Accounts: Tourism Satellite Account (annual)
• Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product (quarterly)
• Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia (quarterly)

This manual is also consistent with the following thematic accounts: 

• Tourism Satellite Account, (annual)
• Australian Defence Industry Account, experimental estimates (annual)

The first edition of this manual was published in July 2012 . Its release was timed to reflect implementation of the following standards and classifications in the ASNA:

• System of National Accounts 2008 (2008 SNA)
• Sixth Edition of the IMF’s Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6)
• 2006 Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC06).

The second edition was published in September 2012. It included a new chapter on the concepts, sources and methods that underpin the Australian input-output tables.

The third edition was published in December 2012. It included five additional chapters covering:

• state accounts
• analytical measures
• productivity measures
• the quality of the national accounts
• satellite accounts (including environmental-economic accounts).

The fourth (December 2013), fifth (January 2015), sixth (March 2015) and seventh (July 2021) editions reflected changes to the sources and methods used to compile the Australian System of National Accounts. None of these editions included new chapters.

These editions were released in a portable document format (pdf) before the ABS launched a web-based version of this publication in 2022. There have been two updates to this edition since its release more than three years ago. They are discussed in the next section.

Grace Kim

Program Manager, National Accounts

In 2024, the ABS embarked on a program to update the web-based version of this manual on a more frequent basis. This strategy ensures that users have access to the most up-to-date concepts, data sources and methods used to compile the National Accounts.

The specific details of content changes for Edition 8 are provided below.