22 November 2022
Gross Domestic Product Update
The National Statistics Office
(NSO) will be carrying out an ad hoc revision in national accounts data. This
revision will be published on 29 November 2022 and will therefore coincide with
the publication of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the third quarter of 2022.
Ad hoc revisions result mostly
from the incorporation of new data sources to replace past estimates with more
robust figures, and methodological changes, which may cause more significant
changes than those carried out in routine revisions.
The main purpose of this ad hoc
revision is to refine national accounts data by including new data sources.
Such enhancements continue to improve the accuracy of national accounts data
and allow for better international data comparability. The ad hoc revision will
lead to revisions from the reference period 2017Q1 onwards.
As a result of these revisions,
annual GDP in nominal terms will increase, on average, by around 0.7 per cent
between 2017 and 2021. Revisions in nominal GDP will approximately range from
0.0 per cent in 2017 and 2018 to 2.1 per cent in 2021. With regard to growth
rates, nominal GDP growth will be revised by around 0.5 percentage points, on
average, between 2017 and 2021, with revisions ranging from -0.2 percentage
points in 2020 to 1.5 percentage points in 2021. These revisions in nominal GDP
growth should largely translate into revisions in GDP growth in volume terms since
revisions to the overall GDP deflator are expected to be minimal. These results
are, however, still preliminary.
The main enhancements that will be brought about
by this ad hoc revision are listed below:
·
The integration of the Supply and Use Tables
(SUT) of 2017. SUT are a valuable source of data and provide an integrated
framework for checking consistency and completeness of national accounts data.
They are matrices by product and industry which show how the supply of goods
and services through domestic production and imports are used for intermediate
consumption and final use (final consumption expenditure, gross capital
formation and exports).
·
The integration of the Structural Business
Statistics (SBS) survey results of 2018 and 2019. SBS are presented according
to the NACE activity classification and cover industry, construction and most services.
SBS cover a comprehensive set of variables describing business demography and
employment characteristics, as well as monetary variables including income and
expenditure related indicators, such as value added and investment.
·
The integration of the censuses of Aquaculture and
Tuna Farming of 2020 and 2021, which provide detailed statistics on the
structure, output and intermediate consumption registered by the aquaculture and
tuna farming industry.
·
The integration of the Economic Accounts for
Agriculture of 2021, which provide detailed information on output and
intermediate consumption of the agriculture industry.
·
The integration of the Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGO) survey of 2017. The information captured from this survey includes
the number of memberships, employees and volunteers, as well as area of
activities and financial information, amongst others.
·
The integration of the survey on internet
purchases covering 2021, which provides information on goods and services
purchased from abroad by residents aged 16 years and over.
·
New information on the Financial and insurance
activities, Education, Human health and social work activities, and Arts,
entertainment and recreation industries from updated administrative data
sources.
Further information can be made available upon
written request to: nso@gov.mt.