Relevance
The non-financial accounts by institutional sector provide a description of the different stages of the economic process: production, generation of income, distribution of income, redistribution of income, use of income and non-financial accumulation. The non-financial Annual Sector Accounts (ASA) record the economic flows of institutional sectors in order to illustrate their economic behaviour and interactions between them. They also provide a list of balancing items that have high analytical value in their own right: value added, operating surplus and mixed income, balance of primary incomes, disposable income, saving, net lending / net borrowing. All of them but net lending / net borrowing, can be expressed in gross or net terms, i.e. with and without consumption of fixed capital that accounts for the use and obsolescence of fixed assets.
Institutional sectors combine institutional units with broadly similar characteristics and behaviour: non-financial corporations (S.11), financial corporations (S.12), households (S.14), non-profit institutions serving households (NPISHs) (S.15), and the general government (S.13). Transactions carried out between resident institutional units and non-resident units are recorded in the ‘rest of the world’ account (S.2).
The ASA are compiled in accordance with the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010).
Methodological description
The compilation of ASA relies on the integration of various data sources, including surveys and censuses, administrative records, and extrapolations and models. The concepts, definitions and classifications are based on the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010). The statistical unit is the institutional unit, defined as an “elementary economic decision-making centre characterised by uniformity of behaviour and decision-making autonomy in the exercise of its principal function.”
Accuracy and reliability of data
The accuracy of National Accounts results is ensured through validation checks made to data sources during processing. The compilation process includes a system of checks, which ensure that uses equal resources, net lending and borrowing of the total economy (S.1) plus 2 equal zero, coherence between ASA and main aggregates internal files and transmission files, coherence between ASA and the general government accounts and other internal consistency checks.
Revisions and year-to-year changes, are analysed using a series of tables, showing the full time series since 1995, separately, for each sector. These tables are used to derive graphs for key indicators, separately, by sector and sometimes, across sectors. Year-to-year changes by sector, at NACE division level, are also analysed using graphs.
Timeliness and punctuality of data
ASA are compiled annually and transmitted to Eurostat at t+9 months following the end of a reference period as per the ESA 2010 transmission programme (TP). The ‘Annual non-financial accounts by institutional sector’ news release is published annually as scheduled in the Advance Release Calendar on the pre-established date, generally in October.
Accessibility and clarity of data
A complete set of ASA are published on the website of the NSO, as shown in this link: https://nso.gov.mt/national_accounts/ in October. The dataset is presented in a news release, which is available in electronic format, both in Maltese and in English. The dataset covers reference years 1995 to t-1.
The national publication is available by sector i.e. S.1, S.11, S.12, S.13, S.14, S.15, Households + Non-profit institution serving households (S.1M), and S.2. The ESA transaction codes are generally restricted to the aggregated level unless, more detail is required to derive the balancing items. The national publication also includes some key economic indicators which can be derived from ASA.
ASA are not available on the NSO’s Statistical Database (StatDB).
Coherence and comparability / consistency of data
For Member States whose Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at current prices is less than 1% of the corresponding Union total GDP, only data for S.1, S.13 and S.2 are compulsory for non-financial quarterly sector accounts. Thus, the derivation of non-financial ASA as a sum of QSA, is generally not possible in the Maltese context. However, every September, during dissemination, it is always ensured that non-financial ASA data are consistent with QSA data.
Consistency between the annual sector accounts and main aggregates of Table 1 of the ESA 2010 TP, is ensured, because relevant transactions from the main aggregates are transferred to the sector accounts production environment, without making further adjustments at macro level, in the sector accounts integration process.
Consistency between ASA and main aggregates general government of Table 2 of the ESA 2010 TP, is ensured, because quarterly and annual non-financial accounts for general government are integrated directly in ASA, without any modifications. Full consistency across the series, is only achieved in benchmark years. In between benchmark years, ASA are only updated for open years. This ensures consistency with main aggregates, but may create inconsistencies with general government, if back data for government finance statistics (GFS) are updated for closed years.
During August 2024, the NSO carried out a benchmark revision both in National Accounts data, for the reference period 1995 to 2024Q2, and in Balance of Payments (BoP) data, for the reference period 2017 to 2024Q2. This means that, National Accounts and BoP data, are not consistent for reference period 1995-2016. S.2 as provided in National Accounts, is consistent across the whole time series, whereas in the BoP domain, there is a break in series between 2016 and 2017. Inconsistencies between ASA and BoP may still arise between 2017 to date. BoP data are modified so as to align it with national accounts and GFS data. An effort is being made to ensure this consistency, in the near future.
