Danish GDP and GNI, Sources and methods 2012

The publication describes in detail the sources and methods used for the compilation of gross domestic product, GDP, and gross national income, GNI. It replaces the previous documentation “Danish National Accounts – Sources and Methods 2003” from 2007. With the new documentation the description of sources and methods is brought up to date and reflects the current compilation methods, international guidelines (ESA2010) and classifications. The publication follows a common structure used by all EU member states and is available in English only.

The documentation uses 2012 as a reference year, but the descriptions relate to the sources and methods generally used in the compilation of final GDP.

Final GDP is compiled at the most detailed level using all available relevant sources for describing the economic activity within the national accounts framework. Examples are account statistics for private enterprises, government finance statistics, household budget survey and foreign trade statistics. In order to fit all this information into one figure – GDP – an extensive amount of adjustment must be made. Also, confronting data at the detailed level reveals inconsistencies in the sources that must be overcome. In the Danish national accounts this confrontation of data takes place in the Supply-use tables which contains 2 350 products and 117 industries.

As a supplement to the description in the publication, the process from primary statistics to final GDP is also presented in a schematic form – the so-called process tables.