Statistical presentation

Data description

The National Accounts statistics adopt two ways of describing economic flows, a functional view presented in the national accounts and an institutional view presented in the sector accounts.

The economic transactions are described with special reference to product flows in the form of output, intermediate consumption, household consumption, non-profit institutions serving household consumption and government consumption expenditure, import and export of goods and services, gross fixed capital formation and changes in inventories. These flows are compiled in current prices as well as chained values. In addition, information is given on incomes generated in the form of wages and salaries and gross operating surplus plus information on employment. Information on the above-mentioned items is available at a disaggregated level. All quarterly series are available seasonal adjusted as well as non-seasonal adjusted. For more about the seasonal adjusted data see Chain-linking and seasonal adjustment of the quarterly national accounts.

The main aggregates from the Production account and Generation of income account are compiled for 13 industries plus a special item for the activities in general government (memorandum item). Figures on employment are also available at this level. Main aggregates refer to: output, intermediate consumption, gross value added, compensation of employees and gross operating surplus and mixed income. The two first-mentioned items are also compiled at chained values. In addition, information in current prices and chained values is for household consumption expenditure divided into 13 consumer groups and gross fixed capital formation divided into 7 types of investment products plus a special item for gross fixed capital formation in general government (memorandum item).

In the sector accounts the point of reference is the decision-making units. The decision-making units are split into the following sectors: Non-financial corporations, financial corporations, general government, households and non-profit institutions serving households. Transactions in products are an integral part of the sector accounts though the greatest importance is given to distributive transactions such as wages and salaries, property income, taxes and social contributions and benefits. The sector accounts are available in non-seasonal adjusted current prices only.

See documentation of statistics for employment, hours worked and compensation of employees in National Accounts for a description of National Accounts series concerning employment, hours worked and compensation of employees.

Classification system

Statistics Denmark's industrial classification DB07, which is a Danish version of the EU NACE, rev. 2. and the UN's ISIC, rev. 4, contains a number of standard classifications: the 127, 36, 19, and 10 classifications.

The quarterly national accounts classification of 13 industries corresponds - with few deviations - to the 10 standard classification. For this reason, national accounts figures can be compared to and used in connection with other statistics that are based on the DB07-standard classifications.

Internationally there is a high degree of comparability with the national accounts of other countries because the Danish national accounts are compiled in accordance with the definitions in the European System of National Accounts ESA2010.

Sector coverage

The entire economy.

Statistical concepts and definitions

Account Concepts: The national accounts are compiled in accordance with the definitions in the EU's "European System of National and Regional Accounts - ESA2010", which is a European version of the UN's "A System of National Accounts 2008". The main structure of the national accounts consists of a number of consolidated accounts for the economy as a whole which are called: Goods and services account, Production account, Generation of income, distribution of income and spending of income accounts, Capital account and Rest of the world account. The Goods and services account shows the value of the total supply of goods and services in the form of output and imports of goods and services. The supply is equivalent to the value of the total use of goods and services distributed between intermediate consumption, final consumption expenditure, gross fixed capital formation, changes in inventories and exports of goods and services. The central variable GDP - Gross Domestic Product - can be found in the Production account. The Generation of income, distribution of income and spending of income accounts show the incomes, which are a result of the Danish value added tax, to which these incomes accrue, and how they are used. The Capital account shows how gross savings have been spent on gross fixed capital formation and changes in inventories, resulting in net lending/net borrowing. This, in turn, corresponds to the balance in the Rest of the world account, which largely corresponds to the balance of the current account in the balance of payments. In the institutional system, the above mentioned accounts (except the Goods and services account) are divided into the following institutional sectors: Non-financial enterprises, Financial enterprises, Government services, Households, Non-profit Institutions serving Households (NPISH) and Rest of the world account.

Statistical unit

For the compilation of output, intermediate consumption, taxes linked to production and subsidies, wages and salaries, employment, fixed capital formation and depreciation, the statistical unit is the local kind-of-activity unit. For the compilation of distributive and financial transactions, which cannot be divided up unambiguously among the individual kind-of-activity units belonging to a decision making unit (enterprise), the unit is the larger institutional unit, which in most cases will be the same as the legal unit which is the enterprise.

Statistical population

All units generating Danish economic activity.

Reference area

Denmark.

Time coverage

Quarterly national accounts data from 1 quarter 1990 and quarterly sector accounts from 1 quarter 1999.

Base period

Chain volume indices are compiled with 2010 as reference year (chained values, 2010-prices), which can be used to calculate the real economic growth of the economy - i.e. inflation-adjusted growth. For more information see Chain-linking and seasonal adjustment of the quarterly national accounts.

Unit of measure

DKK million.

Reference period

The reference time for the economic flows of the quarterly national accounts is the quarter in which the economic activity occurs.

Frequency of dissemination

The quarterly national accounts are published eight times a year. The quarterly sector accounts are published four times a year.

Legal acts and other agreements

Council Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of May 21 2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union (ESA2010) (OJ L 174 26.06.2013, p. 1).

Cost and burden

No direct burden of respondents.

Comment

Francois Lequiller and Derek Blades (2014), Understanding national accounts: Second Edition, OECD publishing.