coll. - Understanding National Accounts.

Today more than ever, national accounts remain at the core of a modern system of economic statistics. The global economic and financial crisis has further underlined the importance of a timely, reliable and comprehensive monitoring of economic activity and also pointed to directions for new developments and extensions in the accounts. National accounts provide the conceptual and actual tool to bring coherence to hundreds of statistical sources available in OECD countries. They deliver essential macro-economic indicators to guide policymaking.

The questions, however, are whether users are sufficiently aware of the richness of information contained in the national accounts and fully exploit their analytical and statistical potential. At the same time, how can we ensure that users fully grasp the complex concepts underpinning the national accounts, as well as their limitations? And what about issues around their international comparability? This second edition of Understanding National Accounts intends to provide answers to these questions, and to many more, in an easy and accessible, yet rigorous, way. It is an update of the previous edition published by the OECD in 2006, which was very well received by both people familiar with the world of economic statistics, and national accounts in particular, and non-specialist users. Indeed, at the time many readers wrote to the authors that for the first time, they had come across a book on national accounts that was easy to understand and not boring!

Since 2006, four key developments have occurred that have made an update of the previous edition a must. First, the financial crisis that hit OECD countries has highlighted the need to better explain how strong movements in economic activity are actually reflected in national accounts. Second, in 2008, the System of National Accounts (SNA) underwent a major round of modernisation. One example of the revisions to the accounting system has been to treat expenditure in R&D as investment in knowledge. Previously, it was simply considered as a current cost item. Third, the new emphasis put on better lives, beyond the traditional objective of economic growth and GDP, has offered an opportunity to outline how the national accounts can also be a rich underlying source for tracking households material well-being. Finally, new data on trade in value added are now being compiled in parallel to core national accounts, allowing to better understand the increased interconnectedness of our economies

This new, augmented, version of Understanding National Accounts reflects the four developments above. In particular, its publication has been scheduled to coincide with the time when most OECD countries will have moved to the new 2008 System of National Accounts.

I am confident that, like the previous one, this edition of the report will receive a similar warm welcome from all those, and they are numerous, whether young statisticians, students, journalists, economists, or citizens, who want to know more about the statistics that are at the heart of the measure of economic development in OECD economies.

Martine Durand

OECD Chief Statistician and Director, Statistics Directorate