New methodology of national accounts system and peculiarities of its implementation

Abstract

SNA is a combination of integrated macroeconomic accounts and balances based on internationally agreed concepts, classifications, and general accounting rules. Its methodological basis is the international manual SNA 2008, developed by the United Nations (UN), Eurostat, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). EU countries have begun switching to the new SNA methodology in 2014. Armenia, Turkey, Ukraine and Belarus have also joined their ranks during 2014- 2015. Nowadays, the SNA 2008 has been introduced in about 80 countries around the world, including Georgia, however, some countries, still follow the previous version of the National Accounts System (SNA 1993). Implementation of the new SNA 2008 methodology, with the active involvement of international experts, has been running in GEOSTAT since 2017. The transition to the SNA 2008 has led to a number of changes in national accounts, on the one hand, it is related to the calculation of different macroeconomic indicators in accordance with the new standard, and, on the other hand, the substantial improvement of the data source, in terms of assessing the scope of the non-observed economy and the processing of administrative data. Differences between the old and new methodologies are mainly related to the change in the FISIM, capitalizing on research and development, processing costs, and improving the calculation of imputed rents on owner occupied dwellings. Improvements to the data source include assessing the scope of the non-observed economy in various sectors and improving the quality of indicators. As international practice shows, all the above-mentioned changes leads to an overall increase in GDP and other aggregates of national accounts. However, in order to harmonize with the figures for the previous period, the historical series were revised and recalculated, from 2010.