The objective of the national accounts is to describe the most relevant characteristics of the Spanish economy and its institutional sectors and activity branches. To ascertain the evolution of the macroeconomic groups the National Statistics Institute publishes the national accounts of Spain and the quarterly national accounts.
Spanish National Accounts (SNA)
The SNA uses the set of basic short term or structural statistical information offered by the statistical system. Data arising from the different sources are dealt with and arbitrated in a unique accounting framework. As statistical information is enlarged and the accounting framework is broken down, national accountants revise the estimates obtained. The estimates from each year undergo three revisions until they are considered definite.
The SNA has been elaborated annually since 1967. As of September 2014, the SNA began to be developed in the framework of the 2010 accounting base, implementing the new European System of National and Regional Accounts (ESA 2010), that replaces the ESA 1995 applied until now in the countries within the European Union.
The new 2010 base incorporates methodological modifications and statistical changes. Among the methodological changes, the most significant ones in terms of their incidence on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) level are the acknowledgement as gross fixed capital formation in the expenditure on research and development (R&D) as well as on armament systems.
In turn, statistical changes have their base in the incorporation of new statistical sources, revision of the existent or in the updating of estimation methods and procedures of macroeconomic aggregates. Among the changes, worth noting is the incorporation of information from the 2011 Population and Housing Census -both directly and through surveys that provide base information for National Accounts, such as the Economically Active Population Survey or the Household Budget Survey- and the incorporation of information on foreign trade coming from the revision of the Balance of Payments.
Finally, and in accordance with the obligation from the European Commission to all Member States to include to the estimate of its Gross Domestic Income the flows from illegal activities, National Accounts have incorporated estimations of the most significant illegal activities in Spain: prostitution, drug trafficking, tobacco smuggling and illegal gambling.
Quarterly Spanish National Accounts (QSNA)
The QSNA has as its main objective the provision of a coherent quantitative description of the totality of economic activity, within a quarterly macroeconomic framework, elaborated from a supply, demand and primary income viewpoint. The QSNA is adjusted to the same principles of accounting coherence and equilibrium as the annual National Accounts.
As of November 2014, the QSNA is elaborated in the framework of the new accounting series 2010 base.