Sector accounts

The European sector accounts provide a comprehensive and comparable overview of the European economy as a whole. The data are part of the national accounts and show how economic value is generated and distributed in the euro area economy, how savings are invested and how investment is financed. They are based on an analytical grouping of economic agents into institutional sectors following the methodological framework established in the European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA 2010).

This includes data on income, consumption, saving, investment, financing, financial investment and net lending/borrowing of households, non-financial corporations, financial corporations and its sub-sectors as well as the government sector in the euro area. It also includes data on financial and non-financial assets, debt and wealth for all sectors.

Quarterly financial and non-financial sector accounts

The European sector accounts provide a comprehensive and comparable overview of the European economy as a whole. They record all “transactions” between economic agents grouped by “sector”. Stocks of assets and liabilities are recorded in balance sheets. The system forms a sequence of interlinked accounts. The institutional sectors bring together economic agents with broadly similar behaviour: non-financial corporations (code S11), financial corporations (S12), general government (S13), households and non-profit institutions serving households (S14 + S15). Moreover, an additional sector detail of MFIs (S12K), OFIs (S12P) and insurance corporations and pension funds (S12Q) is provided for financial transactions and stocks. Transactions and financial claims between economic agents resident in the euro area/EU28 and economic agents resident elsewhere are recorded in the “rest of the world” (W1.S1) accounts.

The sector accounts thus show the interactions among the different sectors of the European economy, and between them and the rest of the world. Transactions are classified according to their economic nature (e.g.: payment and receipt of wages or taxes, consumption, assumption of a loan, etc.). For each transaction in the current accounts (and for capital transfers) “resources” and “uses” are recorded. For instance, the resources side of the transaction category “interest” records the amounts of interest receivable by the different sectors of the economy. The uses side shows interest payable. For each type of transaction, total resources of all sectors and the rest of the world equal total uses. For the transactions in the capital accounts (other than capital transfers) and the financial accounts, the distinction is between “changes in liabilities” and “changes in assets”. Transactions are grouped into a sequence of accounts covering a specific aspect of the economic process, ranging from production, generation and (re)distribution of income through consumption and investment to borrowing and lending. Each account leads to a balancing item, which is calculated as total resources minus total uses or total changes in financial assets minus total changes in liabilities. Balance sheets record for each domestic sector the (non-financial and financial) assets and liabilities valued at market prices on the date to which the balance sheet relates. The external financial assets and liabilities account shows the financial position of the euro area vis-à-vis the rest of the world and vice versa. The financial balance sheets group similar types of financial instrument into financial asset and liability categories, such as holdings of deposits, loans and shares. The changes in financial balance sheets can be divided into changes arising from financial transactions and other changes. The financial transactions cover net acquisitions of financial assets and net incurrence of liabilities, while the other changes mainly reflect revaluations due to changes in the market prices of financial instruments.

For more information refer to ESA2010 manual and ESA2010 Transmission Program (Table 801). 

International Data Cooperation (IDC)

The IDCS dataset covers publicly available selected sector accounts data as published by Eurostat, OECD and the UN. It is a results of data exchange materialized by an initiative of International Data Cooperation (IDC) under the Inter-Agency Group on Economic and Financial Statistics (IAG) chaired by the IMF. The aim is to develop a set of commonly shared principles and working arrangements for data cooperation that could be implemented by the participating International Organisations. (link)

Distributional Wealth Accounts

Distributional Wealth Accounts (DWA) are experimental statistics produced by the ESCB. They provide an assessment of the distribution of household wealth consistent with the aggregates compiled in the sector accounts. They include quarterly information by net wealth group, housing, and occupational status and a set of indicators to assess inequality and the financial assets and liabilities of various categories of household. For a more detailed explanation, please see the Overview note,  Methodological note and Frequently asked questions.