Quarterly sector accounts (financial accounts (ECB) and non-financial accounts (Eurostat, ESA2010 TP, table 801)) - QSA

The quarterly sector accounts provide a comprehensive and comparable overview of the euro area economy as a whole and, of EU Member States. 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 (NPISH) (S1M = S14 + S15, also available separately). Moreover, additional sector detail for financial transactions and stocks is provided for monetary financial institutions (MFIs) (S12K = S121 + S12T, also available separately), non-MMF investment funds (S124), other financial institutions (OFIs) (S12O = S125 + S126 + S127, also available separately) and insurance corporations (S128) and pension funds (S129). Transactions and financial claims between economic agents resident in the euro area and economic agents resident elsewhere are recorded in the “rest of the world” (W1.S1) accounts. The sector accounts thus show the interactions between the different sectors of the euro area 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.

For each domestic sector, balance sheets record 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 positions of the rest of the world vis-à-vis the euro area. The financial balance sheets group similar types of financial instrument into financial asset and liability categories, such as 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 market prices and exchange rates, as well as other volume changes such as reclassifications.

For more information, please refer to ESA2010 manual and  ESA2010 Transmission programme (Table 801).