XXI. SATELLITE ANALYSIS AND ACCOUNTS
A. Introduction
| 21.1. | The central framework of the SNA presents a number of characteristics which give it the advantages of an integrated accounting structure. It is exhaustive and consistent within the boundary of the economic activities it covers; that is to say, each unit, transaction, product and purpose is given a place, and only one, in the classifications and accounts of the System. Moreover, the set of concepts adopted by the System is fully coherent. |
| 21.2. | The counterpart of these benefits is that there are certain limitations as to what may be accommodated directly in the central framework. The central framework may be used in a flexible way, as explained in chapter XIX, in order to put greater or lesser emphasis on specific aspects of economic life, such as the public sector, households, or high inflation. However, the margins of flexibility allowed by the central conceptual framework do not permit conflicting approaches to be covered simultaneously. |
| 21.3. | As already indicated in several earlier chapters, the SNA does not claim that its categories and concepts are in all cases the only right ones. Additional or different requirements necessitate the development of complementary or alternative categories and concepts. |
| 21.4. | Satellite accounts or systems generally stress the need to expand the analytical capacity of national accounting for selected areas of social concern in a flexible manner, without overburdening or disrupting the central system. It is useful to preview in very summary form the characteristics of satellite accounts or systems, which will be elaborated throughout the chapter. Typically satellite accounts or systems allow for:
(a) The provision of additional information on particular social concerns of a functional or cross-sector nature;
(b) The use of complementary or alternative concepts, including the use of complementary and alternative classifications and accounting frameworks, when needed to introduce additional dimensions to the conceptual framework of national accounts;
(c) Extended coverage of costs and benefits of human activities;
(d) Further analysis of data by means of relevant indicators and aggregates;
(e) Linkage of physical data sources and analysis to the monetary accounting system. |
| 21.5. | These characteristics, even in the summary form, point to important roles for satellite analysis and accounts. On the one hand, satellite accounts are linked with the central framework of national accounts (as will be spelled out at several points in the chapter) and through them to the main body of integrated economic statistics. On the other hand, as they are more specific to a given field or topic, they are also linked to the information system specific to this field or topic. They also call for better integration of monetary and physical data. Because they preserve close connections with the central accounts, they facilitate analyses of specific fields in the context of macroeconomic accounts and analyses. Satellite accounts in various fields may, in addition, help to connect analyses between some of those fields. Satellite accounts are thus able to play a dual role, as tools for analyses and for statistical coordination. |
| 21.6. | The objectives of the present chapter are threefold. First, it indicates, in section B, what kind of variants are or could be thought of in general when allowing for additional degrees of freedom. The approaches referred to may lead to various types of solutions, from just introducing some additional figures to redesigning the main concepts of the central framework. Secondly, in section C, the chapter presents a framework for functionally oriented satellite accounts, the goal of which is somewhere in between these two extreme types of solutions. Thirdly, in section D, the chapter presents environmental accounting in a SNA satellite accounting framework. Environmental accounting, which is of such importance as to deserve special consideration, is explained by reference to a generalized and extended version of the system of environmental economic accounts. |
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