Institution

Eurostat

Year

2006

Level

Advanced

Abstract

The paper discusses the main issues arising in the construction of quarterly national accounts estimates, adjusted for seasonality and calendar effects, obtained by disaggregating the original annual actual measurements using related monthly indicators. It proposes and implements an approach that hinges upon the estimation of a bivariate basic structural time series model at the monthly frequency, accounting for the presence of seasonality and calendar components. The monthly frequency enables more efficient estimation of calendar component. The main virtue of this approach is to enable adjustment and temporal disaggregation to be carried out simultaneously. The proposed methodology also complies with the recommendations made by the Eurostat - European Central Bank task force on the seasonal adjustment of Quarterly National accounts.