Quarterly National Accounts: Methods and sources of the quarterly national accounts compilations for Norway December 2013

Abstract

The document is divided into chapters containing detailed information on the compilation of the Quarterly National Accounts (QNA). The objective is to provide a transparent and explicit description of the sources and methods in use. Chapter one, in addition to an overview of the organisation and institutional arrangements in Statistics Norway, serves as a quick summary of the document and contains the most essential information explained in more detail in the following chapters. Chapter two presents a publication timeline for relevant statistics released by the Division for National accounts, as well as revision- and co-ordination policy. Chapter three goes into detail on the overall compilation approach, including aspects such as balancing, benchmarking and seasonal adjustment methods. Chapter four to six deals with the calculation of gross domestic product from the three different approaches (production-, expenditure and income approach), while chapter seven explains the sources and methods of the integrated labour accounts. Chapter eight describes the components from GDP to net national saving, which is overlapping with the compilations of the Balance of Payments and the non-financial sector accounts, but which is also published as part of the QNA. The appendix lists the source statistics, with added information relevant to its use in QNA, and which is referred to mostly by name and not comprehensive description in chapter four to eight to hinder too many distracting details. The proposed chapter nine in the guidelines was left out since Norway does not compile flash estimates.