Statistical presentation

Data description

The national accounts describe the Danish economic flows. Two general perspectives are considered in the national accounts: one functional and one institutional.

In the functional national accounts, detailed information on product flows is available in the shape of production, import and export, intermediate consumption, final consumption expenditure and gross fixed capital formation, including information about the incomes generated in the process. Information is also available about the factors of production in the form of labour and capital goods that have participated in the production process. The functional national accounts are calculated in both current and fixed prices. This means that the country's economic situation can be assessed both in terms of level and real growth.

The institutional national accounts highlight the distributive and financial transactions. Sectoral breakdown is done in non-financial corporations, financial corporations, public administration and services, households and non-profit institutions targeting households (NPISH).

This statistical documentation documents the functional national accounts. Several parts of the national accounts are documented separately in the following statistical documentation:

• Fixed Capital Stock
• Employment and Compensation of Employees in National Accounts
• Productivity
• Input-Output Tables
• National Accounts, Financial accounts
• Regional Accounts
• National Accounts, Institutional Sectors

Classification system

In the national accounts, several different international classifications are used - in some cases with Danish adaptations or subdivisions.

Industries

The industry classification used in the national accounts is based on Danish Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities 2007 [(DB07)]((https://www.dst.dk/da/Statistik/dokumentation/nomenklaturer/db07). In the national accounts, the following aggregation levels are used for industries: 10a3, 19a2, 36a2, 69 and 117.

• The quarterly national accounts: 10a3
• Preliminary annual national accounts: 10a3, 19a2, 36a2 and 69.
• Final annual national accounts: 10a3, 19a2, 36a2, 69 and 117.

Find more about the aggregation levels under Industri aggregatons in NA.

Investment types

Investments in the national accounts are compiled in a Danish adjustment to a classification recommended in SNA2008.

• Fixed assets
• Dwellings
• Buildings other than dwellings
• Other structures and land improvements
• Transport equipment
• ICT equipment, other machinery and equipment and weapon systems
• Cultivated biological resources
• Intellectual property products

Groups of consumption

The consumption of households is classified by Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP).

Government consumption is classified by Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG).

Consumption in NPISH is classified by Classification of the Purposes of Non-Profit Institutions serving Households (COPNI).

Find more about the aggregation levels under Consumption groups in NA.

Sectors

Institutional sectors ESA 2010.

One dimension in the national accounts is the product dimension. In Denmark, an adjusted version of Statistical Classification of Products by Activity (CPA) is used for product numbers. The final national accounts consist of approximately 2,350 adjusted product balances.

Sector coverage

The national accounts cover all sectors of the economy.

Statistical concepts and definitions

The balance of payments: The balance of payments is a specification of the value of the economic transactions abroad within a given period.

Gross national income (GNI): Gross national income (GNI) is generated by deducting from the gross domestic product the net property income to Rest of World (ROW), net compensation of employees to ROW, and production and import taxes minus subsidies (net) to ROW.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP): Gross domestic product, GDP, indicates the size of a country's economy. GDP can be calculated in three ways:

• Gross domestic product (GDP) in market prices is calculated from the production side by subtracting from production at market prices the total value of intermediate consumption at buyer prices.
• It can also be calculated from the income side as compensation of employees plus the surplus of production and mixed income plus taxes on production, net.
• Finally it can be calculated from the application side as the sum of all final uses in buyer prices minus the import of goods and services.

Gross Value Added (GVA): GVA is equal to the gross domestic product at base prices and is calculated for the individual business types as production at base prices minus intermediate consumption at buyer prices and is thus also equal to the sum of other production taxes (net), compensation of employee, and surplus of production and mixed income. For society as a whole, gross value added can also be calculated as the gross domestic product at market prices minus net product taxes.

The national economy: The national economy covers the transactions made by resident entities within a given period, such as a year or quarter.

Fixed prices: Calculation of fixed prices is necessary to make comparisons over time where the effect of price developments needs to be eliminated. Fixed prices are calculated using the prices from in the previous year, and these form the basis for calculating the chained values. In addition, fixed prices with a fixed base year (e.g. 2000) are also calculated.

Supply Balance: A compilation of the national accounts which shows both the supply of goods and services in a country over a period of time as well as the use of these goods. By definition, supply and use are always the same. The components of the supply balance are GDP and imports of goods and services on the supply side and consumption, gross investments and exports of goods and services on the usage side.

Chained values: Periodic changes (e.g. years) that are chained to create comparability over longer periods of time.

Current prices: Current prices are the price level that applies to goods and services in the current period. The contrast to current prices is Fixed prices.

Primary income: The income that resident entities receive through their direct participation in the production process and the income that the owner of a financial asset or natural capital receives in return for providing capital or natural capital to another institutional entity.

Production boundary: A productive activity is defined as an activity exercised under the control and responsibility of the entity that uses labour, capital as well as goods and services to produce goods and services. The activity does not include natural processes that take place without human participation or management, such as growth in fish stocks. An exception to this rule is production done in households. The only item production in households to be included is the construction of dwellings on one’s own account and the production, storage, and processing of agricultural products for own use. The only service production in the households to be included is housing services that homeowners produce, services in the home provided by hired help, and volunteer activities that result in the production of goods, such as construction of a home, clubhouse, or other type of building which is registered as production.

Residential unit: An entity is a resident of a country if it is located within the economic territory of that country and conducts or intends to conduct economic activities and transactions to a significant extent for a period of at least one year.

Economic area: The economic area is understood as:

• The geographical area managed by a government within which persons, goods and services, and capital move freely.
• Duty-free zones.
• The national airspace, territorial waters, and the part of the continental shelf that lies within the international waters under the sovereignty of the country.
• Territorial enclaves (e.g. Danish embassies and consulates abroad).
• Deposits of oil, natural gas, etc. in international waters outside the country's continental shelf, which are utilized by resident entities.

Statistical unit

The units in the national accounts are resident enterprises, households or other units characterised by economic decision-making autonomy and their ability to enter into economic transactions with other resident or non-resident units.

Statistical population

The national accounts cover all resident enterprises, households or other units characterised by economic decision-making autonomy and their ability to enter into economic transactions with other resident or non-resident units.

Reference area

Denmark excl. Faroe Islands and Greenland. The Danish national accounts cover the activity carried out by Danish resident entities and is thus not defined by where the activity takes place geographically.

Time coverage

National accounts figures are available on a quarterly and annual basis. The quarterly national accounts cover the period from 1990Q1 and onwards. The annual national accounts cover the period 1966 and onwards.

Base period

Chained values are calculated with 2010 as the reference year.

Unit of measure

DKK million.

Reference period

The national accounts cover transactions that have happened within the quarter or year.

Frequency of dissemination

Quarterly numbers are published 8 times annually.

Annual numbers are published 4 times annually.

Legal acts and other agreements

The Danish Statistics Act § 6 and §§ 8-12.

Regulation (EU) No. 549/2013 of 21 May 2013 on the European System of National and Regional Accounts in the European Union (ESA2010) (OJ L 174 26.06.2013, p. 1).

The Commission Decision of 17 December 2002 further clarifying Annex A to Council Regulation No. 2223/96 as regards the principles for measuring prices and quantities in the national accounts.

Cost and burden

The statistics are based on information collected by Statistics Denmark for the compilation of other statistics. As such, there is no direct reporting burden in the compilation of the national accounts. Often, questionnaires for statistics included in the national accounts have been prepared in consultation with the national accounts to ensure sufficient data to meet the needs of the national accounts as well.

Comment

In this version of the national accounts, new preliminary calculations have been made for 2020-2022. As a result of the increased uncertainty in the calculations of the distribution by industry of production and consumption in production, this part of the national accounts is published at a more aggregated level than usual for 2021 and 2022 (the 10a3 industry grouping).

In a period when the economy was seriously recovering after the COVID-19 pandemic and was later hit by high inflation, the methods and assumptions that, under normal and more stable circumstances, provide fairly solid estimates of consumption in production are being challenged. This version of the national accounts is calculated with a greater uncertainty than usual, where in particular the year 2022, where the source material is still limited, must be considered to be more uncertain. At present, there is no source data on consumption in production for 2022. This is therefore calculated based on previous years' input structures. The first actual source for the industries' overall level of consumption in production is accounting statistics for private urban businesses, which will be published in the spring of 2024. An actual distribution by type of input in production can only be determined by drawing up product balances, which will take place in connection with the publication in June 2024. For the year 2021, in this version we have accounting data for the first time, which shows the overall level of the industries' consumption in production. The product composition, including the input of energy products, will only be calculated when product balances are drawn up in connection with the publication in June 2024.

In the calculations of this version of the national accounts, after incorporating new sources, there have been very large imbalances between GDP calculated from and the production side and the demand side. Usually this imbalance is small and smaller amounts are usually reconciled. In this version, the imbalances have been significantly larger for both 2021 and 2022. It has therefore been necessary to reconcile larger amounts than usual, on both the production side and the demand side, in order to bring the two sides together. This is a major reason why the figures are considered to have less precision than usual, and therefore less detailed figures broken down by industry are published.

Jonas Dan Petersen, tlf. 39 17 38 65, mail: jop@dst.dk Christina Just Brandstrup, tlf. 39 17 36 33, cjb@dst.dk