Economic accounts

Description:

This (1994) paper considers four alternative definitions of the underground economy and examines the available evidence about its size. Statistics Canada believes the underground economy is far smaller than the money demand studies have suggested.

Description:

Revised estimates of the Income and Expenditure Accounts (IEA) covering 1990 to 1993 have been released along with the estimates for the first quarter of 1994. These revised estimates reflect the most current source data and seasonal patterns. The annual revision of the different parts of the System of National Accounts is an integrated process. Revised estimates of two other parts of the system, the Balance of International Payments and Financial Flow Accounts, have been released simultaneously. Corresponding revisions to the monthly estimates of the gross domestic product (GDP), by industry and to the Input-Output Accounts at current and constant prices will be available at the end of August.

The first section of this paper reviews the current revisions to the GDP and the main aggregates. The second section analyses the revision patterns of selected income and expenditure aggregates of the GDP over the period 1980 to 1993. For further information on sources, methods and definitions employed in the IE A, refer to the Guide to the Income and Expenditure Accounts, Catalogue no. 13-603E, no. 1.

Description:

This article presents the first results from a study of the value of household work (VHW) in Canada for 1992. The study, the fourth of its kind, is part of continuing efforts to extend measures of production both within and outside Statistics Canada's System of National Accounts. A more in-depth report on the study is currently being prepared.

Description:

Revised estimates of the Income and Expenditure Accounts covering 1989 to 1992 have been released along with the estimates for the first quarter of 1993. These revised estimates reflect the most current source data and seasonal patterns. The annual revision of the different parts of the System of the National Accounts is an integrated process. As such, revised estimates of two other parts of the system -- the Balance of International Payments and Financial Flow Accounts -- have been released simultaneously. Corresponding revisions to the monthly estimates of Gross Domestic Product by Industry and to the Input-Output Accounts at current and constant prices are also available.

Description:

This article introduces two new tables showing volume indexes of real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and its components for Canada compared with the United States and the associated purchasing power parities (PPPs). These international comparisons of real expenditures based on PPPs are considered to be a major addition to the tools available for macroeconomic analysis. For example, the recent publication by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of a set of estimates of different countries' output using PPPs has changed the view of the share of world output that comes from the industrialized countries compared with the developing economies.

An analysis based on PPPs, rather than a more conventional one based on exchange rates, has significantly changed the relative measures of output of countries. Comparisons based on exchange rates are unlikely to fully take into account the differences in price levels between countries (i.e., the goods and services that can be purchased in one country's currency compared with another's). Moreover, services are not generally traded in the way that goods are, so their prices in different countries tend not to be related in a way that parallels the currency exchange rate. If aggregate output is to be properly compared across countries, PPPs become more and more important as the size of the service sector grows.

Economic theory would suggest that for internationally traded domestically produced goods and services, PPPs and exchange rates will tend to equalize in the long run. Exchange rates, however, can fluctuate widely in short periods and are affected by expectations and factors such as deficits, wars, fuel shortages and interest rates. With the calculation of PPPs, actual price level differences can be identified. Such measures are also much more stable over time.

Description:

The Income and Expenditure Accounts (IEA) are structured in terms of four economic or institutional sectors, and transactors are grouped into homogeneous categories that play distinct roles in the economy. The Personal sector is concerned with individuals in their capacity as final consumers and as suppliers of labour. The Government sector centres on transactions by public authorities as they relate to taxation and public expenditure. The Profit-motivated Business sector consists of transactors producing goods and services for financial gain. The Non-resident sector shows all transactions taking place between resident economic agents and the rest of the world. Classifying transactors by similar motivation and behaviour into these broad groups is a useful tool that helps analyse the major players in the economy, their functions and interrelationships.

The purpose of this paper is to develop quarterly estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) at factor cost in both current and constant prices for each of the institutional sectors within the IEA framework. The estimates of that will be shown, of the GDP, by sector, do not constitute a full production account, but nonetheless provide a measure of aggregate productive activity by sector of origin. They complement and extend the sector tables already available in the Income and Expenditure Accounts.

Description:

This paper reports the results of a survey of national Income and Expenditure Accounts (IEA) release date practices as reported by national statistical bureaus. This international survey was conducted by the author between January and March 1993 by means of a questionnaire mailed to statisticians of several countries.

Respondents to the survey were asked on what date their preliminary IEA estimates for each of the four quarters of the 1991 calendar year were officially released. They were also asked to indicate the dates on which each of the subsequent four revised sets of estimates were released. To avoid the possibility of unwarranted generalizations from a single year's experience, respondents were asked whether 1991 was a typical year or if there were special circumstances that affected the release dates in this particular period. Finally, general information was sought on each country's official revision policy.

Description:

The interview discusses Canada's transition from an industrial to an information economy.

Description:

Has recovery begun? An up-to-date look at labour market developments in the first six months of 1991.

Description:

Currently, one measure of real gross domestic product (GDP) at market prices is published by Statistics Canada. It is a fixed weighted index, and the weights are from the base year, 1986. In the first quarter of 1990, alternate formulations of real GDP were reviewed in an article released in this publication. One of the alternatives discussed in the article was the Chain Volume Indexes.

The purpose of this article was to introduce a new set of indexes into the Income and Expenditure Accounts. The indexes include quarterly re-weighted Chain Volume Indexes and annually re-weighted Chain Volume Indexes of GDP, excluding the value of physical change in inventories.

Description: Quarterly data by level of government.

Description:

The value added in exports database provides data on the exports and imports of industries, as well as on the direct and indirect impact of each industry’s production for exports on industry and on total gross domestic product and jobs. Industry impacts can be viewed from the perspective of their incidence on other industries or from the perspective of an industry’s dependence on other industries. The data rely on the supply and use tables, which provide the basis for the calculations. Beginning with reference year 2013, a provincial and territorial dimension has been added to the measures. Imports embodied in exports have also been expanded to show their United States (US) and non-US origins.

Description: The symmetric industry by industry input-output tables show inter-industry transactions, that is, all purchases of an industry from all other industries as well as expenditures on imports and the components of value added such as wages and gross operating surplus. Similarly, the symmetric final demand tables show all purchases by each final demand category from all industries as well as expenditures on imports. The symmetric input-output tables are analytically derived from the industry by product supply and use tables. The tables are available at the Detail level and at the Link 1997, Link 1961 and Summary aggregations.

Description:

The symmetric industry by industry input-output tables show inter-industry transactions, that is, all purchases of an industry from all other industries as well as expenditures on imports and the components of value added such as wages and gross operating surplus. Similarly, the symmetric final demand tables show all purchases by each final demand category from all industries as well as expenditures on imports. The symmetric input-output tables are analytically derived from the industry by product supply and use tables.

Description:

The symmetric industry by industry input-output tables show inter-industry transactions, that is, all purchases of an industry from all other industries as well as expenditures on imports and the components of value added such as wages and gross operating surplus. Similarly, the symmetric final demand tables show all purchases by each final demand category from all industries as well as expenditures on imports. The symmetric input-output tables are analytically derived from the industry by product supply and use tables.

Description: The infrastructure economic accounts represents a set of statistical statements that record the economic, social and environmental impacts related to the production and use of infrastructure in Canada and each province and territory. The infrastructure economic accounts are organized using a statistical framework that outlines the concepts, classification systems and methods required to construct the accounts. This statistical framework is consistent with the Canadian system of national accounts, Canadian government finance statistics and Canada's balance of payments. This consistency permits users to analyze the infrastructure related statistical statements in the context of economy wide measures such as investment, gross domestic product (GDP), national income and wealth.

Description: Infrastructure is the physical structures and systems that support the production of goods and services and their delivery to and consumption by governments, businesses and citizens. The industry undertaking that infrastructure investment is also presented. Accumulating investment flows over time produces an estimate of the stock of infrastructure assets. The perpetual inventory method is used as it estimates a value of the net stock of fixed assets in existence and in the hands of producers which is generally based on estimating how many of the fixed assets installed, as a result of investment undertaken in previous years, have survived to the current period. The depreciation of that stock is calculated using the geometric method with asset specific depreciation profiles.

Description: The economic contribution as a result of the production of infrastructure assets due to investment is presented for valued added (GDP), compensation of employees and number of jobs. Value-added is a key measure of economic performance. It represents the output of an industry minus the value of intermediate inputs that were used up in the production of the goods and services. Within the Infrastructure Economic Accounts, this is the value added due to an industry's production of infrastructure assets. The number of jobs represents the number of jobs held by the self-employed, employees and unpaid family workers. The compensation of employees represents the wages and salaries, and supplementary labour income due to labour inputs for the production of infrastructure assets.

Description: The average age of investment is the weighted age of all investments remaining in the gross stock at year end. The remaining useful life, which is the difference between the average age of the investment spending and their expected service life, is then divided by the expected service life, creating a ratio that indicates the percentage of the asset class that remains.

Description: Expansion of the Infrastructure Economic Accounts focusing on the environmental aspect to aid in understanding the relationship between investment in infrastructure and the environment. Main indicators include greenhouse gas emissions as a result of production of infrastructure assets, greenhouse gas emissions per value-added, and clean input proportion.

Description: This article describes the reasons why updates (revisions) are made to Canada's GDP estimates. It provides an overview of the way that the monthly, quarterly, and annual GDP products are revised as more comprehensive data and better statistical methods are used to compile the statistics.

Description: This document describes the methodology, concepts and data sources used in the compilation of statistics on the underground economy in Canada, which provide information on the extent of underground economic activity in Canada and its provinces and territories.

Description: These papers provide background information as well as in depth analysis on data reported in any of the following accounts: income and expenditure accounts, provincial economic accounts, financial flow accounts, national balance sheet accounts, estimates of labour income, and national tourism indicators.

Description: This documentation outlines the methodology used to develop the Distributions of household economic accounts published in January 2024 for the reference years 2010 to 2023. It describes the framework and the steps implemented to produce distributional information aligned with the National Balance Sheet Accounts and other national accounts concepts. It also includes a report on the quality of the estimated distributions.

Description: Canada and the United States share a deep economic relationship that contributes to most measures of their economic performances having a tight common trend over the long term. However, a notable exception is the increasing disparity in labour productivity growth between the two nations. This article summarizes recent research by Statistics Canada, focusing on the information and cultural services industry and how its competitive intensity relative to the United States has influenced the Canada-U.S. labour productivity growth gap since 2001.

Description: This article describes the revisions to the Financial Flow Accounts (FFA), the Other Changes in Assets Account (OCAA), and the National Balance Sheet Accounts (NBSA), collectively referred to as the Financial and Wealth Accounts (FWA), introduced as part of the 2023 Comprehensive Revision. These accounts are an integral part of the Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (CSMA). This exercise was conducted to strengthen the overall quality and relevance of the FWA program and to introduce new concepts, methodologies, and classifications as recommended by international standards.

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: This article presents revisions to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by Income and by Expenditure from the Income and Expenditure Accounts (IEA) for the 2020 to 2022 period. These revisions were reflected in the 2022 Provincial and Territorial Economic Accounts estimates, released on November 8, 2023.

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description:

These educational resources provide instructors with innovative materials, lesson plans and case study assignments based on environmental statistics produced by Statistics Canada. Resources have been developed for educators at the elementary, high school and post-secondary levels.

Curriculum links include grades 1 to 12 geography, social studies, biology, mathematics, science and economics, as well as introductory post-secondary geography and environmental science.

Description:

Results of the redesigned Capital and Repair Expenditures Survey were released on May 4, 2015. With this redesign, macroeconomic accounting adjustments that were previously applied to the survey results, to better align with System of National Accounts (SNA) concepts, will no longer be made. This note provides users with an overview of the concepts of capital expenditure and gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) and the adjustments that are needed in order to bring capital expenditure in line with the SNA concept of GFCF.

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Estimates of the underground economy by province and territory for the period 2007 to 2012 are now available for the first time. The objective of this technical note is to explain how the methodology employed to derive upper-bound estimates of the underground economy for the provinces and territories differs from that used to derive national estimates.

Description:

The Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (CSMA) is a source of invaluable information for business, governments and citizens. These accounts provide users with important insights into the inner-workings of the economy, current economic trends and interactions between the various sectors of the economy. In order for these accounts to remain relevant, the underlying concepts, methods, classification systems and data sources need to be periodically updated.

Description:

Oil and gas exploration, development and production activities continue to grow in importance, making it essential that the appropriate level and growth of these activities are included in the measure of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Statistics Canada recently began incorporating results from the Quarterly Survey of Capital Expenditures – Oil and Gas Activities in sub-annual GDP statistics (for years 2011, 2013, 2014). This note provides a brief overview of the survey and the incorporation of its results when estimating quarterly investment.

Description:

An overview of the Canadian Government Finance Statistics (CGFS) framework; how it relates to other government statistics such as the Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts and the Public Accounts; and the new GFS data products available to users

Description:

Beginning in November 2014, International Trade in goods data will be provided on a Balance of Payments (BOP) basis for additional country detail. In publishing this data, BOP-based exports to and imports from 27 countries, referred to as Canada’s Principal Trading Partners (PTPs), will be highlighted for the first time. BOP-based trade in goods data will be available for countries such as China and Mexico, Brazil and India, South Korea, and our largest European Union trading partners, in response to substantial demand for information on these countries in recent years. Until now, Canada’s geographical trading patterns have been examined almost exclusively through analysis of Customs-based trade data. Moreover, BOP trade in goods data for these countries will be available alongside the now quarterly Trade in Services data as well as annual Foreign Direct Investment data for many of these Principal Trading Partners, facilitating country-level international trade and investment analysis using fully comparable data. The objective of this article is to introduce these new measures. This note will first walk users through the key BOP concepts, most importantly the concept of change in ownership. This will serve to familiarize analysts with the Balance of Payments framework for analyzing country-level data, in contrast to Customs-based trade data. Second, some preliminary analysis will be reviewed to illustrate the concepts, with provisional estimates for BOP-based trade with China serving as the principal example. Lastly, we will outline the expansion of quarterly trade in services to generate new estimates of trade for the PTPs and discuss future work in trade statistics.

Description:

The methodology for estimating the Flows and Stocks of Fixed Capital has been redeveloped to ensure greater coherence of the capital stock program within the Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (CSMA). This is done by incorporating investment flows directly from the CSMA on a detailed industry/asset basis. The data released will be based on the input-output final demand classification, with updated per asset depreciation profiles and prices.

Description:

Canadian international merchandise trade data are released monthly and may be revised in subsequent releases as new information becomes available. These data are released approximately 35 days following the close of the reference period and represent one of the timeliest economic indicators produced by Statistics Canada. Given their timeliness, some of the data are not received in time and need to be estimated or modelled. This is the case for imports and exports of crude petroleum and natural gas. More specifically, at the time of release, energy trade data are based on an incomplete set of information and are revised as Statistics Canada and National Energy Board information becomes available in the subsequent months. Due to the increasing importance of energy imports and exports and the timeliness of the data, the revisions to energy prices and volumes are having an increasingly significant impact on the monthly revision to Canada’s trade balance. This note explains how the estimates in the initial release are made when data sources are not yet available, and how the original data are adjusted in subsequent releases.

Description:

These educational resources provide instructors with innovative materials, lesson plans and case study assignments to accompany the 2013 release of the Human Activity and the Environment article, “Measuring ecosystem goods and services in Canada.” The materials and activities were developed by the Critical Thinking Consortium, a non-profit, registered association of 55 educational partners—school districts, schools, teacher associations and other educational organizations.

Resources were developed for a junior high school, senior high school and introductory post-secondary audience. Curriculum links include grades 7 to 12 geography, social studies, biology, science and economics, as well as introductory post-secondary geography and environmental science.