Appendix A Income and Expenditure Accounts revision policy

View the most recent version.

Archived Content

Information identified as archived is provided for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It is not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards and has not been altered or updated since it was archived. Please "contact us" to request a format other than those available.

Archived

This page has been archived on the Web.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]13-604-m[an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive]

In principle, the revision schedule for the Income and Expenditure Accounts is as follows: the first estimate for a given quarter is released approximately 60 days after the end of the reference quarter; this estimate is revised when estimates for subsequent quarters of the same calendar year are released. Thereafter, the estimates are open for revision only once a year for the next four years, at the time of the release of the first-quarter estimates. For example, the preliminary estimates for the first quarter of 2004 were released in May 2004. The first revision to these estimates took place when the second-quarter estimates were released, in August 2004; further revisions occurred when the estimates for the third and fourth quarters of 2004 were released. These estimates were revised again once a year in each of the next four years, with the last of these revisions taking place with the estimates for the first quarter of 2008.

Table A1 Revisions schedule

For the annual revision process, the integration of GDP estimates by component occurs through compiling Input-Output Tables in current prices for the first two years of the four-year revision period. These data are released in the fall of each year, when the full provincial Input-Output Tables are completed. Revisions to the last two years of the four-year revision cycle arise as a result of updated sub-annual and annual sources of information.

Limited revisions are sometimes carried out for periods further back than four years, and historical revisions are conducted periodically, roughly once every ten years. Historical revisions provide an opportunity to improve estimation methods, to eliminate statistical breaks resulting from more limited revisions, and to introduce conceptual and methodological changes into the system. The most recent historical revision was completed in December 1997.

Following the May 2010 release, the Income and Expenditure Accounts moved towards a three-year revision cycle. Over the last number of years, Statistics Canada has been able to increase the overall timeliness of its annual business and institutional surveys and of its administrative-data processing. Consequently, the majority of 'final' data are now incorporated into the first release of the national Input-Output Tables, which serve as the benchmark for the Income and Expenditure Accounts. Given that little new information is available with the second release of the Input-Output Tables, Statistics Canada will produce only one vintage of the national, provincial, and territorial Input-Output Tables.