Inputs

Outputs

Itinerary

Tools

Organisation

Storage

IT

The “inputs” or incoming data

What should be loaded in the ERETES database?

The base can receive all data used to compile accounts, whatever they are:

How should these data be loaded ?

It is neither possible nor useful to load the basic data of a survey (e.g. at the level of an enterprise; a household). The data must first be aggregated by product, industry, sector, etc., according to the classifications selected by the users.

The data must also undergo a preliminary analysis, in order to determine the correct national accounting transaction for each of them.

This initial organisation of sources is done using “attributes”, described in detail in the heading “WHAT”? The basic data.

Should supplementary data be loaded ?

The ERETES industry account proposes tools to help estimate the unreported part of the economy. These tools are based on the analysis of various economic ratios: output or value added by person employed, remuneration per employee, Intermediate Consumption/output ratio. Most of these tools refer to the workforce. To be able to use them, it is necessary to have compiled a balance of the national employment situation, listing data on workforce by industry and by status (wage-earners, managers, self-employed, etc.).
It is therefore advisable to have such supplementary data available. If this is not possible, you can of course use ERETES, but you cannot use these tools to help evaluate informal activities.

Is it true that ERETES requires more data than other systems ?

The numerous work tables proposed by ERETES may give the impression that far more data are required to compile the accounts than under other systems. This is a false impression, for two reasons:

1. It is not obligatory to complete all the tables proposed by the system; each country will decide on the level of expansion it wishes to have for its own accounts. Thus, there are many users who still do not compile accounts of institutional sectors. Others compile accounts in values only, because they lack price or volume indices. Others compile only a global balance between supply and demand in intermediate consumption, without trying to synthesise the Use matrix.

2. Each table provides a framework for the analysis of a restricted subset of data, a sort of “zoom” on this subset. For example, a supply-use balance is a focus on the availability and uses of a product, an industry account sets out the conditions of production, a who-to-whom matrix outlines the relationships between agents in a basic transaction. In this limited framework, it is easier to reconcile the different points of view, and to estimate the missing data. Indeed these could be obtained by balances in the supply-use balances and the who-to-whom matrices, or by analysing ratios of various Production modes.

What is the minimum data required to be able to use ERETES ?

Irrespective of the system used to elaborate National Accounts, compiling complete accounts of a high quality requires a knowledge of :

• National production and the non-financial transactions of enterprises,
• External trade and the balance of payments,
• Accounts of general government, of banks, of insurance,
• Household consumption, or its trends.

Intermediate consumption by product, or its structure (to compile the Use matrix).

However.... waiting until you have assembled all these data before compiling accounts will mean that you run the risk of someone else compiling them in your place, without any guarantee of minimum quality.

Generally, it is better to confront the difficulty and take responsibility for the problems of estimating missing data. ERETES will provide valuable assistance in doing this in the best possible way and with the maximum of transparency.

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