1. Main points
The UK’s net borrowing position with the rest of the world reduced to negative 1.5% as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2021 compared with negative 1.7% of GDP in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2021.
The household saving ratio decreased to 11.7% in Quarter 2 2021 compared with 18.4% in Quarter 1, which was the second highest on record.
Households’ net lending position in the non-financial account decreased to £27.4 billion (4.7% of GDP) in Quarter 2 2021 from £51.7 billion in Quarter 1 (9.2% of GDP); the decreased lending was driven by a rise in household spending of 7.9% from the previous quarter.
Non-financial and financial corporations both increased their net lending position to 1.1% as a percentage of GDP in Quarter 2 2021; within non-financial corporations, private non-financial corporations increased their net property income by £1.9 billion driven by a 13.5% decrease in dividend payments made on the quarter; financial corporations’ net lending increased to £6.5 billion following lending of £1.1 billion in Quarter 1, this was driven by a fall in the acquisition less disposal of valuables of £8.6 billion.
General government decreased its net borrowing position in the non-financial account to £51.3 billion in Quarter 2 2021 (negative 8.9% of GDP) from £73.2 billion in Quarter 1 2021 (negative 13.1% of GDP); this decreased borrowing was driven by a fall in government final consumption expenditure of 3.0% on the quarter.
In the financial account, financial corporations switched from net borrowing to net lending; non-financial corporations extended their net lending position but the households and rest of the world sectors weakened their net lending position.
Also in the financial account, general government increased its net borrowing position while non-profit institutions serving households switched from net lending to net borrowing.
2. Quarterly sector accounts data
Quarterly sector accounts time series
Dataset | Released 30 September 2021
Quarterly aggregate economic indicators and summary estimates for private non-financial corporations and households’ sectors of the UK economy, and revisions.
UK Economic Accounts
Dataset | Released 30 September 2021
Quarterly estimates of national product, income and expenditure, sector accounts and balance of payments.
UK Economic Accounts: main aggregates
Dataset | Released 30 September 2021
Quarterly national accounts aggregates, per head data, including gross domestic product by income and expenditure, gross value added, gross fixed capital formation, change in inventories, gross operating surplus and revisions.
UK Economic Accounts: total economy
Dataset | Released 30 September 2021
Distribution and use of income account and capital account, financial account and balance sheet quarterly data for the UK total economy.
UK Economic Accounts: flow of funds
Dataset | Released 30 September 2021
Quarterly flow of funds, financial account and balance sheet data for the UK economy by institutional sector.
UK Economic Accounts: institutional sector - general government
Dataset | Released 30 September 2021
Distribution and use of income account and capital account, financial account and balance sheet quarterly data for general government.
UK Economic Accounts: institutional sector - households and non-profit institutions serving households
Dataset | Released 30 September 2021
Distribution and use of income account and capital account, financial account and balance sheet quarterly data for households and non-profit institutions serving households. Includes the Experimental Statistics on the impact of removing “imputed” transactions from real household disposable income and the saving ratio to better represent the economic experience of UK households.
UK Economic Accounts: institutional sector – financial and non-financial corporations
Dataset | Released 30 September 2021
Distribution and use of income account and capital account, financial account and balance sheet quarterly data for non-financial corporations and sub-sectors.
UK Economic Accounts: institutional sector - rest of the world
Dataset | Released 30 September 2021
Distribution and use of income account and capital account, financial account and balance sheet quarterly data for the rest of the world.
UK Economic Accounts: balance of payments - current account
Dataset | Released 30 September 2021
Quarterly transactions in trade in goods and services, primary, secondary and investment income, transactions with EU and non-EU countries and capital account.
UK Economic Accounts: balance of payments - financial account
Dataset | Released 30 September 2021
Quarterly transactions associated with changes of ownership of the UK's foreign financial assets and liabilities, including direct, portfolio and other investment, sector analysis and government reserve assets.
UK Economic Accounts: balance of payments – international investment position
Dataset | Released 30 September 2021
Quarterly end-of-period balance sheet levels of UK external assets and liabilities, including direct, portfolio and other investment, sector analysis and government reserve assets.
3. Measuring the data
Revisions within this release
This bulletin includes new data for the latest available quarter, Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2021, and revisions to data from the start of a time series to Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2021. This bulletin follows the National Accounts Revisions Policy.
Understanding the sector and financial accounts
This release presents analysis on UK aggregate data for the main economic indicators and summary estimates from the institutional sectors of the UK economy that are presented in the UK Economic Accounts (UKEA) dataset:
public corporations
private non-financial corporations
financial corporations
households
non-profit institutions serving households (NPISH)
central government
local government
rest of the world
This release uses data from the UKEA and provides detailed estimates of national product, income and expenditure, UK sector, non-financial and financial accounts, and UK Balance of Payments. These accounts are the underlying data that produce a single estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) using income, production and expenditure data.
Quality and Methodology Information report
The Quarterly sector accounts Quality and Methodology Information report contains important information on:
the strengths and limitations of the data and how it compares with related data
uses and users of the data
how the output was created
the quality of the output including the accuracy of the data