ONS has today published articles setting out the impact on the Sector & Financial Accounts and Balance of Payments of previously announced improvements to the National Accounts that will be introduced when revised figures, consistent with Blue Book 2016, are published on 30 June 2016.
Between 1997 and 2011, the average annual revision to the current account balance was -£0.2bn, while the average absolute revision was £0.3bn. Over this period, the average annual current account deficit was previously £26.5 billion but is now put at £26.7 billion.
Revisions to the saving ratio ranged from -1.2% in 1997 to -0.2% in 2011. The average revision to the saving ratio was -0.7% and the average absolute revision was 0.7%.The saving ratio – household savings as a percentage of disposable income – is now estimated to be 8.9% in 2011 as compared with 9.1% in the previous estimates.
Commenting, ONS Chief Economist Joe Grice said:
“The annual process of updating national accounts ensures ONS continues to measure the changing economy in line with best internationally agreed practice.
“The impacts announced today go beyond headline GDP, showing how the improvements affect the estimates of the financial relationships between households, private companies, the government and the rest of the world. However, the impacts are small enough to make little difference to the interpretation of the economy over this period.”
ONS previously published an article setting out the impact on real GDP growth of improvements to the National Accounts, consistent with the Blue Book 2016, on 23 March and an article setting out the impact of the changes on current price GDP on 24 February.
Background Notes
The full ‘Detailed assessment of changes to Balance of Payments annual estimates, 1997 to 2011’ article is available on our website.
The full ‘Detailed assessment of changes to Sector and Financial Accounts 1997 to 2011’ article is available on our website.
The previously published ‘Impact of Blue Book 2016 Changes on Chained Volume Measure Gross Domestic Product Estimates, 1997 to 2011’ article is available on our website.
The previously published methodological article are available on our website:
The previously published ‘Impact of Blue Book 2016 Changes on Current Price Gross Domestic Product Estimates, 1997 to 2011’ is available on our website.
The previously published article explaining the scope of changes to be introduced in the 2016 Blue and Pink books is available on our website.
Media contact:
Tel: Media Relations Office +44(0)845 6041858
Emergency on-call +44 (0)7867 906553
E-mail media.relations@ons.gov.uk