The 1995 ESA and the 1993 SNA

1.24 . The ESA (the 1995 ESA) is fully consistent with the revised System of National Accounts (the 1993 SNA), which provides guidelines on national accounting for all countries throughout the world. Nevertheless, there are several differences between the 1995 ESA and the 1993 SNA:

a) differences in presentation, e.g.:

(1) in the ESA there are separate chapters on transactions in products, distributive transactions and financial transactions. In contrast, in the SNA these transactions are explained in seven chapters arranged by account, e.g. chapters on the production account, the primary distribution of income account, the capital account and the Rest of the World account;

(2) the ESA describes a concept by providing a definition and a listing of what is included and what is excluded. The SNA describes concepts usually in more general terms and endeavours also to explain the rationale behind the conventions adopted;

(3) the ESA also contains chapters on regional accounts and quarterly accounts;

(4) the SNA also contains a chapter on satellite accounts.

b) the ESA concepts are in several instances more specific and precise than those of the SNA, e.g.:

(1) the SNA does not contain very precise definitions on the distinction between market, for own final use and other non-market for institutional units, local KAUs and their outputs. This implies that in this respect the valuation of output and the classification by sectors are not defined sufficiently precisely. The ESA has therefore introduced several extra clarifications and also added in some specific instances the criterion that the sales of a market producer should cover at least 50% of the production costs (see paragraphs 3.16. – 3.45. and Table 3.1);

(2) the ESA specifies concrete recording thresholds, e.g. for recording small tools and appliances devices as intermediate consumption;

(3) the ESA assumes that several types of household production of goods, such as the weaving of cloth and the making of furniture, are not significant in EU Member States and therefore need not be recorded;

(4) the ESA makes explicit reference to specific institutional arrangements in the EU, such as the INTRASTAT system for recording intra-EU flows of goods and the contributions by the Member States to the EU;

(5) the ESA contains EU-specific classifications, e.g.: CPA for products and NACE rev. 1 for industries (specific but harmonised with the corresponding UN classifications);

(6) the ESA contains an additional classification for all external transactions: they should be divided into those between residents of the EU and those with residents from outside the EU.

The ESA can be more specific than the SNA, because the ESA primarily applies to the EU Member States. For the data needs of the EU, the ESA should also be more specific.