Australia Yearbook - 2001

970 Year Book Australia 2001
History of national accounts in Australia
The first official estimates of national income for
Australia (based on estimates prepared by Clark
and Crawford) were published in 1938 in The
Australian Balance of Payments, 1928–29 to
1937–38, although unofficial estimates by
several economists had been published in the
1920s and 1930s. 1 In 1945, the first official set of
national accounts was prepared by the then
Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics
(CBCS) and published in the Commonwealth
Budget Paper Estimates of National Income
and Public Authority Income and Expenditure.
The 1960s and early 1970s were times of
significant development for Australian national
accounting. The first official quarterly estimates
of national income and expenditure were
published in December 1960. 2 In 1963 the CBCS
published the first Australian National
Accounts: National Income and Expenditure
(ANA) bulletin, which included the first annual
constant price estimates for Australia. 3
Experimental input-output estimates were
published in 1964. 4 The CBCS began to
seasonally adjust its quarterly estimates of
national income and expenditure in 1967.
Estimates of gross product by industry at
constant prices were published for the first time
in 1969. 5 In 1971, the CBCS first published
seasonally adjusted, constant price quarterly
estimates of national income and expenditure,
which later proved to be among the most used
of all national accounting estimates. The CBCS
published estimates of national income and
expenditure based on the revised United
Nations publication A System of National
Accounts (1968 version) in 1973, and also
published the first official input-output statistics
in the same year. 6
In the 1980s, the former CBCS, now called the
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), again
made significant progress in national
accounting. The first full edition of Australian
National Accounts: Concepts, Sources and
Methods was published in 1981 at about the
same time as the first experimental estimates of
capital stock. 7 The ABS conducted a study into
the accuracy and reliability of the quarterly
estimates of national income and expenditure
and published the results in 1982. 8
Experimental State accounts 9 were published in
1984, followed by the first official estimates in
1987. 10 They are now published annually. In
1985, the ABS published an assessment of the
effects of rebasing constant price estimates from
a 1979–80 base to a 1984–85 base. 11 In 1986, the
second set of experimental estimates of capital
stock was published 12 followed in 1987 by the
first official estimates of capital stock. 13 The first
quarterly estimates of constant price gross
product by industry were released in 1988. 14
These estimates have now been incorporated
into the quarterly Australian National
Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and
Product (5206.0).
Further significant developments in national
accounting and associated statistics have
occurred during the 1990s. An updated edition
of Australian National Accounts: Concepts,
Sources and Methods was published in 1990
(subsequently available on CD-ROM), the same
year as the first estimates of multifactor
productivity were published. 15 In 1990, the ABS
also published developmental flow of funds
accounts, showing the changes in financial
assets and liabilities arising from the financing of
productive activity in the economy. 16 Flow of
funds estimates are now published on a
quarterly basis, along with estimates of stocks of
financial assets and liabilities at the end of each
quarter. An Information Paper describing the
impact of rebasing constant price estimates
from a 1984–85 base to a 1989–90 base was
published in 1993. 17 Experimental estimates of
national balance sheets for Australia were first
released in 1995, 18 followed by the publication
of regular annual national and sector balance
sheet estimates in 1997.
Following the release of revised international
standards for national accounts in the System of
National Accounts, 1993 (SNA93), the ABS
worked toward implementation of the revised
and extended system recommended in that
document. The first official release of Australian
national accounts statistics on an SNA93 basis
was for the September quarter 1998. Prior
information on the nature and impact of
implementation of the revised standards and
methodology was provided in a series of
discussion and information papers as follows:
Discussion Paper: Introduction of Revised
International Statistical Standards in ABS
Macro-economic Statistics (5245.0),
December 1994.