Publication revision National accounts, reporting period 2021 erratum

2. Overview of the revisions to the key indicators of the national accounts.

The revision of the national accounts over reporting year 2021 has the following consequences for the most important macroeconomic key figures:

  • GDP was revised upwards by €21 billion to a total of €892 billion, an increase of 2.4 percent. GNI2) was revised upwards by €17.9 billion, an increase of 2.0 percent. The external assets position was adjusted downwards by €181 billion to €632 billion;
  • The estimate of the number of employed persons was reduced by 83 thousand (0.8 percent) to 9.7 million people. The number of hours worked by these employed persons was actually revised upwards by 224 million hours (1.6 percent). Employee remuneration was revised upwards by €4.5 billion (1.1 percent);
  • The government’s balance of receivables remained almost unchanged at -€20 billion (-2.2 percent of GDP). Government debt according to the EMU definition was also hardly revised and amounts to €450 billion. As a result of GDP being revised upwards, government debt, expressed as a percentage of GDP, now amounts to 50.4 percent. Before the revision, government debt was 51.7 percent of GDP;
  • Household disposable income3) was revised upwards by €1.3 billion. Household consumer spending was increased by €19.5 billion. As a result, the household savings rate4) was revised down by 4.2 percentage points to 19.1 percent.

Chapters 5 and 6 provide more detailed explanations of the most important revisions. The table below provides an overview of the revisions to a number of key indicators.

Table 2.1 Revisions to national accounts key indicators, reporting year 2021
Before revisionAfter revisionChange
Gross domestic product market prices (mln euros)870 587891 55020 963
Consumption of fixed assets (mln euros)146 714144 622-2 092
Operating surplus and mixed income (mln euros)374 017385 94811 931
Gross national income (mln euros)884 503902 37617 873
Disposable national income (gross) (mln euros)877 807893 74015 933
Consumption expenditure (mln euros)585 149606 79821 649
National savings gross (mln euros)292 922287 181-5 741
Investment (gross) (mln euros)187 460197 86910 409
National net borrowing (mln euros)106 07489 669-16 405
Credit to private sector, year-end stock (% of GDP)223,7246,622,9
External capital (mln euros)812 567631 956-180 611
Remuneration of employees (mln euros)419 346423 7994 453
Employed persons (1000 persons)9 7739 690-83
Labour volume employed persons (1000 jobs)10 94110 892-49
Labour volume employed persons (1000 labour years)7 8597 87516
Labour volume employed persibs (mln hours)13 75113 975224
Public debt (EMU) (% GDP)51,750,4-1,3
Government balance (EMU) (% GDP)-2,2-2,20
EMU debt (mln euros)449 659449 620-39
EMU balance/national net lending or net borrowing (mln euros)-19 466-19 599-133
Disposable income (gross) (mln euros)445 329446 6661 337
Final consumption expenditure (mln euros)360 910380 42719 517
Savings ratio (% disposable income)23,319,1-4,2
Share of trade surplus in GDP (% GDP)11,39,7-1,6
Trade surplus (mln euros)97 97886 883-11 095
Current account balance (mln euros)105 46289 312-16 150

2) GNI equals GDP plus the balance of primary incomes from and to the rest of the world. The primary incomes include tax on production and imports, subsidies, employees remuneration and income from assets, such as interest and dividend payments.
3) In this publication, the households’ sector includes non-profit institutions serving households (NPISH).
4) The savings rate was calculated by dividing gross disposable income, adjusted for the change in pension provision and minus consumer spending, by gross disposable income adjusted for the change in pension provision.