1. Introduction

The national accounts provide a coherent and consistent overview of the Dutch economy. Key macroeconomic indicators in the national accounts include gross domestic product (GDP), gross national income (GNI), general government balance, government debt, external assets and households’ disposable income. The national accounts also include figures on consumer spending, investments, imports and exports of goods and services, financial positions (including changes) and employment.

In accordance with the European revision policy, the European Commission recommends that member states revise their national accounts at least every five years and publish the revised outcomes in years ending on a four and a nine. This publication of the revision for reporting year 2021 ensures that the Netherlands is in compliance with this recommendation. A one-off six-year interval has been established between successive revisions to ensure alignment with this recommendation, as the last revision but one (regarding reporting year 2015) was published in 2018. Almost all other European Union (EU) member states will also publish their revised figures between May and October of this year.

The conceptual basis for the national accounts is the System of National Accounts 2008 (SNA 2008) adopted under the auspices of the United Nations and other international organisations. Within the European Union (EU) the European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA 2010) has legal force in the form of a regulation (EU Regulation No 549/2013). ESA 2010 is based on SNA 2008, but in some instances is more specific and more precise in the description of the concepts. ESA 2010 also differs from SNA 2008 in a limited number of respects.

These strict guidelines help ensure that the national accounts in all EU member states are compiled as far as possible in accordance with the same interpretation of concepts and rules. The legally enshrined agreements on the compilation of macroeconomic statistics reflect the important role that such statistics fulfil in determining member states’ contributions to the EU’s own resources and to the assessment of their government finances. The GDP/GNI level also plays a role in Member States’ contributions to other international organisations (such as OECD) and serves as a benchmark against which other economic indicators are measured (such as expenditure on development cooperation and defence activities).

Only limited amendments were made in applying the international guidelines in the 2021 revision. The amendments relate to textual clarifications where the existing guidelines lacked clarity, such as on household solar power output and the approach to non-resident drug barons. Many of the amendments in this revision are a consequence of four overarching themes: Recommendations or action points during verification of the figures by Eurostat and the European Central Bank (ECB). Because of the importance of macroeconomic statistics, extensive checks are carried out on the figures. Recommendations or action points can flow from this.

• New sources. Several new sources became available at CBS and De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) in recent years. This mainly concerns sections of the economy in which no direct source was available and where model-based estimates were previously used.
• Alignment with existing sources. Even if no new sources are used for this revision, re-alignment to existing sources may result in adjustments. This often directly or indirectly concerns the requirement for comparability of successive estimates in national accounts. This allows source developments to be included, but sometimes creates differences with the source over time.
• Reclassifications of companies and institutions. There has been a major focus in recent years on improving the classification of enterprises and institutions according to economic activity (such as manufacturing, construction industry and business services) and sector (such as non-financial corporations (NFCs), financial enterprises and the government). This has sometimes resulted in major shifts between economic activities and/or sectors. The impact of this on macroeconomic key figures such as GDP and GNI is usually of limited scope.

Currently, only revised data are available for reporting year 2021. On 24 June 2024, the entire revised time series from 1995 to 2023, including the underlying quarters¹⁾ will be published on StatLine.

In the Netherlands, CBS and DNB collaborate closely in compiling macroeconomic statistics (the national accounts, balance of payments and government finance statistics), through joint use of source material and joint compilation processes. DNB staff members also work directly on compiling the national accounts. As a result, the national accounts key figures and the balance of payments and international investment position prepared by DNB have been fully reconciled since 2018. The revision of these systems also took place jointly. DNB discusses the results of revising the balance of payments and the international investment position in its own publication.

This publication is structured as follows. Chapter 2 provides a statistical overview of the revisions to the key indicators of the national accounts. Chapter 3 covers the background and reason for the revision. Chapter 4 (more detailed interpretation of the guidelines) and Chapter 5 (revisions per sub-system) explain the background to the major revisions. Chapter 6 places the revisions resulting from the 2021 revision in a historical perspective. Chapter 7 sets out the revision publication schedule for 2024 and the revision strategy for the future.