1. INSTITUTIONAL SECTORS IN ESA2010


Introduction

The European System of Accounts (hereinafter referred to as 'the ESA 2010' or 'the ESA') is an internationally compatible accounting framework for a systematic and detailed description of a total economy (that is, a region, country or group of countries), its components and its relations with other total economies.

The predecessor of the ESA 2010, the European System of Accounts 1995 (the ESA 95), was published in 1996

The ESA records all outputs that result from production within the production boundary.

The distinction between market and non-market activity is an important one. An entity controlled by government, which is shown to be a market corporation, is classified in the corporation sector, outside the general government sector. Thus, the deficit and debt levels of the corporation will not be part of the general government deficit and debt.

Institutional units are economic entities that are capable of owning goods and assets, of incurring liabilities and of engaging in economic activities and transactions with other units in their own right. For the purposes of the ESA 2010 system, the institutional units are grouped together into five mutually exclusive domestic institutional sectors.

Sector accounts are created by allocating units to sectors and this enables transactions and balancing items of the accounts to be presented by sector. The presentation by sector reveals many key measures for economic and fiscal policy purposes. The main sectors are:

  • non-financial corporations (S11)
  • financial corporations (S12)
  • government (S13)
  • households (S14)
  • non-profit institutions serving households (NPISHs) (S15)
  • rest of the world (S2)

The sector accounts provide, by institutional sector, a systematic description of the different stages of the economic process: production, generation of income, distribution of income, redistribution of income, use of income and financial and non-financial accumulation. The sector accounts also include balance sheets to describe the stocks of assets, liabilities and net worth at the beginning and the end of the accounting period.

The five sectors together make up the total domestic economy (S1). Each sector is also divided into subsectors. The ESA 2010 system enables a complete set of flow accounts and balance sheets to be compiled for each sector, and subsector, as well as for the total economy. Non-resident units can interact with these five domestic sectors, and the interactions are shown between the five domestic sectors and a sixth institutional sector: the rest of the world sector (S2).

Integrale versie van het ESR2010 Version intégrale du SEC2010

2. DESCRIPTION OF THE DIFFERENT SECTORS


Non-financial corporations (S.11)

Definition: the non-financial corporations sector (S.11) consists of institutional units which are independent legal entities and market producers, and whose principal activity is the production of goods and non-financial services. The non-financial corporations sector also includes non-financial quasi-corporations

The institutional units covered are the following:

a) private and public corporations which are market producers principally engaged in the production of goods and non-financial services;

b) cooperatives and partnerships recognised as independent legal entities which are market producers principally engaged in the production of goods and non-financial services;

c) public producers which are recognised as independent legal entities and which are market producers principally engaged in the production of goods and non-financial services;

d) non-profit institutions or associations serving non-financial corporations, which are recognised as independent legal entities and which are market producers principally engaged in the production of goods and non-financial services;

e) head offices controlling a group of corporations which are market producers, where the preponderant type of activity of the group of corporations as a whole - measured on the basis of value added - is the production of goods and non-financial services;EN 26.6.2013 Official Journal of the European Union L 174/65;

f) SPEs whose principal activity is the provision of goods or non-financial services;

g) private and public quasi-corporations which are market producers principally engaged in the production of goods and non-financial services.

Financial corporations (S.12)

Definition: the financial corporations sector (S.12) consists of institutional units which are independent legal entities and market producers, and whose principal activity is the production of financial services. Such institutional units comprise all corporations and quasi-corporations which are principally engaged in:

a) financial intermediation (financial intermediaries); and/or

b) auxiliary financial activities (financial auxiliaries).

Also included are institutional units providing financial services, where most of either their assets or their liabilities are not transacted on open markets.

The institutional units included in the financial corporations sector (S.12) are the following:

a) private or public corporations which are principally engaged in financial intermediation and/or in auxiliary financial activities;

b) cooperatives and partnerships recognised as independent legal entities which are principally engaged in financial intermediation and/or in auxiliary financial activities; /p>

c) public producers recognised as legal entities, which are principally engaged in financial intermediation and/or in auxiliary financial activities;

d) non-profit institutions recognised as legal entities which are principally engaged in financial intermediation and/or in auxiliary financial activities, or which are serving financial corporations;

e) head offices when all or most of their subsidiaries are, as financial corporations, principally engaged in financial intermediation and/or financial auxiliary activities. These head offices are classified as financial auxiliaries (S.126);

f) holding companies, where the main role is the holding of assets of a group of subsidiary corporations. The make-up of the group can be financial or non-financial - this does not affect the classification of holding companies as captive financial institutions (S.127);

g) SPEs whose principal activity is the provision of financial services;

h) unincorporated investment funds comprising investment portfolios owned by the group of participants, and whose management is undertaken, in general, by other financial corporations. Such funds are institutional units, separate from the managing financial corporation;

i) unincorporated units principally engaged in financial intermediation and subject to regulation and supervision (in most cases classified as deposit-taking corporations except the central bank, insurance corporations or pension funds) are deemed to enjoy autonomy of decision and to have autonomous management independent of their owners; their economic and financial behaviour is similar to that of financial corporations. In this case they are treated as separate institutional units. Examples are branches of non-resident financial corporations.

General government (S.13)

Definition: the general government sector (S.13) consists of institutional units which are non-market producers whose output is intended for individual and collective consumption, and are financed by compulsory payments made by units belonging to other sectors, and institutional units principally engaged in the redistribution of national income and wealth.

The institutional units included in sector S.13 are for example the following:

a) general government units which exist through a legal process to have judicial authority over other units in the economic territory, and administer and finance a group of activities, principally providing non-market goods and services, intended for the benefit of the community;

b) a corporation or quasi-corporation which is a government unit, if its output is mainly non-market and a government unit controls it;

c) non-profit institutions recognised as independent legal entities which are non-market producers and which are controlled by general government;

d) autonomous pension funds, where there is a legal obligation to contribute, and where general government manages the funds with respect to the settlement and approval of contributions and benefits.

Households (S.14)

Definition: the households sector (S.14) consists of individuals or groups of individuals as consumers and as entrepreneurs producing market goods and non-financial and financial services (market producers) provided that the production of goods and services is not by separate entities treated as quasi-corporations. It also includes individuals or groups of individuals as producers of goods and non-financial services for exclusively own final use.

Households as consumers may be defined as small groups of persons who share the same living accommodation, who pool their income and wealth and who consume certain types of goods and services collectively, mainly housing and food.

The households sector includes:

a) individuals or groups of individuals whose principal function is consumption;

b) persons living permanently in institutions who have little or no autonomy of action or decision in economic matters (e.g. members of religious orders living in monasteries, long-term patients in hospitals, prisoners serving long sentences, old persons living permanently in retirement homes). Such people are treated as a single institutional unit: a single household;

c) individuals or groups of individuals whose principal function is consumption and that produce goods and non-financial services for exclusively own final use; only two categories of services produced for own final consumption are included within the system: services of owner-occupied dwellings and domestic services produced by paid employees;

d) sole proprietorships and partnerships without legal status, other than those treated as quasi-corporations, and which are market producers;

e) non-profit institutions serving households, which do not have independent legal status, or those which do but which are of only minor importance.

Non-profit institutions serving households (S.15)

Definition: the non-profit institutions serving households (NPISHs) sector (S.15) consists of non-profit institutions which are separate legal entities, which serve households and which are private non-market producers. Their principal resources are voluntary contributions in cash or in kind from households in their capacity as consumers, from payments made by general government and from property income.

Where such institutions are not very important, they are not included in the NPISH sector, but in the households sector (S.14), as their transactions are indistinguishable from units in that sector. Non-market NPISHs controlled by general government are classified in the general government sector (S.13).

The NPISHs sector includes the following main kinds of NPISHs that provide non-market goods and services to households:

a) trade unions, professional or learned societies, consumers' associations, political parties, churches or religious societies (including those financed but not controlled by governments), and social, cultural, recreational and sports clubs; and

b) ) charities, relief and aid organisations financed by voluntary transfers in cash or in kind from other institutional units

Sector S.15 includes charities, relief or aid agencies serving non-resident units and excludes entities where membership gives a right to a predetermined set of goods and services.

Rest of the world (S.2)

Definition: the rest of the world sector (S.2) is a grouping of units without any characteristic functions and resources; it consists of non-resident units insofar as they are engaged in transactions with resident institutional units, or have other economic links with resident units. Its accounts provide an overall view of the economic relationships linking the national economy with the rest of the world. The institutions of the EU and international organisations are included.