Glossary

A characteristic of a measurement series whereby the summed components equal the aggregate.

The first estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) and its components for a quarter. It is released 25-30 days after the end of the quarter and is based on source data that are incomplete and subject to revision.

Set of I-O tables—make table, use table, direct requirements table, and total requirements tables—that are an update of the most recent benchmark I-O accounts. Annual tables are consistent with the gross domestic product (GDP)-by-industry accounts, but incorporate less comprehensive source data than those used for the benchmark I-O tables.

Record of transactions between U.S. residents and foreign residents during a given time period. Includes transactions in goods, services, income, assets, and liabilities. It is broken down into the current accounts (international), capital accounts (international), and financial accounts (international).

Record of net receipts or payments on goods, services, income, and unilateral current transfers. Current transfers include U.S. government grants to foreign countries, private remittances, and other current transfers.

Current receipts from the rest of the world less current payments to the rest of the world, formerly called "net foreign investment." Current receipts equal exports of goods and services plus income receipts from the rest of the world; current payments are the sum of imports of goods and services, income payments to the rest of the world, and current taxes and transfer payments to the rest of the world (net).

Record of the difference between exports of goods and imports of goods.

Record of the difference between exports of goods and services and imports of goods and services. In the broad sense, this balance is conceptually equal to net exports of goods and services, which is a component of gross domestic product (GDP).

The period from which the weights for a measurement series are derived.

Statistical description–presented in a make table, use table, direct requirements table, and total requirements tables–of the production of goods and services and the transaction flows of goods and services between different industries and to different components of final uses. These accounts are prepared every five years, coinciding with economic census years.

Net payments by businesses to persons, government, and the rest of the world for which no current services are performed.

Consists of payments to the Federal government in the form of premiums for deposit insurance, fees for regulatory and inspection activities, and fines; payments to state and local governments in the form of fines, tobacco settlements, and donations; and net insurance settlements paid to governments as policyholders.

Consists of net insurance settlements and income payments by businesses to persons for which no current services are performed.

Net insurance settlements paid to the rest of the world as policyholders. Excludes taxes paid by domestic corporations to foreign governments.

All corporate and noncorporate private entities organized for profit and certain other entities that are treated as businesses in the national income and product accounts (NIPAs), including mutual financial institutions, private noninsured pension funds, cooperatives, nonprofit organizations that primarily serve businesses, Federal Reserve banks, federally sponsored credit agencies, and government enterprises.

Transactions covering a wide range of private services sold to or purchased from foreigners, such as advertising, telecommunications, computer and data processing services, and accounting and legal services.

Record of capital transfers between U.S. residents and foreign residents, such as debt forgiveness and migrants' transfers, and acquisitions and disposals of nonproduced nonfinancial assets between residents and nonresidents.

The difference between private capital consumption allowances (CCA) and private consumption of fixed capital (CFC).

Consists of tax-return-based depreciation charges for corporations and nonfarm proprietorships and of historical-cost depreciation (calculated by BEA) for farm proprietorships, rental income of persons, and nonprofit institutions.

Expenditures made to acquire, add to, or improve property, plant, and equipment (PP&E). PP&E includes: land, timber, and minerals; structures, machinery, equipment, special tools, and other depreciable property; construction in progress; and tangible and intangible exploration and development costs. Changes in PP&E due to changes in entity-such as mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures-or to changes in accounting methods are excluded. Capital expenditures are measured on a gross basis; sales and other dispositions of fixed assets are not netted against them.

Table that expands the fixed investment component of the input-output (I-O) use table to show the types of new equipment, new structures, and software used by each industry.

A measure used to approximate the chained-type index level and is calculated by taking the current-dollar level of a series in the base period and multiplying it by the change in the chained-type quantity index number for the series since the base period. Chained-dollar estimates correctly show growth rates for a series, but are not additive in periods other than the base period.

Index that is based on the linking (chaining) of indexes to create a time series. Annual chained-type Fisher indices are used in BEA's national income and product accounts (NIPAs) whereby Fisher ideal price indices are calculated using the weights of adjacent years. Those annual changes are then multiplied (chained) together, forming the chained-type index time series.

The change in the physical volume of inventories owned by private business, valued at the average prices of the period. It differs from the change in the book value of inventories reported by many businesses; the difference is the inventory valuation adjustment (IVA).