Benchmark revision of the Financial Accounts of the Spanish Economy (2019)

Abstract

In 2014, EU countries adapted the methodology for compiling the financial accounts to the new version of the European System of Accounts, known as ESA 2010, which replaced the previous version ESA 95. A harmonised revision policy for macroeconomic statistics2 was agreed at European level, recommending that the following benchmark revision of the national accounts, financial accounts and balance of payments and international investment position statistics take place in 2019.3 This revision of the macroeconomic statistics has been conducted in Spain – in parallel and in unison – by the agencies responsible for these statistics, i.e. the National Statistics Institute (INE, by its Spanish abbreviation) and the Banco de España, and also, as regards general government, the National Audit Office (IGAE, by its Spanish abbreviation).(...) This statistical note sets out the most significant changes made to the Financial Accounts of the Spanish Economy (FASE) in 2019, in the updates of the financial accounts corresponding to 2019 Q1 and Q2 (published in July and October 2019, respectively), with respect to the values released in the annual publication in June 2019. In addition to this introduction, the note contains five sections which briefly assess the scale of the revisions made to the financial balance sheets of each institutional sector of the financial accounts system and detail the most significant changes to the main categories of financial assets/liabilities in each case. The seventh section assesses the impact of these revisions on the main indicators of the financial accounts.