Indonesia's new national accounts

Abstract

This note addresses some of the main changes in Indonesia's national accounts, from 2000. These have resulted in higher estimates of GDP and slightly higher rates of GDP growth. The changes are part of a regular cycle of revisions and improvements in national accounting by the central statistics agency, BPS. On the output side, the higher level of GDP in 2000 is mainly due to upward revisions of value added in manufacturing industry, banking and trade. On the expenditure side, the higher level is mainly due to an upward revision of exports and the introduction of an estimate of investment in inventories. The choice of a new base year has resulted in higher weights for sectors with relatively high growth. This explains the higher rates of total GDP growth during 2000–03.

Notes

¹In comparison, the 1990 I–O table was published in March 1994; the first revision of the national accounts was not published until February 1996.

²BPS (2004b: 70) suggests that output in banking is defined as the total receipts from bank services to customers, including various charges such as for account administration and money transfers, and the imputed difference between interest received on outstanding loans and interest paid on deposits. While this may in principle yield the same estimate of output, it is apparently not how BI calculated it.

³For an explanation of why the change yields a higher estimate of value added, see Lynch (1998).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pierre van der Eng

I thank Mr Supriyanto SE MA, Director, Directorate of Production Accounts (Direktorat Neraca Produksi), BPS, and Drs Abdul Rachman SE, Director, Directorate of Consumption Accounts (Direktorat Neraca Konsumsi), BPS, and their staff members, for providing information about the recent revision of the national accounts of Indonesia.