National accounts

• Regional gross domestic product: revision procedure (PDF)

• Quarterly short-term gross domestic product: revision procedure (PDF)

• Quarterly long-term gross domestic product: revision procedure (PDF)

• Annual short-term gross domestic product: revision procedure (PDF)

• Annual long-term gross domestic product: revision procedure (PDF)

Statistics Lithuania, as part of the European Statistical System, has undertaken not only to prepare information that is comparable in respect of methodologies and classifications at the level of the European Union (EU), but also to follow the EU guidelines in the coordination of producing, disseminating and updating statistics. This is particularly relevant in the area of macroeconomic statistics as it is applied not only for the purpose of international comparisons and analysis, but also for adoption of administrative decisions.

Statistical information is revised for various reasons, therefore the following two revision categories have been distinguished: 1) regular revisions that are performed during each information producing process; 2) major (benchmark) revisions that are performed every few years. The latter are carried out by introducing new methods or standards in response to the emergence of new data sources or due to any other overriding reasons. 

EU official statistics producing institutions are recommended to follow a common harmonised revision policy (PDF) for statistics  that would ensure to users comparability of macroeconomic statistics among different statistical domains in the EU area. That is not a simple task, because information sources used for producing such statistics are not always consistent from the viewpoint of content or delivery time, whereas requirements established for diverse statistics providers are not harmonised in all cases. EU guidelines envisage the possibility to harmonise national revision timing and time series length of revised indicators.

The last time series revision of national accounts aggregates was carried out in 2014, and was coordinated across all EU countries. In line with the EU guidelines regarding the revision periodicity, it is expected that major (benchmark) revisions will be carried out every five years. For the said reason, 2019 is recommended as the most suitable target year for performance of the harmonised revision of national accounts in the EU in order to ensure that macroeconomic statistics disseminated in the European area will be comparable among EU countries.

Statistics Lithuania is planning to publish the revised indicators of national accounts in September 2019. With a view to ensuring coordinated alignment between different macroeconomic statistical domains, not only time series of the indicators for National Accounts, but also the Government Finance and Balance of Payments Statistics will be revised. The 2010–2017 series are envisaged to be changed in the first stage.

Close to the deadline for information publication, macroeconomic statistics users will be more widely notified of the future changes, their impact on the major macroeconomic indicators, such as Gross Domestic Product, General Government Deficit and Debt figures, Current Account Balance. Revision results will be available in the Database of Indicators and summarised in the news release https://osp.stat.gov.lt/en/informacijos-skelbimo-kalendoriai.

Statistics Lithuania published the revision of national accounts data according to the requirements of the Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union (ESA2010) publishes revised national accounts data for 1995–2014. The first stage of the revision was finished in 2014 and covered time series for 2004–2014. In 2015, the revision was expanded to the years 1995 - 2003 and some improvements to the data published in autumn of 2014 were introduced. That means that all Lithuanian national accounts data and data for general government sector as from October 2015 are recalculated according to the updated ESA 2010 methodological provisions, as well as new methods and data sources.  National accounts are compiled according to the internationally harmonized methodology and data provision requirements which are the same across the EU; therefore, aggregates of national accounts are simultaneously revised in other EU countries.

The new ESA 2010 replaced the ESA 95 in order to adjust the system of national accounts to the changed economic environment while taking into account the progress achieved in improving methodological provisions.

The ESA 2010 sets principles and methodology applied to assessment of national accounts at European level. It is harmonized with the System of National Accounts 2008 (2008 SNA) and the sixth edition of the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6). The 2008 SNA provisions were prepared by the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, Eurostat, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Bank. The 2008 SNA was approved in 2009, while the ESA 2010 in 2013.

The implementation of the new BPM6 standards is carried out by the Central Bank of the Republic of Lithuania. The revised data of the Balance of Payments were published in June 2014. More information on the implementation of BPM6 is available on the website of the Central Bank of the Republic of Lithuania.

Publication of the updated indicators of national accounts

As of October 2015, the revised main annual and quarterly aggregates of Lithuanian national accounts based on ESA2010 methodology for the period 1995–2014 are published in the data base of Statistics Lithuania.