Survey Of Country Practices In Compiling Balance‐Sheet Statistics

From a survey of the 150 members of the United Nations it appears that only one country could at present provide the full range of balance‐sheet statistics called for in the United Nations guidelines on this topic. Seven countries could compile balance sheets confined to conventional types of assets and liabilities–excluding assets like consumer durables and mineral deposits. A further 31 countries presently publish some statistics on certain balance sheet items, but as the data have generally not been collected with a view to constructing national balance sheets they tend to be deficient for such purposes both in coverage and valuation. In other countries only rather trivial kinds of balance‐sheet data are available, such as certain banking statistics collected by the central monetary authority for purposes of bank regulation. A review of sources and methods shows that for financial assets and liabilities extensive use is made of company accounts and enterprise surveys. The estate multiplier method is used in several countries for measuring household assets and net worth. As regards producers' fixed assets, countries with centrally‐planned economies generally take direct surveys of assets, while in countries with market economies the perpetual inventory method is preferred. It is noted that many of the purposes for which balance‐sheet statistics are used can be adequately served without constructing a complete set of accounts. To date balance‐sheet statistics have therefore tended to be developed in a piecemeal fashion with priority going to those parts of the accounts whose uses for economic analysis are most obvious. Chief among these are statistics on the financial assets and liabilities of corporate enterprises and statistics on the stock of producers' fixed assets. These two areas also predominate in countries' plans for the future development of balance‐sheet statistics.