Preview of the 2009 Comprehensive Revision of the NIPAs: Statistical Changes

摘要

IN JULY 2009, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) will release the results of the 13th comprehensive, or benchmark, revision of the national income and product accounts (NIPAs). The last such revision was released in December 2003. This article, which describes statistical changes, is the fourth in a series of SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS articles about the comprehensive revision. An article in the March 2008 issue described the effects of incorporating the 2002 benchmark input-output (I-O) accounts and identified some of the proposals being considered for this comprehensive revision. An article in May 2008 described a new classification system for personal consumption expenditures (PCE). An article in the March 2009 SURVEY covered changes in definitions and in the presentation of data, including the change in reference year from 2000 to 2005 for the chain-type quantity and price indexes and for the chained-dollar estimates. Following the release of the comprehensive revision results in July, an article in the September 2009 SURVEY will describe the revised NIPA estimates and present and discuss the effects of the changes in definitions and the statistical changes.