Public Consultation - Modernising the System of National Accounts and Balance of Payments Manual

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) recently held a public consultation on how Australia should implement the 2025 System of National Accounts (2025 SNA) and Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual 7th Edition (BPM7). The consultation sought feedback on the updates to the manuals with a focus on how ABS should prioritise implementing the supplementary tables and thematic accounts.

As part of the process, the ABS reviewed updates that impact key economic measures such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP). These updates are being assessed and will be implemented where feasible and material to the Australian economy. Making these changes is important to ensure Australia remains compliant with international statistical standards.

The public consultation opened on 10 December 2024 and closed on 31 January 2025.

To support participation, the ABS held a webinar to explain the proposed changes and help people make submissions.

These updates will support informed decision making by government, industry and the broader community by more accurately measuring contemporary economic activities and industries.

In addition to the public consultation, the ABS also consulted with 13 government agencies, including Treasury and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

A small number of public submissions were received from individuals, organisations, and government.

These submissions highlighted the following changes as being particularly beneficial for their macroeconomic analysis:

• Distribution accounts
• Environmental classifications
• Digital supply-use tables
• Health care

No major concerns were raised about the proposed updates to the System of National Accounts and Balance of Payments. 

The feedback from public submissions aligned with the priorities identified during consultations with the government agencies.

The consultation with government agencies emphasised the importance of:

• Maintaining international comparability

• Simultaneous implementation of 2025 SNA and BPM7 updates that impact key economic aggregates to avoid iterative revisions to time series

The ABS has completed its review of these submissions.

To guide our decisions, we developed a prioritisation framework. This framework considered factors such as public value, international comparability, materiality to published estimates and how feasible each change would be to implement. It will help us determine which changes should be prioritised in the updated System of National Accounts and Balance of Payments manuals.

Changes that impact Australia’s international comparability of key economic measures such as GDP were highly prioritised. These include updates such as the inclusion of data as an asset and a return on capital for non-market producers. Other core changes such as the inclusion of depletion and the split ownership of natural resources are considered highly desirable for informing policy.

Beyond these core updates, we identified several other changes as both important to stakeholders and feasible to be implemented:

• Distribution accounts
• Environmental classifications
• Digital supply use tables.

Consultation with government agencies, also identified other changes that would better illustrate:

• The net-zero transition
• International trade
• Digital activity

The ABS will use this feedback to make a recommendation to the Australian Government.

We thank those who contributed their feedback during the consultation.

Any questions?

Please email

na.transformation@abs.gov.au with any questions on this consultation or for further information.