Description

The establishment of the 2008 benchmark compilation prompted the estimation of the new national accounts series from 2003 to 2011. In order to provide to the public extended series, consistent with the new benchmark compilation, this paper presents the results of a statistical linking exercise from 1986 to 2003, which included some of the methodological innovations of the new benchmark, and the use of chained indexes for volume measures. GDP and the expenditure side variables were linked. The linking exercise was carried out, fi rstly, for annual data, and, secondly, for quarterly data. For the latter, benchmarking methods were used, taking appropriate care of the different seasonal factors observed between series. The new linked series show only slight changes for GDP growth rates, particularly, between 1996 and 2003; on the other hand, somewhat larger revisions occur between 1986 and 1996.