BRIEF INTRODUCTION

Statistics on national accounts include mainly four components, namely, gross domestic product, input-output table, flow of fund table and balance of payment.

I. Gross Domestic Product

The data on GDP are calculated by the Department of National Economic Accounting, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) with various approaches in the light of the features of various sectors, various expenditure structures and the data sources. The gross national product can be calculated on the base of GDP and the net factor income from abroad.

Data on the national accounts of the latest year published in the yearbook are not final and are subject to changes. When it happens to be a census year, the data of GDP of the past years may also be revised. In 1995, the GDP figures of the past years were adjusted in accordance with the result of the first tertiary industry census. Data published in this yearbook are the adjusted data.

Regional data in this yearbook are prepared according to the data of national accounts provided by the statistical bureaus of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government. The sum of the regional data is not equal to the national total.

II. Input-output Table

The 1997 input-output table of China included in this chapter are compiled by the Department of National Accounts of the National Bureau of Statistics.

Reflecting the sources of the input into, and the utilization of the output from production by various industries of the national economy. It is used to reveal, in quantitative terms, the interrelated and mutually dependent economic and technological relations between industries.

III. Flow of Fund Table

Similar to internationally accepted format, the flow of fund table of China constitutes a matrix of institutional sectors by transactions. Items of transactions are expressed as row headings representing forms of distribution and methods of financing. Institutional sectors are shown as column headings, grouped by the characteristics of the transactors. There are 5 groups of institutional sectors in the flow of fund table, namely, nonfinancial corporations, financial institutions, general governments, households, and the rest of the world. Under each sector there are 2 headings: source of fund and utilization of fund. The current flow of fund table is composed of two parts: the first part is the physical (real) transaction compiled by the National Accounts Department of the National Bureau of Statistics, and the second part is the financial transactions compiled by the Survey and Statistics Department of the People's Bank of China.

IV. Balance of Payment Table

The balance of payment table was compiled by the Balance of Payment Department of the State Administration of Foreign Exchanges. The methodology and standards in the 5th edition of the Manual on Balance of Payment were fully adopted in compiling balance of payment statistics since 1997.