    [Analytical Perspectives]
    [Other Technical Presentations]
    [17. National Income and Product Accounts]
    [From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov]

      The National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs) are an integrated set
    of measures of aggregate U.S. economic activity that are prepared by the
    Department of Commerce. One of the many purposes of the NIPAs is to
    measure the Nation's total current production of goods and services,
    known as gross domestic product (GDP), and the incomes generated in its
    production. Because the NIPAs are widely used in economic analysis, it
    is important to show the NIPA presentation of Federal transactions,
    which differ somewhat from the basis used for other budget
    presentations. This section normally shows the NIPA presentation of
    Federal transactions, but due to disruptions associated with the partial
    shut-down of Government operations resulting from the budget impasse, it
    is not included in the budget this year. The Department of Commerce
    plans to publish the presentation in a forthcoming issue of its Survey
    of Current Business, and the presentation should be restored in next
    year's budget.
      The Department of Commerce undertook a comprehensive revision of the
    NIPAs during the past year. The first stage in the release of the
    revisions was delayed by the partial Government shut-down. Because of
    that delay, and because historical NIPA data have to date only been
    revised for the period since 1958, the Historical Tables volume for this
    budget continues to use GDP and other NIPA data on the pre-revision
    basis, although GDP on the post-revision basis is shown in Chapter 1 of
    this volume. The primary change made in the comprehensive revisions was
    to recognize government expenditures for capital equipment and
    structures as investment. This entailed replacing government
    expenditures for equipment and structures with depreciation charges on
    past investments in computing the surplus or deficit of the government
    sector (State and local as well as Federal). This change in the NIPA
    presentation of government transactions is discussed in Chapter 6 of
    this volume, ``Federal Investment Spending and Capital Budgeting.''