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


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                18. NATIONAL INCOME AND PRODUCT ACCOUNTS

  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 production of goods and services, known as 
gross domestic product (GDP), and the incomes generated in its 
production. GDP is the sum of the products of the household, business, 
government, and foreign-owned sectors. Because the NIPAs are widely used 
in economic analysis, it is important to show the NIPA presentation of 
Federal transactions.
  Federal transactions are included in the NIPAs as part of the 
government sector. The concepts for the Federal sector have been 
designed to measure certain important economic effects of Federal 
transactions in a way that is consistent with the conceptual structure 
of the entire set of integrated accounts. The NIPA Federal sector is not 
itself a budget, because it is not a financial plan for proposing, 
determining, and controlling the fiscal activities of the Government. 
Rather, it is an accounting translation of the budget to meet 
specialized and important needs, chiefly the measurement of the impact 
of Federal receipts, current expenditures, and the current deficit on 
the national economy. NIPA concepts differ in many ways from budget 
concepts, and therefore the NIPA presentation of Federal finances is 
significantly different from that of the budget.
  GDP is a measure of the Nation's final output, which excludes 
intermediate product to avoid double counting. Government consumption 
expenditures and gross investment are included in GDP as part of final 
output, together with personal consumption expenditures, gross private 
domestic investment, and net exports of goods and services. Other 
Federal expenditures--transfer payments, grants to State and local 
governments, subsidies, and net interest payments--are not final output. 
Rather, they are transfers of income to others, whose consumption 
expenditures, investment, or transactions with foreigners are part of 
final output. An entire set of receipt and current expenditure 
transactions of the Federal Government is prepared as one sector of the 
NIPAs; however, when the accounts for all the sectors are consolidated 
into an account for the Nation as a whole, transfer payments, grants, 
subsidies, and net interest expenditures are canceled out by the receipt 
of those payments as income in other sectors. This leaves only 
government consumption expenditures and gross investment--State and 
local as well as Federal--to be included in final output.

              Differences Between the NIPAs and the Budget

  Federal transactions in the NIPAs are measured according to NIPA 
accounting concepts in order to be compatible with the purposes of the 
NIPAs and other transactions recorded in the NIPAs. As a result they 
differ from the budget in netting, timing, and coverage. These 
differences cause total receipts and expenditures in the NIPAs to differ 
from total receipts and outlays in the budget. Differences in timing and 
coverage also cause the NIPA current deficit to differ from the budget 
deficit. Netting differences have equal effects on receipts and 
expenditures and thus have no effect on the current deficit. Besides 
these differences, the NIPAs combine transactions into different 
categories from those used in the budget.
  Netting differences arise when the budget records certain transactions 
as offsets to outlays while they are recorded as receipts in the NIPAs 
(or vice versa). The budget treats all income that comes to the 
Government due to its sovereign powers--mainly, but not exclusively, 
taxes--as governmental receipts. On the other hand, the budget offsets 
against outlays any income that arises from voluntary business-type 
transactions with the public. The NIPAs generally follow this concept as 
well, and all income to government enterprises such as the Postal 
Service or the power administrations is offset against expenditures. 
However, the NIPAs have a narrower definition of ``business-type 
transactions''. Rents, royalties, and regulatory or inspection fees are 
recorded under receipts as business nontaxes. The budget classifies 
premiums for Medicare Part B, Supplementary Medical Insurance, as 
business-type transactions, whereas the NIPAs record them as social 
insurance receipts.
  In the budget, any intragovernmental income from one account to 
another is offset against outlays rather than being recorded as a 
receipt. Government contributions for employee retirement are an 
example: the budget offsets these payments against outlays. In contrast, 
the NIPAs treat the Federal Government as any other employer and show 
contributions for employee social insurance as expenditures by the 
employing agencies and governmental (rather than offsetting) receipts to 
the appropriate social insurance funds. The NIPAs also include certain 
imputations that the budget does not. For example, unemployment benefits 
for Federal employees are financed by direct appropriations rather than 
social insurance contributions. The NIPAs impute social insurance 
contributions by employing agencies to finance these benefits--again, 
treating the Federal Government as any other employer.

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  Timing differences for receipts occur because the NIPAs generally 
record personal taxes and social insurance contributions when they are 
paid and business taxes when they accrue, while the budget records all 
receipts when they are received. Another sort of timing difference 
arises on the expenditure side because the budget includes outlays for 
Federal investments as they are paid for, while the Federal sector of 
the NIPAs instead includes a depreciation charge on past investments 
(``consumption of general government fixed capital'') among ``current 
expenditures.''
  The budget and the NIPAs also have coverage differences. The NIPAs 
exclude transactions with U.S. territories. The NIPAs also exclude the 
proceeds from the sales of nonproduced assets such as land. Bonuses paid 
on Outer Continental Shelf oil leases and proceeds from broadcast 
spectrum auctions are shown as offsetting receipts in the budget and are 
deducted from budget outlays. In the NIPAs these transactions are 
excluded as an exchange of assets with no production involved.
  Financial transactions such as loan disbursements, loan repayments, 
loan asset sales, and loan guarantees are excluded from the NIPAs on the 
grounds that such transactions simply involve an exchange of assets. In 
contrast, under the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990, for direct loan 
obligations and loan guarantee commitments made after 1991, the budget 
records the estimated subsidy cost of the direct loan or loan guarantee 
when the loan is disbursed. The cash flows with the public are recorded 
in nonbudgetary accounts as a means of financing the budget deficit 
rather than as budgetary transactions themselves. This treatment 
recognizes that part of a Federal direct loan is an exchange of assets 
with equal value but part is normally a subsidy to the borrower. It also 
recognizes the subsidy normally granted by loan guarantees. In the 
NIPAs, neither the subsidies nor the loan transactions are included; 
however, the NIPAs include all interest transactions with the public, 
including net interest paid to the financing accounts.

                                                    Table 18-1.  FEDERAL TRANSACTIONS IN THE NATIONAL INCOME AND PRODUCT ACCOUNTS, 1987-1998                                                    
                                                                                    (In billions of dollars)                                                                                    
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                                                                                                                 Actual                                                           Estimate      
                         Description                         -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                 1987       1988       1989       1990       1991       1992       1993       1994       1995       1996       1997       1998  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                          RECEIPTS                                                                                                                                                              
Personal tax and nontax receipts............................     398.3      407.9      458.3      477.3      477.4      485.8      513.4      555.9      602.7      660.0      687.7      723.2 
Corporate profits tax accruals..............................      99.3      107.7      119.1      116.5      111.5      115.4      130.9      157.6      183.2      179.5      189.2      196.8 
Indirect business tax and nontax accruals...................      56.4       60.4       61.7       63.6       75.8       80.9       86.4       92.7       91.7       85.9       90.4       87.8 
Contributions for social insurance..........................     368.5      405.6      430.8      455.1      476.7      499.0      522.3      551.2      581.2      600.1      632.5      654.1 
                                                             -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Total receipts........................................     922.5      981.5    1,069.9    1,112.5    1,141.5    1,181.0    1,253.0    1,357.5    1,458.8    1,531.5    1,599.7    1,662.0 
                                                             ===================================================================================================================================
                    CURRENT EXPENDITURES                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                
Consumption expenditures....................................     371.1      382.6      407.8      417.2      442.5      448.9      452.3      454.3      454.8      451.2      456.4      449.9 
  Defense...................................................     280.8      293.4      308.2      306.1      324.4      318.9      315.0      310.8      303.5      305.3      304.6      297.9 
  Nondefense................................................      90.3       89.1       99.6      111.1      118.1      130.0      137.3      143.5      151.3      145.8      151.8      152.0 
Transfer payments...........................................     410.1      431.6      461.4      505.6      509.6      607.4      651.3      677.0      712.4      753.3      795.3      836.3 
  To persons................................................     399.4      420.5      449.7      490.7      535.7      595.8      633.6      661.7      697.3      740.7      782.0      822.7 
  To the rest of the world..................................      10.7       11.1       11.7       14.9      -26.0       11.5       17.7       15.3       15.1       12.5       13.3       13.6 
Grants-in-aid to State and local governments................     103.3      108.4      115.8      128.4      147.1      168.4      180.1      196.3      204.4      214.7      230.8      246.6 
Net interest paid...........................................     134.2      146.5      161.9      178.5      187.1      197.9      192.0      195.9      224.3      229.7      236.0      240.0 
Subsidies less current surplus of Government enterprises....      30.2       34.4       32.9       29.5       31.7       34.1       39.3       40.5       33.5       37.1       38.7       36.1 
Wage disbursements less accruals............................      -0.1        0.1   .........        -*          *   .........  .........  .........  .........  .........  .........  .........
                                                             -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Total current expenditures............................   1,048.8    1,103.5    1,179.7    1,259.2    1,318.1    1,456.7    1,515.1    1,563.9    1,629.4    1,685.9    1,757.1    1,808.9 
                                                             ===================================================================================================================================
      Current deficit (-)...................................    -126.4     -122.0     -109.9     -146.7     -176.6     -275.7     -262.1     -206.4     -170.6     -154.4     -157.4     -147.0 
                                                                                                                                                                                                
                          ADDENDUM                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                
Gross investment............................................      79.2       73.8       65.9       78.5       79.5       74.4       72.5       68.2       65.1       62.9       59.0       58.0 
  Defense...................................................      64.8       60.2       51.7       61.7       61.9       54.3       50.4       44.8       45.2       43.2       38.5       37.4 
  Nondefense................................................      14.4       13.5       14.2       16.8       17.6       20.1       22.1       18.1       19.9       19.7       20.5       20.6 
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* $50 million or less.                                                                                                                                                                          

  Deposit insurance outlays for resolving failed banks and thrift 
institutions are similarly excluded from the NIPAs on the grounds that 
there are no offsetting current income flows from these transactions. In 
1991, this exclusion was the largest difference between the NIPAs and 
the budget and tended to make the budget deficit larger than the NIPA 
current deficit. In subsequent years, as assets acquired from failed 
financial institutions have been sold, these collections have tended to 
make the budget deficit smaller than the NIPA current deficit.

                         Federal Sector Receipts

  Table 18-1 shows Federal receipts in the four major categories used in 
the NIPAs, which are similar to the budget categories but with 
significant differences.
  Personal tax and nontax receipts is the largest category. It is 
composed primarily of personal income 


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taxes, but also includes estate and gift taxes, fees, fines, and other receipts from persons.
  Corporate profits tax accruals differ in classification from the 
corresponding budget category primarily because the NIPAs include the 
deposit of earnings of the Federal Reserve System as corporate profits 
taxes, while the budget treats these collections as miscellaneous 
receipts. The timing difference between the NIPAs and the budget is 
especially large for corporate receipts.
  Indirect business tax and nontax accruals are composed of excise 
taxes, customs duties, royalties, fines, and other receipts from 
business.
  Contributions for social insurance differ from the corresponding 
budget category primarily because: (1) the NIPAs include Federal 
employer contributions for employee retirement in this category as a 
Government receipt, while the budget offsets the contributions against 
outlays as undistributed offsetting receipts; (2) the NIPAs include 
premiums for social insurance programs including Part B of Medicare as 
Government receipts, while the budget nets them against outlays; and (3) 
the NIPAs include imputations for contributions for Federal employees' 
unemployment insurance and workers' compensation.

                   Federal Sector Current Expenditures

  Table 18-1 shows current expenditures in the six major NIPA 
categories, which are very different from the budget categories.
  Government consumption expenditures are the goods and services 
purchased by the Federal Government in the current account, including 
employee compensation. This category is a new one introduced a year ago 
as part of the regular comprehensive revision of the NIPAs. One effect 
of this comprehensive revision was to replace the previous category 
``government purchases of goods and services'' with ``consumption 
expenditures.'' The previous category included gross investment spending 
but did not include imputed depreciation on federally owned fixed 
capital (``consumption of general government fixed capital''); the new 
category does. Gross investment (shown as addendum items in Table 18-1) 
is now excluded from current expenditure (which includes depreciation) 
in reckoning the government current surplus or current deficit on a NIPA 
basis. The same changes were made to the State and local government 
sector of the NIPAs, which now reflects depreciation of State and local 
fixed capital (including that financed by Federal grants in aid). The 
inclusion of depreciation on fixed capital (structures and equipment) in 
current expenditures is intended as a proxy for the services of capital; 
i.e., for its contribution to government output of public services.
  Although gross investment is not included in government current 
expenditure, both government gross investment and current consumption 
expenditures (including depreciation) are now included in total GDP 
(both in current estimates and in historical NIPA data), which makes the 
treatment of the government sectors in the NIPAs more like that of the 
private business sector. This new treatment had the effect of increasing 
the level of measured U.S. GDP by the amount of depreciation on 
government-owned capital (Federal, State and local), including that of 
government enterprises. It raised calendar year 1995 GDP, for example, 
by $147 billion, or 2.1 percent.
  Transfer payments is the largest expenditure category. Transfer 
payments to persons are mainly for income security and health programs, 
such as social security and Medicare. Transfer payments to the rest of 
the world include grants to foreign governments and payments under 
social security and other similar programs to individuals living abroad.

                                           Table 18-2.  RELATIONSHIP OF THE BUDGET TO THE FEDERAL SECTOR, NIPA                                          
                                                                (In billions of dollars)                                                                
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                Actual                                                     Estimate     
                                 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                    1987      1988      1989      1990      1991      1992      1993      1994      1995      1996      1997      1998  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
            RECEIPTS                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                        
Budget receipts.................     854.4     909.3     991.2   1,032.0   1,055.0   1,091.3   1,154.4   1,258.6   1,351.8   1,453.1   1,505.4   1,566.8
  Coverage differences..........      -1.2      -1.2      -1.4      -1.6      -1.7      -1.8      -1.8      -2.0      -2.3      -2.2      -2.4      -2.4
  Contributions to government                                                                                                                           
   employee retirement funds                                                                                                                            
   (grossing)...................      57.7      59.6      60.9      62.2      66.0      67.6      67.3      66.9      66.5      64.9      71.1      73.3
  Other netting and grossing....      11.1      13.8      13.9      16.6      20.8      25.5      28.8      30.3      28.0      27.1      30.8      28.5
  Timing differences............       1.0       0.5       3.6       3.5       2.2      -1.1       4.4       4.7       9.1     -11.3      -5.2      -4.2
  Other.........................      -0.5      -0.4       1.7      -0.2      -0.9      -0.5      -0.1      -1.1       3.4       0.0       0.0       0.0
    NIPA receipts...............     922.5     981.5   1,069.9   1,112.5   1,141.5   1,181.0   1,253.0   1,357.5   1,456.5   1,531.5   1,599.7   1,662.0
                                 =======================================================================================================================
          EXPENDITURES                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                        
Budget outlays..................   1,004.2   1,064.5   1,143.7   1,253.2   1,324.4   1,381.7   1,409.4   1,461.7   1,515.7   1,560.3   1,631.0   1,687.5
  Net lending...................      -2.6     -13.2      -4.3      -1.3      -4.7      -3.6      -9.0      -1.1       7.6      12.7       1.0      -8.8
  Deposit insurance and other                                                                                                                           
   financial transactions.......       3.8       1.3     -10.7     -57.4     -66.8      -3.8      21.7       5.0      23.8       8.9       8.4       8.9
  Net purchases of nonproduced                                                                                                                          
   assets.......................       1.4       0.1       0.7       1.0      -0.2      -0.2      -0.2      -0.2      -7.6       0.3       7.9      11.4
  Other coverage differences....      -4.0      -5.8      -6.4      -6.9      -7.4      -5.0      -2.9      -2.9     -10.1      -8.3      -8.2      -8.5
  Contributions to government                                                                                                                           
   employee retirement funds....      57.7      59.6      60.9      62.2      66.0      67.6      67.3      66.9      66.5      64.9      71.1      73.3
  Other netting and grossing                                                                                                                            
   differences..................      11.1      13.8      13.9      16.6      20.8      25.5      28.8      30.3      28.0      27.1      30.8      28.5
  Difference between investment                                                                                                                         
   and depreciation.............     -25.5     -17.5     -15.9     -16.4     -14.3     -10.3      -5.2       3.0       8.4      10.2      13.3      14.2
  Other timing differences......      10.5       3.4      -2.1       8.2       0.2       4.8       5.2       1.2      -1.0       9.8       1.8       2.6
    NIPA current expenditures...   1,048.8   1,103.5   1,179.7   1,259.2   1,318.1   1,456.7   1,515.1   1,563.9   1,634.7   1,685.9   1,757.1   1,808.9
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Grants-in-aid to State and local governments are designed to help 
finance a range of programs. Grants are for income security, Medicaid, 
capital expenditures for infrastructure, and other purposes.
  Net interest paid is the interest paid by the Government on its debt, 
less interest received on its loans.
  Subsidies less current surplus of Government enterprises consists of 
two elements: (1) subsidy payments for resident businesses (including 
farms); and (2) the current surplus (or current deficit) of ``Government 
enterprises,'' such as the Postal Service, which are business-type 
operations of Government that usually appear in the budget as public 
enterprise revolving funds. As part of the changes made in last year's 
comprehensive revision of the NIPAs, imputed depreciation (consumption 
of enterprise fixed capital) now reduces the current surplus of 
government enterprises in comparison to the previous treatment.
  NIPA subsidies do not include the imputed credit subsidies estimated 
as part of credit reform in the budget. Rather, loans and guarantees are 
categorized as financial transactions and are excluded from the NIPAs.
  Wage disbursements less accruals is an adjustment that is necessary to 
the extent that wages are earned in a different period than they are 
paid.

                      Differences in the Estimates

  Since the introduction of the unified budget in January 1968, NIPA 
receipts have exceeded budget receipts in each year, due principally to 
the imputed employer contributions for employee retirement. NIPA current 
expenditures have usually been higher than budget outlays for the same 
reason. There are, however, two components of budget outlays that are 
sometimes sufficiently large in combination to match the grossing 
adjustments. These are financial transactions and payments to U.S. 
territories. Large outlays associated with resolving the failed savings 
and loan associations and banks in 1990 and 1991 made those year's 
budget outlays nearly equal to NIPA current expenditures. With the 
change in budgetary treatment of direct loans in 1992 under credit 
reform, one type of financial transaction--direct loans to the public--
has been recorded in the budget in a way that is closer to the NIPA 
treatment. Disbursement and repayment of loans are now recorded outside 
the budget as in the Federal sec-


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tor of the NIPAs, although, unlike the NIPAs, imputed credit subsidies are recorded as budget outlays.
  During the period 1975-1992, the budget deficit exceeded the Federal 
current deficit as measured in the NIPAs every year. The largest 
difference, $92.7 billion, occurred in 1991, when the budget deficit was 
$269.4 billion, while the NIPA current deficit was $176.6 billion. In 
1993-1996, the NIPA current account deficit was slightly above the 
budget deficit, and it is projected to remain higher in 1997 and 1998.
  Table 18-1 displays Federal transactions using NIPA concepts with 
actual data for the years 1987-1996 and estimates for 1997 and 1998 
consistent with the Administration's budget proposals. Table 18-2 
displays the reasons for differences between the data using budget 
concepts and NIPA concepts. Annual NIPA data for 1960-1998 are published 
in Section 14 of a separate budget volume, Historical Tables, Budget of 
the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 1998.
  Additional details will be published in a forthcoming issue of the 
Department of Commerce publication, Survey of Current Business.