The Supply and Use framework brings together components of gross value added (GVA), industry inputs and outputs, product supply and demand, and the composition of uses and resources for the UK economy.
Publications
Input-Output Annual Supply and Use Tables (I-O SUTs) and various other analyses, which contain details of the components of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the United Kingdom (UK), as measured using the production, income and expenditure approaches.
Input-Output (I-O) Analytical Tables are derived from the annual Input-Output Supply and Use Tables (SUTs).
An essential source for the data underlying Gross Domestic Product. These balances provide a single framework showing the relationship between components of value added, industry inputs and outputs, and product supply and demand.
Overview
There are three different approaches to the estimation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP): production (output); expenditure; and income. In theory, the three measures should produce the same result. However, the different approaches are based on different surveys and administrative data sources and each produces estimates that are subject to errors and omissions.
A definitive GDP estimate can only emerge after a process of balancing and adjustment.
Supply and Use Tables are constructed to show a balanced and complete picture of the flows of products in the economy and illustrate the relationships between producers and consumers of goods and services.
On an annual basis, Supply and Use Tables are used to achieve consistency in the aggregates of the economic accounts by linking the components of value added, inputs, outputs and final demand, as all three measures of GDP can be calculated from the Supply and Use Tables. A single estimate of GDP can be derived by balancing the supply and demand for goods and services and reconciling them with the corresponding value added estimates.
Technical Data
While each of the three approaches to gross domestic product (GDP) (production, expenditure and income) is attempting to measure the same economic value, the different sources and the statistical and non-statistical errors associated with these sources means that the totals arrived at by the three measures are not consistent.
The Supply and Use framework represents a structure that enables you to confront these sources in a coherent way, with the aim of achieving a single measure of GDP. A simplified version of the Supply and Use Tables is shown in Figure 3 of an article by Akers and Clifton-Fearnside entitled Blue Book 2008 – Balanced Estimates of GDP using a Supply and Use Approach.
The Supply Table shows the elements of domestic supply as well as imports and taxes and subsidies on products. Trade and Transport margins, also known as Distributors' Trading Margins (DTM), are also included as an element of Total Supply.
The Use Table is made up of intermediate demand and the final expenditure of Households (HHFCE), Government (GGFCE) and Non-profit Institutions (NPISHFCE). Exports are also included in the Use Table, as is Capital expenditure, in the form of Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF), Valuables, and Changes in Inventories. The Use Table also shows the incomes of those involved in the economy, as Compensation of Employees (CoE), Gross Operating Surplus (GOS), and taxes and subsidies on Production.
The Supply and Use Tables provide a detailed matrix of these accounts, broken down by industry, product and component. The latest set of Supply and Use Tables have been produced based on 108 industries and 123 products (listed in Annex D of the Akers and Clifton-Fearnside article). Although balanced at this level, not all of the detail is published, because of issues of disclosure and commercial confidentiality.
It should be noted that the Domestic Supply matrix is shown at basic prices (the amount paid by the purchaser net of any taxes or subsidies, but not including transport charges), while the intermediate demand element of the Use Table is shown at purchasers' prices (the amount paid by the purchaser, less any deductible taxes, plus any transport charges).
National accounts data generally come from two different types of sources: survey data, and administrative data. Surveys include business surveys such as the Annual Business Inquiry (ABI) and Products of the European Community (PRODCOM), as well as socioeconomic surveys of households, such as the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and Expenditure and Food Survey (EFS).
Administrative data include estimates of taxes on income and profits collected by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, banking data collected by the Bank of England and published company accounts. A brief summary of data sources, including those from other government departments and non-government sources is given in Figure 4 of the Akers and Clifton-Fearnside article.
Glossary
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Analytical tables
Also known as Derived Tables, Symmetric Input-Output Tables, or Input-Output Tables. These Tables represent the theoretical side of I-O work, and are produced on an ad hoc basis, most recently for the year 1995. These Tables include the Imports Use and Domestic Use matrices, Industry by Industry and Product by Product matrices plus the Leontief Inverse, multipliers and other analyses of their structure.
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Balance of trade
The balance of trade in goods and services. The balance of trade is a summary of the imports and exports of goods and services across an economic boundary in a given period.
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Basic prices (bp)
These prices are the preferred method of valuing output and value added. They reflect the amount received by the producer for a unit of goods or services minus any taxes payable plus any subsidy receivable on that unit as a consequence of production or sale (that is, the cost of production including subsidies). As a result, the only taxes included in the basic price are taxes on the production process – such as business rates and any vehicle excise duty paid by businesses – that are not specifically levied on the production of a unit of output. Basic prices excludes any transport charges invoiced separately by the producer.
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Book value change
The change in the value of inventories during the year is the difference between the book value of inventories at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year. It can be divided between holding gains and change in value of physical increase of inventories. In the Supply and Use Tables, the entries in the changes in inventories column are all in terms of the change in value of physical increase in inventories.
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Combined use matrix
Each column in the matrix analyses by product group, the inputs of a particular industry group or sector of final demand, whether from domestic production or imported. It shows the inputs used by each industry to produce their total output, separating intermediate consumption of goods and services from its primary inputs. The intermediate consumption and final demand estimates by type of product in this matrix are valued at purchasers’ prices.
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Compensation of employees (CoE)
This includes all wages and salaries including certain forms of payments made-in-kind and the pay and allowances in cash and kind of HM Forces. It also includes payments by employers regarded as supplements to wages and salaries, such as contributions to the National Insurance Scheme, employers' contributions to other pension schemes together with redundancy payments and compensation payments for injury. It excludes certain specific expenses of employment, such as travel expenses or cost of special clothing needed exclusively for work.
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Consumption of fixed capital
This is a measure of the amount of fixed capital assets used up in the process of production during the year. For the purposes of national accounts, capital consumption is valued on a historical cost basis whereas company accounts usually record depreciation on a current cost basis.
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Corporations
All bodies recognised as independent legal entities that are producers of market output and whose principal activity is the production of goods and services.
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Cost, insurance and freight (c.i.f)
The basis of valuation of imports of goods for Customs purposes, it includes the cost of insurance premiums and freight services. These are deducted to obtain the free on board (f.o.b) valuation consistent with the valuation of exports of goods, which is used in the economic accounts.
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Depreciation
See Consumption of fixed capital.
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Derived tables
See Analytical Tables.
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Distributors' trading margin (DTM)
Forms part of the extra costs associated with the valuation of a product leaving ’the factory gate’ to the point where the product is purchased either for final consumption or intermediate consumption. Typically earned by motor trades, wholesale, retail and catering industries and represent, for example, the difference between the price paid by the wholesaler for the good and the price paid by the purchaser. The DTM column sums to zero because it simply reallocates the supply of distribution services to the products being distributed. Because of the difficulties inherent in measuring trade and transport margins separately, these are shown as a single item.
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Domestic use matrix (I-O Analytical Tables)
Each column in this matrix analyses by product group, the purchases of domestically produced goods and services used up in the production process. This matrix separates the purchases of imported goods and services from intermediate purchases (as shown in the Combined Use matrix), and shows these imports as a separate row. The Domestic Use matrix is shown at basic prices.
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Enterprise
An institutional unit producing market output. Enterprises are found mainly in the non-financial and financial corporations sectors but exist in all sectors. Each enterprise consists of one or more kind-of-activity (KAU) units.
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European System of Accounts 1995 (ESA 95)
The European System of National and Regional Accounts. An integrated system of economic accounts which is the European version of the United Nations System of National Accounts 1993 (SNA 93).
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Exports of goods and services
These are sales of both goods and services to the Rest of the World by UK corporations and households as measured on a balance of payments basis. Rent, dividends and interest received from abroad are excluded.
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Final buyers
Expenditure by final buyers comprises of HHFCe, NPISHs, general government, gross fixed capital formation, changes in inventories, valuables and exports of goods and services. Total demand by final buyers is the same as total final consumption expenditure.
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Final output
This is that part of total output of each industry sold for final consumption by households, general government, for investment (including additions to inventories) and for export. In short, total output sold to final buyers. For the whole economy, total final output is equal to the value of goods and services (both domestically produced and imported) available for consumption, investment and export. Total final output is equal to total final consumption expenditure, which is the same as total demand by final buyers.
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Financial auxiliaries
Auxiliary financial activities are ones that are closely related to financial intermediation but are not financial intermediation themselves, such as the repackaging of funds. Financial auxiliaries include such activities as insurance broking and fund management.
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FISIM
Financial Intermediation Services Indirecly Measured. The output of many financial intermediation services is paid for not by charges but by an interest rate differential. FISIM imputes charges for these services and corresponding offsets in property income.
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Free on board (f.o.b)
The valuation of imports and exports of goods used in the economic accounts, including all costs invoiced by the exporter up to the point of loading on to the ship or aircraft but excluding the cost of insurance and freight from the country of consignment.
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General government final consumption expenditure (GGFCe)
This is the final consumption expenditure by central government and local government including direct payment for goods and services and payment for the services of government employees. The figures exclude expenditure on grants, subsidies, interest payments and other transfers; expenditure on non-military fixed capital assets and inventories; loans and loan repayments. Expenditure on military weapons and equipment used to deliver them are included in this section and are not part of capital formation.
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Gross
Key economic series can be shown as gross (before deduction of the consumption of fixed capital) or net (after deduction of the consumption of fixed capital). Gross has this meaning unless otherwise stated.
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Gross capital formation (GCF)
Gross capital formation consists of gross fixed capital formation plus changes in inventories and acquisitions less disposals of valuables. Net capital formation is estimated by deducting consumption of fixed capital from gross capital formation.
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Gross domestic product at market prices (GDP mp)
This is a measure of the value of goods and services produced in the UK before providing for capital consumption. It is equal to gross value added (GVA) at basic prices plus net taxes on products. Alternatively, it is equal to the sum of total final domestic consumption expenditures less imports of goods and services.
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Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF)
This consists of resident producers’ acquisitions less disposals on fixed (tangible and intangible) capital assets, for example, new buildings, vehicles, ships, aircraft and plant and machinery, either for replacing or adding to the stock of existing fixed assets. Expenditure on repairs and maintenance is excluded but improvements to land are included.
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Gross margin
The output for the distribution and service trades industries is measured on a gross margin basis. The purchases of goods for resale (without further processing) are deducted from turnover (excluding VAT) to give the gross margin earned which, after adjusting for changes in inventories of finished goods and work-in-progress and other coverage and valuation adjustments, represents total output at basic prices.
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Gross profits and other trading income
This comprises the gross trading profits of companies, gross trading surplus of public corporations, self-employment income and rental income (excluding any rent earned from any land and sub-soil assets). These incomes are measured before providing for depreciation but after deducting holding gains.
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Gross trading profits (GTP)
This item represents trading profits, before deduction of tax or interest payments and before providing for depreciation and holding gains.
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Gross value added at basic prices (GVA bp)
This is a measure of the contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) made by an individual producer, industry or sector. The value added generated by any unit engaged in production activity can be calculated as the residual of the units’ total output less intermediate consumption, or as the sum of the factor incomes generated by the production process. Net value added is shown after deducting capital consumption.
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Hidden economy
Certain activities may be productive and also legal but are concealed from the authorities for various reasons, for example, to evade taxes or regulation. In principle these, as well as economic production that is illegal, are to be included in the accounts but are, by their nature, difficult to measure.
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Holding gains (or losses)
Profit or loss obtained by holding assets whose price changes within the period of account. This represents that part of the change in the book value of inventories and work in progress during the year, which arises from, increases in the prices at which inventories and work in progress are valued.
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Household final consumption expenditure (HHFCe)
This is expenditure on goods and services by people. All business expenditure and interest payments are excluded.
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Households
Individuals or small groups of individuals as consumers. Where the activities of entrepreneurs producing goods and market services cannot be separated, households are treated as a quasi corporation.
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Imports of goods and services
These are purchases by UK residents of both merchandise and services from abroad. Rent, dividends and interest paid abroad are excluded.
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Imports use matrix (I-O Analytical Tables)
This matrix is compiled for the I-O Analytical Tables. Each column in the matrix analyses by product group, the imports used by an industry or sector of final demand.
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Imputed charge for capital consumption
This is a measure for non-market bodies of the imputed income from owned non-trading fixed capital assets. These bodies are local government, central government and non-profit institutions serving households.
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Industry group
The term industry is used in a very wide sense to denote any subset of economic activity including agriculture, distribution, transport and other services, public administration and defence as well as the production industries.
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Input-Output Tables
See Analytical Tables.
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Institutional sector
In the economic accounts, the economy is split into different institutional sectors, that is groupings of units according to their role in the economy. The main sectors are non-financial corporations (split between public and private), financial corporations (split between public and private), general government (split between local and central), households and non-profit institutions serving households (NPISHs). The Rest of the World is also treated as a sector for many purposes within the accounts.
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Institutional unit
These are individual units whose data are aggregated to form the sectors of the economy. An institutional unit has decision making autonomy in respect of its principle function and either keeps a complete set of accounts or is in a position to compile, if required, a complete set of accounts meaningful from both an economic and legal viewpoint.
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Inter-establishment deliveries
The deliveries of goods and services between establishments belonging to the same enterprise are counted as part of the production of the enterprise as a whole - included as total output of the producing unit and recorded as either intermediate consumption or gross fixed capital formation by the receiving unit.
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Intermediate consumption
This represents industries’ purchases of goods and services to be used up in the production process (excluding any goods purchased for resale without any further processing), and adjusted for changes in inventories of materials and fuels.
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Intermediate output
That part of the total output of each industry consumed by other industries in the production process.
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Intra-establishment deliveries
These are deliveries of goods and services produced and consumed within the same accounting period and the same establishment. They are not recorded as part of the production of that unit - therefore are not included in either intermediate consumption or total output.
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Intra-industry transactions
These are transactions between enterprises within the same industry group.
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Inventories
Inventories, previously known as stocks, consist of materials and fuels, work-in-progress and finished goods as well as goods bought for resale without any further processing.
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Kind-of-activity unit (KAU)
An enterprise, or part of an enterprise, which engages in only one kind of non-ancillary productive activity, or in which the principal productive activity accounts for most of the value added. Each enterprise consists of one or more kind-of-activity units.
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MAKE matrix
Each column in the matrix analyses by product group, the output of an industry. Each row analyses the output by industry group of a product group. The data relate to domestic output only, and are valued at basic prices in both the I-O Analytical Tables and the Supply and Use Tables. In both cases, values are shown after deducting holding gains on inventories of finished goods and work in progress held by the industries concerned. The matrix is largely diagonal, and the off-diagonal entries are known as secondary products. As part of the process in compiling Industry by Industry or Product by Product Tables, this matrix is transformed such that all entries are on the diagonal.
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Market output
This is output of goods and services produced by market or non-market producers and sold at economically significant prices.
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Market prices
Those prices which purchasers pay for the goods and services they acquire or use, excluding deductible VAT. The term is usually used in the context of aggregates such as gross domestic product (GDP), whereas purchaser prices refer to the individual transactions.
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Mixed Income (previously part of self-employment income)
This is income of persons from unincorporated businesses, mainly farmers, professional people, shopkeepers and other sole traders and partnerships. It therefore covers compensation of employees and profits which may or may not be withdrawn from the business.
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Net value added
See Gross value added.
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Non-market output
Output of own account production or goods and services provided free or at prices that are not economically significant. Non-market output is produced mainly by the general government and NPISH sectors.
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NPISH
Non-profit institutions serving households. Includes organisations such as charities, universities, churches, trade unions and members’ clubs.
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Off-diagonals
See Secondary products and MAKE matrix.
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Output for own final use
Production of output for final consumption (for example, home grown vegetables) or gross fixed capital formation (for example, a self-build house) by the producer. Also known as own-account production.
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Own account production
See Output for own final use.
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Primary inputs (I-O Analytical Tables)
Primary inputs are inputs that are not outputs of other industries. These are compensation of employees, gross profits and other trading income, imports of goods and services, net taxes on production and products. These are known as primary inputs because they are necessary to the production process but are not produced anywhere in the domestic economy. The total of all primary inputs equals total final output.
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Principal product
The principal product of an industry is the characteristic or main product produced by the relevant industry. Producing units are classified to industries according to which products they make. If they produce more than one product, they are classified according to whichever accounts for the greatest part of their output (see also Secondary products).
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Producer prices
This valuation reflects the cost of the product as it leaves ‘the factory gate’. This price will include taxes on production but excludes taxes on products, for example VAT, and distributors' trading margins.
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Product group
A product (traditionally known as commodity) group covers all those goods or services produced as a principal product of the industry group to which it corresponds. The classification of products followed in the Supply and Use Tables is based on the Classification of Products by Activity (CPA(2003)).
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Production boundary
Boundary between production included in creating core economic accounts (such as all economic activity by industry and commerce) and production which is excluded (such as production by households which is consumed within the household).
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Progress payments
These payments are made for goods and services in advance of completion and delivery. Also referred to as stage payments.
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Public corporations
These are public trading bodies that have a substantial degree of financial independence from the public authority, central or local government, that created them. A public corporation is publicly controlled to the extent that the public authority usually appoints the whole or a majority of the board of management. Such bodies comprise much of the greater part of the public non-financial corporations sub-sector.
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Public sector
Comprises general government and public non-financial corporations.
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Purchasers’ prices
The prices that a purchaser actually pays for the product. This price will include any transportation costs, distributors' trading margins and any taxes on products (unless the taxes are deductible by the purchasers from their own tax liabilities).
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Quasi-corporations
These are unincorporated enterprises that function as if they were corporations, and are treated as such for classifying to institutional sectors. There are three main types of quasi-corporation in the accounts: unincorporated enterprises owned by government which are engaged in market production, unincorporated enterprises (including partnerships) owned by households and unincorporated enterprises owned by foreign residents. The last group consists of permanent branches or offices of foreign enterprises and production units of foreign enterprises which engage in significant amounts of production in the territory over long or indefinite periods of time.
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Rent
This is the property income derived from land and sub-soil assets and is excluded from total output. It is distinguished in ESA 95 from rental income derived from buildings and other fixed assets (see Rental income).
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Rental income
These are amounts payable by the user of a fixed asset to its owner for the right to use that asset in production for a specified period of time. It is included in the gross operating surplus and output of the owner, and in the intermediate consumption of the user. Also, the owner records rental income as gross receipts less actual expenditure on repairs, maintenance and insurance. Rental income also includes imputed rental income for owner-occupiers.
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Residents
These comprise general government, individuals, private non-profit institutions serving households and enterprises within the territory of a given economy.
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Residual error
The term used in the former accounts for the difference between the measures of gross domestic product from expenditure and income approaches. Accounts for years balanced through the Supply and Use process will have no residual error.
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Secondary products
The secondary products (also known as off-diagonals) of an industry are those products that are the principal products of other industries.
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Sector
See Institutional sector.
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Stage payments
See Progress payments.
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Standard Industrial Classification 2003 (SIC(2003))
The industrial classification applied to the collection and publication of a wide range of economic and industrial statistics. The current version, SIC(2003), is consistent with NACE Rev.1.1.
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Statistical discrepancy
This adjustment applies to the income and expenditure measures of gross domestic product (GDP). These compensate for the deviation between the sum of expenditure or of income components and GDP. Accounts for the years balanced through the Supply and Use process will have a zero statistical discrepancy.
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Subsidies (Supply and Use Tables)
These are current unrequited payments made by central government, local government or the European Union to a producer or trader having the effect of reducing the selling price below the factor cost of production. They include the financing of deficits on public trading services deliberately run at a loss (there are two types, see Subsidies on production and Subsidies on products).
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Subsidies on production (Supply and Use Tables)
These are subsidies based on the levels of productive activity, for example, numbers employed.
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Subsidies on products (Supply and Use Tables)
These are subsidies based on a quantity or value of goods or services sold.
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Supply and Use Tables
These show a balanced and complete picture of the flows of goods and services in the economy for a specific year. These balances are composed of the Supply and 'Combined Use' matrices produced usually each year as part of the annual national accounts compilation round. Total supply and demand for goods and services is valued at purchasers’ prices.
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Supply Table (Supply and Use Tables)
The main body of the Supply Table shows estimates of domestic industries’ output by type of product at basic prices. The columns represent the supplying industries and the rows represent the products supplied. Additional columns covering imports of goods and services, distributors’ trading margins and taxes less subsidies on products are added to show supply of all goods and services at purchasers’ prices.
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Symmetric Input-Output Tables
See Analytical tables.
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System of National Accounts 1993 (SNA 93)
This is the internationally agreed standard system for macro-economic accounts produced by the United Nations.
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Taxes (Supply and Use Tables)
These are compulsory unrequited payments to central government, local government or the EU. Within the Supply and Use Tables there are two types of taxes within the production boundary; see taxes on production and imports and taxes on products. Taxes on income and wealth such as income tax and corporation tax, and capital taxes like capital gains tax and inheritance tax are not included within the production boundary.
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Taxes on production and imports (Supply and Use Tables)
These taxes are shown as a row in the Combined Use matrix and are considered a component of primary inputs. They are taxes paid by producers, for example, business rates, motor vehicle duties and regulatory fees, and are levied according to production, and do not depend on the profitability or otherwise of a company.
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Taxes on products (Supply and Use Tables)
These taxes are defined as product specific taxes, for example, value added tax (VAT), excise duties, air passenger tax, insurance premium tax and import duties, and are based on the volume or value of production sold. These are an integral part of purchaser prices as paid by either intermediate industries or final consumers. They are shown as a separate column in the Supply Table.
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Total final expenditure
This is the sum of total final consumption, gross capital formation and exports of goods and services. Total final expenditure is the same as total demand by final buyers and is equal to total final output.
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Total intermediate consumption
The total intermediate consumption of each industry is the industry's total purchases of the outputs of other industries as well as purchases of imports of goods and services for use in its production process, adjusted for the change in inventories of materials and fuels plus primary inputs.
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Total output
The total output of an industry is the aggregate value of the goods and services together with the work-in-progress produced by the industry. It is equal to the value of the industry's sales plus any increase (and less any decrease) in the value of its inventories of finished products and work in progress. Output is therefore measured after deducting holding gains. The outputs of the distribution and service trades industries are measured on a 'gross margin' basis.
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United Kingdom (UK)
In the accounts, United Kingdom comprises Great Britain plus Northern Ireland and that part of the continental shelf deemed by international convention to belong to the UK. It excludes the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It includes, however, UK embassies and military bases.
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Use Table (Supply and Use Tables)
See Combined Use matrix.
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Valuables
Goods of considerable value that are not used primarily for production or consumption but are held as stores of value over time. They include precious metals, precious stones, jewellery, works of art and antiques. As a new category in the accounts, the estimates for them are currently fairly rudimentary though transactions are likely to have been recorded elsewhere in the accounts.
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Value added
See Gross value added.
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Value of the physical increase in inventories and work in progress
This is the increase in the quantity of inventories and work in progress held by trading enterprises or by the central government for strategic purposes. It is equal to the change in the book value of inventories and work in progress less holding gains.
Contact Details
For statistical enquiries about this topic, please contact:
Richard Wild
Email: SUT@ons.gsi.gov.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 1633 456 379
Office for National Statistics Government Buildings Cardiff Road Newport NP10 8XG
