Methodological notes – Impacts of changes

During the calculations for 2023, benchmark revisions were carried out, in line with the EU recommendation on the revision policy of national accounts. The description and the numerical impacts of the main changes implemented during benchmark revisions are presented in the section titled 1 Methodological changes due to benchmark revisions.

In addition to benchmark revisions, routine revisions were also made, i.e. the corrections of errors found during the checking and finalisation of data, the results of compiling supply and use tables for 2022 and changes in data sources used for the calculations were included.

1 Methodological changes due to benchmark revisions

1.1 Methodological changes as a result of EU checking of GNI calculations

1.1.1 Review of insurance activity

The following improvements were implemented related to recording insurance activities:

• technical and actuarial reserves are excluded from the direct non-life insurance output,
• reinsurance output is recorded separately from the direct insurance output, and reinsurance import data are adjusted to external trade statistical data,
• tax on collision is excluded from the output of insurance activity, since it is a tax on households and not on insurers.
  

1.1.2 Updates of production of own-account software and databases
The production of own-account software and databases is measured as the sum of production costs, which has two elements: labour costs and non-labour costs. The calculation of labour costs is based on the number of professionals involved in software development and database design. This has so far been derived from 2011 Census data, which have been extrapolated to later years. This estimate is currently updated with 2022 Census data, and the time series is revised on this basis. Non-labour cost components, and gross operating surplus and intermediate consumption figures for the computer programming activities class have also been updated. Most of the changes is due to the new staff number data.

1.1.3 Revision to area data of privately rented dwellings

Data on area (square metres) of privately rented dwellings are one of the elements of the estimation of rents. The last major data collection containing information on dwellings was the 2015 Micro census, area data were estimated by extrapolation for the subsequent years. Based on data of the 2022 Census, the area data for the period of 2016–2021 were revised, which had an impact on the value of rents of privately rented dwellings.

1.1.4 Revision of the estimation of non-observed economy due to tax evasion
In the non-financial corporations sector, the estimation of non-observed value added due to tax evasion was revised for 2018–2022. For these years, the newly available theoretical VAT data for 2020 were used for the estimation.

1.1.5 Review of estimation of the inventories

In estimating inventories data (changes in inventories, holding gains/losses and stock of inventories), the price indices used for own and purchased inventories were revised for divisions 45 (Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles), 46 (Wholesale trade) and 47 (Retail trade). Companies in these divisions tend to produce less own inventories and rely less on the resources of the other divisions, but purchase a larger amount of inventories than entities in the other divisions. For this reason, we switched to using CPI data in the calculation of purchased inventories data for these three divisions.

1.2 Other methodological changes

1.2.1 Revision of estimation of illegal activities

Using detailed price data, we made a methodological improvement to the estimation of data on drugs out of illegal activities.

1.2.2 Review of wages and salaries data of small enterprises

The wages and salaries data of small enterprises (enterprises registered for KIVA taxation) were revised. Besides corporate tax returns, as the primary data source until now, new data sources like data from administrative data adoptions and from statistical data collections will also be used from now on to more precisely define the indicator.

1.2.3 Excluding insurance tax

Insurance tax has been recorded in intermediate consumption as part of other insurance technical expenses until now, but it is excluded from now on.

1.2.4 Methodological changes in calculation of compensation of employees for non-registered foreign employees

As part of the estimation of the compensation of employees for foreign citizens working in Hungary, we revised the methodology of the compensation of employees for non-registered foreign employees. For the calculations, data from inspections related to employment were used as a new source. These changes had an impact on gross national income (GNI) but not on GDP.

1.2.5 Other improvements

In addition to the methodological changes listed above, we changed to using the classification of individual consumption by purpose (COICOP 2018) in the estimation of household final consumption expenditure. Besides, we produced the revised European National Accounts transmission obligation data tables. Moreover, starting from the estimation of 2023 data, we adapted the statistical recommendations on the service lives of the fixed asset groups of dwellings and land improvements, which modifies the values of fixed capital consumption and fixed capital stock data.

2 Other changes due to routine revisions (finalisation of annual data, integration of supply and use tables, data corrections)

During routine revisions, the corrections of errors found during the checking and finalisation of data, the results of compiling supply and use tables for 2022 and changes in data sources used for the calculations were included.