National Accounts input-output tables: year ended March 2007

This page provides background information about the input-output tables released in July 2012. We explain how they differ from earlier tables and the data quality points that users should note.

What are input-output tables?

Input-output tables are a powerful analytical tool that describes the structure of New Zealand’s economy. They show the relationships between industries, the goods and services they produce, and who uses them. Input-output tables have many uses, including:

• estimating the effect changes in government policy have on key economic variables
• examining the impact of changes in producer prices or wages on the consumers price index
• exploring the reliance of industries on imports, and estimating their contribution to exports.

 

Please see the explanatory notes in Using national accounts input-output tables, in the available files section. The notes include worked examples of how the tables can be used.

Input-output tables for year ended March 2007

This release includes nine tables, broken down into 106 industries and 205 products, with explanatory information and worked examples. The first two tables, called supply and use tables, are ones we compile annually as part of supply-use balancing. This process reconciles the different measures of gross domestic product by balancing the flows of goods and services within the economy. The remaining seven tables are analytical tables derived from the first two tables.

We aim to produce input-output tables regularly in the future. The timing of these releases will depend on user demand and available resources.

We want to hear your feedback

This release represents the first time for more than 10 years that Statistics NZ has produced input-output tables and we’d like to hear from users how we can improve them. We’d like to know:

• how you plan to use the tables and what we could do to make them more useful
• how often the tables should be released and if there are specific areas we should focus on
• what changes you’d like to see to the content and presentation of the tables
• if the examples and background information provided are useful.

 

You can provide feedback by emailing national.accounts@stats.govt.nz. We’re also happy to meet with you to receive feedback, or to provide explanations and advice on data in the tables.

How these tables differ from previous tables

Tables in this release were produced using the updated industry (ANZSIC06) and product (NA06CC) classifications, which better reflect the modern New Zealand economy. The previous input-output tables were published in 2001 and covered the year ended March 1996, though supply and use tables were also published for the 2003 and 2007 March years. These tables used older industry and product classifications.

The 2001 release of input-output tables resulted from an inter-industry study, which combined data from the 1996 Annual Enterprise Survey with very detailed data from censuses of industries carried out in preceding years. The current tables use the 2007 Annual Enterprise Survey as a main data source, but use results from sample surveys of industries, rather than industry censuses, to estimate product data.

Previous input-output tables included adjustments for secondary production, which are not included in this release. These adjustments moved secondary output of certain products from some industries to the industries that would normally produce them, to improve the analytical value of the resulting tables. One example was the production by ‘converters’ in the wholesale industry. Converters produce manufactured products by contracting their production to the manufacturing industry.

The updated industry classification used in the latest tables has reduced the need for secondary production adjustments, as the converters described above are now included in the manufacturing industry.

We used a basic allocation of imports to industry and final use in this release. The proportion of each product’s total use that could be attributed to imports was calculated, then multiplied by the respective use of each industry or final user. For example, if industry A and B use $40 million and $60 million of product C, which has total use of $100 million and imports of $20 million, then the import allocation of product C for industry A would be 20/100*40= $8 million.

This allocation is simple and transparent, but can have shortcomings for certain situations. This includes products that are used by households and businesses, but where the imported part of the product is generally only used by businesses (eg engineering services from overseas firms). The imports are allocated proportionally to both businesses and households even though they only apply to businesses. It

is possible to make more robust import allocations, by adjusting the results based on detailed analysis or other data sources. We used this approach in previous input-output tables and would like to investigate it in the future. We are also interested in the opinions of users of the tables.

Data quality points to note

The latest input-output tables are generally consistent with other published annual national accounts data. The main exception stems from indirectly charged financial intermediation services provided by the banking industry.

In the rest of the national accounts, use of these services is assigned to a nominal industry, rather than being allocated to the industries or final users who actually consume them. The value of financial intermediation services indirectly measured, and its allocation, are currently being reviewed. We are implementing improved measures in the national accounts in November this year. In the interim, we used a temporary allocation based on interest flows so that input-output tables could be compiled. As a result these tables do not include the nominal industry, and they show slightly higher intermediate consumption (goods and services used up in the production process) by industry than in other national accounts data. Economy-wide totals, and products other than financial intermediation services indirectly measured, are unaffected.

Due to the sheer quantity of data included in input-output tables, information for many cells is updated only periodically to avoid excessive costs and respondent burden. Similarly, cells with small values may not be confronted regularly as they aren’t considered significant. These two factors can generate anomalous results, but shouldn’t generally affect the tables’ usefulness for analysis.

We’d like to hear from users about any unusual results they consider significant, so we can target them for improvement in future releases of input-output tables.

An example of data updated periodically is the product information used to estimate the supply and use of different products by industries. Product information used in the latest tables was collected under older industry and product classifications, so needed to be converted when we updated our classifications. The conversion was a complicated process. While the results have been carefully analysed, and balanced in the supply-use framework, the results are likely to be lower quality than if they’d been collected under newer classifications. This information will be gradually updated in future releases as the Commodity Data Collection Survey cycles through different industries, collecting product information using our updated classifications.

Available files
National Accounts input-output tables: Year ended March 2007   (Excel, 13 sheets, 2.22mb)
Using national accounts input-output tables   (PDF, 7 pages, 197kb)