Workshop on facilitating the development of financial accounts

Participants at the Workshop on Financial Accounts

Financial accounts are an important part of the System of National Accounts. The financial accounts record transactions that involve financial assets and liabilities that take place, both within a country and with the rest of the world. In order to facilitate the development of financial accounts the EFTA Statistical Office (ESO) in cooperation with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), Eurostat, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) hosted a workshop in the EFTA House from 14 to 16 November 2022.

The purpose of the workshop was twofold: firstly to share experiences on the compilation process for financial accounts and secondly, to assist countries in the early stages of developing financial accounts. 

The workshop focused on the following substantive topics: 

• The role and use of financial accounts
• Conceptual framework
• Position of financial accounts in the sequence of accounts, units and sectors, and consolidation
• Financial instruments and valuation
• Practical issues
• Data sources
• Organisation of the compilation process – responsible institutions, agreements and data exchange
• Ensuring consistency in practice

Presentations were given by specialists from the organising institutions as well as from the statistical offices in Iceland and the Netherlands and the central banks of the Republic of North Macedonia and the Republic of Turkiye.

About 45 participants attended in person, with others joining online, representing about 20 countries. The workshop was conducted in English with simultaneous interpretation into Russian. The event forms part of the 2022 technical cooperation activities of the EFTA Statistical Office (ESO). Read more about ESO’s statistical cooperation here. All information is accessible at the EFTA and UNECE website.

A big thank you to the organisers and the participants for the good discussions and valuable exchange during the workshop.