The institutional accounts presented in this publication provide comprehensive information not only on the economic activities of households, non-financial corporations, financial corporations and the government, but also on the interactions between these sectors and the rest of the world. In addition, the accounts link financial and non-financial statistics, thereby allowing for an integrated analysis of non-financial economic activities (such as gross fixed capital formation) and financial transactions (such as the issuance of debt). The detailed analytical information on the Irish economy presented in these institutional sector accounts complements the annual National Income and Expenditure report.
Important economic indicators can be derived from institutional accounts. These include measures such as the household saving rate, the profit share of corporations and the investment rates of the households and corporate sectors.
Consistency with other CSO statistics
The institutional sector accounts draw on a wide range of sources, including many that are used in the compilation of other sets of CSO statistics. For this publication, the main relationships to other published CSO series are as follows:
• The non-financial accounts are based on, and are largely consistent with, the annual reports on National Income and Expenditure (NIE) and International Accounts. The sector accounts comply with the revised European System of Accounts (ESA2010) methodology to ensure greater international comparability.
• The financial transactions account is consistent with the balance on the financial account in the Balance of Payments.
New developments
In this year's publication, new preliminary estimates are given to provide deeper insight into the domestic economy and the role of foreign-owned corporations in Ireland. In last year's publication, the non-financial corporations (NFCs) were divided into large foreign-owned corporations (S11a) and other corporations (S11b). This year, S11a has been expanded to include both large and small foreign-owned corporations. Sector S11b is made up of domestic non-financial corporations. A third sub-sector has been added for Redomiciled PLCs (S11c). Redomiciled PLCs (S11c) are multi-national corporations with group headquarters in Ireland but little real activity here. They hold significant assets in their subsidiaries and have large inflows from these companies. While they are Irish corporations by the Eurostat definitions, they have little interaction with the rest of the Irish economy, and, following their treatment in modified GNI, they are separated out from the real domestic economy. In the non-financial account, the financial corporations such as banks and funds are also divided into foreign-owned (S12a) and domestic (S12b).
Further insight into the foreign and domestic-owned sectors is provided in a new table showing gross value added by institutional sector divided by economic activity (NACE A*21). This is the first time these statistics have been compiled and further refinement and revision will follow in future publications.
In the financial accounts a breakdown of the NFCs sector (S.11) financial balance sheet by ownership, along with corporate inversions/redomiciled PLCs, is presented in Table 2.9.
Contents of the publication
The commentary part of the report refers to a number of key economic indicators for 2018 and earlier years. The inter-linkages between financial and non-financial accounts, and also between balance sheets and transactions, are emphasised in the commentary. These key indicators, which help to explain the more significant developments which occurred in 2018 and in previous years, are highlighted for each of the institutional sectors. The analysis has been supplemented with indicators from the EU Macroeconomic Imbalances Procedure (MIP).1 The selected indicators aim to identify the emergence or existence of macroeconomic imbalances in sectors of the economy.
The Summary Table contains information on key variables for the 2014 to 2018 period while Table 1.1 - 1.7 and Table 1.8 - 1.9 provide detailed current and capital non-financial accounts for 2018 only. Both consolidated and non-consolidated tables are presented for the Financial Accounts. The consolidated analysis allows a clearer view of transactions and balance sheet positions between institutional sectors. Transactions between entities in the same institutional sector are netted out in this consolidated presentation. Non-consolidated financial transaction accounts for 2014 to 2018 are set out in Tables 2.1 and 2.2 while Tables 2.3 and 2.4 contain non-consolidated financial balance sheet data for the same period. Tables 2.5 and 2.6 show consolidated financial transactions, and Tables 2.7 and 2.8 contain consolidated financial balance sheet data. Table 2.9 provides a breakdown of the Non-Financial Corporations sector (S.11) financial balance sheet showing ownership and redomiciled PLCs.
The report also includes four appendices describing the institutional sectors, the tables, the variables in the non-financial account, and the variables in the financial account.
Data Tables
The data tables contained in the present report as well as data for earlier years can be downloaded from Statbank on the CSO Website at the following links:
Non-Financial Accounts
Financial Accounts
1The MIP Scoreboard is an early warning system consisting of eleven indicators covering the major features of an economy. It acts as a trigger for further in-depth analyses, supplemented by a secondary scoreboard of auxiliary economic and social indicators. More information on the Scoreboard is provided by the European Commission.
Go to the next chapter: Households and Non-Profit Institutions Serving Households (S.14 + S.15)
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.