The integrated system of price and volume indices

10.08 The systematic division of changes in current values into the components 'changes in price' and 'changes in volume' is restricted to flows representing transactions, recorded in the goods and services accounts (0) and in the production accounts (I); it is carried out both for the data relating to individual industries and for those relating to the total economy. Flows representing balancing items, e.g. value added, cannot be directly factored into price and volume components; this can only be done indirectly using the relevant flows of transactions.

The use of the accounting framework imposes a double constraint on the calculation of the data:

1. the balance of the goods and services account must for any sequence of two years be obtained at both constant and current prices;
2. each flow at the level of the total economy must be equal to the sum of the corresponding flows for the various industries.

A third constraint, not inherent in the use of an accounting framework but resulting from a deliberate choice, is that every change in the value of transactions must be attributed either to a change in price or to a change in volume, or to a combination of the two.

If these three requirements are fulfilled, valuation of the goods and services accounts and production accounts at constant prices means that an integrated set of price and volume indices can be obtained.

10.09 The items to be considered when constructing such an integrated set are as follows:

Transactions in products

Output		P.1
Market output		P.11
Output for own final use		P.12
Other non-market output		P.13
Intermediate consumption		P.2
Final consumption expenditure		P.3
Individual final consumption expenditure		P.31
Collective final consumption expenditure		P.32
Actual final consumption		P.4
Actual final individual consumption		P.41
Actual final collective consumption		P.42
Gross capital formation		P.5
Gross fixed capital formation		P.51
Changes in inventories		P.52
Acquisition less disposals of valuables		P.53
Exports of goods and services		P.6
Exports of goods		P.61
Exports of services		P.62
Imports of goods and services		P.7
Imports of goods		P.71
Imports of services		P.72
Taxes and subsidies on products
Taxes on products, excluding VAT		D.212 and D.214
Subsidies on products		D.31
VAT on products		D.211
Consumption of fixed capital		K.1
Balancing items
Value added		B.1
Gross domestic product		B.1*g