Definition: Acquisitions less disposals of valuables

Category: European System of Accounts (ESA)

Valuables are non-financial goods that are not used primarily for production or consumption, do not deteriorate (physically) over time under normal conditions and that are acquired and held primarily as stores of value. These types of goods are to be recorded as acquisition or disposal of valuables in case of:

 a) the acquisition or disposal of non-monetary gold, silver, etc. by (central) banks and other financial intermediaries;
 b) the acquisition or disposal of these goods by enterprises whose principal or secondary activity does not involve the production or trade in such types of goods; as a consequence, this acquisition or disposal is not included in the intermediate consumption or fixed capital formation of these enterprises;
 c) the acquisition or disposal of such goods by households; as a consequence, such acquisitions are not included in final consumption expenditure by households.

In the ESA, by convention also the following cases are recorded as acquisition or disposal of valuables:

 a) the acquisition or disposal of these goods by jewellers and art dealers (following the general definition of valuables the acquisition of these goods by jewellers and art dealers should be recorded as changes in inventories);
 b) the acquisition or disposal of these goods by museums (following the general definition of valuables the acquisition by a museum of these goods should be recorded as fixed capital formation) (ESA 2010, ESA 1995). http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/product?code=KS-02-13-269&mode=view European Union, Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union, Official Journal of the European Union No L 174, 26.06.2013, p. 1 - 727
Eurostat, "European System of Accounts - ESA 1995", Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, 1996