Definition: Regional accounts

Category: European System of Accounts (ESA)

Regional specification of the corresponding accounts of the national economy. Regional accounts provide a regional breakdown for major aggregates such as gross value added by industry and household income (ESA 2010). 

Regional accounts are a regional specification of the corresponding accounts of the total economy. The regional accounts make use of the concepts used for the accounts of the total economy unless indicated otherwise in this section.

A full set of accounts at the regional level implies treating each region as a separate economic entity. In this context, transactions with other regions become a kind of external transactions. External transactions of the region should of course, be distinguished according to transactions with other regions of the country and transactions with the rest of the world. 

Conceptual difficulties partly explain why regional accounts are limited to recording production activities by industry and to accounts for some institutional sectors like households (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 - 727Eurostat, "European System of Accounts - ESA 1995", Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, 1996