Updated summary of NIPA methodologies

Survey of Current Business, Nov, 2007

(4.) For additional information on the commodity-flow method, see the BEA methodology paper Personal Consumption Expenditures at <www.bea.gov\bea\mp.htm>, 31-34.

(5.) See Personal Consumption Expenditures, 41-54.

(6.) For additional information, see Fixed Assets and Consumer Durable Goods in the United States, 1925-97 (September 2003): M-5-M-11; <www.bea.gov/bea/mp.htm>.

(7.) For details, see the methodology paper Government Transactions at <www.bea.gov/bea/mp.htm>.

(8.) See The Balance of Payments of the United States: Concepts, Data Sources, and Estimating Procedures at <www.bea.gov/bea/mp.htm>. Improvements in methodology are usually introduced as part of the annual ITA revision; see Christopher L. Bach, "Annual Revision of the U.S. International Transactions Accounts," SURVEY 87 (July 2007): 37-49.

(9.) For real estimates, the distinction between annual and quarterly methodologies is less important than it is for the current-dollar estimates. For the relatively few cases in which the annual and quarterly source data differ, the major differences are noted.