National Income and Product Accounts

Boundary that defines what is considered to be production in an accounting system. In the NIPAs, the boundary includes the production of most goods and services for the market, the production of goods or fixed assets by producers for their own final use as consumption or as fixed investment, and certain nonmarket activities, such as the provision of most goods and services by government agencies and by nonprofit institutions, and the production of housing services by owner-occupied housing.

Economic account that records the value of production, or value added, by the economy, sector, or other economic entity and the uses of the income arising from that production.

The prices received by producers for the goods and services that they sell. These prices include sales and excise taxes but exclude domestic transportation costs and trade margins.

Nonfinancial assets that have come into existence as a result of a production process that is included in the production boundary. The NIPAs recognize two types of produced assets: fixed assets and inventories. The SNA includes a third type, valuables that are held as stores of value (such as precious metals), which are not treated as assets in the NIPAs.

Account 2 of the summary NIPAs. This account provides information on the sources and uses of the income of private businesses and other private enterprises.

Consists of private business, the activities of households and institutions that are included within the production boundary of the NIPAs (primarily the services of owner-occupied housing), and, for the purpose of estimating monetary and imputed interest payments and receipts, nonprofit institutions serving households.

Comprises all corporate and noncorporate private entities organized for profit, other entities that produce goods and services for sale at a price that is based on the costs of production, and certain other entities that are treated as businesses in the NIPAs. Other entities include mutual financial institutions, private noninsured pension plans, cooperatives, nonprofit organizations that primarily serve business, federal reserve banks, and federally sponsored credit agencies.

Certain major federal statistical series that are so designated by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and that are subject to the procedures established in OMB Statistical Policy Directive No. 3,which establishes rules governing the release of data, pre-release access to the data, public announcement of changes in methodology, and periodic evaluation of data accuracy.

Account 3 of the summary NIPAs. This account shows the sources and uses of income received by persons.

NIPA index that measures the prices paid for the goods and services purchased by, or on the behalf of, “persons.”