• Improvements to national accounts 
• Quarterly series reconciled to new annual balanced data 
• Improvements to systems and methods 
• Calculation of exports and imports from low level
• Financial intermediation services indirectly measured 
• Updated source data 
• GDP industries 
• Components of expenditure on GDP 
• Revisions table 

We incorporated several revisions into GDP for the September 2014 quarter, which we discuss here. The tables below show which sources of revision affected each GDP component.

Improvements to national accounts

We have introduced the System of National Accounts 2008 (2008SNA) this quarter. This is also the first quarterly GDP release to include changes from the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, 6th edition, which was first introduced in Balance of Payments and International Investment Position: June 2014 quarter. We updated the base year for fixed price weights from 1995/96 to 2009/10, to better reflect the underlying structure of the economy. Additionally, volume series are re-expressed in 2009/10 prices, a more relevant year for expressing recent changes in economic activity. 

See Preview of 2014 national accounts improvements for more information on these changes.

Quarterly series reconciled to new annual balanced data

Reconciling quarterly constant price series to balanced annual series is an integral process in compiling national accounts. We do this in the September quarter of each year, and incorporate data from the annual national accounts releases. Incorporating this data helps maintain the quality of the quarterly series over time.

The new annual data incorporated into this release come from National Accounts (Industry Benchmarks): Year ended March 2012 and National Accounts (Income and Expenditure): Year ended March 2014, which were published on 21 November 2014.

Not all industries are reconciled to the annual national accounts data. The methods we use to calculate the annual contribution to GDP by industry varies, with some industries using only some annual national accounts data, while others use other data sources entirely. More information on the methods used for calculating each industry of GDP, and component of the expenditure measure of GDP, is in Quarterly gross domestic product: Sources and methods (fourth edition). However, all industries and components are affected by an update in the weights used for chain-linking, which allows the relative size of each lower-level series to be reflected in the industry and component aggregates.

Improvements to systems and methods

We reviewed a number of components while implementing the improvements to national accounts. Changes made to components include:

• Improving calculation methods
• Correcting system errors
• Re-calculating back series.

Calculation of exports and imports from low level

Exports and imports are now calculated from low-level data from June 1990 onwards. Previously, we calculated these series from June 2000 onwards, then linked to high-level back series for earlier periods (see Quarterly GDP Revisions – Information paper (September 2005)). We needed to calculate from low-level series to properly implement new international standards, and ensure consistency across our releases. Low-level national accounts groupings for exports and imports of goods are now available on Infoshare for June 1990 onwards.

Financial intermediation services indirectly measured

Updated input data for financial intermediation services indirectly measured (FISIM) have resulted in revisions to financial and insurance services in the production measure of GDP, and household consumption expenditure, private non-profit consumption expenditure, central and local government final consumption expenditure, and exports and imports of services in the expenditure measure of GDP.

Updated source data

Updated or revised input data caused revisions across a number of industries and components.

GDP by industry

This table summarises the factors causing significant revisions to each industry.

Components of expenditure on GDP

This table summarises the factors causing significant revisions to each component.

Revisions table

The following table shows the previously published and revised quarterly movements for GDP and expenditure on GDP.