Highlights

In December 2003, the Bureau of Economic Analysis will release the initial results of its 12th comprehensive, or "benchmark," revision of the national income and product accounts (NIPA's).  The last such comprehensive revision was released in October 1999.  The comprehensive revision will feature:

• Revised NIPA estimates for 1929-2002;
• Incorporation of newly available benchmark input-output (I-O) accounts for 1997 (described in the January 2003 Survey of Current Business);
• Improvements to definitions and classifications to:
  • Recognize implicit services provided by property and casualty insurance
  • Allocate a portion of the implicit services of commercial banks to borrowers
  • Improved consistency of the NIPA's with international guidelines;
  • Definitional, statistical, and presentational improvements that include new and redesigned tables; and
  • Additional improvements in definitions and classifications as described in the June 2003 Survey of Current Business.

Additional articles describing these changes will appear in the August 2003, September 2003, and January 2004 Survey of Current Business.