Concepts

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is one of the most important measures of economic activity. GDP as a synthetic indicator and its components provide an overall picture of the state of the economy. In Switzerland, Annual National Accounts (ANA) are compiled by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), while quarterly national accounts (QNA) are calculated by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). The conceptual framework of the QNA is similar to that of the ANA and the quarterly data are consistent with the corresponding annual data.

Revisions

With each release, seasonally unadjusted figures are revised back for several quarters. With the August/September release, they are revised back for three years. After main conceptual or methodological changes of the national accounts (benchmark revisions), the whole time series may be revised. For seasonally adjusted figures, the whole time series is revised each quarter. Benchmark revisions are coordinated with the FSO. Historical vintages of GDP and some expenditure side components can be found in the data set below. A more detailed description why revisions occur in the Swiss QNA can be found in the accompanying article.

Data (XLSX, 2 MB, 13.03.2024)

A Real-Time Data Set for Switzerland

Revision policy

Methods

The Swiss QNA are compiled by a so-called indirect estimation approach, based on temporal disaggregation techniques. Quarterly estimates are derived from the available annual data, using statistical methods and quarterly indicators. The accuracy of the preliminary annual estimates, obtained as the sum of the quarterly estimated values, depends to a large extent on the quality of the available and retained quarterly indicators. For seasonal and trading days adjustment, Swiss QNA currently relies on the X13-Arima-Seats method.

Temporal Disaggregation of Time Series

Handbook on quarterly national accounts

Handbook on seasonal adjustment

Software

The Swiss QNA are based on software routines written in the statistical software R. The core routines include a package with methods for temporal disaggregation of time series, as well as an interface to the new X13-ARIMA-SEATS software for seasonal adjustment. Both are publicly available and can be used and modified under the terms of the General Public Licence (GPL-3).

tempdisagg: Methods for Temporal Disaggregation and Interpolation of Time Series

seasonal: R Interface to X-13-ARIMA-SEATS