Glossary:Changes in inventories

From Statistics Explained

Changes in inventories (or stocks) is the difference between additions to and withdrawals from inventories. In national accounts they consist of changes in:

• stocks of outputs that are still held by the units that produced them prior to their being further processed, sold, delivered to other units or used in other ways;
• stocks of products acquired from other units that are intended to be used later for intermediate consumption or for resale without further processing;
• work in progress, which are goods being processed but not yet delivered to the user at the end of the accounting period;
• strategic stocks managed by government authorities (food, oil, stocks for market intervention).

In the national accounts changes in inventories are shown as a change in assets in the capital account.

Further information

• Annual national accounts (ESMS metadata file)
• Annual sector accounts (ESMS metadata file)
• Quarterly national accounts (ESMS metadata file)
• Quarterly sector accounts (ESMS metadata file)
• Supply, use and Input-output tables (ESMS metadata file)
• European system of accounts ESA 1995
• Handbook on quarterly national accounts
• Handbook on price and volume measures in national accounts
• Eurostat-OECD methodological manual on purchasing power parities

Related concepts

• Gross capital formation

Statistical data

• National accounts – GDP
• National accounts - an overview

Sources

• United Nations: System of National Accounts (SNA) 1993
• Eurostat: European System of Accounts ESA 1995