Supply, Use and Input-Output Tables

Detailed information for 2021

Status:

Active

Frequency:

Annual

Record number:

1401

The supply and use tables trace the production of commodities by domestic industries, combined with imports, through their uses by industries or as final consumption, investment or exports. The system provides measures of value added by industry and total GDP.

The supply and use tables provide the basic information for the derivation of industry-by-industry input-output tables.

Data release - June 27, 2023

Description

The input-output accounts focus on measuring the productive structure of the Canadian economy. The framework consists of the supply and use tables, the industry by industry input-output tables and a number of derived products.

The supply and use tables trace the production of products by domestic industries, combined with imports, through their use as intermediate inputs or as final consumption, investment or exports. The system provides a measure of gross value added by industry - total output less intermediate inputs. These tables can be used to calculate economy-wide gross domestic product (GDP) either directly, by summing value added over the industries, or indirectly, by summing to the economy-wide cost of primary inputs (income-based GDP) or by computing the grand total of the flow of products into final use categories (expenditure-based GDP) - the link to the national income and expenditure accounts.

While the supply and use tables closely reflect actual economic transactions, certain analytical and modeling purposes, however, require symmetric industry-by-industry tables. These symmetric industry-by-industry tables are referred to as input-output tables. The input-output tables show the inter-industry transactions, that is, all purchases of an industry from all other industries, including expenditures on imports and inventory withdrawals, as well as all expenditures on primary inputs. Similarly, the symmetric final demand table shows all purchases by a final use category from all other industries, including expenditures on imports and inventory withdrawals as well as all expenditures on indirect taxes.

The input-output tables allow the analyst to explore "what if?" questions at a fairly detailed level, exploring the impact of exogenous changes in final demand on output while taking account of the interdependencies between different industries and regions of the economy and the leakages to imports and taxes. For example, such models might be used to study the question: "If Canadian oil and gas exports doubled, what industries would be most affected and in which provinces"? The use of an input-output model to address such a question would permit the estimation of indirect, and possibly also some of the induced effects of a demand shock of this nature, and the calculation of the corresponding multipliers.

Statistical activity

The Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts provides a conceptually integrated statistical framework for studying the state and behaviour of the Canadian economy. The accounts are centered on the measurement of activities associated with the production of goods and services, the sales of goods and services in final markets, the supporting financial transactions and the resulting wealth positions.

The Supply and Use tables are calculated at the national and provincial and territorial level, but on an annual basis only. They are available about two and half years after the end of the reference year; this is because of the delay in obtaining the needed source data and by the complex nature of producing such a detailed account. As a means of providing more up-to-date information to users for current analysis, two industry-based programs - one producing the country's current monthly GDP figures (record no. 1301), the other annual provincial-territorial estimates (record no. 1303) have been set up. These two programs, which can be viewed as extensions of the supply and use tables, use a set of indicators to project the GDP by industry benchmarks from the supply and use tables

Reference period: Calendar year

Subjects

  • Economic accounts
  • Input-output accounts

Data sources and methodology

Target population

All economic agents involved in production. This includes households, corporations, businesses, non-profit institutions, and governments.

Instrument design

This methodology does not apply.

Sampling

This methodology does not apply.

Data sources

Data are extracted from administrative files and derived from other Statistics Canada surveys and/or other sources.

The program uses survey and administrative data collected by other Statistics Canada programs

T1 Income Tax and Benefit Return (CRA)
T2 Corporations Incorporated Businesses (CRA)
T3010 Registered Charity Information Return (CRA)
T4 Statement of Pension, Retirement, Annuity and Other Income (CRA)
T4 Statement of Remuneration Paid (CRA)
T5013 Partnership Financial Return (CRA)

Combining data from multiple sources, as part of the creation of integrated statistics.

Error detection

Supplies and uses of products are confronted at the macro level for determining incoherences.

Production functions and product mixes of industries are examined for time series consistency, in current and constant prices.

Product mix of final demands are examined for time series consistency.

Imputation

Subject matter experts adjust the estimates to ensure the coherence of supplies and uses, product mixes and production functions, and time series of production functions in current and constant prices.

Estimation

In the process of preparing statistical estimates, data from various sources are confronted, analysed by subject-matter experts, and used to compile estimates that are consistent with all other estimates in the Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts and provide a valid and coherent statistical picture of the subject matter. Consistency is a key feature of the statistics produced by the Accounts. A good example of how consistency is achieved through data integration is a process known as "commodity balancing". Because, logically, the supply of a good or service from all possible sources must equal its demand or disposition in a given jurisdiction, every good and service in the economy is scrutinized to make sure it obeys this rule before it is used for the compilation of the supply and use tables. When supply does not add up to demand or disposition (demand plus inventory), as is often the case, (indeed, statistics are often prepared according to different concepts; they are also evaluated on a different basis or cover slightly different periods, i.e. fiscal versus calendar year), each data source is questioned, errors and omissions are corrected, and sometimes the data are re-estimated in light of more reliable information to achieve complete balance between supply and disposition.

The tables are set up on a year-by-year basis, rather than in time series. The tables identify transactions in three ways:

1. they show data by product, a neutral terminology for a group of goods or services or type of transactions (e.g. "wages and salaries" or "taxes on products").

2. they show data by industry: a group of producing units such as establishments or enterprises that are engaged in market transactions in goods or services. The term "industry" does not imply that they are industrial businesses. The terminology covers all entities that conduct activities involving market transactions. The concept includes such groups as municipal governments, non-profit institutions serving households such as sports and recreation clubs, and professions such as offices of dentists.

3. they show data by categories of final demand, a convenient breakdown that identifies transactions that constitute final sales of goods and services.

Quality evaluation

The input-output framework is validated for accuracy, coherence and overall reasonableness. The major components of the framework, such as the income and expenditure-based GDP components are reconciled to the national and provincial-territorial income and expenditure accounts.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any data which would divulge information obtained under the Statistics Act that relates to any identifiable person, business or organization without the prior knowledge or the consent in writing of that person, business or organization. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

The supply and use tables contain no suppressions for confidentiality. It has been determined that the distance between respondent information obtained from business surveys and administrative data and the aggregating structure and the conceptual and statistical measurement framework underlying the compilation of the supply and use framework is sufficiently large such that they mask the information provided by respondents and negate the need for data suppressions.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

The supply and use tables are periodically revised to comply with with changes to the international standards for the system of national accounts.

Data accuracy

In general, weaknesses in source data arise mainly from the following: a) incomplete details on particular commodities; b) undercoverage; c) inappropriate concepts and definitions. These are briefly discussed below:

a) Incomplete details
The most obvious weakness arises from the use of source data where adequate commodity details are not available. These are, therefore, estimated. In the commodity balancing process the estimates are reviewed and adjustments made when necessary.

b) Undercoverage
This weakness is normally corrected by inflating reported data by a factor that allows the data to represent the universe concerned. For example, in the case of hospitals, the number of beds in all hospitals is used to inflate reported annual data which relate to the reported number of beds in hospitals included in the survey.

c) Concepts and definitions not suitable for the SNA
For administrative records, the data are quite varied in coverage, details, definitions and concepts and often these factors do not coincide with those required for the Input-Output Accounts. They must be thoroughly examined and adjusted for consistency and coverage using carefully designed estimating procedures.

Documentation

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