Definition: Satellite account

National accounts

Satellite accounts provide a framework linked to the central accounts and which enables attention to be focussed on a certain field or aspect of economic and social life in the context of national accounts; common examples are satellite accounts for the environment, or tourism, or unpaid household work (SNA 1993, § 2.246 [21.4]).

Satellite accounts allow the analytical capacity of national accounting to be expanded for selected areas of social concern, such as pressures on the environment stemming from human activity, in a flexible manner, without overburdening or disrupting the central system. Satellite accounts should be made available to the public regularly and in comprehensible form (European environmental economic accounts).