Methodoly - Household satellite account

The Household Satellite Account provides experimental results measuring the economic well-being of household groups through indicators of disposable income, final consumption expenditure and savings.

Tracking the economic position of different household groups in the national accounts allows the presentation of results for household groups that are consistent with other macroeconomic aggregates and their trends.

The household satellite account is oriented towards disaggregating households according to the highest household income category (sub-sectors) or according to the amount of household disposable income (quintiles).

Based on the household satellite account data, it is possible to measure not only income inequalities between household groups but also to assess the overall economic disparity in society.

Why a macroeconomic view

The main reason for compiling macroeconomic data on the economic situation of households is to highlight income inequalities in society and the economic vulnerability of certain household groups, which are not necessarily manifested only in terms of cash income and expenditure.

The detailed distribution of private households' cash income and expenditure is tracked by social statistics (micro statistics). Their results and trends may differ from national accounts outputs and may not be consistent over time. The national accounts include items that are not usually included in the outputs of micro statistics, but which can be very relevant when analysing economic inequalities between households.

The result of the assessment of the interdependence of national accounts and social statistics outputs is the identification of macro-micro gaps for individual components of disposable income and household final consumption expenditure. For example, for household disposable income, this gap is identified by tracking such economic phenomena in the national accounts system as imputed rents for owner-occupied housing, individual housing construction, the informal economy, FISIM calculations, selected income from investments and wages of rich household groups, and social transfers in kind. Micro statistics are targeted only at private households living in dwellings. In the framework of the System of National Accounts, persons living outside the housing stock or permanently in institutions are also of interest.