Benchmarks

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Published data from multiple programs in the macroeconomic accounts are used as benchmark totals that must be respected. These are expenditures by various sectors of the economy and are included in the quarterly national expenditure-based gross domestic product (GDP) under the income and expenditure accounts (IEA) program as well as the annual provincial and territorial economic accounts (PTEA) program. Published data are used from both programs up to the latest available year.

Household final consumption expenditure

Household final consumption expenditure (HFCE) represents the spending of resident households (either in Canada or abroad) on goods and services. It measures household out-of-pocket outlays on goods and services, in addition to imputed items for specific macroeconomic concepts such as imputed rents (the value of owner occupied housing services) and financial intermediation services indirectly measured (FISIM). HFCE is also included in the household sector accounts. Its classification is closely aligned with the international classification of individual consumption according to purpose (COICOP), which categorizes expenditures according to the purpose they serve. Statistics Canada differs from the international COICOP classification as we have, for example, separated insurance and financial services from miscellaneous goods and services and also isolated the net expenditure abroad from the main COICOP categories. HFCE is used as the starting block of data based on the SNA definition of HAFC (part a). The main consumption categories for HFCE can be found in the appendix.

Government final consumption expenditure

Government final consumption expenditure (GFCE) represents the expenditure incurred by general government on both individual consumption of goods and services and collective consumption services. Individual consumption of goods and services represents the social transfers in kind (STiK) from government to households and is the second block of data based on the SNA definition of HAFC (part b).

Non-profit institutions serving households final consumption expenditure

Final consumption expenditure of non-profit institutions serving households (NPISH) consists of the expenditure incurred by resident NPISH entities. Services provided by NPISH are mostly for individual consumption and therefore by convention and SNA guidelines, all services provided by NPISH are treated as STiK. Therefore STiK from NPISH to household must respect the benchmark NPISH final consumption expenditure. The benchmark will be distributed by consumption categories and allocated as part C of the SNA definition of HAFC.