National Accounts and Economic Indicators Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Economists and economic analysts, Finance ministry and central bank staff and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-EE-049

Before you join: Participants should be comfortable reading tables, charts and percentages, and should have basic familiarity with macroeconomic terms such as inflation, unemployment, interest rates and GDP.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

National accounts provide the framework used to measure economic activity, income, expenditure, wealth and financial positions. Finance ministries, central banks, statistical offices, banks, investors and corporate planning teams rely on GDP, inflation, labour market, fiscal and external-sector indicators to assess conditions and make decisions. Misreading price effects as real growth, treating revisions as errors, or comparing series with incompatible definitions can produce poor forecasts, weak policy advice and misleading management reporting.

This course explains how national accounts are constructed and how economic indicators should be interpreted. Participants examine the System of National Accounts 2008, institutional sectors, production boundaries, GDP compilation methods, income and expenditure accounts, balance sheets, volume measures and chain-linking. The course also covers consumer prices, labour market measures, productivity, balance of payments, fiscal indicators, monetary data, seasonal adjustment, data revisions and statistical discrepancies. Participants learn to distinguish nominal from real movements, assess source quality, calculate growth contributions and identify the limits of headline indicators.

Teaching combines concise instructor briefings with worked data cases, group analysis, calculation-based exercises and structured interpretation of statistical releases. Cases draw on issues faced by public finance teams, central banks, commercial banks, development agencies and corporate economists, such as explaining a GDP revision, assessing inflation pressures or interpreting a widening current-account deficit. Participants leave with a national accounts interpretation pack containing calculation templates, release-review checklists, an indicator dashboard design and a briefing-note structure for communicating evidence, uncertainty and implications.

The course is suited to professionals who use official economic data but need a firmer technical basis for questioning, interpreting and communicating the figures.

What you will be able to do

  • Classify institutional units, sectors and transactions using SNA 2008 conventions
  • Calculate GDP using production, income and expenditure approaches
  • Distinguish nominal, price and volume changes using deflators and chain-linking
  • Interpret the sequence of accounts, sector balances and balance-sheet positions
  • Assess inflation, labour, productivity, fiscal and external-sector indicators
  • Evaluate source data, seasonal adjustment, revisions and statistical discrepancies
  • Decompose economic growth into expenditure, industry and sector contributions
  • Produce an evidence-based economic indicator briefing note and dashboard specification

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence challenging GDP, inflation and labour market commentary
  • Ability to separate real growth from price-driven changes
  • Stronger interpretation of fiscal, monetary and external-sector releases
  • Practical framework for assessing revisions and data reliability
  • Reusable structure for concise economic briefing notes

For your organisation

  • More consistent interpretation of official macroeconomic releases
  • Better economic assumptions for budgets, forecasts and stress tests
  • Clearer reporting of inflation, growth and external-sector risks
  • Reduced risk of decisions based on incompatible economic series
  • Stronger dialogue between finance, strategy, risk and policy teams

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can explain the purpose, scope and core concepts of national accounts.

  • Purposes, users and decision limits of national accounting aggregates
  • System of National Accounts 2008 boundaries, concepts and classifications
  • Production, income and expenditure perspectives within the GDP identity
  • Resident units distinguished from territorial production using economic ownership
  • Nominal, real and volume measures separated before interpretation
  • Flow variables, stock positions and valuation dates correctly distinguished
  • National accounts release calendar, revision cycles and metadata assessed

Participants can classify units, transactions and accounts within the national accounting framework.

  • Institutional units classified by control, market status and legal identity
  • Five institutional sectors assigned under SNA 2008 conventions
  • Resident and nonresident entities classified using centre of economic interest
  • Transactions, other flows and balance sheet positions differentiated
  • Current, capital and financial accounts linked through balancing items
  • Supply and use tables reconcile industries, products and final demand
  • Classification systems: ISIC, CPC, COICOP and COFOG compared

Participants can interpret and calculate GDP using production-account concepts.

  • Gross output, intermediate consumption and value added calculated consistently
  • Basic prices, purchasers' prices and taxes on products reconciled
  • Production approach GDP compiled from industry-level value added
  • Financial intermediation services indirectly measured allocated across users
  • Non-market output valued through costs and volume indicators
  • Informal activity, illegal production and household services treatment explained
  • Double counting risks identified within gross output aggregation

Participants can analyse GDP components, national income and saving measures.

  • Compensation, operating surplus and mixed income mapped to GDP
  • Taxes less subsidies on production and imports treated correctly
  • Household consumption, government consumption and actual final consumption distinguished
  • Gross fixed capital formation, inventories and valuables measured
  • External balance of goods and services derived from expenditure
  • GNI, gross national disposable income and saving calculated
  • Household saving rate interpreted alongside distributional limitations

Participants can trace economic flows through sector accounts and interpret balance-sheet positions.

  • Sequence of accounts traced from production through net lending
  • Primary income, secondary income and redistribution transactions classified
  • Capital transfers separated from current transfers using SNA rules
  • Financial accounts link net lending with instrument transactions
  • Balance sheets record produced assets, non-produced assets and liabilities
  • Revaluation accounts capture price changes, exchange effects and write-offs
  • Net worth and sectoral financial positions interpreted cautiously

Participants can distinguish price and volume change when interpreting economic growth.

  • Laspeyres volume measures and Paasche price measures compared
  • Chain-linking procedures construct annual volume measures without base-year distortion
  • Implicit GDP deflators distinguished from consumer and producer price indices
  • Double deflation estimates industry value added at constant prices
  • Quality adjustment, substitution bias and new goods affect inflation measures
  • Seasonal adjustment separates recurring calendar effects from underlying movements
  • Annual overlap and reference-year revaluation explained for chain volumes

Participants can assess major short-term economic indicators and their measurement limits.

  • Employment, unemployment and labour force participation rates calculated
  • ILO labour force framework compared with administrative employment records
  • Labour productivity measures link output, hours worked and employment
  • Consumer price index weights, elementary aggregates and headline inflation examined
  • Producer prices, import prices and terms of trade interpreted
  • Retail sales, industrial production and business surveys assessed as indicators
  • Leading, coincident and lagging indicator roles distinguished

Participants can interpret external-sector, government finance and monetary indicators alongside national accounts.

  • Balance of payments current, capital and financial accounts structured
  • International investment position stocks reconciled with external financial flows
  • Goods, services, primary income and secondary income classifications applied
  • Exchange-rate movements separated from transaction-driven external account changes
  • Government finance statistics classify revenue, expense, assets and liabilities
  • Fiscal balance, primary balance and public debt indicators interpreted
  • Monetary aggregates, policy rates and credit indicators placed in context

Participants can assess how national accounts estimates are compiled, revised and quality assured.

  • Administrative records, surveys and censuses assessed for national accounts use
  • Benchmarking aligns high-frequency indicators with annual supply-use constraints
  • Quarterly GDP estimates built using indicator methods and temporal disaggregation
  • Revisions analysed using preliminary, revised and benchmark estimate vintages
  • Statistical discrepancy diagnosed between production and expenditure GDP estimates
  • Seasonally adjusted series checked against unadjusted and trend estimates
  • Metadata documents sources, methods, breaks and revision policies

Participants can produce clear, qualified economic analysis for decision-makers.

  • Growth contributions decomposed by expenditure component, industry and sector
  • Per-capita GDP, productivity and real income indicators contextualised
  • Index numbers converted into percentage changes, annual rates and contributions
  • Base effects, seasonal patterns and revisions tested before commentary
  • National accounts limitations identified for welfare, inequality and environmental depletion
  • Indicator dashboard specifies definitions, frequency, source and decision use
  • Briefing note structure links evidence, uncertainty and recommended actions

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. GDP compilation and reconciliation worksheet
  2. Economic indicator release-review checklist
  3. Price-volume and deflator calculation template
  4. Sector accounts interpretation map
  5. Macroeconomic indicator dashboard specification
  6. Economic briefing note template

Who should attend

  • Economists and economic analysts — interpret official data for forecasts, policy and market assessments
  • Finance ministry and central bank staff — assess macroeconomic conditions and public policy evidence
  • National statistical office staff — strengthen understanding of accounts, indicators and data releases
  • Bank economists and risk analysts — connect macroeconomic indicators to credit, liquidity and market risk
  • Corporate finance and strategy managers — use economic data in planning, investment and scenario work
  • Development agency and NGO programme staff — assess country conditions and report economic evidence

Skills and tools covered

GDP measurementEconomic indicator analysisPrice-volume analysisSector accounts interpretationMacroeconomic data qualityEconomic briefing

Tools and standards

System of National Accounts 2008, Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, Sixth Edition, International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities, Revision 4, Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose 2018

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short technical briefings to establish the accounting framework, followed by worked statistical cases and guided calculations. Participants analyse national accounts releases, price indices, labour data, fiscal tables and balance of payments statements using realistic scenarios. Group exercises focus on reconciling different GDP measures, identifying data limitations and forming defensible interpretations. Simulations require participants to respond to revisions, inflation surprises and changing external balances. The final application-planning segment converts course methods into a practical indicator-monitoring and briefing approach.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable reading tables, charts and percentages, and should have basic familiarity with macroeconomic terms such as inflation, unemployment, interest rates and GDP. Experience using spreadsheets for simple calculations is helpful. The course assumes that participants may read official statistical releases, economic reports or financial forecasts in their work. Prior study of economics, econometrics or national accounting is not required. Advanced mathematics, econometric modelling software, statistical programming and experience compiling official national accounts are not required.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You need comfort with percentages, charts and basic macroeconomic terms such as GDP, inflation and unemployment. No prior national accounts training, econometrics background or advanced mathematics is required.

Bring a laptop if possible, along with examples of economic releases, dashboards or reports used in your role. Course materials and data cases are provided, so no specialist software is needed.

It is designed for economists, analysts, finance professionals, policy staff, statistical office personnel and managers who use official economic data. It is particularly useful for people who need to explain what the figures mean rather than compile them from raw source data.

This course focuses on how official economic measures are defined, compiled, assessed and interpreted. It does not teach regression modelling, forecasting software or monetary policy theory in the depth covered by specialist econometrics and forecasting courses.

You will be able to review GDP, inflation, labour, fiscal and external-sector releases with clearer questions and stronger analytical discipline. The templates support briefing senior stakeholders, reviewing assumptions and designing indicator-monitoring routines.

The five-day programme contains ten modules, each designed for approximately three contact hours, with remaining time used for breaks, review and applied analysis. Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, providing about 6.5 contact hours daily.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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