The Supply and Use Tables (SUTs) are the most detailed and complete framework for understanding the flows of the Irish National Accounts for a particular year. They inform us about what firms produced, what they used in production, what people consumed, and the role of the government in the Irish economy. They combine the three methods of computing GDP in the National Accounts; the income, expenditure, and production method.
The Supply Table shows Domestic Supply (Output) by industry and product, as well as Imports by product. The sum of these is known as Total Supply at Basic Prices. Trade and Transport Margins, Product Taxes and Product Subsidies are also shown, the addition of these leads to the transformation into Total Supply at Purchasers’ Prices.
The Use Table displays the use of products by domestic industries (Intermediate Consumption) and GVA, by industry. Intermediate Consumption and GVA add up to Domestic Supply. The Use Table also includes Final Uses, which consists of Final Consumption Expenditure (split by households, the government and NPISH), Gross Fixed Capital Formation (investment), Changes in Inventories (stocks) and Exports. The Use Table is calculated and published in Purchasers’ Prices.
Total Supply at Purchasers’ Prices is equal to Total Use at Purchasers’ Prices, both at an economy-wide and product level, i.e. every euro worth of product that is supplied in the economy is consumed in the economy. In both tables products are presented in the rows and industries are presented in the columns. The NACE classification system is used for industries and the CPA classification system is used for products.
The aggregate values from the SUTs can be found in the CSO’s Annual National Accounts (ANA) publication. However, the SUTs provide product detail that cannot be found elsewhere, and the tables highlight the inter-industry flows that lie behind the main aggregates.
Given their extensive use of data, the SUTs are produced with a three-year time lag. Generally, once published, they are not revised to take account of further changes to the data sources or methodology. This means that while previous year price values are estimated, differences in the tables are not fully comparable over time. However, this year the 2020 Supply and Use tables were revised in line with the latest ANA and can be accessed through the links in the Data chapter. This publication explains the tables for the year 2021. The tables in this publication are consistent with the data in the Annual National Accounts 2023.
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