Systems of national accounts : a comparative analysis

This chapter is intended to provide a general background to our discussions on the problems of national accounting in Africa and the proposals by the economic commission for Africa for the adaptation of the systems of national accounts for use in African countries. The systems of national accounts proposed separately by the United Nations and the OECD provide a good point of departure because they are in effect a synthesis of the then prevailing national accounting practices in western countries which, incidentally, provided the framework on which much of African national accounts were based.