To promote transparency and provide information, the Federal Planning Bureau regularly publishes the methods and results of its works. The publications are organised in different series, such as Outlooks, Working Papers and Planning Papers. Some reports can be consulted here, along with the Short Term Update newsletters that were published until 2015. You can search our publications by theme, publication type, author and year.
European Regulation No 691/2011 (amended by European Regulation No 538/2014) obliges the member states of the European Union to deliver six environmental economic accounts as of 2017. The accounts concerned are the three accounts that have been obligatory since 2013, the Environmental Taxes by Economic Activity (ETEA), the Air Emissions Accounts (AEA) and the Economy-Wide Material Flow Accounts (EW-MFA), as well as three accounts that have to be delivered as of 2017, the Environmental Goods and Services Sector (EGSS), the Environmental Protection Expenditure Accounts (EPEA), and the Physical Energy Flow Accounts (PEFA).
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the AEA for the years 2008-2016.
Others - REP_AEA2018_11767 (fr), (nl),
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the EPEA for the years 2014-2015.
Others - REP_EPEA2017 (fr), (nl),
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the EGSS for the years 2014-2015.
Others - REP_EGSS2017 (fr), (nl),
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the EW-MFA for the years 2011-2015.
Others - REP_EWMFA2017 (fr), (nl),
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the ETEA for the years 2011-2015.
Others - REP_ETEA2017_11549 (fr), (fr), (nl), (nl),
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the AEA for the years 2011-2015.
Others - REP_AEA2017_11554 (fr), (fr), (nl), (nl),
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the PEFA for the years 2014-2015.
Others - REP_PEFA2017_11551 (fr), (fr), (nl), (nl),
The traditional attribution of responsibility for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to producing countries may be distorted by international trade flows as importing emission-intensive commodities contributes to reducing a country’s production-based emissions. This has motivated the calculation of carbon footprints that measure the amount of domestic and foreign GHG emissions (directly and indirectly) embodied in commodities intended for final consumption by a country’s residents. In this working paper, we present carbon footprint estimations for Belgium based on global multi-regional input-output (MRIO) tables that have been made consistent with detailed Belgian national accounts. According to our calculations, Belgium’s carbon footprint is substantially higher than its productionbased emissions, which means that Belgium is a net importer of GHG emissions. Moreover, our results show that consistency with detailed national accounts does matter for MRIO-based carbon footprint calculations, in particular for a small open economy like Belgium.
Planning & Working Papers - Working Paper 10-17 (en),
European Regulation 691/2011 obliges the member states of the European Union to deliver three environmental economic accounts as of 2013. The accounts concerned are the Environmental Taxes by Economic Activity (ETEA), the Air Emissions Accounts (AEA) and the Economy-Wide Material Flow Accounts (EW-MFA). In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the EW-MFA for the years 2010-2014.
Others - EWMFA 2016 (fr), (nl),
European Regulation 691/2011 obliges the member states of the European Union to deliver three environmental economic accounts as of 2013. The accounts concerned are the Environmental Taxes by Economic Activity (ETEA), the Air Emissions Accounts (AEA) and the Economy-Wide Material Flow Accounts (EW-MFA).
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the ETEA for the years 2010-2014.
Others - ETEA 2016 (fr), (nl),
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the AEA for the years 2010-2014.
Others - AEA 2016 (fr), (nl),
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the EW-MFA for the years 2009-2013.
Others - EWMFA 2015 (fr), (nl),
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the ETEA for the years 2008-2013.
Others - ETEA 2015 (fr), (nl),
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the AEA for the years 2009-2013.
Others - AEA 2015 (fr), (nl),
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the EW-MFA for the years 2008-2012.
Others - EWMFA 2014 (fr), (nl),
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the ETEA for the years 2008-2012.
Others - ETEA 2014 (fr), (nl),
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the AEA for the years 2008-2012.
Others - AEA 2014 (fr), (nl),
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the EW-MFA for the years 2008-2011.
Others - EWMFA 2013 (fr), (nl),
Over the last couple of decades, trade liberalisation has progressed and environmental regulations have become more stringent, in particular regarding emissions of air pollution. This has raised the fear in developed countries that emission-intensive activities are increasingly carried out abroad. This paper develops an approach for testing whether emission-intensive industries have greater shares of imported intermediate materials. The test is applied to the Belgian manufacturing sector for the years 1995-2007. Emissions of three types of air pollutants are analysed: greenhouse gases, acidifying gases and tropospheric precursor gases. The results provide evidence that industries with a high intensity in acidifying gas emissions (SO2, NOX and NH3) tend to import a greater share of intermediate materials. This is likely to be linked to the stricter enforcement of regulations for air quality, which act upon acidifying gases. There is no such evidence in the results for emissions of tropospheric precursor gases and in particular of greenhouse gases. Regarding the latter, despite stringent regulations, enforcement appears to be less strict.
Planning & Working Papers - Working Paper 12-13 (en),
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the ETEA for the years 2008-2011.
Others - ETEA 2013 (fr), (nl),
In this publication the National Accounts Institute presents the AEA for the years 2008-2011.
Others - AEA 2013 (fr), (nl),
Since the mid-90’s, production-related air emissions in Belgian manufacturing have been reduced substantially and it can be shown that the pace of the reduction has been fastest for domestic intermediates. It is widely debated whether offshoring has played a role in this reduction by replacing domestic intermediates by imported intermediates. This paper develops a decomposition analysis to measure the contribution of offshoring – the share of imported intermediates in total intermediates – to the fall in air emission intensities for domestic intermediates. This decomposition analysis reveals that 27% of the fall in the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions, 20% of the fall in the intensity of acidifying emissions and 20% of the fall in the intensity of tropospheric precursor emissions in Belgian manufacturing between 1995 and 2007 can be attributed to offshoring.
Planning & Working Papers - Working Paper 05-13 (en),
Speeches & presentations - ESA_2012_01 (en), (fr), (fr), (fr), (fr), (nl), (nl), (nl), (nl),
Planning & Working Papers - Planning Paper 111 (fr), (nl),
Since the start of 2012, tensions in money and bond markets have receded somewhat in most euro countries. Together with the recent uptick in most confidence indicators, this is expected to lead to a bottoming out of European GDP. Assuming the sovereign debt crisis does not intensify again, economic activity should gradually pick up in the second half of the year. Nonetheless, on a yearly basis, this implies negative euro area GDP growth of -0.3%, which is a substantial downward revision as compared to our September forecasts (1.2%). This scenario remains highly uncertain, with renewed turmoil in financial markets as the main risk.
Belgian economic growth amounted to 1.9% in 2011, although economic activity fell slightly during the second semester. In 2012, quarterly growth should remain very modest against the background of a gradual pick-up in the European business cycle and of the austerity measures already taken by the Belgian government. Economic activity ought to stabilize in 2012Q1, followed by a slight export-led upturn (up to qoq growth of 0.2% in 2012Q4). Economic growth should remain limited to 0.1% on a yearly basis.
Due to the lack of dynamism in the business cycle, job creation has stagnated since mid-2011 and should only slightly recover in the course of this year, leading to an average annual increase of 6 400 units in 2012. As a result, the harmonised unemployment rate (Eurostat definition) should rise from 7.2% in 2011 to 7.5% in 2012.
Our most recent inflation forecasts were finalised at the end of February. Belgian inflation, as measured by the yoy growth rate of the national consumer price index, should amount to 3.0% on average this year. This upward revision (compared to our 2.7% forecast at the end of January) is largely due to price increases for energy products as a result of higher oil prices.
STU 1-12 was finalised on 16 March 2012.
Short Term Update - Short Term Update 01-12 (en),
Federal Planning Bureau