ECCBSO: a tool for the analysis of the non-financial sector of the economy (from individual to consolidated accounts)

The European Central Balance Sheet Offices (ECCBSO) is an informal body created in the mid-1980s that currently integrates the Central Balance Sheet Data Offices (whatever this term may mean!) of around 20 European countries that create and maintain around 50 databases of micro-data, mainly based on accounting, directly or indirectly provided by non-financial corporations and groups. Since the inception of the ECCBSO, the work by its members has provided for the possibility of obtaining direct data from the core of the production system (the non-financial corporations, NFC), using to this end the more basic and clear data produced by NFC, namely their financial statements. The availability of these databases represents an alternative source so as to better understand the situation of and developments at the NFC.