ASSESMENTS REGARDING METHODOLOGY AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MAIN MACROECONOMIC INDICATORS

This paper highlights a parallelism between the methodologies of determining the macroeconomic factors used in Romania before and after 1990. It is known that before 1990, the Romanian statistics used a methodology which was based on the Material Production System (MPS) in order to determine the macroeconomic indicators (social product, national income). Taking into consideration the experience of the occidental countries and Romania�s intention to integrate in the European Economic Community, the Romanian statistics has adopted and gradually introduced after 1990 the National Accounts System (NAS), which is used in the European Community. This article will reveal some aspects regarding the characteristics of the two systems, as well as some observations which aim at the methodology which is used within these systems in order to determine the macroeconomic indicators. Thus, the main characteristics of the methodology of Material Production System are presented together with a particularization of the components of the Global Social Product. Consequently, the characteristics of the methodology of the National Accounts System are highlighted, emphasizing the calculation of the Gross Domestic Product. A parallelism between the calculations of the two indicators is conducted, indicating which components are included in each calculation.