Corporate Accounts, Damned Lies and Statistics Corporate Accounts, Damned Lies and Statistics.

In the current climate of accounting rorts, it is useful to turn to sources of information on businesses other than accounts compiled according to prevailing accounting standards. The national accounts compiled by the Australian Bureau of Statistics according to the principles of the System of National Accounts 1993 (SNA) provide an alternative view of financial statistics. This article compares and contrasts the two views and highlights the usefulness of an alternative, principles based, view of the accounts. Key words: National Account