Institutional units and sectors

1.28 Institutional units are economic entities that are capable of owning goods and assets, of incurring liabilities and of engaging in economic activities and transactions with other units in their own right. For the purposes of the system, the institutional units are grouped together into five mutually exclusive institutional sectors composed of the following types of units:
  1. non-financial corporations;
  2. financial corporations;
  3. general government;
  4. households;
  5. non-profit institutions serving households.
The five sectors together make up the total economy. Each sector is also divided into sub-sectors. The system makes provision for a complete set of flow accounts and balance sheets to be compiled for each sector, and sub-sector if desired, as well as for the total economy.