Accounts, balancing items and aggregates

1.60 For units (institutional units; local kind-of-activity units) or groups of units (institutional sectors and, by extension, the rest of the world; industries), different sub-accounts record the transactions or other flows which are connected to some specific aspect of economic life (for instance, production). Such a set of transactions usually does not balance; the total amounts recorded as receivable and payable usually differ. Therefore, a balancing item must be introduced. Usually, a balancing item must also be introduced between the total of assets and the total of liabilities of an institutional unit or sector. Balancing items are meaningful measures of economic performance in themselves. When summed for the whole economy, they constitute significant aggregates.