Complete series adaptation to the new general accounting plan 2007

Royal Decree 1514/2007 of 16 November 2007 enacted the new Spanish General Chart of Accounts, which is compulsory as of the first financial year starting from 1 January 2008. One year on since implementation of the plan, comparable data are available for two consecutive observations (I09 and I08) in the quarterly database (CBQ). In order to maintain formal consistency in the historical time series of the Central Balance Sheet Data Office, the complete series have been revised, adapting them, where possible, to the reporting formats required under the new regulations.

Therefore, in this edition the information included in the tables of this chapter has been fully updated for the entire historical time series, both for the annual database (CBA data) and for the quarterly database (CBQ data), adapting them to the new format (for information prior to 2007) and to the new valuation methods (from 2008 onwards). The impact of the latter (relatively low) has been quantified in articles published in the Economic Bulletin on the quarterly results of non-financial corporations. The main change affecting the historical time series is the measurement of certain financial assets and liabilities at fair value. This change has an impact on balance sheet totals and, therefore, on the calculation of profitability ratios, i.e. R.1 Return on investment, R.2 Interest on borrowed funds, R.3 Return on equity and R.4 ROE - cost of debt (R.1-R.2) (Tables 15.7 to 15.18); and on the debt ratio E.1 Interest-bearing borrowing/net assets (Tables 15.22 and 15.23). No information is available that would allow the data for years prior to 2008 to be adapted to these valuation methods; therefore, there is a break in the data between 2007 and 2008.

At the same time, a methodological change has been included for the entire historical time series that improves the calculation of ordinary net profit (ONP): revenue from capital grants taken to profit or loss for the period are included net of the depreciation of the fixed assets that they finance (in previous editions, grants taken to profit or loss were considered extraordinary income). This change has been reflected in a slight increase in the value of ONP (see Tables 15.1 to 15.6) and has also affected the profitability ratios R1 and R.3.2ª.