Andy Graham
Best Selling Author of 'The Enterprise Data Model'
"This is a great book for those who get into the world of Data Governance in its broad meaning, very refreshing and thought provoking"
NEW! A Brief History of Data
Data is now going to be included in GDP
In the 1920s and 30s most companies had a significant investment in tangible assets such as property, physical products, raw materials, etc. Since the 1980s this has been gradually changing as more intangible assets (such as intellectual property, marketing brands, IT systems and the data that resides in them) have made up the true value of companies. This can be illustrated by looking at the average market to book ratio for companies in the 1980s (just over 1) to today where according to the S&P it is 4.9 (as at 12th March 2025). A market-to-book ratio of 4.9 implies that the tangible assets of an average US business account for approximately 20% of the value of the company. In essence intangible assets have supplanted tangible assets as the key value drivers in today’s economy.
During the same period traditional accounting has remained tied to tangible assets (let me just put on my tin helmet in preparation for the incoming from all the finance folk out there). As a result, a significant portion of corporate assets go under recognised and under reported. And because it is difficult—some would say impossible—to manage what is not being measured, many of the assets that are most responsible for creating value in today's economy are not managed as well as they could be.
In 2020 the United Nations requested the Inter-Secretariat Working Group on National Accounts (ISWGNA) to submit, for consideration by the Commission at its fifty-second session in 2021, a road map for the revision of SNA for adoption by the Commission in 2025. So, what does all that mean? The SNA (System of National Accounts) is the internationally agreed standard set of recommendations on how to compile measures of economic activity. They are intended to be used by any and all countries and allow an internally consistent way of looking at macroeconomic state of the world.
There has been talk for years (in the data community) about putting a financial value on data but the be honest I’ve seen little actually changing in the financial world due to it until now!
The main focus of these proposals is that natural assets like wind and waves will now be counted as part of the economic output of a country. But alongside these recommendations we have a similar statement about data – ‘Recognition of data as produced assets’. This means that data will be classified as a standalone asset, separate from infrastructure and software.
Whilst these changes will take effect in 2030, the detail clearly hasn’t been worked through yet as a joint Eurostat/IMF Team has/is being setup to answer the question of how we ‘Measuring Data as an Asset in the National Accounts. Ultimately this is just an account change and now new real money will be entering the economy, but the impact long-term will be interesting to see.
This is exciting stuff and I’d love to be involved, so if there is anyone from the Un, IMF or Eurostat reading this article, do get in contact.
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