Physical Supply and Use Tables

Definition

Physical Supply and Use Tables (PSUT) provide an accounting framework enabling the complete and consistent recording of physical flows (materials and energy)

• from the environment into the economy,
• within the economy, and
• from the economy to the environment.

Physical flows within the environment, i.e. natural flows of materials and energy, are out of scope.

Structure

The PSUT framework is a pair of tables which have the same format/structure.

• Row-wise, the two matrices show the various physical flow types, namely natural inputs, products, and residuals.
• Column-wise they show the various origins and destinations supplying and using the flow items, namely industries (i.e. production activities), households (i.e. consumption activities), accumulation (changes in stocks of produced assets and product inventories), rest of the world, and environment.

The Physical Supply Table shows which flow items are provided by which supplier (industries, households, accumulation, rest of the world and environment); in other words it shows the flows by origin.

The Physical Use Table shows who (i.e. production, consumption, accumulation activity etc.) is using or receiving the respective physical flow. In other words, it shows the flows by its destination. Like this, each flow is recorded twice: first at its origin, secondly at its destination. This way of recording is also referred to as "double-entry-bookkeeping".