Zusammenfassung:
As the COVID-19 pandemic hit EU countries, the economic impact rapidly became a second area of concern both for politicians and for citizens. The release of quarterly national accounts aggregates, which give an integrated picture of the economic situation, was eagerly anticipated by users of official statistics. At the same time, it was clear that the pandemic and its related containment measures implied severe measurement challenges and methodological issues for quarterly national accounts. This article describes the specific methodological guidance notes that Eurostat published on its website to support the work of national compilers and the comparability of estimates. It also presents Eurostat's experience with the production of quarterly national accounts data under COVID-19 conditions. On the positive side, compilation processes continued to function both at country and Eurostat level, allowing timely releases with limited revisions so far. On the other hand, an analysis of detailed aggregates showed some divergence for specific estimates, notably for government consumption. Besides genuine differences in the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, these variations could also partly reflect differences in the sources and methods used to obtain volume estimates of specific non-market services, notably for health and education services. Eurostat and NSIs will therefore continue to analyse estimates carefully in terms of reliability and comparability, aiming to draw lessons and further improve and harmonise estimates, where needed, in line with the guidance provided.