Major changes in definitions and presentations are as follows:
- Change the treatment of disasters to better reflect the distinctions between current transactions, capital transactions, and events that directly affect balance sheets.
- Update the classification system for personal consumption expenditures (PCE) in order to present categories that are more useful for the analysis of spending by households and nonprofit institutions.
- Reclassify transactions between the federal government and the U.S. territories and commonwealths in order to improve consistency with the treatment of similar private-sector transactions.
- Change the treatment of insurance services provided by government enterprises in order to improve consistency with the treatment of the services provided by private property and casualty insurance companies.
- Change the presentation of the estimates of private fixed investment in structures for 1929-1996 to make it consistent with the presentation of the estimates for 1997 forward.
- Change the reference year from 2000 to 2005 for the chain-type quantity and price indexes and for the chained-dollar estimates.
- Change the terminology used to describe the vintages of the current quarterly GDP estimates.
More information on these major changes in definitions and presentations are available in "Preview of the 2009 Comprehensive Revision of the National Income and Product Accounts: Changes in Definitions and in Presentations" in the March 2009 Survey of Current Business". A detailed list of table changes is available in table 4 of the article.
More information about the new PCE classification system, including restated estimates based on the new categories for selected years, is available in "Preview of the 2009 Comprehensive Revision of the NIPAs: New Classifications for Personal Consumption Expenditures" in the May 2008 Survey. In addition, draft formats of the newly designed PCE tables are available.