This paper discusses the future of the national accounts in view of four trends: globalisation, regionalisation like the European unification (regional blocks), atuomation and more market-oriented government. Each trend will be discussed starting from recent developments in national accounting. National accounts statistics will continue their role as a central overview statistic on national economies and become more internationally standardized with respect to concepts, data quality and range of national accounts statistics published. However, links to current policy issues (e.g. environment, social security, human capital) and specific data needs should be improved. National accounts statistics should also be made more transparant and attractive. Research is in particular required on the use and misuse of national accounts statistics and on improving compilation methods.