South Africa’s national financial accounts for 1999 are published on pages S-44 to S-53 of this issue of the Quarterly Bulletin. This note highlights some of the more important observations which can be made on the basis of the information presented in the accounts. The national financial accounts form part of the broadly defined System of National Accounts. The scope of the financial accounts extends beyond non-financial economic activity and focuses on financial intermediation in the domestic economy. The flow-of-funds accounting system illustrates the linkages between transactions in financial assets and liabilities among the domestic institutional sectors, and between the domestic sectors and the rest of the world. The net acquisition of financial assets and the net accrual of financial liabilities result in a change in the net financial investment position of the sector involved. A change in the net financial position of a sector equals the net borrowing/lending as measured in the capital account of that sector, indicating linkages with the financing of gross capital formation and the balance of payments. The national financial accounts, by design, present the macroeconomic interrelationships between the national income and production accounts, the balance of payments, government finance statistics, the monetary survey and financial statistics and inter-sectoral linkages in a systematic and coherent manner. The financial accounts reflect in some detail the process of financial intermediation between surplus and deficit sectors in the economy. The national financial accounts for South Africa distinguish between 11 sectors and 32 transaction items, 4 of which relate to non-financial transactions, 2 to the integration between the capital account and financial account and 26 to financial transaction items. The flow of funds is presented in a matrix. The accrual of financial liabilities and the acquisition of financial assets are respectively referred to as “sources of funds” and “uses of funds” and are shown in the columns of the matrix.