This publication concerns the Integrated Business Accounts System (SCIE) for the period 2002-2003, and corresponds to the 8th exercise of the Accounts System. The main findings, as it happened in the 2001-2002 release, have a scope restricted only to Companies, excluding Sole proprietors. The need to maintain comparability has been reached by excluding from the 2003 results the new companies of the public health sector from the Section N of Portuguese Classification of Economic Activities - Revision 2.1 (CAE-Rev.2.1), considering that in the previous year these units were classified as Section L of CAE-Rev.2.1 (Public Administration), and therefore were not included in this study. The release of this information is foreseen for the 2003-2004 period, thus ensuring the comparability between two consecutive years. 

The results of SCIE, which are based on the data from the Structural Business Survey, are presented by size classes and for 23 sectors of economic activity, following CAE-Rev.2.1, and include the analysis of a set of indicators and ratios that describe the financial and economic structure of the enterprises.