Inventories are produced assets that consist of goods and services, which came into existence in the current period or in an earlier period, and that are held for sale, use in production or other use at a later date.

Inventories consist of stocks of outputs that are still held by the units that produced them prior to their being further processed, sold, delivered to other units or used in other ways and stocks of products acquired from other units that are intended to be used for intermediate consumption or for resale without further processing. Inventories of services consist of workin-progress or finished products, for example architectural drawings, which are in the process of completion or are completed and waiting for the building to which they relate to be started. Inventories held by government include, but are not limited to, inventories of strategic materials, and grain and other commodities of special importance to the nation.

System of National Accounts 2008