Glossary:Government finance statistics
Structure
Government Finance Statistics (GFS) show the economic activities of government, including:
- government total revenue
- government total expenditure
- government balance, i.e. surplus (+)/deficit (-), referred to in national accounts terminology as net lending (+)/net borrowing (-)
- transactions in financial assets and liabilities
- other changes in assets and liabilities (other changes in volume and revaluation)
- balance sheets
Presentation
The GFS presentation is similar to that of business accounting where the profit and loss accounts and the balance sheet are presented together, in an integrated manner.
The emphasis is on the economic substance over the legal form of the event. Hence GFS differ noticeably from the budget or public accounting presentations that are nationally specific as far as scope of units and recording of transactions are concerned.
The European GFS are produced in accordance with the European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA 2010), which is the European version of the national accounts (2008 SNA), supplemented by further interpretation and guidance documentation from Eurostat.
Use
The GFS form the basis for fiscal monitoring in Europe, together with the statistics related to the excessive deficit procedure (EDP).
Related concepts
Statistical data
- Annual government finance statistics (gov_10a)
- Government deficit and debt (gov_10dd)
- Quarterly government finance statistics (gov_10q)