Government Finance Statistics

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Government finance statistics, Economic statistics
Martin Rune Rasmussen
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Government Finance Statistics 2023

The purpose of the statistics General government finances is to give a overview over expenditure and revenue in the general government sector. The statistics is used to analyze the public economy. Data are available and comparable from 1971 and onward.

General government statistics have undergone a benchmark revision since the last publication. In this benchmark revision, the statistics for public finances have been revised back to 1971. The benchmark revision is a pan-European project that is carried out every 5 years. The purpose of the revision is to incorporate new knowledge and new methods and to ensure uniform calculation methods for all countries.

This main revision of the public finance statistics has had no notable effect on public consumption, while the net lending/borrowing for general government has improved to a lesser extent.

Statistical presentation

General government finances monitor current and capital expenditure/revenue for the general government on a yearly basis. The statistics is divided into subsectors.

Statistical processing

The data is collected continuously in the months before the publication from the public account systems and other supplementary sources. It is then compiled according to national accounts principles, where it may be necessary to contact the specific source to clarify certain characteristics of the entries. It may be necessary to make imputations in cases where the data isn’t available at the time of publication. When a full dataset is compiled for all subsectors balancing is carried out to secure internal consistency.

Relevance

Many users who monitor the public economy have interest in the published statistics of government finance statistics. The statistics is in demand from ministries, politicians, public and private institutions, researchers, enterprises, news media and Eurostat. The statistics provide input to national accounts statistics. The statistics often gets a lot of attention in the media and amongst other professional users.

Accuracy and reliability

Misclassification due to insufficient information about the contents of a given account can occur. In provisional accounts, the government's value added tax expenses are divided at the level of accounting items. Ii all versions in t+1 provisional tax-estimates are used. Subsidy accounts can be classified with some inaccuracy because it is not always possible to define the recipient of the subsidy. Reserves and budgets adjustments: This extra paragraph covers both earmarked and widely defined reserves. The widely defined reserves are often considerable amounts and are difficult to define. Whenever possible, Statistics Denmark collects supplementary information on these reserves. An estimation of tax revenue charged by General Government is used.

Timeliness and punctuality

The March version is published one week after the publication of the central government accounts. The June version is published three month after the publication of the central government accounts. The statistic is usually published without delay in regards to the announced time.

Comparability

Accounts for general government are compiled using international principles, which implies a high degree of comparability over time and between other Danish national accounts statistics as well as international government finance statistics

Accessibility and clarity

These statistics are published in a Danish press release. In the StatBank, these statistics can be fount under Expenses and revenues of general government.