Financial accounts for general government

Contact info

Government Finances, Economic Statistics
Stefan Koch Olsen
+45 51 23 92 17

Get documentation of statistics as pdf

Financial accounts for general government 2024

The purpose of the quarterly financial accounts for general government is to present a detailed picture of the holdings, transactions (buying and selling), other changes in volume and revaluations of financial assets/liabilities by financial instruments.

To ensure international comparability the statistics comply with the European System of Accounts - ESA 2010.

The annual financial accounts for general government has been published since 2001 while the quarterly financial accounts has been published since June 2002. The statistics is available from Q1 1995 and onwards.

The quarterly financial accounts for general government have undergone a benchmark revision since the last publication. In this benchmark revision, the statistics have been revised back to Q1 1995. 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.

Statistical presentation

Quarterly financial accounts make up a consistent system, showing the financial flows and net worth of the general government sector of the economy over time. The financial accounts for the general government sector, the financial (transactions) account, which shows buying and selling of financial instruments, describes an important part of the transition from the opening balance sheet account to the closing balance sheet account. Because the financial instruments are valued at market price, another important part of the transition is made up by revaluations, which are shown in the revaluation account. The remaining part is found in the account of other changes in volume, showing e.g. losses on debtors and relocations of units between sectors. As a general rule opening balance sheet + financial transactions + revaluations + other change in volume = closing balance sheet should always hold. When published the revaluation account and the account of other change in volume are combined. The statistics is published both consolidated and unconsolidated and with counterpart information for the domestic and foreign sector, respectively. The economic measures and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic affects the financial accounts for the general government, but the data quality is not significantly reduced.

Statistical processing

The main sources are the accounts of central and local government as well as social security funds. Additional information are received from, among others, the Central Bank.

Data are mainly received on a quarterly basis and validated using other data sources and, when necessary, directly with the data providers.

The financial accounts for general government has with the compilation of Q2 2020 been revised for the period 2017-2020 as part of a major collaboration with Danmarks Nationalbank on the overall financial accounts for Denmark.

Relevance

The users of Quarterly financial accounts are primarily expected to be Danmarks Nationalbank, financial institutions, economic ministries, lobby organizations, financial analysts (in general for the purpose of analysis, forecasting and modeling).

Accuracy and reliability

The quarterly financial accounts are based on a number of sources that may be influenced by a certain degree of inaccuracy, which may affect the quarterly financial accounts. Because of the consistency checks and the data confrontations carried out, the influence of the inaccuracy of the sources is, however, reduced.

In principle, it is not possible to measure the level of inaccuracy. However, the net lending/net borrowing across the general government sector, which are calculated before the final balancing is carried out, are comparable with the same measure in the non-financial accounts. The differences can be regarded as a measure of accuracy for the national accounts as a whole.

Timeliness and punctuality

Data is published approximately at t+3 months.

High degree of punctuality: Data has been published at the announced time since the first publication in 2003.

Comparability

Comparison over time is high as there are no significant breaks in the time series, and none at all for the last 10 years.

Internationally the level of comparison is high as the Danish national accounts follow the ESA 2010 guidelines.

Accessibility and clarity

Current publications: The statistics are published in News from Statistics Denmark (Nyt fra Danmarks Statistik), and in the series Statistical News (Statistiske Efterretninger).

Yearbooks:

Statistical Yearbook (Statistisk Årbog) and Statistical Ten-year Rewiev (Statistisk Tiårsoversigt).
http://www.Statbank.dk: Annually financial accounts and Quarterly financial accounts for the general government sector (updated quarterly) (OFF13 and OFF22).

Subject page: Financial accounts, government finance.