Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

ESTAT Unit D1: Excessive deficit procedure, methodology and GFS

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'Quarterly government debt' is defined as the total gross debt at nominal value outstanding at the end of each quarter for the general government sector (ref. Regulation  (EU) No 549/2013, Annex B transmission programme, definition of general government sector ESA 2010 §2.111). 

Data are measured in million Euro, million of national currency units, percentage of GDP and percentage of total consolidated debt.

Data cover EU Member States, Iceland and Norway.

Quarterly data on government debt is provided according to the provisions of the European System of Accounts ESA 2010 (Regulation (EU) No 549/2013).

Data is transmitted by national authorities (National Statistical Institutes, National Central Banks or Ministries of Finance).

ESA2010 standards are used as regards the coverage of financial instruments. Quarterly general government gross debt follows the definition of Maastricht debt as regards valuation - data is at face value.

Data covers the general government sector as defined in ESA 2010, §2.111, as well as its subsectors: central government, state government (where applicable), local government and social security funds (where applicable). For a definition of the subsectors of general government, please refer to ESA2010, §2.112.

General government debt is one of the convergence criteria of the Maastricht Treaty used for monitoring the economic situation of a Member State. The Maastricht debt is defined as the debt at the end of the year. In order to follow the latest trends, Member States are required to provide debt data on a quarterly basis.

'Quarterly government debt' is defined as the total gross debt at face value outstanding at the end of each quarter for the general government sector and its subesctors.

Member States provide a breakdown of the general government debt using ESA 2010 definitions:

• by instrument; The main instruments are: currency and deposits (AF.2) with further breakdowns into currency (AF.21) and deposits (AF.22, AF.29), debt securities (AF.3) with a breakdown into short-term (AF.31) and long-term (AF.32) debt securities, and loans (AF.4) with a breakdown into short-term loans (AF.41) and long-term loans (AF.42),
• by government sector: central government (S.1311), state government (S.1312), local government (S.1313), social security funds (S.1314).

The tables contain debt figures expressed in national currency, converted into euro, and as a percentage of the GDP and of the total consolidated debt for the Member State.

Some countries provide additional data such as the currency denomination of general government gross debt (domestic/foreign), a split between domestic and non-resident creditors and a breakdown by remaining maturity. 

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EU and euro area aggregates, EU Member States, Iceland and Norway.

The Regulation applies to EEA countries. 

Data starts from the first quarter of 2000, however the lengths of series vary according to country and instrument.

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Data is measured in million Euro, million of national currency units and in percentage of GDP and of total consolidated debt.

For euro area countries, for reference periods prior to accession of the country to the euro area, data in national currency are expressed in euro-fixed, that is the former national currency divided by the irrevocable exchange rate.

The quarterly general government debt refers to the debt at the end of each quarter. For non euro area Member States, the debt expressed in euro is converted using the exchange rate at the last working day of the quarter.

National accounts are compiled in accordance with the European System of Accounts (ESA2010) adopted in the form of a EU Regulation (EU) No 549/2013, dated 21 May 2013.

Quarterly government debt data is compiled with reference to the ESA2010 Regulation.

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Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

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The Eurostat release calendar is available in this webpage. The database is updated according to this release calendar. In general, data are released at around t+113 days after the end of the quarter. Revised data received from countries is also processed between the main release dates.

The access to the release calendar is public.

In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice, Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

Quarterly

A quarterly news release on general government debt is available at  

Euro indicators - Eurostat (europa.eu)

This is complemented by articles on Statistics Explained and the quarterly summary GFS tables as available on Statistics Explained and the dedicated section on the Eurostat website.

Please consult free data online.

Please consult free data online.

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Dissemination format - other.

The ESA2010 methodology is referred to EU Regulation No 549/2013.

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A compliance monitoring has been carried out during 2012, with good results.

Moreover, quarterly government debt has been the subject of an internal Eurostat rolling review, with very good results.

Timeliness and punctuality of the data are very good. Moreover, data are comparable and consistent for all European Union countries due to the use of ESA2010 concepts.

Data are in general entirely consistent with data notified under the Excessive Deficit Procedure.

Internal consistency and plausibility as well as consistency with other datasets such as quarterly financial accounts for general government and EDP data is verified prior to validation.

Due to consistency with EDP data, quarterly government debt can be considered to benefit from the additional verification and quality assurance processes in place for EDP data.

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All data required by the regulation is provided to Eurostat.

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Data is transmitted by Member States to Eurostat within three months after the end of the quarter to which it refers to.

All countries send data by the deadline of t+3 months after the end of reference quarter.

Data are fully comparable across countries.

Data are fully comparable along time.

National data may be available from official national sources as well.

Full coherence.

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To further specify the general Eurostat revision policy, the following revision policy has been established for government finance statistics.

Revision policy is set at the level of national authorities. In general, the data are revised for the latest years according to change from preliminary to half-finalised and final data sources. The complete time series can be revised due to changes in the methodology or methods of data compilation, correction of errors or in case of major and benchmark revisions. Revisions are accepted at any time and following validation, data is the republished for the country and EU / euro area aggregates concerned. 

Revisions are broadly classified in 3 categories:

- current revisions, occuring each quarter and mainly affecting the past quarters of the same year

- major regular revisions taking place on a regular basis to incorporate results of changes in surveys and/or in estimation procedures, of new basic data sources, integrating the results of new censuses and/or of new estimation methods

- major occasional revisions deriving from major methodological changes in national accounts, like changes in concepts and definitions and/or in the classifications used (examples are the adoption of a new accounting system - like in September 2014 the introduction of ESA2010 - or the use of a new nomenclature).

Data revisions may occur at any time. Major changes in methodology are the result of legislation, and therefore announced in the Official Journal. However, some changes may be implemented beforehand on the basis of gentlemen's agreements.

All reported errors (once validated) result in corrections of the disseminated data.

Reported errors are corrected in the disseminated data as soon as the correct data have been validated.

Data for specific countries may be published even if they are missing for other countries or flagged as provisional. They are replaced with final data once transmitted and validated. European aggregates are recalculated every time new data is published and are released simultaneously.

Whenever new data are provided and validated, the already disseminated data are updated.

In routine revisions, the length of the time series revised is country-specific and depends on the relevance of source data updates. .

Within each GFS table, aggregates and components are revised at the same time. Between different GFS tables, the update schedule for routine revisions may differ.

As part of routine revisions, temporal consistency (annual/quarterly) is usually established at coinciding transmission deadlines.

While the revision calendar for government finance statistics is described by the scheduled releases indicated on the Eurostat website, revisions can occur at any time.

The impact of routine and major revisions is analysed prior to data validation and documented in metadata in case of notable changes.

Notable time series breaks caused by changes in data sources or incomplete application of a methodological change are flagged. Major revisions remove such breaks in series as far as feasible. .

Major revisions are documented internally and described in metadata and data releases in broad terms.

Coordinated major revisions are pre-announced, though individual countries may undertake additional major revisions. In addition, before and during implementation, major revisions in national accounts are communicated.

Data are transmitted by national statistical authorities (National Statistical Institutes, National Central Banks or Ministries of Finance). The type of survey used is a census.

The countries provide a breakdown of the general government debt using ESA2010 definitions:

• by instrument: currency and deposits (AF.2, currency AF.21, deposits AF.22, AF.29), debt securities (AF.3, short-term AF.31, long-term AF.32) and loans (AF.4, short-term AF.41, long-term AF.42),
• by general government sector: central government (S.1311), state government (S.1312), local government (S.1313) and social security funds (S.1314).

The tables contain debt figures expressed in national currency, converted into euro, and as a percentage of the GDP and of the total consolidated debt for the Member State.

Quarterly

The collection of the data is carried out with the use of the relevant reporting table of the ESA2010 transmission programme (Table 2800  - Quarterly government debt) and an additional questionaire (Table 2899 - Intergovernmental lending), completed by national statistical authorities.

Once data is compiled by national statistical authorities, it is transmitted in the reporting format via eDAMIS to Eurostat.

The consistency of aggregated data with its subcomponents is verified and validated before publication. Debt at the end of the fourth quarter of each year is validated against annual data provided for the EU excessive deficit procedure. Additional verifications are undertaken for consolidation, general plausibility as well as comparison with other data sets. Annual Excessive Deficit Procedure data, next to be published in October 2022, are the subject of a thorough verification by Eurostat.

The data represents stock of quarterly government debt (and its components currency and deposits, debt securities and loans) at face value outstanding at the end of the quarter.

For EU and euro area aggregates, the quarterly debt for each Member States is converted into Euro using the exchange rates at the end of the quarter. For flow data, such as GDP, average exchange rates are used. The EU aggregates, denominated in euro, can fluctuate as a result of exchange rate movements between the euro and other EU currencies.

For Croatia, which joined the euro area from 1 January 2023, the euro-fixed for periods up to the fourth quarter of 2022 is used, i.e. HRK divided by the irrevocable exchange rate.

Due to the involvement of EU Member States' governments in lending to certain Member States, quarterly data on intergovernmental lending (IGL) are also published. For the purpose of proper consolidation of general government debt and to provide users with information, Eurostat publishes data on government loans to other EU governments and these loans have been deducted from euro area and EU debt starting from the first quarter of 2009. 

The valuation basis is the stock of loans at nominal value outstanding at end of each quarter. From the first quarter of 2011 onwards, the bilateral intergovernmental lending figures relate mainly to lending to Greece, Ireland and Portugal and include loans made by the European Financial Stability Facility (see Eurostat decision regarding EFSF.

A methodological change as regards the statistical recording of deferred interest on EFSF loans affecting the face value of general government gross debt was implemented by Greece, following Eurostat’s advice. This change also affected the EFSF guarantors.

Data is not adjusted.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and high energy prices: 

Since the first quarter of 2020, Member States have implemented COVID-19 containment measures. In all quarters of 2022 and 2023, the impact of the measures to mitigate the economic and social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic had a significantly lower impact than in quarters of 2020 and 2021, however, government revenue and expenditure were impacted by the measures undertaken by most Member States to alleviate the impact of increasing energy prices. In the first and second quarters of 2024, such measures have a much lower impact than in preceding quarters.

For most EU countries, this release contains the result of the harmonised national accounts benchmark revisions. Revisions compared to the previous release are thus higher than usual.

More country-specific metadata can also be found in the metadata file for the quarterly non-financial accounts of general government.

Additional information is also available in the latest news releases on EDP, quarterly deficit and quarterly debt.