Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

Eurostat, C1, National accounts methodology. Indicators

Office address:
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Functional mail box: ESTAT-MIP@ec.europa.eu

The Private sector debt is the stock of liabilities (at the end of the year) held by the sectors Non-Financial corporations (S.11) and Households and Non-Profit institutions serving households (S.14_S.15). The instruments taken into account to compile the private sector debt are Debt securities (F.3) and Loans (F.4).

Financial flows and stocks data are often referred to collectively in the national accounts framework as 'financial accounts'. Financial flows consist of transactions and other flows, and represent the difference between the opening financial balance sheet at the start of the year and the closing balance sheet at the end of the year.

The data are compiled in accordance with the European System of Accounts 2010 edition (ESA 2010), which came into force in September 2014.

The MIP scoreboard indicator is the consolidated Private sector debt, in percentage of GDP. For the MIP purposes annual consolidated and non-consolidated data are published by institutional sectors and financial instruments.  

The classification system follows the European System of Accounts 2010 edition (ESA 2010). The indicators are categorised by institutional sectors and financial instruments.

The institutional sectors taken into account are:

• Non-financial corporations (S.11) - the sector consists of institutional units which are independent legal entities and market producers, and whose principal activity is the production of goods and non-financial services. The non-financial corporations sector also includes non-financial quasi-corporations.
• Households (S.14) - the sector consists of individuals or groups of individuals as consumers and as entrepreneurs producing market goods and non-financial and financial services (market producers) provided that the production of goods and services is not by separate entities treated as quasi-corporations. It also includes individuals or groups of individuals as producers of goods and non-financial services for exclusively own final use.
• Non-profit institutions serving households (S.15) - the sector consists of non-profit institutions which are separate legal entities, which serve households and which are private non-market producers. Their principal resources are voluntary contributions in cash or in kind from households in their capacity as consumers, from payments made by general government and from property income.

For further information on institutional sectors and sub-sectors, see European System of Accounts 2010 edition (ESA 2010).

The MIP scoreboard indicator is the consolidated Private sector debt, as a percentage of GDP. The calculation formula is: [ PSD_t / GDP_t ] * 100. The indicative threshold for the indicator is 133%.

The considered institutional sectors are Non-Financial corporations (S.11) and Households and Non-Profit institutions serving households (S.14_S.15), as defined in section 3.3. The instruments taken into account are Debt securities (F.3) (these are negotiable financial instruments serving as evidence of debt) and Loans (F.4) - loans are created when creditors lend funds to debtors.

Financial transactions take place between resident institutional units, and between them and the rest of the world. They are recorded in the financial account, which shows how the surplus or deficit of the capital account is financed by transactions in financial assets and liabilities. Thus, the balance of the financial account (B.9F) is conceptually equal in value to net lending / net borrowing (B.9) the balancing item of the capital account. The financial account indicates how net borrowing sectors obtain resources by incurring liabilities or reducing assets, and how net lending sectors allocate their surpluses by acquiring assets or reducing liabilities. The financial account also shows the contributions to these transactions of the various types of financial assets, and the role of financial intermediaries. Most transactions involving the transfer of ownership of goods or assets or the provision of services have some counterpart entry in the financial account. Moreover there are many transactions that are recorded entirely within the financial account, where one financial asset is exchanged for another or a liability is repaid with an asset. Financial assets may be created through the incurrence of liabilities. Such transactions change the distribution of the portfolio of financial assets and liabilities and may change their total amounts but do not affect the net lending / net borrowing (B.9).

Balance sheets are statements of the value of the stocks of assets and liabilities at a particular point of time and can be drawn up for institutional units, institutional sectors and the whole economy. The balancing item of the financial balance sheet (i.e., excluding non-financial assets) is the 'net financial assets' (BF.90), calculated as the difference between total financial assets and total liabilities. A closing financial balance sheet is equal to the opening balance sheet plus changes resulting from financial transactions and other flows (revaluations and other changes in volume of financial assets/liabilities).

Time of recording: In principle, flows are recorded on an accrual basis, that is when economic value is created, transformed or extinguished, or when claims and obligations arise, are transformed or are cancelled; the time of recording is often not when cash is exchanged.

Valuation rules: In principle, financial flows and stocks are recorded at exchange or market value. For detailed valuation rules that apply to some categories of financial instruments, see ESA 2010.

Consolidation refers to the elimination of reciprocal flows or stock positions in financial assets and liabilities between units when the latter are grouped. Consolidation is a method of presenting the accounts for a set of units as if they constituted one single entity (unit, sector, or subsector). It involves eliminating transactions and reciprocal stock positions and associated other economic flows among the units being consolidated, i.e. data do not take into account transactions within the same sector.

More details are provided in European System of Accounts 2010 edition (ESA 2010) Chapter 5 - Financial transactions.

Institutional units as defined in ESA 2010 § 2.12-2.13.

The target population consists of the sectors of the national economy, including its relations with the rest of the world. Although population coverage is expected to be 100%, actual coverage depends on sources and compilation methods.

The MIP scoreboard presents data for each EU Member State, as well as euro area (EA) and the European Union as a whole. EA20 and EU27 data are computed by summing up countries’ data. 

Details on data availability are available under the respective table:
tipspd20 Private sector debt, consolidated - % of GDP;

tipspd22 Household debt (including Non-profit institutions serving households), consolidated - % of GDP;
tipspd10 Private sector debt, non-consolidated - %of GDP;

tipspd13 Private sector debt: debt securities by sectors, non-consolidated - % of GDP;
tipspd14 Private sector debt: debt securities by sectors, non-consolidated - million units of national currency;
tipspd15 Private sector debt: loans, by sectors, non-consolidated - % of GDP;
tipspd16 Private sector debt: loans by sectors, non-consolidated - million units of national currency;
tipspd23 Private sector debt: debt securities, by sectors, consolidated - % of GDP;
tipspd24 Private sector debt: debt securities, by sectors, consolidated - million units of national currency;
tipspd25 Private sector debt: loans, by sectors, consolidated - % of GDP;
tipspd26 Private sector debt: loans, by sectors, consolidated - million units of national currency.

Not applicable

Data are presented in % of GDP and million units of national currency.  

The reference period is the calendar year.

National accounts are compiled in accordance with the European System of Accounts ESA 2010 (see annex below), as defined in Annex B of Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013. The Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1891 of 30 November 2018 amends the Implementing Decision 2014/403/EU on granting derogations to Member States with respect to the transmission of statistics pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union.

The indicator Private sector debt is one of the MIP Scoreboard indicators set up under Regulation (EU) No 1176/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

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Regulation 2015/759 of 29 April 2015, amending Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics of 11 March 2009 [recital 24 and Article 20(4)], 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 data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

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There is no release calendar for the financial accounts data. Once checked and validated by Eurostat, data are released on the public web site. Revisions may occur at any time when new data are submitted.

The official deadline for sending the data according to the ESA 2010 transmission programme is at T + 9 months. However, many countries transmit provisional data earlier, any time from T + 3 months onwards. All the data of EU Member States should be validated and published by the third week of October.

There is no release calendar for MIP scoreboard indicators.

The MIP Regulation stipulates that “the Commission shall make the set of indicators and the thresholds in the scoreboard public” (Art. 4, para. 6, Regulation (EU) No 1176/2011 of 16 November 2011 on the prevention and correction of macroeconomic imbalances) and that “the Commission shall update the values for the indicators on the scoreboard at least on an annual basis” (Art. 4, § 8).

In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice, Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see §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.

Annual.

News releases on-line

The indicators part of the MIP Scoreboard are used to identify emerging or persistent macroeconomic imbalances in the EU Member States. The Scoreboard is part of an annual exercise, where the first step is the compilation of an Alert Mechanism Report (AMR).

See data availability for the tables: tipspd20; tipspd22; tipspd10; tipspd13; tipspd14; tipspd15; tipspd16; tipspd23; tipspd24; tipspd25; tipspd26.

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The methodological framework is defined in the European System of Accounts 2010 edition (ESA 2010). Documentation on sources and methods is available from national statistical offices, national central banks, and Eurostat.

Eurostat's mission is to provide the European Union with a high-quality statistical information service - see: Eurostat quality framework.

Moreover, the statistics underlying the Scoreboard indicators are subject to a specific quality assurance framework developed within the MIP context.

Quality is assured by application of European System of Accounts 2010 edition (ESA 2010) concepts and by a validation process on the data delivered by countries.

For the quality assurance of the statistics underlying the MIP Eurostat and the DG Statistics of the European Central Bank signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) establishing a mutual recognition of the respective ESS and ESCB quality assurance frameworks, when the Member States have designated their National Central Banks for producing the datasets: Balance of payments and international investment position statistics and Financial accounts.

Data are collected from reliable sources applying high standards with regard to methodology and ensuring high comparability. ESA 2010 data transmissions are subject to regular quality assessment reviews. Article 4 of Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 (ESA 2010 Regulation) specifies that the data covered by that Regulation is subject to the quality criteria, namely relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, comparability and coherence, as set out in Article 12(1) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council. 

The quality assurance framework for the Macroeconomic imbalance procedure (MIP) follows a three-level structure:

The first level assesses the reliability and comparability of MIP underlying statistics and addresses relevant quality issues; it also enhances the communication on quality assurance of MIP statistics towards the European Parliament and Council, policy makers and the public at large. This level draws on the information gathered in levels two and three (see below).

The second level consists of domain-specific quality reports produced by Eurostat and the ECB summarising the main findings for the euro area or the EU Member States. Reports assess the underlying compilation process and its robustness, describe its legal basis and evaluate whether the statistics are in line with international statistical standards.

The third level consists of national quality reports (self-assessments) produced by the institution compiling the national statistics. Most of these reports are voluntarily published by Members States on the CMFB’s website and their availability depends upon the statistical domain.

The indicator Private sector debt, consolidated, is one of the headline indicators of the MIP Scoreboard. The MIP Scoreboard is used as an early warning system in the context of the macroeconomic surveillance of the EU Member States. The MIP Scoreboard consists of a set of fourteen indicators, covering the major sources of macroeconomic imbalances. The aim of the scoreboard is to trigger in-depth studies, which will analyse whether potential imbalances identified in the early-warning system are benign or problematic.

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With some exceptions the dataset is complete, taking into account country 'derogations' (exemptions from the legal obligation to provide the data).

The MIP indicators are associated with a high level of overall accuracy. The data transmitted by Member States are checked in Eurostat for their consistency and plausibility. If any problem is detected, Eurostat contacts the relevant Member State asking to check the figures or to confirm the changes. Apart from internal consistency checks of the data, Eurostat undertakes revision analyses and additional checks. Data for general government sector is compared with other government finance statistics available at Eurostat. Due to the large size of the source dataset, it is difficult to measure overall accuracy.

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For EU countries, the formal transmission deadline is t+9 months. A few countries transmit to Eurostat provisional data at t+3 months and updates each quarter. Other countries may send to Eurostat between t+6 and t+9 months.

Punctuality depends on the delivery of basic data used for calculating the MIP indicators. Normally all Member States have transmitted their data within three weeks of the official deadline.

Comparability is assured by the application of common definitions (European System of Accounts (ESA 2010)).

By using a common framework, the European System of Accounts 2010 edition (ESA 2010), data can be comparable over time.

Financial accounts are part of an integrated set of national accounts. Therefore consistency checks are possible with the component data and with other national accounts tables submitted to Eurostat. Some variables can be cross-checked, for example, with government finance statistics, others to balance of payments statistics. National data might also be verified against official national sources.

Annual financial accounts may also be checked to the quarterly financial accounts supplied by the ECB, although there will be timing and other differences.

Arithmetical consistency and other checks are made by Eurostat on each country's dataset. The EU and euro area aggregates are fully consistent with the country data, as these aggregates are automatically updated as soon as data for a country are revised.

Not applicable

For financial accounts, some countries follow the Harmonised European Revision Policy in national accounts to a greater or lesser extent. Others revise according to national schedules.

Data are rarely flagged as provisional but may be subject to revision, as new input data become available. Benchmark revisions may occur to a country's dataset every few years. Minor changes in methodology may also be implemented and might not be widely announced. Major changes in methodology are the result of legislation, and therefore announced in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Information may be derived directly from the units of the institutional sector for which they are needed, or else indirectly from counterpart information on other sectors. In many cases, financial intermediaries or institutions are the counterpart, acting as debtor or creditor.

Information in which the financial sector is not involved normally has to be obtained directly. However, in some cases (particularly in the households and non-profit institutions serving households sectors) there is a lack of direct or counterpart information and estimates have to be made. Residual methods (residuals may be obtained after the recording of other items in the accounting framework) may be used for calculating such estimates.

In general, the most important sources used to compile national annual financial accounts are statistics on financial intermediaries, particularly monthly money and banking statistics, and quarterly data provided by other financial institutions. Other main sources are balance of payments and international investment position statistics, government finance statistics and securities data of government debt management bodies, capital market statistics, direct information on non-financial corporations, and surveys of businesses or households. Although source data may come from surveys, the compilation of financial accounts is intended to be exhaustive.

Annual

Reporting tables of the ESA 2010 transmission programme, to be completed by national authorities. They are transmitted to Eurostat in SDMX format.

The validation process consists of arithmetic consistency and other quality checks. The formal transmission at T+9 months undergoes a more thorough validation process as the data are compared to government finance / EDP statistics, and analysed for MIP purposes.

Compilation of European aggregates: national data are converted if necessary into euro, or ECU (before 1999), and then summed. Intra-EU and intra-euro area asset and liability positions are not eliminated. The EU and euro area aggregates are published for a particular variable and year only when data for all the countries in the geographical entity are available.  

Consolidation of S.1 (total economy): countries are expected to fully consolidate the data, in other words, all flows and positions between sectors of the economy should be eliminated, leaving only flows and positions with S.2 (rest of the world). However, the following countries have calculated the consolidated data for S.1 as the sum of the consolidated sectors, without consolidating the flows and positions between the sectors: BG, DE, IE, HR, LV, LU, PL, RO, and SK before 2012.

No adjustments are made to reported country data.

See below the related metadata for additional information.