Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

ESTAT Unit D1: Excessive deficit procedure, methodology and GFS

2920 Luxembourg, LUXEMBOURG

'Government debt' is defined as the total gross debt at nominal value outstanding at the end of each year for the EU institutions and bodies subsector.

Data are measured in million Euro.

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

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

Data covers the EU institutions and bodies subsector (S.1315) of the general government sector as defined in ESA 2010. Please refer to ESA2010, §19.09.

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. 

A breakdown of the general government debt is provided 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),

The table contain debt figures expressed in Millions of Euro.

Not available.

Not available.

EU institutions and bodies.

From 2021 only.

Not available.

Millions of Euro.

Refers to the debt at the end of the 2022.

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.

Not available.

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.

Not available.

Not yet defined.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Annually.

Not available.

Please consult free data online.

Please consult free data online.

Not available.

Not available.

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

Not available.

Data is verified for internal consistency and plausibility, also vis a vis other related data.

A quality assessment procedure is in place that involves arithmetic and quality checks as well as checks on consistency with ESA2010 and other government datasets (financial government accounts) by Eurostat.

Not available.

Not available.

From 2021 only.

Data for government finance statistics are in general associated with a high level of overall accuracy, being compiled on the basis of direct administrative data sources.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The underlying methodological framework is the European system of accounts (ESA2010), which ensures a high degree of comparability.

Not applicable.

Several checks are carried out on the data before publication. These consist in checking the internal consistency of the data but also consistency with other datasets:
• Stocks of liabilities for the instruments F.2, F.31, F.32, F41 and F.42 are cross checked with annual financial accounts data (by applying some validation criteria taking into account differences in valuation).

Datasets are carefully checked for the internal consistency.

Not available.

Major changes in methodology may occur as a result of EU legislation or Eurostat decisions (following a consultation procedure with Member States), and announced in the Official Journal of the European Union or on Eurostat website.

Revisions may be done with each new data transmission every year.

Administrative and other records of DG BUDG and ESM.

Once a year.

All data is collected from DG BUDG and ESM.

Data are loaded into Eurostat Reference Database once validated by Eurostat. The validation process consists of arithmetic and quality checks including consistency with ESA2010 methodology and with other data reported to Eurostat as well as a number of further plausibility checks.

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

Data is not adjusted.

Please also consult the latest EDP news release for any specific or general explanatory notes.