Government expenditure by COFOG function and type notified by national authorities in Table 11 of the ESA 95 transmission programme.

Data are presented in millions of Euro, millions of national currency units and percentages of GDP.

Geographic coverage: EU and euro area, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.

Main sources of data: National authorities.

Total general government expenditure is classified by functions (COFOG divisions and groups (first and second level categories)) and broken down by types of expenditure on the basis of ESA 95 transactions.

General government sector defined in ESA95 (paragraph 2.68) as including "all institutional units which are other non-market producers whose output is intended for individual and collective consumption, and mainly financed by compulsory payments made by units belonging to other sectors, and/or all institutional units principally engaged in the redistribution of national income and wealth".

The table provides a breakdown of expenditure of general government by economic function and by type of transaction. The indicators are as reported under table 11 'Expenditure of general government by function (COFOG)' of the ESA95 transmission programme. For definitions, see European system of accounts, 1995 edition (ESA 95), and 'Classification of the functions of government' (COFOG), United Nations, 1999.

Institutional units and groupings of units as defined in ESA 95 and COFOG.

The institutional units included to general government sector (S.13) according to ESA95 (paragraph 2.69) are the following:

a) general government entities (excluding public producers organized as public corporations or, by virtue of special legislation, recognized as independent legal entities, or quasi-corporations, when any of these are classified in the non-financial and financial sectors) which administer and finance a group of activities, principally providing non-market goods and services, intended for the benefit of the community;

b) non-profit institutions recognized as independent legal entities which are other non-market producers and which are controlled and mainly financed by general government;

c) autonomous pension funds which fulfill each of the following criteria:

- by law or by regulation certain groups of the population are obliged to participate in scheme or to pay contributions,

- general government is responsible for the management of the institution in respect of the settlement or approval of the contributions and benefits independently from its role as supervisory body or employer.

 Target population is the general government sector

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

The legal requirement for first level COFOG (division level) is that all series should start in 1995, subject to derogations. However, in practice, the length of the series available varies widely from one country to another. The provision of COFOG level II (group level) data is voluntary.

Not available.

Data are presented in millions of Euro, millions of national currency units and percentages of GDP.

The reference period is the calendar year.

National Accounts are compiled in accordance with the European System of Accounts (ESA 1995) adopted in the form of a Council Regulation dated 25 June 1996, No 2223/96 and published in the Official Journal L310 of the 30/11/1996. A consolidated version is available on

http://circa.europa.eu/irc/dsis/nfaccount/info/data/esa95/esa95-new.htm.

The legal basis for compilation and transmission of the dataset the "General government expenditure function (COFOG)" is Table 11 of the ESA95 transmission programme - Annex B of Council Regulation (EC) N° 2223/96 of 25 June 1996 as amended by Regulation (EC) No 1392/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 November 2007, Commission Regulation (EC) N° 1500/2000 of 10 July 2000 with respect to general government expenditure and revenue, and Commission Regulation (EC) N° 113/2002 of 23 January 2002 integrating in ESA95 the 'Classification of the functions of government' (COFOG) as revised by the United Nations in 1999. COFOG level II data and, for the general government, transactions in 'gross fixed capital formation' (P.51) and 'investment grants' (D.92) are currently submitted on a gentlemen's agreement basis.

Data are transmitted to the OECD, the ECB and selected other Commission services a few hours before release.

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.

According to policy rules (see point 7.1)

There is no pre-announced release calendar.

There is no pre-announced release calendar.

Data are disseminated simultaneously to all interested parties through a database update and on Eurostat's website (see "Dissemination format" below for more details). However, data are transmitted - under embargo - to the OECD, the ECB and selected other Commission services a few hours before release.

Annual data.

Not available.

Statistics in Focus 11/2006, Trends in government expenditure by function, 2000-2004

Statistics in Focus 23/2008, General government expenditure and revenue in the EU, 2006:

Statistics in Focus 42/2011, General government expenditure trends 2005-2010: EU countries compared

Statistics in Focus 33/2012, General government expenditure: Analysis by detailed economic function

Please consult free data on-line or refer to contact details.

Not available.

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat

Methodological framework is the European system of accounts, 1995 edition (ESA 95), and the 'Classification of the functions of government' (COFOG), United Nations, 1999 as well as the 'Manual on sources and methods for the compilation of COFOG statistics - Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG)', Eurostat, 2011 edition.

The progress in respect of data availability and quality is reviewed and reported in the internal Eurostat's documents to the data compilers from Member States.

The plausibility of the data is checked for each transmission and Member States are asked for some additional information in case of any doubts about data quality.

However, due to the complexity, volume and heterogeneity of data sources, quality assurance is based to a large extent on assessing primary sources and processes rather than the final product. Eurostat undertakes EDP dialogue and methodological visits to Member States, during which it reviews government finance data.

A quality assessment procedure is in place that involves arithmetic and quality checks as well as checks on consistency with ESA95 and other government datasets by Eurostat on data received by Member States.

COFOG data can be used for analysing the quality of public expenditure, esp. trends in government expenditure on particular functions or purposes over time and inter-country comparisons (allowing however for the differences in the composition of government sector and in the institutional arrangements in different countries).

Not available.

All Member States provide the data, however the series length is not satisfactory in all cases.

Data for government finance statistics are in general associated with a high level of overall accuracy.

Not available.

Not available.

Transmission is once a year at t+12 months after the end of the reference period.

For most Member States the data are delivered according to the deadlines set by legislation.

The underlying methodological framework is the European system of accounts (ESA95), which ensures a high degree of comparability. In case of any problems with compliance with ESA rules affecting the inter-country comparability the information is included in section 21.1 (Notes).

ESA 95 requires time series to be consistent over time, which are produced by most of the EU Member States. In some countries, methodological breaks can affect time series (normally on a temporary basis). Backward calculations of time series are provided to ensure full time coherence. However, methodological changes need not always refer to past data. For some additional information on series breaks please see the caveats in section 21.1 Notes.

The cross-domain coherence checking concentrates on the consistency of government datasets.

Datasets are carefully checked for the internal consistency. Releasing of non-internally consistent data should be exceptional and accompanied by the caveats in Section 21.1 Notes

Not available.

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-finalized and final data sources. The complete time-series can be revised due to changes in the methodology or methods of data compilation or major and benchmark revisions.

Data revisions may occur at any time.

Major changes in methodology are the result of legislation, and therefore announced in the Official Journal of the European Communities. However, some changes may be implemented beforehand on the basis of gentlemen's agreements.

Data are primarily derived from administrative and other records of general government and are consistent with annual national accounts.

In general, for ESA95 Table 11 the collection of data is annual.

The collection of the data is carried out with the use of the relevant reporting table of the ESA 95 transmission programme (Table 11 Expenditure of general government and sub-sectors by function (COFOG), completed by national authorities.

Once data are compiled by national authorities in the reporting format, they are transmitted via GESMES to Eurostat as well as to OECD.

Data are loaded into the Eurostat Reference Database once validated by Eurostat. The validation process consists of arithmetic and quality checks as well as consistency checks with ESA 95 methodology.

When data are validated by Eurostat, they are transmitted to ECB.

Accounting conventions are those of ESA 95 and COFOG classification.

Total expenditure, defined according to Commission Regulation (EC) N° 1500/2000 of 10 July 2000, should be consistent with total expenditure shown in ESA95 transmission table 2 (see collection gov_a_main), apart from any timing differences.

For sector S.13, items D.4, D.7, and D.9 are to be consolidated. As a result, for these items and also for total expenditure (TE), the sum of sub-sectors does not equal the sector value.

Data are transmitted in national currency. Eurostat converts into euro using annual average exchange rates.

Percentage of GDP calculations are based on annual GDP data submitted to Eurostat.

EU and euro area series are formed by the aggregation of the country data. 

Data are not adjusted.

Country footnotes: