Measuring net government debt: theory and practice - 2014 edition - Products Statistical working papers

Net government debt could be broadly defined as the stock of a specific set of government's liabilities minus the stock of a specific set of financial assets held by government. This paper explores different ways to measure net government debt, looking at both theoretical and practical implications of such measures. It outlines the main benefits and potential drawbacks of each of the presented measures and aims to propose a tentative concept of net government debt, which could be used as a harmonised additional indicator for analysing EU governments' financial positions.