The GFS template tables show, in an integrated way,
- government revenue and expenditure
- government deficit,
- transactions in assets,
- transactions in liabilities,
- other economic flows, and
- balance sheets.
This presentation is similar to that of business accounting where the profit and loss and the balance sheet are presented together and in a linked manner. Only data for the general government (i.e. excluding public corporations) are shown.
GFS template tables are presented on both an annual and quarterly basis. Annual data are presented in a summary form as well as in a detailed form.
Aggregates for the euro area and for EU27 are calculated using Eurostat aggregation method. This involves the conversion of national currency data into one currency: the euro (or the ECU before 1999), using for flows the average exchange rate of the period, and for stocks the end of period exchange rate. Incomplete coverage may lead to the need for Eurostat estimates.
The GFS template tables present data for all the Member State, for the EU27 and the euro area and for Iceland, Norway and Switzerland (annual data). They draw on data from various Eurostat databases in an integrated manner. The tables contain useful metadata for interpretation of the data.
Data availability
Annual Summary Government Finance Statistics template tables are compiled twice per year, usually end of April and end of October. They are also available as Excel files:
Annual Summary Government Finance Statistics template tables (last updated 4 December 2012).
Quarterly Summary Government Finance Statistics template tables are compiled four times per year (last updated 24 April 2013).
These tables use a template similar to the annual summary tables. They show, for each EU Member State, the data in millions of national currency, as percentages of GDP, and as quarter-to-quarter of the previous year growth rates.
Annual Summary Government Finance Statistics template tables by subsectors and Detailed Annual Government Finance Statistics template tables are compiled at the same date as Annual Summary Government Finance Statistics template tables (both last updated on 4 December 2012)
Revision policy
Eurostat asks Member States to transmit data according to a pre-defined timetable. In general Member States will introduce revisions to their data before each transmission. Eurostat accepts all revisions, provided that adequate explanation is provided. Aggregates for the euro area and EU27 are automatically updated when national series change.
