Government finance statistics (GFS) present the economic activities of government in a harmonized and comparable way, with an emphasis on the economic substance over the legal form of the event. GFS hence noticeably differ from the budget presentations or public accounting presentations that are nationally specific as far as scope of units and recording of transactions are concerned.

The GFS presentation shows in an integrated manner: government revenue, government 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 accounts and the balance sheet are presented together, in a linked manner.

European GFS are defined by reference to the European System of Accounts 1995 (ESA95), the European manual for national accounts. This manual has been supplemented by further interpretation and guidance from Eurostat. These GFS form the basis for fiscal monitoring in Europe, notably for the statistics related to the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP).