Data sources and bridge table Martin Kellaway National Accounts in Practice – Advanced course Luxembourg, 2-11 October 2017 THE CONTRACTOR IS ACTING UNDER A FRAMEWORK CONTRACT CONCLUDED WITH THE COMMISSION

Content ESA 2010 contains guidance on specific units Groups and public sector holding companies Special purpose entities Government debt management agencies Market regulatory agencies acting on behalf of European Community etc …

Central government The largest and most important sub-sector Consists of all the administrative departments of the “State” and government entities, economic and social advisory boards and other institutions (government agencies and non-market enterprises) 28 MSs and 28 different approaches, so presentation is a generalisation

Central government The largest part is the “State” – ministries and departments – typically the budgetary part Countries will produce ‘Public Accounts’ or ‘Budgetary Statement’ for these (in some countries the same thing) Budget is a list of forecast revenue and planned expenditure; public accounts the outturn for previous years

Central government Were traditionally on a cash basis Nowadays an increasing number of countries use an accruals’ basis, one even uses ESA! Public accounts show revenue, expenditure and difference between them (surplus/deficit). This surplus/deficit is known as the ‘working balance’ and is start point of the EDP process

Central government Will need conversion from cash/accruals to ESA basis – in terms of units covered and transactions Process is annual. For quarterly accounts compiled using available information (taxes, social contributions, benefits, pay, expenditure monitoring systems etc) For other central government bodies source data usually from financial statements or statistical survey

EDP Table 2 This is the bridge table It shows the transition from the national definition Working Balance to ESA B.9 net lending Important for quality control of MSs’ reported deficits

EDP Table 2 Three broad types of adjustments from working balance to B.9 : - reclassification of transactions - sub-sector delimitation - time of recording – and then - other adjustments (e.g. debt assumption, debt cancellation, finance leasing, EU transfers – a long list!)

Other sub-sectors Data usually from financial statements or statistical survey Institutions of local government vary greatly between countries Collection of data not easy due to high number of units Information usually becomes available later after end of year than CG Data often cash-based