Government finance

To carry out the analysis required for monetary policy, the ECB and the ESCB need comprehensive and reliable government finance statistics based on the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010).

Government finance statistics form an important part of the integrated system of sectoral non-financial and financial accounts. The data disseminated by the ECB provide a comprehensive overview of fiscal developments in the euro area, the European Union and individual EU Member States.

The fiscal dashboard below provides an example of how government finance statistics can be used to monitor fiscal trends in the EU. It covers the two main fiscal indicators: government debt and the government balance (deficit/surplus).

Data

Government finance time series data Release calendar for government finance statistics

Interactive reports

Annual and quarterly government finance statistics

• Revenue, expenditure and balance
• Transactions with the EU budget
• Debt
• Change in debt
• Loans, currency and deposits
• Expenditure by function

Monthly government debt securities statistics

• Debt securities, stocks and transactions
• Debt securities, nominal yields
• Debt securities, debt service

Sources and methods

The concepts and definitions used for government finance statistics are in line with the following international statistical standard:

European system of national and regional accounts (ESA 2010)

Legal basis

The legal basis for collecting annual government finance statistics is laid down in Guideline ECB/2025/9.

In order to achieve further efficiency in the procedures for sharing GFS within the ESCB and minimise the reporting burden on NCBs, part of the ECB’s statistical requirements in the field of government finance statistics are transmitted to the ECB by Eurostat in accordance with a Service Level Agreement (SLA) on Data Exchanges between the Directorate-General Statistics (DG Statistics) of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat).

This SLA includes provisions for Eurostat to transmit annual and quarterly non-validated GFS for EU Member States to ECB DG Statistics within one working day after the transmission of national data to Eurostat. These data are for exclusive use by the ECB to undertake the tasks foreseen in the Treaty. The SLA also covers the transmission of validated GFS from Eurostat to the ECB, which are made available to the public.