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OECD Economic Outlook
Select the Annex Table below you want to obtain information about
Table 25 General government total outlays
Table 26 General government current tax and non-tax receipts
Table 27 General government financial balances
Table 28 Cyclically-adjusted general government balances
Table 29 General government primary balances
Table 30 Cyclically-adjusted general government primary balances
Table 31 General government net debt interest payments
Table 32 General government gross financial liabilities
Table 33 General government net financial liabilities
Annex Table 25 - General government total outlays
Definition: The figures for total outlays consist of current outlays plus capital outlays. Current outlays are the sum of current consumption, transfer payments, subsidies and property income paid (including interest payments). Data refer to the general government sector, which is a consolidation of accounts for the central, state and local government plus social security. One-off revenues from the sale of the third generation mobile telephone (often called Universal Mobile Telephone System) licenses are recorded as negative capital outlays for Australia (2000 and 2001, 0.2% of GDP respectively), Austria (2000, 0.4% of GDP), Belgium (2001, 0.2% of GDP), Denmark (2001, 0.2% of GDP), France (2001, 0.1% of GDP), Germany (2000, 2.5% of GDP), Greece (2001, 0.4% of GDP, of which 0.1% are generated from the sale of 2nd generation mobile phone licensing), Ireland (2002, 0.2% of GDP), Italy (2000, 1.2% of GDP), the Netherlands (2000, 0.6% of GDP), New Zealand (2000, 0.1% of GDP), Portugal (2000, 0.3% of GDP), Spain (2000, 0.3% of GDP) and the United Kingdom (2000, 2.4% of GDP) where reported revenues are substantial.
The data for Belgium would be 2.5 percentage points of GDP higher in 1995 if the debt assumption from the railway company SNCB by the Belgian government were taken into account. For the Czech Republic, the 1995 data reflect the large privatisation campaign which transferred some public enterprises to private ownership through vouchers distributed to the population, representing some 9.8 percentage points of GDP. In 2003, the triggering of state guarantees, mainly for the banking sector, accounted for 6.4 per cent of total outlays. In Germany, the 1995 outlays are net of the debt taken on this year from the Inherited Debt Fund (6.7 per cent of GDP). In Italy, general government total outlays include a one-off refund of VAT receipts in 2005 amounting to 0.9% of GDP. For Japan, the 1998 outlays would be 5.3 percentage points of GDP higher if it included the central government's assumption of the debt of the Japan National Railway Settlement Corporation and the National Forest Special Account. The 2000 outlays for Japan include capital transfers to the Deposit Insurance Company. In 2005, the assumption of the debt of the Japan Highway Corporation increased government outlays by 1.6 percentage points of GDP. In 2003, the data for Korea reflect a large scale capital transfer to the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation and Korea Asset management Corporation (representing some 3.7 percentage points of GDP). The 1995 figure for the Netherlands would be 4.9 percentage points of GDP higher if capital transfers to the social rental company were taken into consideration. The figures for the United States include outlays net of surpluses of public enterprises.
Sources: National accounts
Related links: OECD National Accounts and The 1993 System of National Accounts, Glossary
Last updated: 22 June 2007
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Annex Table 26 - General government current tax and non-tax receipts
Definition: Tax receipts of the government sector are defined as the sum of direct taxes on household and business sectors, indirect taxes and social security contributions. Non-tax receipts include operating surpluses of public enterprises, property income, user charges and fees, other current and capital transfers received by the general government. Data refer to the general government sector, which is a consolidation of accounts for the central, state and local government plus social security. The figures for Japan include deferred tax payments on postal savings accounts, amounting to 0.5 per cent, 0.6 per cent and 0.1 per cent of GDP for 2000, 2001 and 2002, respectively. In 2002 corporate pension funds were authorized to transfer back to the government the basic part of their employees' pension scheme. This resulted in a capital transfer to the government of Japan which reduced the general government financial deficit by 0.1, 1.2, 0.8 and 0.1 percentage points of GDP in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 respectively. In 2006, a transfer from the Fiscal Loan Fund Special Account resulted in a further increase in government receipts by 1.8 percentage points. Further transfers were made in the first quarter of 2007, worth 0.6 percentage point of GDP. The figures for the United States exclude operating surpluses of public enterprises, since outlays net of operating surpluses of public enterprises for the United States are shown in Annex Table 25 (General government total outlays).
Revenue/GDP-ratios based on national account methodology (i.e. as applied in the Economic Outlook tables and the Outlook databank) are not fully comparable with the information found in the OECD's Revenue Statistics. Revenue Statistics contains detailed information for all member countries on tax as well as non-tax revenues, including social security contributions. The data in Revenue Statistics are provided by the national tax authorities and are generally based on standard national accounts' definitions and methodologies (System of National Accounts (SNA) / European System of Accounts (ESA)). However, divergences with the national accounts exist in some areas. The differences are small for most countries and in most years, but are in some cases substantial. The most frequently used measure of the tax burden, total taxes plus social security contributions as a percentage of GDP, differed by more than 2 percentage points between Revenue Statistics and the national accounts for the Czech Republic, Greece (mostly due to the adoption of the revised GDP in the OECD Economic Outlook), Poland and Germany in 2004-2005. The divergence between the tax/GDP-ratio (including social security contributions) in Revenue Statistics (RS) and the national accounts/Economic Outlook (EO) is due to a variety of general and country specific factors. The most important general explanations are the following:
1. Differences in accounting periods. For the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the fiscal year (used in RS) differs from the calendar year (used in EO).
2. Voluntary social security contributions to the government are included as revenues in EO but not in RS. For some countries, including Germany, these contributions are fairly large.
3. Imputed employer social security contributions for government employees are counted as revenues in EO but not in RS. On the other hand, actual contributions by government employees and by governments in respect of their employees, to social security schemes within the government sector are regarded as revenues in both EO and RS. The absence of imputed government contributions in RS explains much of the difference for most EU countries (amounting to 2.2 percentage points of GDP for Belgium and 1.8 % for Greece and France in 2005).
4. For EU countries, the proportion of each country's VAT collection and the share of customs revenues which are transferred to the EU as part of the so-called 'third own resource of the EU' are treated by ESA95 - and hence in EO - as being paid directly to the EU rather than as being paid to each individual country's government and then passed on to the EU. In other words, VAT and customs revenues are shown net of the amounts transferred to the EU, even though these amounts are included in GDP. In RS, these transfers are not deducted from the value added tax and customs revenues for individual countries and the data on total tax revenue as a percentage of GDP also include them.
These general explanatory factors could push the difference between tax ratios in EO and RS in either direction: the impacts from factor 1 is uncertain, factors 2 and 3 tend to increase the tax/GDP-ratio in EO compared with RS, whereas factor 4 has the opposite effect. Hence the overall impact is ambiguous. But even where there is no effect on total revenues, the individual components can be significantly affected.
Finally, a host of country specific factors exist, including differences between EO and RS in the treatment of tax credits, and taxes on transfers. For Germany, for instance, RS records income taxes net of child tax credits that are used to reduce taxes paid, whereas German national accounts and EO data regard the child tax credit as an expenditure item and so do not allow for its deduction from reported tax revenues.
Sources: National accounts
Related links: OECD National Accounts and The 1993 System of National Accounts, Glossary
Last updated: 22 June 2007
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Annex Table 27 - General government financial balances
Definition: Government net lending is general government current tax and non-tax receipts less general government total outlays. See notes to Annex Tables 25 and 26.
Sources: National accounts
Related links: National Accounts, The 1993 System of National Accounts, Glossary and Annex Table 61
Last updated: 22 June 2007
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Annex Table 28 - Cyclically-adjusted general government balances
Definition: The budget balance can be decomposed into a cyclical and a non-cyclical component. The decomposition is aimed at separating cyclical influences on the budget balances resulting from the divergence between actual and potential output (the output gap), from those which are non-cyclical. Changes in the latter can be seen as a cause rather than an effect of output fluctuations and may be interpreted as indicative of discretionary policy adjustments. It should be noted, however, that changes in resource revenues - as a result of oil price changes, for example - and in interest payments - as a result of past debt accumulation or changes in interest rates - are neither cyclical nor purely discretionary. Yet these changes are reflected in the evolution of the cyclical component of the budget balance. (For details on the methodology used in calculating cyclically-adjusted budget deficits see Giorno, C., P. Richardson, D. Roseveare and P. van den Noord (1995), Estimating potential output gaps and structural budget balances and Van den Noord, P. (2000), The size and role of automatic fiscal stabilisers in the 1990s and beyond. For an update of tax elasticities, see Girouard, N. and C. André (2005) Measuring cyclically-adjusted budget balances for OECD countries). One-off revenues from the sale of the third generation mobile telephone (often called Universal Mobile Telephone System) licenses are excluded in computing the cyclically-adjusted balance for a number of countries (see Annex Tables 25). Other one-off expedients improving headline fiscal balances may be included, however (see Koen, V. and P. van den Noord (2005), Fiscal gimmickry in Europe: one-off measures and creative accounting for more details on creative accounting practices in EU countries).
Sources: OECD calculations
Related links: National Accounts and The 1993 System of National Accounts, Glossary
Last updated: 22 June 2007
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Annex Table 29 - General government primary balances
Definition: These figures are derived by adding back net interest payments (Annex Table 31) to general government financial balances (Annex Table 27). See notes to Tables 27 and 31.
Sources: National accounts
Related links: National Accounts and The 1993 System of National Accounts, Glossary
Last updated: 22 June 2007
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Annex Table 30 - Cyclically-adjusted general government primary balances
Definition: These figures are derived by adding back net interest payments (Annex Table 31) to general government cyclically-adjusted balances (Annex Table 28). See notes to Tables 28 and 31.
Sources: National accounts
Related links: National Accounts and The 1993 System of National Accounts, Glossary
Last updated: 22 June 2007
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Annex Table 31 - General government net debt interest payments
Definition: The data shown for Austria, Greece, Italy and Sweden are net of the impacts of swaps and forward rate transactions on interest payments, in accordance with national income accounts conventions. The data reported to Eurostat for the excessive deficit procedure includes such transactions and therefore may show lower interest payments in some years.
For Germany, the figures include interest payments of the Inherited Debt Fund from 1995 onwards. In the case of Ireland and New Zealand, where net interest payments are not available, net property income is used as a proxy. For Japan, the figures include interest payments on the debt of the Japan Railway Settlement Corporation and the National Forest Special Account from 1998 onwards.
Sources: National accounts
Related links: National Accounts and The 1993 System of National Accounts, Glossary
Last updated: 22 June 2007
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Annex Table 32 - General government gross financial liabilities
Annex Table 33 - General government net financial liabilities
Definition: The figures for gross financial liabilities (Annex Table 32) refer to the debt and other liabilities (short and long-term) of all the institutions in the general government sector, defined by ESA95/SNA93, subject to data availability. For the United States, Flow of Funds estimates are used, which value debt at face value. The gross data are consolidated within and between the sub-sectors of the general government sector, national sources permitting. The figures for net financial liabilities (Annex Table 33) measure the gross financial liabilities of the general government sector less the financial assets of the general government sector. Such assets may be cash, bank deposits, loans to the private sector, participation in private sector companies, holdings in public corporations or foreign exchange reserves, depending on the institutional structure of the country concerned and data availability.
The status and treatment of government liabilities in respect of their employee pension plans in the national accounts have been diverse across countries, making international comparability of government debts difficult. The current interpretation of the 1993 SNA is that: i) "autonomous" funded pension plans should be classified outside the general government sector, which entails that their assets and liabilities are not reflected in the general government debt data; ii) non-autonomous pension plans should be classified inside the general government sector and only the funded component should be reflected in the general government liabilities. Furthermore, the 1993 SNA recommends that the liability inherent in unfunded schemes be recorded as a memorandum item for the government sector. However, while some countries have produced some estimates of these implicit liabilities, few follow the 1993 SNA recommendation. Some information on how some countries assume their employee pension liabilities and finance them (funded or unfunded) are provided:
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In the United States, government employee pension funds are partially funded. Data reported by the Federal Reserve and used by the OECD include them in the personal sector and not the government sector. Hence their holdings of nonmarketable government securities (7.6% of GDP in 2005) are counted as a liability of the government sector (in contrast to countries with unfunded schemes). However, the stated assets of these funds are not sufficient to cover their liabilities. The difference, known as the unfunded pension liability of the government, is not recorded within the overall debt of the US government (in contrast to Canada, for example). It amounted to 10.2 percent of GDP in 2005.
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For Canada, Statistics Canada includes unfunded liabilities of government employee pension plans in the general government debt data on the basis that they have been explicitly recognised by the government and that this is broadly equivalent to the issue of a long-term government bond. These liabilities amounted to 14.6 per cent of GDP in 2006 and are not included in the OECD data for the general government gross financial liabilities. An autonomous and funded pension scheme was also created in 1998 for government employees. It is classified outside the general government sector (in the personal sector) and associated liabilities are not reflected in the OECD data for the general government liabilities.
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For Australia, the Australian Bureau of Statistics includes unfunded portions of government employee superannuation plans on its government balance on the basis that unfunded liabilities are explicitly recognised by governments in their balance sheets due to the contractual provisions contained in the underlying superannuation legislation. The OECD figures for Australia are however adjusted by subtracting the unfunded pension liabilities from the national data for government debts. These unfunded pension liabilities amounted to about 20.2 per cent of GDP in 2006. The government employee superannuation liabilities that are funded are not separately identified in the statistics. However, some Australian governments are shifting towards fully funding emerging liabilities as well as putting aside accelerated contributions to eliminate existing liabilities completely over a 20 to 30 year period.
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The New Zealand government produces accounts which are consistent with the Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (GAAP) and includes unfunded government pension liabilities. However, the OECD subtracts the unfunded liability in order to make the figures more comparable internationally. This liability amounted to 7.3 per cent of GDP in 2006. The liabilities of the Accident Compensation scheme and the guarantee of the National Provident Fund are also excluded.
In the case of Austria, financial assets data exclude shares, holdings in public corporation and financial assets of the social security system. For Belgium, data on financial assets exclude shares, holdings in public corporations and lending. In 2005 data do not include the assumption by the government of the debt of the railway company SNCB which amounted to 1.8 and 1.6 percentage points of GDP in 2005 and 2006, respectively. According to the ESA95 methodology this should be included. For Finland, the reduction of total net financial assets from 1995 on is mainly due to a change in the treatment of housing corporation shares: these shares are no longer classified as financial assets in the Finnish financial accounts. For example, time series data do not account any more for the substantial amount of housing corporation shares held by local government. In the case of Germany, bonds held by the social security system which constitute liabilities for another sector of general government have not been fully consolidated. The figures for Germany also include the Inherited Debt Fund from 1995 onwards. For Japan, both gross and net financial liabilities include the debt of the Japan Railway Settlement Corporation and the National Forest Special Account from 1998 onwards and the debt of the Japan Highway Corporation from 2005 on. For the United Kingdom and Australia, data on financial assets exclude shares and holdings in public corporations. For Australia figures refer to fiscal years ending 30 June. The government's equity participation in businesses is not included in government financial assets. Also for Australia, data from 1993 onwards exclude State Central Borrowing Authorities, which has been transferred from the general government sector to the public financial enterprise sector.
Sources: National accounts
Related links: Maastricht definition of general government gross public debt (Annex 62)
Last updated: 22 June 2007
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