For further details of specific variables and coverage issues see:
Economic Outlook Database Inventory
If you are looking specifically for explanations of words, abbreviations or concepts, please consult the OECD Statistical Glossary.
Table 29 General government total outlays
Table 30 General government current tax and non-tax receipts
Table 31 General government financial balances
Table 32 General government cyclically-adjusted balances
Table 33 General government underlying balances
Table 34 Cyclically-adjusted general government primary balances
Table 35 General government net debt interest payments
Table 36 General government gross financial liabilities
Table 37 General government net financial liabilities
Table 38 Maastricht definition of general government gross public debt
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Annex Table 29 - 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. The general treatment of large one-off fiscal items in the national accounts and the OECD Economic Outlook database is described in Joumard , I., M. Minegishi, C. André, C. Nicq and R. Price (2008), Accounting for one-off operations when assessing underlying fiscal positions.
Sources: National accounts
Related links: OECD National Accounts
Last updated: December 2011
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Annex Table 30 - 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, 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.
Note: Revenue/GDP-ratios based on the national accounts methodology used are not fully comparable with those found in the OECD's Revenue Statistics which diverge from national accounts in a number of areas. For further details see Frequently Asked Questions.
Sources: National Accounts
Related links: OECD National Accounts
Last updated: Decembre 2011
Definition: Government net lending is general government current tax and non-tax receipts less general government total outlays. See notes to Annex Tables 29 and 30.
The ESA95 definition of net lending differs from the Maastricht definition in that it does not include streams of payments and receipts from swap agreements and forward rate agreements, as these are recorded as financial transactions rather than interest expenditure.
Sources: National Accounts
Related links: National Accounts
Last updated: December 2011
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Annex Table 32 - General government cyclically-adjusted balances |
Notes and definitions: The decomposition of budget balance into a cyclical and a non-cyclical component is aimed at separating cyclical influences associated with divergences 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 related 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, Van den Noord, P. (2000), The size and role of automatic fiscal stabilisers in the 1990s and beyond, and Girouard, N. and C. André (2005), Measuring cyclically-adjusted budget balances for OECD countries.
Exceptionally, estimates for Norway exclude net revenues from petroleum activities and are expressed as a percentage of mainland GDP; but do not make adjustments for certain other transactions which are used by the Norwegian authorities in their estimates of underlying balances.
Sources: OECD estimates
Related links: National Accounts
Last updated: December 2011
Definition: This indicator eliminates the impact of so called one-off transactions from the cyclically-adjusted financial balances. One-offs are derived as the deviations from trend in net capital transfers, special one-offs not related to capital transfers and one-off revenues from the sale of the third generation mobile telephone licenses. For more details on the methodology see Joumard , I., M. Minegishi, C. André, C. Nicq and R. Price (2008), Accounting for one-off operations when assessing underlying fiscal positions. See notes to Tables 31 and 32.
Sources: OECD estimates
Related links: National Accounts
Last updated: December 2011 (modified on December 2017)
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Annex Table 34 - Cyclically-adjusted general government primary balances |
Definition: These figures refer to general government cyclically-adjusted balances (Annex Table 32) excluding net interest payments (Annex Table 35). See notes to Tables 31, 32, 33 and 35.
Sources: OECD calculations
Related links: National Accounts
Last updated: December 2011 (modified on December 2017)
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Annex Table 35 - General government net debt interest payments |
Definition: Interest paid for general government debt net of interest received for general government assets.
Sources: National Accounts
Notes: There are a number of important country differences in definitions and availability of debt interest statistics. For individual country notes see Economic Outlook Statistical Sources file.
Related links: National Accounts
Last updated: December 2011 (modified on December 2017)
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Annex Table 36 - General government gross financial liabilities |
Definition: Gross financial liabilities are defined as the debt and other liabilities (short and long-term) of all the institutions in the general government sector, defined by ESA2010/SNA08, 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.
Sources: National Accounts
Related links: Economic Outlook Frequently Asked Questions. National Accounts
Last updated: December 2011
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Annex Table 37 - General government net financial liabilities |
Definition: Net financial liabilities are defined as 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.
For individual country notes see Economic Outlook Statistical Sources file.
Sources: National Accounts
Last updated: December 2011
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Annex Table 38 - Maastricht definition of general government gross public debt |
Definition: For countries in the European Union, gross debt is specified according to the criteria set out in a protocol to the Maastricht Treaty (see EC Council Regulation No. 3605/93 of 22 November 1993).
Debt is consolidated within the general government and valued at nominal (face) value. For differences between gross debt according to the Maastricht criterion and the SNA based general government gross financial liabilities concept of the OECD (Annex Table 32) see the Frequently Asked Questions. Historical debt figures (as opposed to debt projections), in national currencies, are provided by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, while GDP figures are provided by national authorities. Over the forecast period, debt ratios are in line with the OECD’s projections for general government gross financial liabilities and GDP.
Sources: Eurostat and OECD
Related links: Gross financial liabilities (Annex Table 32)
Last updated: December 2011
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