GOVERNMENT FINANCE STATISTICS

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GOVERNMENT FINANCE STATISTICS

INTRODUCTION TO GOVERNMENT FINANCE STATISTICS

Part 2

This lecture compares the 1086 and 2001 GFS systems and elaborates on the relationship with the overarching system of national accounts


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• The methodology of the 2001 GFS Manual (GFSM 2001) differs substantially from that of the 1986 GFS Manual. The main areas of difference are:

The focus of the coverage of the 2001 GFS Manual is the general government sector, as defined in the 1993 SNA, and the public sector,

In the 2001 GFS system, flows are recorded on an accrual basis, in the 1986 GFS system, transactions are recorded when cash is received or paid,

In the 2001 GFS system assets, liabilities, and net worth are valued at current market prices. In the 1986 GFS system debt securities are valued at the amount the government is obligated to pay when the debt matures.

1986 and 2001 GFS METHODOLOGIES


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• The coverage of events in the 2001 GFS system is broader than in the 1986 GFS Manual because the revised system includes all economic events that affect assets, liabilities, revenue, or expense rather than just those represented by a cash transaction.

• Consumption of fixed capital is an expense in the 2001 GFS system. As a noncash transaction, it was excluded from the 1986 GFS Manual.

COVERAGE OF EVENTS


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FLOWS ON A GROSS AND NET BASIS

• Sales and expenses of market establishments are recorded on a gross basis in the 2001 GFS system.

• Otherwise, the presentation of flows on a gross or net basis is the same in the 2001 and the 1986 GFS Manuals.


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DEFINITIONS AND CLASSIFICATIONS

• Revenue in the 2001 GFS system is an increase in net worth resulting from a transaction.

• Expense in the 2001 GFS system is a decrease in net worth resulting from a transaction.

• The classifications of revenue are substantially different in the two manuals.

• Sales of assets are not revenue in the 2001 GFS Manual and capital transfers are classified as other revenue.

• The classification of expense by economic type in the 2001 GFS Manual is broadly similar to the corresponding classification in the 1986 GFSManual.

• Lending minus repayments category of transactions in the 1986 GFS Manual no longer exists.


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• The GFS system is designed to present data in a format that enables analysts to compare the operations of governments in a consistent and systematic manner.

• Comparisons among governments and sectors can be made using standard classification items and summary balancing items such as:

- net operating balance,- cash surplus/deficit- net lending/borrowing,- change in net worth.

GFS measures of net lending/borrowing and change in net worth can be directly compared with similar concepts in the 1993 SNA to provide confirmation of consistency in analysis.

BALANCING ITEMS FOR FISCAL ANALYSIS


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• Apart from the core measures of fiscal performance provided by the balancing items in the core reporting Statements additional balancing items are defined and can be derived from GFS data.

• The 2001 GFS system provides measures of government performance that can only be derived using accruals data.

BALANCING ITEMS FOR FISCAL ANALYSIS


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• The harmonization of the GFS system and the 1993 SNA is not complete for several reasons:

1.the two systems were developed a number of years apart, SNA in 1993 and GFS in 2001,

2.the focus of the GFS system is on financial transactions; taxing, spending, borrowing, and lending; in the 1993 SNA the emphasis is also on production and consumption,

3.in some cases, the different focus of statistical measurement in the two systems requires different definitions of the same data.

• The next slide shows a comparison of the GFSM 2001 and the 1993 SNA accounting frameworks.

HARMONIZATION WITH THE 1993 SNA


Other economic

flows

Capital transfers &

non-financialassets

Income account

Production account

Transactions

GDP (value added)

1993 SNA

Financialassets &liabilities

Closingbalance

sheet

Saving

Revenue account

Expense account

Financialassets &liabilities

Non-financialassets

Closingbalance

sheet

Other economic

flows

GFSM 2001Transactions

Operating balance

Net lending / borrowing 9


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• The major differences between the 2001 GFS system and the macroeconomic statistical systems with which it is harmonized are the classifications used, the accounting statements, and the resulting balancing items.

• The 2001 GFS analytic framework consists of four statements., each dealing with financial flows or stocks.

• In the 1993 SNA, transactions are presented in a sequence of seven accounts, other economic flows are presented in two accounts, and stocks are presented in the Balance Sheet. There is no SNA equivalent to the GFS Statement of Sources and Uses of Cash.

COMPARISON OF THE STRUCTURES OF GFS AND SNA SYSTEMS


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• In the SNA, the sequence of transaction accounts is divided into current and accumulation accounts.

• The current accounts record the production of goods and services and the generation, distribution, redistribution, and use of income.

• The accumulation accounts record the acquisition and disposal of assets and liabilities.



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• The different treatment of selected activities and placement of transactions means that balancing items of the two systems produce different measures.

• For example, GFS balancing item for the first section of the Statementof Government Operations, the net operating balance, differs from 1993 SNA saving.

• Similarly, net lending/borrowing is the balancing item in both theStatement of Government Operations and for the Capital andFinancial Accounts of the 1993 SNA.

• In the 1993 SNA, the same distinction between holding gains and other changes in the volume of assets is made.

• The coverage of the GFS Balance Sheet is identical to the coverageof the Balance Sheet in the 1993 SNA.



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USE OF GFS DATA TO COMPILE THE SNA

• The starting point for compiling statistics for the general governmentsector of the SNA are GFS data.

• When a transaction is recorded in a current account of the SNA, it is classified as a “use” (a reduction in the economic value of the unit) or a “resource” (an addition to the economic value of a unit).

• When a transaction is recorded in an accumulation account of the SNA, it is classified as a change in an asset, a change in a liability, or a change in net worth depending on its effect on the balance sheet.


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ACCOUNTING FOR PRODUCTION

• The productive activities of government are recorded quite differently in the two statistical systems.

• Output is the value of goods and services produced during an accounting period. It is not recorded as such in the GFS system because most of the output of general government units is distributed on a nonmarketbasis.

• The total output of the general government sector is determined as the sum of the output of nonmarket establishments and the output of marketestablishments.

• The output of nonmarket establishments is defined to be equal tothe sum of the production costs.


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• Market output is the sum of the entire output of market establishments, actual sales of nonmarket establishments, and other output that is imputed to have been sold.

• Intermediate consumption is needed for the SNA production account but is not a GFS expense category.

• Consumption of fixed capital in the SNA equals the expense category of the same name in the GFS system plus the amount recorded as a component of own-account capital formation.

ACCOUNTING FOR PRODUCTION


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THE GENERATION OF INCOME ACCOUNT

• The Generation of Income Account starts with value added balancing item from the Production Account and then includes: compensation ofemployees, other taxes on production paid, and other subsidies on production received.


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FINAL CONSUMPTION

• Final consumption is a key component of gross domestic product, the principal balancing item in the national accounts.

• Final consumption expenditure of the general government sector is not an element of the GFS system.

• The difference between final consumption expenditure and actual finalconsumption is social transfers in kind.

• When an existing good is sold, the amount received from its sale is recorded as negative final consumption expenditure if the acquisition of thegood had been classified as final consumption expenditure.

• Own-account capital formation is part of output but not part of final consumption expenditure.


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• Social contributions paid by employers as part of compensation of employees in the GFS system is identical to the same category in the SNA.

• The amount recorded for social contributions received by units operating social insurance schemes, however, can be quite different in the two systems.

• Social insurance schemes are deemed in the SNA to pay property income attributed to insurance policyholders to the beneficiaries of the schemes.

• In the 2001 GFS system, the expense category of social benefits is narrower than that in the 1993 SNA.

SOCIAL INSURANCE


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OTHER TRANSACTIONS AND OTHER ECONOMIC FLOWS

• The GFS system includes a detailed classification of taxes based on common practice in tax administration.

• In the SNA, taxes are classified according to their role in economic activities as: taxes on production and imports, current taxes on income, wealth, etc., or capital taxes.

• Several types of GFS property income need to be reclassified in SNA compilation.

• Reinvested earnings on direct foreign investment is not recorded in the GFS system; it must be estimated from other sources.


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• Other current transfers in the SNA is a disparate collection of entries that are found in various places in the GFS system.

• Most of the entries in the Capital Account of the SNA can be derived directly from the corresponding entries in the GFS system.

• Consumption of fixed capital in the SNA is identical to the total value of consumption of fixed capital recorded in the GFS classification of transactions in nonfinancial assets.

• GFS system includes a category for strategic stocks that does not appear in the SNA. Strategic stocks are classified as goods for resale in the SNA.



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• Capital transfers in the SNA are recorded in various places in the GFS system.

• The transactions recorded under insurance technical reserves differ in the two systems because of the different treatment of employer social insurance schemes that provide pensions and other retirement benefits.

• Transactions in shares and other equity differ because the SNA includes reinvested earnings on direct foreign investment as an imputed purchase of shares and other equity.

• For the most part, other flows are the same in both systems.



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Following the revision of the 1993 SNA and the methodology changes introduced in the 2008 System of National Accounts (2008 SNA) work is proceeding on the update of the 2001 GFS Manual.

REVISION OF THE GFSM 2001

Documents

GOVERNMENT FINANCE STATISTICS