Government finance statistics (GFS) provide a comprehensive overview of fiscal developments in the euro area, the European Union, and individual EU Member States. Data for Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States are also available, although with less detail.
Annual GFS are based on the data transmitted at least twice a year to the ECB by the national central banks following the data requirement defined in the Guideline ECB/2013/23. Quarterly GFS are based on the data collected by Eurostat and are defined with reference to the European System of Accounts 2010. Monthly government debt securities indicators are compiled from the security-by-security information collected in the ESCB’s Centralised Securities Database (CSDB). This information allows the compilation of the outstanding amounts, issuances, redemptions, average residual maturity, annual growth rates, schedules of maturing debt, and other indicators. The Loans, currency and deposits (LCD) dataset provides an additional breakdown on the fundings to the general government. Annual and quarterly debt data are consolidated.
GFS data presented in the ECB Data Portal are organised into the following nine sub-categories:
- Deficit/surplus
- Revenue
- Expenditure
- Consumption
- Transactions with EU institutions and bodies
- Government debt
- Change in debt
- Financial accounts
- Government assistance to the financial sector (discontinued)*
For more details about GFS data, please check the Government finance page of the ECB's website (link), and the Government Finance methodology page in the ECB Data Portal (link). Furthermore, general and technical notes are available for the following GFS publications:
Individual EU Member States, the euro area and EU aggregates, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
General government sector (S13) and the sub-sectors: central government (S1311), state government (S1312), local government (S1313) and social security funds (S1314).
From 1995 for annual GFS; from the first quarter of 1999 for quarterly GFS; and from December 2009 for monthly GFS.
Monthly, quarterly and annual.
For information about the naming convention (series key dimensions and metadata), refer to the GFS underlying DSD (NA_SEC) maintained by the ESTAT.
National currency or EUR.
Accrual accounting.
Market prices for non-financial and financial transactions and financial positions; face value for government debt and change in government debt.
Not adjusted; quarterly data are available calendar and seasonally adjusted.
Government Finance Statistics (ECB and Eurostat) - GFS
ESCB for annual GFS of EU individual countries and aggregates; European Commission (Eurostat) for quarterly GFS; ESCB for monthly government debt securities indicators; OECD for Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA 2010).
ECB Guideline on government finance statistics (ECB/2013/23) for annual GFS, ESA 2010 for quarterly GFS. In accordance with the ESA 2010, Regulation (EC) 220/2014 amending Regulation 479/2009 for government debt.
Download the series catalogue containing a full list of series and associated metadata of the dataset GFS in CSV format (zipped)