1. Data sources and bridge table
Martin Kellaway
National Accounts in Practice – Advanced course
Luxembourg, 2-11 October 2017
THE CONTRACTOR IS ACTING UNDER A FRAMEWORK CONTRACT CONCLUDED WITH THE COMMISSION

2. Content ESA 2010 contains guidance on specific units
Groups and public sector holding companies
Special purpose entities
Government debt management agencies
Market regulatory agencies acting on behalf of European Community
etc …

3. Central government The largest and most important sub-sector
Consists of all the administrative departments of the “State” and government entities, economic and social advisory boards and other institutions (government agencies and non-market enterprises)
28 MSs and 28 different approaches, so presentation is a generalisation

4. Central government
The largest part is the “State” – ministries and departments – typically the budgetary part
Countries will produce ‘Public Accounts’ or ‘Budgetary Statement’ for these (in some countries the same thing)
Budget is a list of forecast revenue and planned expenditure; public accounts the outturn for previous years

5. Central government Were traditionally on a cash basis
Nowadays an increasing number of countries use an accruals’ basis, one even uses ESA!
Public accounts show revenue, expenditure and difference between them (surplus/deficit).
This surplus/deficit is known as the ‘working balance’ and is start point of the EDP process

6. Central government
Will need conversion from cash/accruals to ESA basis – in terms of units covered and transactions
Process is annual. For quarterly accounts compiled using available information (taxes, social contributions, benefits, pay, expenditure monitoring systems etc)
For other central government bodies source data usually from financial statements or statistical survey

7. EDP Table 2 This is the bridge table
It shows the transition from the national definition Working Balance to ESA B.9 net lending
Important for quality control of MSs’ reported deficits

8. EDP Table 2
Three broad types of adjustments from working balance to B.9 :
- reclassification of transactions
- sub-sector delimitation
- time of recording
– and then
- other adjustments
(e.g. debt assumption, debt cancellation, finance leasing, EU transfers – a long list!)

9. Other sub-sectors
Data usually from financial statements or statistical survey
Institutions of local government vary greatly between countries
Collection of data not easy due to high number of units
Information usually becomes available later after end of year than CG
Data often cash-based