Government Finances and Public Sector Debt

<a href="https://data.oecd.org/chart/6HaG" target="_blank">OECD Chart: Household debt, Total, % of net disposable income, Annual, last 5 years</a>

Government Finance Statistics present the accounts of the General Government sector of the national accounts, which provide insight into the economic performance of central, state and local governments and social security funds.

The OECD publishes tables bringing together Government Finance Statistics compiled by national authorities in line with the international standards of the 2008 System of National Accounts (SNA). These provide up-to-date estimates, for OECD (and some non-OECD) countries’ governments, of taxes and social security contributions; total revenue and expenditure; net lending or borrowing (surplus or deficit); and General Government financial accounts (flows) and financial balance sheets (stocks).

Data on Public Sector Debt, also in line with the 2008 SNA, is for the whole of the public sector which includes financial and non-financial public corporations as well as General Government. The OECD’s quarterly tables present estimates of gross debt broken down by type of liability (such as debt securities, loans, insurance, pensions and standardised guarantees), by maturity, by residence of the creditor and by whether the debt is denominated in domestic or foreign currency. The Public Sector Debt tables show results in nominal values, whereas the General Government financial balance sheets in Government Finance Statistics use market values.

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Government non-financial accounts

Annual government non-financial accounts and key indicators: Revenue | Expenditure | Balancing items
Annual government expenditure by function (COFOG)
Annual government taxes and social contributions receipts

Government financial accounts and balance sheets

Public sector debt

Related indicators

Access archived data

Government non-financial accounts (SNA 93)

Read latest articles

Tips for reading government debt-to-GDP ratios (28 March 2024)
Tax revenue in the pandemic (2 March 2022)
Statistical Insights: How did the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic affect the household sector and public finances? (16 December 2020)

Publications

OECD (2014), "The general government account", in Understanding National Accounts: Second Edition, OECD Publishing, Paris.
Dippelsman, R., et al. (2017), "Deficit and debt of general government and public sector", in van de Ven, P. and D. Fano (eds.), Understanding Financial Accounts, OECD Publishing, Paris.

Methodology and guidance

Other National Accounts subjects

Contact

For further questions you can contact the OECD Statistics and Data Directorate.

National accounts