Notification of general government deficit and debt
The notification of government deficit and debt is compiled for past four years as a rule and submitted by each member state of the EU twice a year, regularly at the close of February and August, including a projection for the current year. The calculation of the aggregates requested relies on the methodology of the European system of national accounts (ESA 95). Pursuant the Maastricht criteria, the deficit and the cumulated debt should not exceed 3% of GDP and 60% of GDP, respectively.
Unit | Year | ||||
2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | ||
| Net borrowing (deficit) of general government (in current year) | CZK bn | -137.0 | -163.0 | -319.6 | -105.9 |
| General government consolidated gross debt (at end of year) | CZK bn | 586.2 | 696.5 | 956.1 | 1029.3 |
| Gross domestic product (GDP) | CZK bn | 2315.3 | 2414.7 | 2550.8 | 2750.0 |
| General government deficit in % of GDP | % | 5.9 | 6.8 | 12.5 | 3.9 |
| General government debt in % of GDP | % | 25.3 | 28.8 | 37.5 | 37.4 |
The government deficit/surplus and the government debt reflect the financial performance of all institutional units classified to the general government sector – they are governmental departments, territorial self-governing units, semi-budgetary (subsidized) organizations, state-owned and other extrabudgetary funds, transformation institutions, public universities, and health insurance corporations.
Government deficit/surplus refers to net borrowings (-) or net lendings (+) including interest on swap operations. It shows the ability of the general government sector to finance other entities (+) or the sector’s need to be financed (-).
Government debt includes, by definition, obligations of the general government sector resulting from currency emissions (not applicable to the CR), received deposits, emitted securities other than equity (except for financial derivatives), and received loans.
The Czech Statistical Office compiles the requested indicators for past years (2001-2004 in this case). The data are gradually refined, depending on the compilation and major revisions of annual national accounts and on methodological changes made on account of adjustments to respective EU regulations. The estimated levels of government deficit and debt in the February notifications for the previous year are always based in part on preliminary information combined with the application of extrapolation methods and expert guesses. The estimated level of GDP for 2004 is supposed to be updated when the news release on the development of GDP for the 4rth quarter of 2004 is brought out (10 March 2005).
The division of labour between the Czech Statistical Office and the Ministry of Finance CR suggests that the projection for current year (2005 now) should be compiled by the Ministry. The Ministry is assumed to publish estimated levels of government deficit and debt on 18 March 2005.