Statistics of financial assets of general government
What does the statistics of financial assets of general government describe?
The statistics of financial assets of general government shows not only the financial assets of the core budgets of the Federation, Länder, municipalities and associations of municipalities but also the financial assets of the relevant extra budgets, special funds and special-purpose associations. What has also been covered since reference year 2005 is the financial assets of all general government funds, institutions and enterprises under public majority control, which are kept outside the public core budgets with an accounting system of their own, which usually is a double-entry system.
The financial assets of general government are defined in that statistics by the following types of assets: Currency and deposits, securities and financial derivatives, lending (loans granted), equity and any other assets of public budgets. Both securities and lending are shown by their original maturities (up to 1 year and more than 1 year) and by issuers or debtors.
Together with the debt statistics, the statistics of financial assets is the basis for the stability reports of the German Bundesbank to be submitted to the European Commission.
How are the data determined?
The statistics of financial assets of general government has been produced annually since 2004 on the basis of a complete enumeration, with the reference day of 31 December. What is mainly used as a basis for providing information is the results of the final accounts of the government and municipal budgets and of the annual accounts of the general government funds, institutions and enterprises under public majority control. Hence, the survey of financial assets is a primary statistics.
The data of the Federation (including its special funds) and the Länder as well as the funds, institutions and enterprises under majority control of the Federation are covered in a centralised manner by the Federal Statistical Office, while those of the other units are covered in a decentralised way by the relevant statistical offices of the Länder (the Land where the unit is located).
The legal basis of the survey is the Law on the Statistics of Public Finance and Public Service Personnel as published on 22 February 2006 (BGBl, page 438) in connection with the Federal Statistics Law of 22 January 1987 (BGBl, pagepage 462, 565), last amended by Article 2 of the law of 31 July 2009 (BGBl, page 2,580). What is covered is the data regarding Article 5 Nummber 4 of the Law on the Statistics of Public Finance and Public Service Personnel. The group of reporting units regarding the funds, institutions and enterprises is defined according to the Council Regulation (EC) Nummber 2223/96 of 25 June 1996 on the European System of National and Regional Accounts in the Community (ESA 95) (Official Journal of the European Communities Nummber L 310 of 30 November 1996, page 1 et seqq.).
When are the results of the statistics of financial assets of general government released?
The provisional results of the survey are published in a press release at the end of the year following the reference year. The first press release on the issue of "financial assets of general government" was published in March 2007 for reference year 2005.
How accurate are the results of the statistics of financial assets of general government?
Data accuracy of the assets statistics meets the ESA 95 requirements. It should be taken into account, however, that the data of the Federation, the Länder and the municipalities must be combined from highly different administrative files, so that procedural differences may occur in allocating individual asset items. However, allocation errors and non-response are reduced to a minimum by regular plausibility checks. As more and more public budgets are changing over to a new double-entry accounting system with precise asset recording, the situation will further improve.
