Cash statistics of the overall public budget
What do cash statistics of the overall public budget describe?
On a quarterly basis, the cash statistics record for the quarter that has just expired, and for the core and extra budgets of the overall public budget, data on the actual expenditure and actual revenue in a breakdown by types of expenditure and revenue, on the cost of construction in a breakdown by functions, and on the debt of public budgets by types of debt at the end of any quarter. Hence cash statistics regularly provide a most up-to-date and detailed picture of the situation of the overall public budget.
The cash statistics show the revenue acquired by the core and extra budgets of the overall public budget and the expenditure for the financing of which this revenue was used, and also the extent to which those budgets had to rely on external funds (loans raised in the credit market) or reserves to cover the financial balance. The financial balance in the context of public finance statistics is largely identical to the cash deficit or surplus of the overall public budget. Due to methodological differences it is not identical to the definition of net lending/net borrowing of general government in the national accounts context (government deficit). The burden the overall public budget will face in the future due to the use of external funds can be seen from the public debt data as shown by cash statistics.
The overall public budget comprises the core budget of the Federation including its extra budgets, the financial shares in the European Union, the core budgets of the Länder, including the city-states of Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg, and including the relevant extra budgets, the core budgets of the municipalities and associations of municipalities including their extra budgets (excluding the municipal special-purpose associations), statutory social security funds (health, long-term care, and accident insurance schemes, pension insurance, and farmers' old-age insurance scheme), and the Federal Employment Agency including its extra budgets. The data for the statutory accident insurance, which is not obliged to provide quarterly data, are estimated
How are the data of cash statistics of the overall public budget calculated?
At the end of each quarter of a year, data on the revenue and expenditure of the core budgets are collected based on the cash statements (secondary statistics).
The reporting units of the Federal Statistical Office for the quarterly results for the core budgets of the Federation and the Länder are the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Land ministries of finance or the statistical offices of the Länder. The cash results of municipal core budgets are collected by the statistical offices of the Länder, aggregated to obtain Land results and transmitted to the Federal Statistical Office. Depending on the insurance branch, statutory social insurance results are reported to the Federal Statistical Office for the purpose of public finance statistics either by the Federal Ministry for Health or directly by the insurance funds. The accident insurance data are estimated by the Federal Statistical Office. For statutory social insurance, no debt data are collected.
The data of the extra budgets (funds, institutions and enterprises) are mostly collected directly from the statistical units (so-called primary statistics). For all units in which the Federation holds a majority share, the survey is conducted centrally by the Federal Statistical Office. Depending on their location, the other units are surveyed by the relevant Land statistical office.
Adjustments are made in the context of finance statistics for payments between individual budgets which, when combined at a given level of presentation, would lead to double-counting (consolidation).
When are the results of cash statistics of the overall public budget released?
The cash results of the overall public budget are published in a press release at dates specified in the release calendar and not later than on the last working day of the quarter following the reference quarter. The release after the second quarter of a year includes the result for the first half of that year, while the next release of that year presents the cumulated result for the first three quarters of the year, and the final release issues the annual result. The press releases and the release calendar are accessible as part of the Federal Statistical Office's website content.
The final results are published in Fachserie 14 Reihe 2 "Vierteljährliche Kassenergebnisse der öffentlichen Haushalte" (Subject-Matter Series 14: Finance and Taxes, Series 2 "Quarterly cash results of public budgets"). The Fachserie and selected annual data are available for free download from the website. In addition, the quarterly cash results are published in the periodical "Wirtschaft und Statistik" (Economy and Statistics).
How accurate are cash statistics of the overall public budget?
The results published in the press release are always provisional. The final results, with the exception of the estimated quarterly statutory accident insurance data, are published in Fachserie 14: Finanzen und Steuern, Reihe 2 (see above).
Further information
Frau Renate Schulze-Steikow
Phone: +49 611 75 4166
Frau Claudia Gerster
Phone: +49 611 75 4210
Kontaktformular
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