20/2016 - 27 January 2016
Government finance statistics
What is the extent of contingent liabilities and non- performing loans in the EU Member States? Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, publishes today information on contingent liabilities and non-performing loans of government in 2014. These data have been provided by the EU Member States in the context of the Enhanced Economic Governance package (the "six pack").The contingent liabilities published in this release include government guarantees, liabilities related to public-private partnerships recorded off-balance sheet of government and liabilities of government controlled entities classified outside general government (public corporations). The liabilities are contingent in the sense that they are only potential and can materialise as actual government liabilities only if certain specific conditions prevail. Non- performing loans (government assets) could imply a loss for government if these loans were not repaid. Thus, this data collection gives a more comprehensive picture of Member States' financial positions and brings further transparency into potential impacts on public finances.
Data are country specific and closely linked to national particularities regarding the economic, financial and legal structure of the country. Significant progress has been achieved since last year's publication, nevertheless data coverage is not yet fully exhaustive for some Member States, as indicated in the country footnotes. For these reasons, data should be interpreted with caution. In particular, for the liabilities of public corporations, the data comparability is limited, because for a few Member States data reported do not include the liabilities of financial institutions and/or the liabilities of units controlled by local government.
Other aspects should be taken into account when analysing the figures for the liabilities of public corporations. Firstly, data for liabilities of public corporations are not consolidated, which means that part of the liabilities of these units could be towards entities in the same company group and these amounts cannot be identified from the data reported. Secondly, the data collection only refers to liabilities without balancing them with the assets. This aspect is very important in the case of financial institutions, which normally have both significant amounts of assets and debt liabilities. Additionally, for some of the Member States, a large part of the liabilities reported by financial institutions concern deposits held by government controlled banks.
For some Member States, there are major differences between the data published last year, in the context of the first data reporting, and the data released today. Revisions and/or changes between the two reference years are mainly due to significant improvements in data coverage, updated data sources or sector reclassifications.
In the following pages, 2014 data on contingent liabilities and non-performing loans are presented, for each EU Member State, expressed as percentage of GDP. Annexes provide descriptions of the indicators and country specific information.
Issued by: Eurostat Press Office
eurostat-pressoffice@ec.europa.eu
ec.europa.eu/eurostat/
@EU_Eurostat
Production of data:
malgorzata.szczesna@ec.europa.eu
camelia.juttner@ec.europa.eu
(% of GDP*)
Government guarantees** | Liabilities related to off-balance public- private partnerships (PPPs) | Liabilities of government controlled entities classified outside general government*** | Non-performing loans (government assets) | |||||
One-off | Standardised | Total | Entities involved in financial activities | Entities involved in other activities | Total | |||
Belgiuma | 11.1 | 0.5 | 11.6 | 0.1 | 43.2 | 15.0 | 58.2 | : |
Bulgaria | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 4.3 | 9.1 | 13.4 | 0.1 |
Czech Republica | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | - | 12.0 | 12.0 | 1.6 |
Denmarka | 9.1 | 0.1 | 9.2 | 0.1 | 10.6 | 18.3 | 28.9 | 0.3 |
Germanya | 16.4 | - | 16.4 | - | 110.5 | 4.6 | 115.1 | 0.2 |
Estoniaa | 0.0 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 0.2 | - | 8.6 | 8.6 | 0.0 |
Irelanda | 13.3 | 0.0 | 13.3 | 1.2 | 56.0 | 9.5 | 65.5 | 1.2 |
Greecea | 28.0 | 0.1 | 28.0 | 0.0 | 5.5 | 9.9 | 15.4 | 0.0 |
Spaina | 12.8 | : | 12.8 | 0.4 | 34.3 | 3.5 | 37.8 | 0.2 |
Francea | 2.4 | 2.1 | 4.5 | 0.0 | 39.6 | 18.3 | 57.9 | : |
Croatiaa | 2.3 | 0.0 | 2.3 | 0.1 | 5.2 | 6.0 | 11.2 | : |
Italya | 1.8 | 0.9 | 2.7 | 0.0 | 25.9 | 18.4 | 44.3 | 0.0 |
Cyprusa | 15.9 | 0.0 | 15.9 | 4.9 | : | 10.4 | 10.4 | : |
Latvia | 0.9 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 21.8 | 22.0 | 0.1 |
Lithuania | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 6.9 | 7.0 | 0.1 |
Luxembourg | 6.0 | 1.6 | 7.6 | 0.0 | 72.8 | 7.3 | 80.1 | 0.0 |
Hungarya | 7.5 | 0.3 | 7.7 | 2.0 | 11.3 | 6.2 | 17.5 | 0.0 |
Maltaa | 16.8 | - | 16.8 | 0.1 | 4.1 | 25.1 | 29.1 | 0.0 |
Netherlandsa | 3.6 | 0.4 | 4.0 | 0.3 | 91.0 | 18.3 | 109.2 | 0.6 |
Austriaa | 26.5 | 0.0 | 26.5 | 0.1 | 19.5 | 14.3 | 33.8 | 2.2 |
Polanda | 6.4 | 0.5 | 7.0 | 0.0 | 17.9 | 11.0 | 28.8 | 0.2 |
Portugala | 7.1 | - | 7.1 | 4.9 | 74.8 | 4.5 | 79.3 | 1.4 |
Romania | 0.7 | 1.5 | 2.3 | 0.0 | 4.3 | 5.4 | 9.7 | 0.0 |
Sloveniaa | 12.4 | 0.0 | 12.4 | 0.0 | 61.1 | 21.7 | 82.8 | 13.3 |
Slovakia | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 1.6 | 2.0 | : |
Finlanda | 25.0 | 0.9 | 25.8 | 0.0 | 17.9 | 19.9 | 37.8 | 0.1 |
Swedena | 10.2 | 0.0 | 10.2 | 0.0 | 19.5 | 27.6 | 47.1 | 0.8 |
United Kingdoma | 8.8 | 0.1 | 8.9 | 1.7 | 54.5 | 1.3 | 55.8 | 0.8 |
a See specific country notes in annex 2 : data not available - not applicable
* GDP figures provided during the October 2015 Excessive Deficit Procedure notification are used for calculation.
** Data on guarantees do not include: 1) Government guarantees issued within the guarantee mechanism under the Framework Agreement of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF); 2) Derivative-type guarantees meeting the ESA2010 definition of a financial derivative; 3) Deposit insurance guarantees and comparable schemes; 4) Government guarantees issued on events which occurrence is very difficult to cover via commercial insurance (earthquakes, large scale flooding, etc.).
*** Only those entities whose liabilities exceed 0.01% of GDP are included in the aggregate of each country.
Council Directive 2011/85, art 14(3) requires the publication of relevant information on contingent liabilities with potentially large impacts on public budgets, including government guarantees, non-performing loans, and liabilities stemming from the operation of public corporations by the EU Member States. Implementation guidance is provided in the Eurostat decision of 22 July 2013 on Supplement on contingent liabilities and potential obligations to the EDP related questionnaire.
It is to be underlined that the above indicators have a heterogeneous nature and represent different types of potential impact on public finance. Additionally, in some cases, the same fiscal risk might be reflected by two or more indicators. For instance, when a government guarantees the liability of a government controlled entity classified outside general government, the potential risks are covered both by data presented for 'Guarantees' and 'Liabilities of government controlled entities classified outside general government'. Therefore, evaluating the total risk for public finance by summing up the indicators could overestimate the potential impact.
Annex 2: Member State specific footnotesDetailed country specific footnotes are available in the Eurostat website.
Guarantees: Data coverage is not exhaustive for local government.
Liabilities of public corporations: Data coverage is not exhaustive for local government.
Czech RepublicGuarantees: Data coverage is not exhaustive. Data for enterprises included in the general government sector are not fully complete; however, all significant entities are covered.
Non-performing loans: The majority of non-performing loans refer to loans of national development banks classified in the general government sector.
Liabilities of public corporations: Data refer to 2013. There are no entities involved in financial activities having liabilities exceeding 0.01% of GDP.
DenmarkGuarantees: Data are not available for standardised guarantees of local government.
GermanyGuarantees: Data include neither institutional commitments of government bodies in the form of the so-called 'Anstaltslast', provided to public law institutions, nor the so-called 'Gewährträgerhaftung'. Related risks to government budgets have, however, been disclosed as government potential obligations, within the total amount of liabilities of government controlled entities classified outside the general government sector.
Off-balance PPPs: All assets of PPP projects are recorded on the government's balance sheet.
Liabilities of public corporations: Data reported refer to 2013. A significant amount of liabilities concerns deposits accepted by banks under government control.
EstoniaLiabilities of public corporations: There are no entities involved in financial activities having liabilities exceeding 0.01% of GDP.
IrelandGuarantees: Data coverage is not exhaustive for one-off guarantees of local government.
Non-performing loans: The figure for 2014 is provisional. The majority of non-performing loans refer to loans of a financial defeasance unit classified in the general government sector.
Liabilities of public corporations: Data cover only public corporations controlled by the central government.
GreeceGuarantees: Data coverage is not exhaustive for one-off guarantees of local government.
Non-performing loans: Data are not available for social security funds; however the amounts are not expected to be significant. Liabilities of public corporations: Data coverage is not exhaustive for the local government. The liabilities of financial institutions that have received significant financial support from the Greek government are not included, as the extent to which governmen t is controlling these entities is being assessed.
SpainGuarantees: Data are not available for standardised guarantees, however if such guarantees exist the amounts are negligible. Non-performing loans: Data are not available for local government; however the amounts of the loans granted by local entit ies are not significant.
FranceGuarantees: Data are not available for local government and social security funds. Liabilities of public corporations: Data refer to 2013.
CroatiaGuarantees: Data on one-off guarantees are not available for local government.
ItalyNon-performing loans: Data are not available for local government and social security funds.
Liabilities of public corporations: Data refer either to 2014 or 2013. For a small percentage of units (approx. 5% of the total amount of units), data for 2012 are reported.
CyprusGuarantees, off-balance PPPs and non-performing loans: Data refer to 2013.
Liabilities of public corporations: Data refer to 2012 and are not exhaustive. Data for some public corporations are not available and the liabilities of public corporations involved in financial activities are not included.
HungaryGuarantees: Data include guarantees provided to units classified outside budgetary central or local government, but classified in the general government sector.
MaltaGuarantees: Standardised guarantee schemes do not exist.
Liabilities of public corporations: Data do not include public corporations controlled by local government.
NetherlandsLiabilities of public corporations: For a majority of units, data are consolidated at an enterprise group level. The significant amount of liabilities concerns financial institutions under government control.
AustriaEUROSTAT - European Union Statistical Office issued this content on 27 January 2016 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 27 January 2016 10:15:20 UTC
Original Document: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/7143457/2-27012016-AP-EN.pdf/60f17285-93bb-4813-9bd8-bb5263703408