For the budgetary notification to the European Commission, Statistics Austria computes the data in accordance with the categories of the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010).
The government deficit/surplus is the difference between total revenue and total expenditure. The Maastricht Treaty stipulates a number of convergence criteria (Maastricht criteria). Under these criteria, Member States may only enter the European Economic and Monetary Union if they satisfy the Maastricht fiscal and monetary criteria. According to the Maastricht Treaty, the ratio of the government deficit to gross domestic product (GDP) must not exceed 3 %. Other Maastricht criteria are the long-term interest rate (no more than 2 percentage points higher than in the most price-stable EU countries) and national inflation (a maximum of 1.5 percentage points above that of the three most price-stable EU countries).