Financial Accounts of the Government Sector

Since September 2014 the financial accounts of the government sector are provided by Statistics Austria. Currently the data includes the periods 2012 until 2019 on an annual basis. Quarterly data is available from the 1st quarter 2012 until the 2nd quarter 2020.

For all other sectors data is provided by the Austrian National Bank (OeNB). The financial and non-financial accounts should form a consistent system where the accounting balance from the former should in theory reflect the accounting balance of the latter. In practice deviations are possible. 

Information regarding the effects of the CoVID-19 crisis in the result tables

New debt taken up by the government sector is observable in the first quarter of 2020. This new debt is accompanied by a rise in deposits confirming that the effects of pay-outs of the Covid-19 rescue packages starting in mid-march 2020 were low in the first quarter. Major policy measures implemented as a response to the economic implications of the COVID-19 pandemic are the “Kurzarbeit” scheme, where companies can reduce employees’ hours while the state covers large parts of the costs to prevent wage losses and redundancies, and the “Fixkostenzuschuss”, a scheme for the partial reimbursement of fixed costs to compensate for sales shortages due to COVID-19. For such rescue measures ESA2010 intends a periodical accounting method. Therefore, the time of recording for the rescue measures is the time the working hours were reduced or the fixed costs incurred, independent of the time the related payment was made. Taking into account that Austria implemented substantial measures to reduce the negative effects of the pandemic starting mid-march, the rescue measures are already included proportionally in the first quarter of 2020. These are recorded as other accounts payable of the central government to entitled beneficiaries. Other accounts payable and government debt are rising further in the second quarter of 2020 due to the public schemes, although 2.9 billion EUR were already handed out for the “Kurzarbeit” scheme. The deferral of taxes and social security payments leads to a rise in other accounts receivable. These numbers are still estimates since the final data is not available yet. The numbers will be updated with the next publication.

Description of result table

The table is structured into the four subsectors (S.1311 Central government, S.1312 State government, S.1313 Local government, S.13414 Social security funds) and the General government.

In the final results of the subsectors, according to the accounting standards of ESA2010, both the asset-and liability side are consolidated. The sum of all subsectors is not identical with the general government sector because in the latter case also the consolidation adjustment between the subsectors is considered.

Furthermore, please take note that the values on the liability side of the general government sector, especially the debt securities, deviate from the public gross debt since the EDP debt level uses nominal values whereas in ESA2010 debt securities are recorded at market value.

Stocks of Financial Assets and Liabilities of General Goverment and Subsectors 2012-2019
Transactions of Financial Assets and Liabilities of General Goverment and Subsectors 2012-2019
Stocks of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the Central Government 2012-2020/Q2
Transactions of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the Central Government 2012-2020/Q2
Stocks of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the State Government 2012-2020/Q2
Transactions of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the State Government 2012-2020/Q2
Stocks of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the Local Government 2012-2020/Q2
Transactions of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the Local Government 2012-2020/Q2
Stocks of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the Social Security Funds 2012-2020/Q2
Transactions of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the Social Security Funds 2012-2020/Q2
Stocks of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the General Government and Subsectors 2012-2020/Q2
Transactions of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the General Government and Subsectors 2012-2020/Q2


Guglgasse 13, A-1110 Vienna 
Tel.: +43 (1) 71128-7070 
Fax: +43 (1) 71128-7728 
info@statistik.gv.at 
Opening hours: Mon - Fri 9.00 am - 4.00 pm