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 2020 on an annual basis, although annual data for 2020 partly consist of preliminary data. Quarterly data is available from the 1st quarter of 2012 until the 2nd quarter of 2021.

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 prescribes 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 policy 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 in the second quarter of 2020. There is a decrease in liabilities related to the “Kurzarbeit”-scheme in the third quarter of 2020, not least because a further 1.9 billion EUR was paid out to beneficiaries. Payables related to the “Fixkostenzuschuss” and receivables related to the deferral of taxes increase less than in the previous quarter. Receivables related to the deferral of social contributions decline in the third quarter. Loan liabilities as well as debt securities decrease, accompanied by a fall in deposits. In the 4th quarter of 2020 the deferrals of taxes and social contributions decreased, liabilities related to the furlough scheme and the fixed cost subsidy increased. A new COVID-19 related measure introduced in the 4th quarter, the „Umsatzersatz“(turnover substitute) for companies severely affected by the lockdown, leads to an increase of payables. Securities and loans increased again at the end of 2020.

The first quarter of 2021 was still dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic. As in previous quarters the effects of the pandemic are most obvious in the central government sector. An increase in debt securities on the liability side is again partly accompanied by a rise in deposits. Transactions in other payables rose again in the first quarter of 2021. This can be explained by the fact that the liabilities relating to the “Fixkostenzuschuss” increased while liabilities relating to the “Umsatzersatz” decreased. On the asset side, taxes and social contributions were again deferred. At the same time liabilities in relation to past deferrals were settled.

In the second quarter of 2021 effects of the COVID-19 pandemic can still be observed. Like in the periods prior this is mainly the case for the central government sector. For the first time liabilities relating to COVID-19 measures decreased all together. Receivables for taxes and social contributions on the asset side were reduced also, this effect is not visible due to the simultaneous growth of other receivables on the asset side.

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 the General Government and Subsectors 2012-2020
Transactions of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the General Government and Subsectors 2012-2020
Stocks of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the Central Government 2012-2021/Q2
Transactions of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the Central Government 2012-2021/Q2
Stocks of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the State Government 2012-2021/Q2
Transactions of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the State Government 2012-2021/Q2
Stocks of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the Local Government 2012-2021/Q2
Transactions of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the Local Government 2012-2021/Q2
Stocks of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the Social Security Funds 2012-2021/Q2
Transactions of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the Social Security Funds 2012-2021/Q2
Stocks of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the General Government and Subsectors 2012-2021/Q2
Transactions of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the General Government and Subsectors 2012-2021/Q2


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