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    Government deficit and debt in the EU-countries

    EMU-debt and EMU-deficit (Government deficit and debt) is the statistical data required for the excessive deficit procedure (EDP) in the Economic and Monetary Union in according to the Maastricht Treaty and Stability- and Growth Pact. The EU-Commission uses the statistics to monitor and examine the development of the budgetary situation and government debt in Denmark in accordance with the Maastricht Treaty convergence criteria. The Compilations are based on the European System of Accounts (ESA2010). However, on some points they differ from ESA2010, e.g. on the valuation of debt, which is at nominal value.

    Statistical presentation

    The compilation of consolidated gross debt at nominal value for general government is sometimes referred to as EMU-debt/government debt. The deficit is sometimes referred to as the EMU-deficit/government deficit. Government deficit and debt in EU covers data on ESA2010 back from 2010, at the moment. Danish Government deficit and debt covers data on ESA2010 back from 2000.

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    Statistical processing

    Main sources are balance sheets and income statements from the central government, regions and municipalities and and social security funds. Frequency of data collection is Semi-annual and quarterly. Because of the number of consistency checks and data confrontations facilitated by the system of accounts. Further more Eurostat/EU-commission assess the quality of EDP-data by a detailed inventory, a clarificationproces after the notifications and by standard dialogue and upstream visits every second year.

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    Relevance

    High.

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    Accuracy and reliability

    The government deficit and debt is based on accounts figures for the whole general government sector that have a very limited degree of inaccuracy.

    The statistical uncertainty is not calculated.

    The overall accuracy is considered to be relatively high.

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    Timeliness and punctuality

    • Debt: End of the quarter and end of the year.
    • Deficit: Current year.

    The statistics are usually published without delay in relation to the scheduled date.

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    Comparability

    Government EMU-debt is to a certain degree comparable with quarterly financial accounts for general government since both statistics are based on the sectors and instruments defined in ESA2010. The primary differences are: Government EMU-debt is based on nominal values, while quarterly financial accounts for General Government are based on market values.

    In a similar way, Government Deficit is comparable with the national accounts compilations of net-lending for General Government in the so called March- and June-versions.

    Difference between the government surplus and the EDP Balance in 2024 and 2025: In its press release of 21 October 2026, Eurostat noted, in relation to Denmark’s EDP (Excessive Deficit Procedure) reporting, that the surplus for 2024 and 2025 is correct, but that total revenue for those years does not correspond to the surplus reported under the EDP framework. Total revenue is not part of the EDP reporting and is instead taken from the compilation of government finances within the national accounts system. The discrepancy (DKK 600 million in 2024 and DKK 700 million in 2025) is due to a correction of overstated central government dividend income in the government finance statistics compiled under the national accounts framework. As a result, the general government balance is overstated by the same amounts compared with the EDP balance reported under the EDP framework. When the government finance statistics and the national accounts are compiled in June 2027, the figures will be revised so that the government surplus and the EDP balance once again correspond. This is in accordance with Statistics Denmark’s revision policy for regular revisions, which is designed to maintain the very close consistency between the government finance statistics and the national accounts. A overview of the difference can be found in Danish here: Udbytteindtægter

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    Accessibility and clarity

    These statistics are published in a Danish press release and in the StatBank under the subject EMU debt and EMU balance.

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