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Administración Presupuestaria

Indicators set out in Directive 2011/85/EU

Standardised Methodological Report

  • 1. Contact
    • 1.1 Contact organisation
      • General Comptroller of the State Administration
    • 1.2 Contact unit
      • National Accounting Office
    • 1.5 Contact postal address
      • Mateo Inurria 15, 28036 Madrid
  • 2. Updating metadata
    • 2.1 Last metadata validation
      • 23/02/2021
    • 2.2 Latest metadata dissemination
      • 12/03/2021
    • 2.3 Last metadata update
      • 23/02/2021
  • 3. Statistical presentation
    • 3.1 Description of data
      • In November 2011, the European Parliament and the Council adopted a package of measures for strengthened economic governance (the so-called 'six-pack'). In particular, Council Directive 2011/85/EU of 8 November 2011 on requirements for budgetary frameworks of the Member States requires due attention to be paid to the existence of contingent liabilities as they involve possible obligations in the case of an uncertain future event, or involve obligations where payment is not probable or the amount of probable payment cannot be reliably quantified.
      • In the interests of transparency of public finances and within the overall scope of the budgetary frameworks, the implementation of this Directive requires Member States to publish, for all sub-sectors of General Government, contingent liabilities that may have a significant impact on public budgets, in particular government guarantees, non-performing loans and liabilities of public corporations indicating their size. In addition, they should provide information on the shareholdings of General Governments in the capital of private and public corporations in the case of economically significant sums. Thus, in compliance with this Directive, the IGAE publishes the following indicators:
      • - Guarantees granted by General Governments.
      • - Unpaid liabilities related to Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) where the assets are not recorded on the General Government balance sheet.
      • - Doubtful loans granted by General Government.
      • - Liabilities of public units classified outside the sector.
      • - Public participation in the capital of units not classified in the General Government sector.
    • 3.2 Classification systems
      • The classifications used are those set out in the European System of Accounts (ESA 2020). In particular, the General Government sector should be understood as that defined by the ESA 2010, and corporations should be understood to mean institutional units classified in certain sectors of the economy, depending on the type of producer in question and according to their main function, or in the rest of the world if the entity is not resident in the Spanish economy:
        • S.13 Public administrations
          • S.1311 Central government
          • S.1312 Regional government
          • S.1313 Local government
          • S.1314 Social security funds
      • Sectors in which corporations can be classified:
        • S.11 non-financial corporations
        • S.12 financial institutions
        • S.2 rest of the world
    • 3.3 Coverage by sector
      • The information covers the General Government sector. It is covered is by sub-sector, except for participation in public and private enterprises.
    • 3.4 Statistical concepts and definitions
      • Article 14(3) of Directive 2011/85/EU requires individual Member States to publish, for all sub-sectors of General Government, contingent liabilities that may have a significant impact on public budgets, citing in particular some of these contingent liabilities. However, in order to contribute to this process, Eurostat organised a working group with the Member States, Task Force on the implications of the Directive on the collection and dissemination of fiscal data, whose results on information to be produced and published are set out in the Eurostat Decision of 22 July 2013 Supplement on contingent liabilities and potential obligations to the EDP related questionnaire
    • 3.5 Statistical unit
      • The statistical unit is the institutional unit as defined in the ESA 2010. This operation considers the institutional units classified in the General Government sector and its sub-sectors.
    • 3.6 Statistical population
      • For government guarantees, public-private partnerships and doubtful loans, the population is the units of the General Government sector and its sub-sectors.
      • For the liabilities of government units classified outside S.13, the population consists of the units controlled by the General Government sector classified in the other sectors.
    • 3.7 Geographical scope
      • National.
    • 3.8 Temporary coverage
      • For guarantees, public-private partnerships and doubtful loans, the data cover a four-year period (T-1, T-2, T-3 and T-4)
      • In the case of liabilities of public corporations and public equity, the information refers to T-1.
    • 3.9 Base period
      • Not applicable
  • 4. Unit of measurement
    • 4.1 Unit of measurement
      • Data are measured in millions of euros, except for public shareholdings in companies, which are measured as a percentage of GDP.
  • 5. Reference period
    • 5.1 Reference period
      • The reference period is annual.
  • 6. Institutional mandate
    • 6.1 Legal acts and other agreements

      • The collection, processing and dissemination of data from statistical operations for state purposes is governed by the provisions of Law 12/1989, of 9 May, on the Public Statistical Function (LFEP), and in the Fourth Additional Provision of Law 4/1990, of 29 June. The LFEP establishes that the National Statistical Plan is the main instrument for organising the statistical activity of the State Administration and contains the statistics to be compiled in the four-year period by the services of the State Administration or any other entities dependent on it. All statistics included in the National Statistical Plan are statistics for state purposes and are compulsory. This operation is a statistic for state purposes and is included in the National Statistical Plan 2021-2024.

        Article 125(2)(g) of the General Budgetary Law 47/2003 of 26 November 2003, states: The General Comptroller of the State Administration is the public accounting management centre, which is responsible for drawing up the national accounts of the units that make up the General Government sector, in accordance with the criteria for institutional delimitation and allocation of transactions established in the European System of National and Regional Accounts. In addition, Article 133 states: For the purposes of Article 125(2)(g), (h) and (i), public units shall be obliged to provide the cooperation and information necessary for the compilation of the economic accounts of the public sector and any other information in the field of the national accounts of public units which is laid down by internal and Community legislation.

        Order HAP/2105/2012, of 1 October, which implements the reporting obligations set out in Organic Law 2/2012, of 27 April, on Budgetary Stability and Financial Sustainability.

        Article 14(3) of Directive 2011/85/EU makes it mandatory for Member States to publish the information submitted in this operation.
    • 6.2 Data sharing
      • Data exchanges between State statistical services (INE, ministerial departments, autonomous bodies and public entities of the State Administration), as well as between these and the statistical services of the Autonomous Communities for the development of the statistics entrusted to them, are regulated in the LFEP. The LFEP also establishes the mechanisms for statistical coordination between administrations, as well as the conclusion of cooperation agreements when deemed appropriate.
  • 7. Confidentiality
    • 7.1 Confidentiality policy

      • Law 12/1989 of 9 May 1989 on the Public Statistical Function obliges the IGAE as a statistical service not to disseminate personal data under any circumstances, regardless of their origin. Personal data are understood to be those relating to natural or legal persons that either allow the immediate identification of the data subjects, or lead by their structure, content or degree of disaggregation to their indirect identification.

        Similarly, Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics provides for the need to establish common principles and guidelines to ensure the confidentiality of the data used to produce European statistics and access to these confidential data, taking into account technical progress and user needs in a democratic society.
    • 7.2 Processing of confidential data

      • The data is treated confidentially during the collection and validation process until publication.

        Furthermore, it should be noted that the Indicators established in Directive 2011/85/EU are summary statistics in which the personal data, in this case referring to legal persons, used are presented aggregated in sectors or sub-sectors of the national economy, a fact that prevents the identification of the information associated with individual units.
  • 8. Dissemination policy
    • 8.1 Dissemination calendar

      • The calendar of dissemination dates of the statistics is published in January on the IGAE website.

        In particular, the tables on guarantees, public-private partnerships and doubtful loans are published before the end of October and the total set of tables before the end of December.
    • 8.2 Access to the dissemination calendar
    • 8.3 User access
      • The dissemination of these indicators is the same for all users at the time of publication.
  • 9. Frequency of dissemination
    • 9.1 Frequency of dissemination
      • Annual.
  • 10. Accessibility and clarity
  • 11. Quality management
    • 11.1 Quality assurance
      • These indicators are the aggregated result of individual information from the units that make up the General Government sector. Internal consistency is ensured. The validation process consists of numerical checks and consistency with the information on the general government sector provided in the framework of Government Finance Statistics.
    • 11.2 Quality assessment
      • Not applicable.
  • 12. Relevance
    • 12.1 User needs

      • The main users are the European Commission (in the framework of the Stability and Growth Pact: ECFIN, FISMA), the Council, the European Parliament, politicians, researchers, etc.

        Given that the objective of Directive 2011/85/EU is the uniform enforcement of budgetary discipline as required by the TFEU, the reporting of contingent liabilities and doubtful loans that could potentially have a significant impact on public budgets is an important step towards the transparency of public finances. These indicators contribute to providing a more complete picture of the financial position of Member States.
    • 12.2 User satisfaction
      • Not available.
    • 12.3 Completeness
      • Information is published for all indicators and in accordance with the methodology set out in the Eurostat Decision of 22 July 2013 However, the public equity of units outside the General Government sector is published only for public units. Participation in private units is not available.
  • 13. Accuracy and reliability
    • 13.1 Overall accuracy
      • Indicators established in Directive 2011/85/EU is a summary operation that is compiled with information from all units classified in the General Government sector. The data is associated with a high level of overall accuracy.
    • 13.2 Sampling errors
      • Not applicable.
    • 13.3 Non-sampling errors
      • Not applicable.
  • 14. Timeliness and punctuality
    • 14.1 Timeliness
      • With regard to the information on guarantees, public-private partnerships and doubtful loans published in October of year T, the data refer to T-1, T-2, T-3 and T-4. Information on liabilities of public units classified outside S.13 and public equity of units not classified in S.13 published in December of year T refers to T-1.
    • 14.2 Punctuality
      • The dates set for the publication of this information are complied with on a regular basis.
  • 15. Consistency and Comparability
    • 15.1 Geographical comparability
      • The data are specific to each member country. With regard to comparability, a number of nuances need to be taken into account. In some cases, e.g. coverage is not exhaustive, liabilities of public corporations do not cover the same items or information on liabilities of public units classified outside S.13 may refer to T-1 or T-2 depending on the availability of information. These factors have to be taken into account when comparing the information provided by these indicators.
    • 15.2 Comparability over time
      • The data presented in the publication are homogeneous.
    • 15.3 Coherence - cross sectoral
      • Cross-checks are carried out with the EDP Notification made before 1 October and the financial accounts of the General Government.
    • 15.4 Coherence - internal
      • It is currently insured.
  • 16. Costs and burdens
    • 16.1 Costs and burdens
      • The costs associated with the production of these statistics are estimated at 252,000 euros, foreseen in the Budget of the Ministry of Finance.
  • 17. Data review
    • 17.1 Data review - Policy
      • The general data revision policy for the IGAE's Government Finance Statistics is to revise the data published for year t until the last quarter of year t+2, the year in which the data incorporated in the statistical information becomes final.
    • 17.2 Data review - Practice
      • In the case of guarantees, public-private partnerships and impaired loans, in year t the data for the last three years published in the previous year are revised, if appropriate, and the data for year T-1 are incorporated.
  • 18. Statistical processing
    • 18.1 Source data

      • The information sources used for the preparation of these indicators are administrative data, economic-financial information from public enterprises and PPP contracts.

        The information covers the total number of units classified in the public sector as defined in the European System of National and Regional Accounts (ESA 2010).
    • 18.2 Frequency of data collection
      • Once a year.
    • 18.3 Data collection

      • The National Accounting Office has a file (in database format) with the sectorisation in national accounting terms of the entire public sector. This information is publicly available through the Inventory of Public Sector Entities (INVENTE) platform.

        This INVENTE application publishes for each unit controlled by the government sector, the controlling government and the units classified in the General Government sector (S.13) in terms of national accounts (ESA 2010).

        Administrative data relating to the State are centralised in the Accounting Information System (SIC). For the rest of the units included in the state public sector (state public sector and foundations), the economic-financial information is available in the CICEP.red application, which includes the annual accounts, audit report, interim financial statements, etc.

        Economic-financial information completed by the Autonomous Communities is collected in the Autonomous Communities' Information Centre (CIMCA). Information relating to Local Corporations is available in SICEL (Sistema de Información Contable de Entidades Locales).

        Data on guarantees granted by the regional government and local government sub-sectors are compiled by the Bank of Spain.
    • 18.4 Data validation
      • The validation process consists of numerical checks and consistency with the information on the general government sector provided in the framework of Government Finance Statistics.
    • 18.5 Data compilation

      • The data on guarantees, PPPs' outstanding liabilities and doubtful loans are compiled on the basis of the use of the applications mentioned in section 18.3 in the corresponding years.

        To compile the rest of the information, it is first of all necessary to determine the set of public units that were not classified in the General Government sector on 31 December of the previous year. This set is derived from the INVENTE. Subsequently, they are assigned the debt corresponding to these units (information provided by the Bank of Spain), the own funds and the participation of the General Governments with the economic-financial information of these units. By filtering out units exceeding the levels of debt-to-GDP and public share of GDP set in the Eurostat Decision, information is compiled on the liability tables of public units classified outside the General Government sector and the public share of units outside the General Government sector.
    • 18.6 Adjustment
      • No adjustments are made.
  • 19. Remarks
    • 19.1 Remarks