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Administración Presupuestaria

Functional classification of government expenditure (COFOG)

Standardized Methodological Report

  • 1. Contact
    • 1.1 Contact organization
      • General Intervention by the State Administration
    • 1.2 Contact unit
      • National Accounting Office
    • 1.5 Postal address of contact
      • Mateo Inurria 15, 28036 Madrid
  • 2. Metadata update
    • 2.1 Last metadata validation
      • 26/02/2021
    • 2.2 Latest dissemination of metadata
      • 12/03/2021
    • 2.3 Last updated metadata
      • 30/11/2022
  • 3. Statistical presentation
    • 3.1 Description of data

      • Public administration expenditure by function according to the COFOG classification (revised classification in 1999, developed by the OECD and published by the United Nations) is incorporated in the ESA 2010 Broadcast Programme.

        COFOG classifies the expenditure of the general government sector, and of its sub-sectors, recorded in the operations established in the ESA in accordance with the purpose for which they are used. It is a cross-classification of expenditure operations by economic nature and by function. It is an important tool for analysing public expenditure, particularly useful for international comparisons insofar as administrations perform economic and social functions.

    • 3.2 Classification systems
      • The classification systems used are those set out in the ESA 2010:
      • General government sector, and its subsectors, established in the ESA 2010:
        • S.13 General government
          • S.1311 Central Administration
          • S.1312 Regional administration
          • S.1313 Local government
          • S.1314 Social security funds
      • Economic classification of expenditure operations set out in the ESA 2010:
        • D.1 Remuneration of employees
        • P.2 Intermediate consumption
        • D.29 Other taxes on production
        • D.3 Grants
        • D.4 Property income
        • D.51 Income taxes
        • D.62 Social benefits other than social transfers in kind
        • D.632 Social transfers in kind: production purchased on the market
        • D.7 Other current transfers
        • P.5 Gross capital formation
        • NP Acquisitions less disposals of non-produced assets
        • D.9 Capital transfers, payable
      • United Nations COFOG classification. It has three classification levels: divisions, groups and classes. The divisions, which in turn are divided into groups, are as follows:
        • 01 - General public services
        • 02 - Defence
        • 03. General public services
        • 04. Economic affairs
        • 05 - Environmental protection
        • 06. Housing and community services
        • 07. Health
        • 08 - Leisure, culture and religion
        • 09 - Education
        • 10. Social protection
    • 3.3 Sector coverage
      • The information covers the general government sector. The ESA 2010 defines this sector as the set of institutional units which are non-market producers whose production is intended for individual or collective consumption, which are financed by compulsory payments made by units belonging to other sectors and which carry out redistribution operations of national income and wealth.
    • 3.4 Statistical concepts and definitions
      • The concepts and definitions relating to economic operations are set out in the ESA 2010
    • 3.5 Statistical unit

      • The statistical unit is the institutional unit as defined in the ESA 2010. In this operation, the institutional units classified in the general government sector and their subsectors are considered.

        The examples cited by the SEC as institutional units in sector S.13 are as follows:

        (a) Public administration units legally established to exercise a judicial authority over other units in the economic territory, and manage and finance a number of activities, mainly by providing non-market goods and services to the community;

        (b) an institution or quasi-corporation of public administrations, if its production is mainly non-market and is controlled by a unit of public administrations;

        (c) Non-profit institutions with legal personality that are non-market producers and controlled by public administrations;

        (d) Self-employed pension funds, where they have a statutory contribution obligation, and where the public administrations manage the funds with regard to the setting and approval of contributions and benefits.

    • 3.6 Statistical population
      • The target population is the general government sector and its subsectors.
    • 3.7 Geographical scope
      • National.
    • 3.8 Temporary coverage
      • The series covers the period 1995-2021.
    • 3.9 Base period
      • Not applicable.
  • 4. Unit of measurement
    • 4.1 Unit of measurement
      • The data is measured in millions of euros.
  • 5. Reference period
    • 5.1 Reference period
      • The reference period is the calendar year.
  • 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 Act 12/1989 of 9 May on the Public Statistical Function (LFEP) and Additional Provision Four of Act 4/1990 of 29 June. The LFEP establishes that the National Statistical Plan is the main instrument of statistical activity of the State Administration and contains the statistics to be produced 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 and mandatory completion purposes. This operation is a statistic for state purposes and is included in the National Statistical Plan 2021-2024.

        Article 125.2 (g) of Law 47/2003 of 26 November, General Budget (GSP): The General Intervention of the State Administration is the centre of public accounting, which is responsible for drawing up the national accounts of the units that make up the public administration sector, in accordance with the criteria of institutional delimitation and imputation of operations 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 necessary collaboration and information for the preparation of the public sector economic accounts and any information, within the scope of the national accounts of public units, shall be determined by internal and Community rules.

        The preparation and transmission of general government expenditure by function is laid down in Annex B to Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on the European System of National and Regional Accounts of the European Union.

    • 6.2 Data sharing
      • The exchange of data between the statistical services of the State (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 by the LFEP. The LFEP also establishes statistical coordination mechanisms between administrations, as well as the conclusion of cooperation agreements where this is deemed appropriate.
  • 7. Confidentiality
    • 7.1 Confidentiality policy

      • Law 12/1989 of 9 May on the Public Statistical Function obliges IGAE as a statistical service not to disseminate personal data of any origin. It is understood that personal data relate to natural or legal persons who either allow the immediate identification of the data subjects, or lead by their structure, content or degree of disaggregation to the indirect identification of the data subjects.

        Similarly, Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics sets out the need to establish common principles and guidelines to ensure the confidentiality of data used to produce European statistics and access to such confidential data, taking into account technical progress and users' needs in a democratic society.

    • 7.2 Processing of confidential data

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

        In addition, it should be noted that the Functional Classification of Government Expenditure is a summary statistic in which personal data, in this case concerning legal persons, used are presented in sectors or subsectors of public administrations, which prevents the identification of information associated with individual units.

  • 8. Dissemination policy
    • 8.1 Dissemination schedule
      • The calendar of dates for the dissemination of statistics is published in January on the IGAE website.
    • 8.2 Access to the dissemination calendar

      • The link to the publications calendar is as follows:

        https://www.igae.pap.hacienda.gob.es/sitios/igae/es-ES/Contabilidad/ContabilidadNacional/Documents/Calendario_2021.pdf
    • 8.3 Access to the user

      • The dissemination of this statistic is the same for all users at the time of its publication.

        However, the data collected in the Functional Classification of Government Expenditure are provided prior to its publication, however, to the National Statistical Institute for the incorporation of this information in the Annual National Accounts of Spain and to Eurostat for validation.

  • 9. Frequency of dissemination
    • 9.1 Frequency of dissemination
      • Annual.
  • 10. Accessibility and clarity
    • 10.1 Communiqués
      • Not applicable.
    • 10.2 Publications
    • 10.3 On-line databases

      • The link in the on-line database of these data is as follows:

        - Functional classification of expenditure in the general government sector and its subsectors:

        https://www.igae.pap.hacienda.gob.es/sitios/igae/es-ES/Contabilidad/ContabilidadNacional/Publicaciones/Paginas/iacogofseries.aspx

        - Functional classification of expenditure in the regional administration subsector. Detail by autonomous community:

        https://www.igae.pap.hacienda.gob.es/sitios/igae/es-ES/Contabilidad/ContabilidadNacional/Publicaciones/Paginas/iacofogCA.aspx

    • 10.4 Access to microdata
      • Not applicable.
    • 10.6 Documentation on methodology
    • 10.7 Quality documentation
      • In accordance with Council Regulation 479/2009 on the application of the Protocol on the excessive deficit procedure annexed to the Treaty establishing the European Community, the Commission (Eurostat) is to report regularly to the European Parliament and to the Council on the quality of the actual data reported by the Member States. The annual reports provide an overall assessment of timeliness, reliability, integrity, compliance with accounting standards and data consistency.
  • 11. Quality management
    • 11.1 Quality assurance
      • Code of Good Practice for European Statistics.
    • 11.2 Quality assessment

      • On an annual basis, when transmitting this information under the ESA 2010 Transmissions Programme, Eurostat assesses the consistency, consistency and feasibility of the data transmitted. In this process, clarifications are referred to the evolution of the data when required.

        Eurostat in its Dialogue Visits to Member States reviews data from public finance statistics.

  • 12. Relevance
    • 12.1 User requirements
      • In general, the main users of this statistic are institutional analysts on certain purposes of public expenditure, trends and comparisons between countries (ECOFIN and various Commission services, OECD, etc.). ).
    • 12.2 User satisfaction
      • Not available.
    • 12.3 Completeness

      • This operation complies with the mandatory requirements laid down in the ESA 2010 Broadcasting Programme (classification of expenditure by divisions for all subsectors and by groups for the total public administration sector) and volunteers (classification of expenditure by COFOG groups for all subsectors).

        In addition, the classification of expenditure by COFOG divisions by autonomous community is published.

  • 13. Accuracy and reliability
    • 13.1 Global acuracity
      • Not applicable.
    • 13.2 Sampling errors
      • Not applicable.
    • 13.3 Non-sampling errors
      • Not applicable.
  • 14. Timeliness and timeliness
    • 14.1 Opportunity
      • The mandatory transmission of this transaction is t+12 months after the reference year. In t+12 the information for year t is provisional. In t+24 the data are final.
    • 14.2 Timeliness
      • IGAE publishes this statistic on the date set in the calendar, approximately one month before the deadline set in the Transmissions Programme.
  • 15. Consistency and comparability
    • 15.1 Geographical comparability
      • The geographical comparability of this statistic is with other countries. Economic transactions are recorded according to the ESA 2010 which ensures a high degree of comparability.
    • 15.2 Temporal comparability
      • The series of this statistic is comparable over time, since the ESA 2010, and in particular the Transmissions Programme of this Regulation, requires homogeneity since 1995 (detail by COFOG groups by subsectors has been mandatory since 2001, although in Spain they have been published since 1995).
    • 15.3 Coherence - cross-sector
      • The economic operations data collected in this statistic are consistent with those recorded in all public finance and EDP statistics.
    • 15.4 Coherence - internal
      • She is currently insured.
  • 16. Costs and charges
    • 16.1 Costs and charges
      • The costs associated with the production of this statistic are estimated at EUR 166,00 000, provided for in the budget of the Ministry of Finance.
  • 17. Data review
    • 17.1 Data review - Policy
      • The general policy of reviewing data relating to the Public Finance Statistics of the IGAE is to review published data for year t until the last quarter of year t+2, when the data incorporated in the statistical information are final.
    • 17.2 Data review - Practice
      • In this statistical operation, the data for year t, published in t+12 months, are provisional. Those published in t+24 are final.
  • 18. Statistical treatment
    • 18.1 Origin data

      • The sources of information used for the development of this statistical operation are administrative data and economic and financial information of public enterprises classified in the public administration sector.

        The information covers the total number of units classified in the general government sector as defined in the European System of National and Regional Accounts (ESA 2010). In particular, the source data used are the accounting and budgetary information of the State and Social Security; standardised questionnaires concerning budgetary information and accounting and extrabudgetary information of each autonomous and local administration; accounting statements (balance sheets and profit and loss accounts) of units not subject to the budget but included in the public administration sector (S.13); and the General Account of each administration, including all budgetary information and accounting.

    • 18.2 Frequency of data collection
      • Annual.
    • 18.3 Data collection
      • Administrative data relating to the State are centralised in the Accounting Information System (SIC) and Social Security in the Social Security Accounting Information System (SICOSS). For the other units that are included in the state public sector (state public sector and foundations), economic and financial information is available in the application CICEP.red which includes annual accounts, audit report, interim financial statements, etc. The economic and financial information required for this statistical operation completed by the Autonomous Communities is collected from the Autonomous Communities Information Centre (CIMCA) and from Local Corporations in SICEL (Accounting Information System of Local Entities). Finally, the General Account of each administration is available, including all budgetary and accounting information made during the financial year.
    • 18.4 Data validation
      • The validation process consists of arithmetic verifications and consistency with the general government sector information provided in the framework of Public Finance Statistics.
    • 18.5 Compilation of data

      • The work to be carried out for the development of this statistical operation varies according to two types of units, those subject to a restrictive budget and public accounting, and those subject to the General Business Accounting Plan (private). In the first group, the allocation of the expenditure of these units to the different COFOG groups is based on the development of the expenditure operations in accordance with the methodology established in the ESA, based on the economic classification of the expenditure budget. The functional and programme structure of the budget indicates the objectives and objectives to be achieved with the budgetary resources allocated to the expenditure management centres. The expenditure programmes of the Budget Liquidations are analysed individually in order to ascertain their purpose, for allocation to the relevant COFOG group.

        In the case of units subject to the General Business Accounting Plan, the functional classification is carried out on the basis of their main activity, as defined in their statutes and memoirs. However, in units carrying out several clearly differentiated activities (e.g. in the case of public enterprises promoting public infrastructure both in education and in transport), the allocation of expenditure to different COFOG groups is carried out as deducted from the information contained in the reports.

        Finally, the unit of counterpart of expenditure in interest transactions, current transfers and capital transfers is analysed, so that in sector S.13 each transaction is the sum of the data for each subsector, except for those transactions that are consolidated between subsectors.

    • 18.6 Adjustment
      • No adjustments are made.
  • 19. Comments
    • 19.1 Comments