Relevance
Data in
the Quarterly Accounts for General Government news release is an illustration
of the quarterly data of both the non-financial and financial accounts of the
general government sector, as well as the debt and the government guaranteed
debt. General Government Sector (S.13
sector according to the ESA 2010 definitions) is made up of the Central
Government Sector (S.1311) and the Local Government Sector (S.1313). The Central Government Sector includes the
Budgetary Central Government, made up of Government ministries and departments
and the Extra Budgetary Units (EBUs) which are classified as forming part of
this sector.
Data is
provided according to the European Parliament and Council Regulation (EU) No. 549/2013
and is in line with the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010) Manual and the
Manual on Government Deficit and Debt
Methodological
description
Administrative
sources are used to compile government finance statistics. These are the Departmental Accounting System
(DAS) from the Treasury Department, the Financial Data Reporting System (FDRS)
from the Ministry of Finance, and the Treasury’s accruals templates from the
Treasury Department. Other ad-hoc
information is also requested from the Ministry of Finance. Data from
the DAS and FDRS is available on a monthly basis, while the Treasury's accruals
templates are available on a quarterly basis.
Data is then compiled in
accordance with principles set out in ESA 2010 and the Manual on Government
Deficit and Debt. EDP debt is recorded
at nominal value while in the financial accounts the debt instruments are
recorded at market value. Data for
revenue and expenditure are recorded on accruals basis. Revenues from VAT, Income Tax and Social
Security Contributions are recorded using the time-adjusted cash method in
accordance with Council Regulation (EC)
No. 2516/2000. Following a study undertaken by NSO in 2008,
Eurostat approved a time adjustment of t+1 for VAT and t+2 for Income Tax and
Social Security Contributions.
Accuracy
and reliability of data
All
accounts in the corporate chart of accounts (COA) of DAS are coded in
accordance with the requirements of the ESA 2010, and checks with previous
years and with the current economic scenario are undertaken.
Further
checks are conducted by the Public Finance Unit on the Treasury’s accruals
templates. Each quarter any queries
observed are sent to the
Accounting, Methodology and Compliance Unit (AMCU) in respect of changed in
debtors and creditors greater than €1.0 million.
For
any queries or clarifications on the FDRS templates, contact is either made
directly with the particular Extra Budgetary Unit (EBU) or with the Financial
Management and Monitoring Unit (FMMU) at the Budget Office.
Timeliness
and punctuality of data
A news
release on quarterly accounts for general government data is published quarterly
as scheduled in the Advance
Release Calendar. Data is published
in January (with data for Q3 of the preceding year), in April (with data for Q4
of the preceding year), in July (with data for Q1), and in October (with data
for Q2). In April and October, it is
published in conjunction with the ‘General Government Balance and Debt under
the Maastricht Treaty’ news release.
Data is
transmitted to Eurostat three months after the end of the quarter to which the
data refers, at the latest. The deadline
for the transmission of provisional data is 85 days after the end of the reference
quarter. Data found in the news release
conforms to data transmitted to Eurostat every quarter in Table 25 for the
non-financial account, Table 27 for the financial account and Table 28 for the
government debt.
Accessibility
and clarity of data
The
‘Quarterly accounts or general government’ news releases are published on the
NSO’s website.
Data
on quarterly accounts for general government is available also on the NSO’s
statistical database (StatDB).
Coherence
and comparability/consistency of data
Data
are comparable across all European Union member states as harmonised European
rules (ESA 2010, and ESA 2010 Manual on government deficit and debt) are
adopted for compiling the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) data.
Consistency
is ensured within and between the EDP tables and the ESA transmission
programme.
Malta's General
Government data is comparable from 1995 onwards. Prior to year 2008 the unit of measure was
the Maltese Lira (Lm) and the conversion rate to euro used was the fixed rate
of 0.4293.