Report on the Financial Accounts Database: Available Statistical Information and Selected

STD/NAES/FA(2003)1

REPORT ON THE FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS DATABASE: AVAILABLE STATISTICAL INFORMATION AND SELECTED TABLES AND GRAPHS

This paper offers delegates to the Working Party on Financial Statistics a presentation of the statistical database on financial accounts, which has recently been revised and which already covers a large number of countries. A few tables and graphs have been selected to demonstrate the relevance of the statistics and their possible uses. They represent a sample of what could become a new publication of the "National Accounts of OECD Countries", once data in sufficient quality and quantity are provided to the Secretariat by all OECD member countries.

The main purposes of this document are:

-To inform delegates of changes in the financial accounts database and publication plans, and to invite them to take note of progress to date.

-To allow delegates to exchange views on follow-up to this work.

-In particular, to seek delegates’ opinions on the most relevant financial accounts indicators that the OECD might publish, as part of the work on the new volume for the "National Accounts of OECD Countries".

INTRODUCTION

1.Following the significant restructuring that took place within the OECD at the end of 2002, a new team was created in January 2003 within the OECD Statistics Directorate, with responsibility for financial statistics, and in particular for financial accounts.

2.One of the chief tasks of this new team has been to revise the database on financial accounts in the context of the national accounts. This work consisted of:

Assessing the current status, i.e. compiling a list of certain kinds of information received from a very limited number of countries on financial transactions, on the revaluation accounts and on the balance sheet of assets and liabilities (stocks) through the annual national accounts questionnaire.
Sending out the questionnaire to OECD countries to collect financial accounts statistics for all members.
Updating the database, using either the new statistics received through the questionnaire, or Eurostat's New Cronos database.
Presenting a preliminary report to the Working Party on Financial Statistics at its October 2003 meeting

THE DATABASE ON FINANCIAL STATISTICS

3.In 1998, the Directorate for Financial, Fiscal and Enterprise Affairs suspended publication of the "Financial Accounts of OECD Countries". That publication series, issued in the form of individual country pamphlets, presented comprehensive information, over a long period and in great detail, on financial transactions and stocks, by institutional sector and by type of financial instrument.

4.Although the international comparability of financial statistics is limited to some extent by definitional differences in instruments and institutional sectors, the information was useful for analysing the structure and trends of financial systems in OECD countries.

5.Reinstating the collection of information on financial accounts and balance sheets through the OECD/Eurostat questionnaire, based on the UN System of National Accounts (SNA 93), has been one of the priorities of the new team that was created within the Statistics Directorate in January 2003.

Description of the new database

6.The financial accounts questionnaires, which are generally handled by the central banks of member countries or by their statistics institutes, contain the following tables:

Financial accounts by sector (transactions), consolidated
Financial accounts by sector (transactions), non-consolidated
Revaluation account, consolidated
Revaluation account, non-consolidated
Balance sheet for financial assets and liabilities (stocks), consolidated
Balance sheet for financial assets and liabilities (stocks), non-consolidated

7.The Secretariat has developed tables 601 and 602 and tables 701 and 702. Tables 603 and 604, which show changes in volume and adjustments and changes due to the revaluation of accounts, have been left aside for the time being. Consequently, the database on financial statistics contains primarily information on financial transactions and on financial stocks held at the end of the period by different economic agents.

8.The economic sectors covered correspond to institutional sectors as defined in the System of National Accounts (SNA 93) and are identical to the sectors that were covered by the "Financial Accounts of OECD Countries" series. They include:

Non-financial corporations, totalS.11
Financial corporationsS.12 and its sub sectors
Central BankS.121
Other monetary financial institutionsS.122
Other financial intermediariesS.123
Financial auxiliariesS.124
Insurance corporations and pension fundsS.125
General governmentS.13 and its sub sectors
Central governmentS.1311
State governmentS.1312
Local governmentS.1313
Social security fundsS.1314
Households and Non-profit institutions serving householdsS.14+S.15

Rest of the worldS.2 and its sub sectors
European UnionS.21
Members of the EMUS.2111
Others (not EU)S.22

9.The financial instruments selected for compiling the tables correspond to the classification of financial assets and liabilities as defined by the System of National Accounts (SNA 93). They are more detailed than those with that were used in the "Financial Accounts of OECD Countries" series (which numbered 11). They include seven major instruments, which themselves are subdivided into sub instruments:

Monetary gold and SDRsF.1
Currency and depositsF.2

CurrencyF.21
Transferable depositsF.22
Other depositsF.29

Securities other than sharesF.3

Securities other than shares, excluding financial derivativesF.33
Short-termF.331
Long-termF.332
Financial derivativesF34

LoansF.4

Short-termF.41
Long-termF.42

Shares and other equityF.5

Shares and other equity, excluding mutual funds sharesF.51
Quoted sharesF.511
Unquoted sharesF.512
Other equityF.513
Mutual funds sharesF.52

Insurance technical reservesF.6

Net equity of households in life ins. & pension funds reservesF.61
Net equity of households in life insurance reservesF.611
Net equity of households in pension funds reservesF.612
Prepay. of ins. premiums and reserves for outstanding claimsF.62

Other accounts receivable/payableF.7

Trade credits and advancesF.71
OtherF79

Technical features of the database

10.The financial accounts are part of the national accounts and are consequently stored in the OECD's "SNA" database, which has a number of functionalities: several interfaces and mechanisms have been developed to allow for manipulations and the import of data up to the time of publication. The bulk of the information contained in this database is available to outside users (see below).

Import of raw data

11.Country responses, which generally come from central banks or national statistics institutes, are presented primarily in three formats: Excel files, Gesmes files or Gesmes/CB files, the latter two being used by countries of the European Union and by some of the EU candidate countries.

12.Apart from some formatting problems that require manual intervention, the files must be transformed in certain ways and a table of correspondence for the series codes of each country has to be produced before the data can be processed automatically and integrated into the database.

13.However, a specific interface has been provided so that data published by Eurostat in NewCronos can be extracted and then store. In this way the OECD database can be updated directly with data that are published by NewCronos, data which have consequently already been verified, and their quality assured by Eurostat. The purpose of this updating is to avoid double data collection from European countries and to allow the OECD to focus on collecting data from non-European countries.

Control and storage of raw data

14.During the various manipulations, the most important phase for guaranteeing the quality of the information stored in the database is, of course, the verification of data submitted by the countries: tests are used to detect any errors or anomalies, which countries are then asked to explain or correct.

15.There are several types of controls, including verification of sector aggregates and instrument aggregates reported in the tables. This verification, which is possible only if all the detailed information requested in the questionnaire is submitted to the OECD, and only for the non-consolidated tables, ensures greater consistency in the data supplied by countries.

Release of financial accounts to internal and external users

16.While the financial data stored in the SNA database are accessible to all OECD officers, this is not yet the case for external users. Tables 601 to 702 will be available electronically in the various versions proposed by the OECD as soon as possible.

17.It is planned to publish the financial accounts of OECD countries in a new volume of the "National Accounts of OECD Countries". The data will also be published electronically in a format (of the Beyond 20/20 type) that allows for easy manipulation of the variables. As well, a subset of the published data will be accessible free of charge over the OECD Internet site.

18.The second part of this paper contains selected information on the financial accounts of OECD member countries drawn from statistics available in the database, together with indicators that have been constructed on the basis of the financial accounts and aggregates taken from the national accounts database.

An inventory of information available in the database

19.The financial accounts database already contains a great volume of consistent data for 24 OECD member countries. However, not all the tables are as yet systematically available: in particular, while most European Union members supply financial accounts tables (601 and 602) and the financial balance sheet tables (701 and 702) at once, in both consolidated and non-consolidated form (except for the United Kingdom, which provides only the non-consolidated tables 602 and 702), this is not yet the case for Japan and the Czech Republic, from which the OECD receives only the non-consolidated tables (602 and 702); Canada, the United States and the Slovak Republic, for which only the consolidated tables (601 and 701) are provided; and Mexico, which sends only the consolidated tables 601. (See table 1 below).

20.The revaluation tables (603 and 604) have deliberately not been updated in the database, partly because their complexity of format would have added greatly to the workload, and partly because of developments underway in Eurostat with the revision of the tables (see below) and the subsequent amendments that this would entail. Moreover, these accounts are not available for all OECD countries.

21.The following tables[1] show the current status of the financial accounts database:

Table 1: Years for which data are available by country.
Table 2: Financial instruments by country.
Table 3: Institutional sectors and subsectors by country.

The OECD has received no information on financial accounts by sector (transactions) or on the financial balance sheets (stocks) from the following two groups of countries: Greece, Ireland and Luxembourg, which have a derogation from Eurostat until 2005, and Iceland, New Zealand, Switzerland and Turkey.

22.The tables show that some countries provide data broken down by subsectors and/or by sub-instruments, but they do not provide aggregate data; on the other hand, some countries provide only aggregate data, which cannot be broken down by subsectors and/or sub-instruments.

23.Moreover, while most countries provide consolidated and non-consolidated tables, the fact remains that the methods of consolidating the financial accounts may differ from one country to the next, with the attendant problems of data comparability. These issues of methodology are covered in a separate paper (STD/NAES/FA(2003)2) which will be discussed under the same agenda item at the WPFS meeting.

24.With respect to tables 603 and 604, the years are indicated in italics in table 1 to signify that the information shown does not necessarily reflect the precise availability of the data, and that even if they are available and have been submitted to the OECD they are not stored in the database. In particular, for European countries for which data have been extracted from the NewCronos database, tables 603 and 604 have been systematically excluded from the extraction, because they are to be modified next year.

STD/NAES/FA(2003)1

Table 1. Availability of financial accounts by country

Tables
Country / 601
Financial accounts by sector (transactions)
consolidated / 602
Financial accounts by sector (transactions)
non consolidated / 603
Revaluation
Accounts
consolidated / 604
Revaluation
Accounts
Non consolidated / 701
Balance sheet for financial assets and liabilities (stocks)
consolidated / 702
Balance sheet for financial assets and liabilities (stocks)
non consolidated
AUS / 1988-2002 / 1988-2002 / 1987-2002
AUT / 1995-2001 / 1995-2001 / 1995-2001 / 1995-2001
BEL / 1995-2002 / 1995-2002 / 1994-2002 / 1994-2002
CAN / 1970-2002 / 1970-2002
CHE
CZE / 1994-2000 / 1994-2000 / 1994-2000
DEU / 1991-2001 / 1991-2001 / 1991-2001 / 1991-2001
DNK / 1995-2001 / 1995-2001 / 1995-2000 / 1995-2000 / 1995-2001 / 1995-2001
ESP / 1990-2002 / 1990-2002 / 1990-2002 / 1990-2002
FIN / 1995-2001 / 1995-2001 / 1995-2001 / 1995-2001
FRA / 1994-2002 / 1994-2002 / 1995-2002 / 1995-2002 / 1994-2002 / 1994-2002
GBR / 1987-2002 / 1987-2002
GRC
HUN / 1998-2002 / 1998-2002 / 1997-2002 / 1997-2002
IRL
ISL
ITA / 1995-2001 / 1995-2001 / 1995-2001 / 1995-2001
JPN / 1990-2001 / 1990-2001 / 1990-2001
KOR / 1970-2002 / 1970-2002 / 1970-2002 / 1970-2002
LUX
MEX / 1993-2000
NLD / 1999-2001 / 1990-2001 / 1999-2001 / 1990-2001 / 1999-2001 / 1990-2001
NOR / 1995-2001 / 1995-2001 / 1996-2001 / 1996-2001 / 1995-2001 / 1995-2001
NZL
POL / 1995-1997; 2000 / 1998-2000 / 2000 / 1998-2000 / 1995-1997; 2000 2000 / 1998-2000
PRT / 1995-2001 / 1995-2001 / 1995-2001 / 1995-2001
SVK / 1996-1999 / 1999 / 1998-1999
SWE / 1995-2002 / 1995-2002 / 1995-2002 / 1995-2002
TUR
USA / 1990-2002 / 1990-2002

STD/NAES/FA(2003)1

Table 2. Availability of financial accounts by financial instrument

AUS / AUT / BEL / CAN / CHE / CZE / DEU / DNK / ESP / FIN / FRA / GBR / GRC / HUN / IRL / ISL / ITA / JPN / KOR / LUX / MEX / NLD / NOR / NZL / POL / PRT / SVK / SWE / TUR / USA
F1 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F2 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F21 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F22 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F29 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F3 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F33 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F331 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F332 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F34 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F4 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F41 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F42 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F5 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F51 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F511 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F512 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F513 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F52 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F6 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F61 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F611 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F612 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F62 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F7 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F71 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
F79 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺

STD/NAES/FA(2003)1

Table 3. Availability of financial accounts by institutional sector

AUS / AUT / BEL / CAN / CHE / CZE / DEU / DNK / ESP / FIN / FRA / GBR / GRC / HUN / IRL / ISL / ITA / JPN / KOR / LUX / MEX / NLD / NOR / NZL / POL / PRT / SVK / SWE / TUR / USA
S1 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
S11 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
S12 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
S121-122 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
S121 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
S122 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
S123 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
S124 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
S125 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
S13 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
S1311-1312 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
S1311 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
S1312 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
S1313 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
S1314 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
S14-15 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
S2 / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺ / ☺
S21
S211
S22

STD/NAES/FA(2003)1

SOME ILLUSTRATIONS DRAWN FROM EXISTING DATA

Principal uses of financial accounts at the OECD

25.Within the OECD, the Economics Department (ECO) is one of the major users of the financial accounts, and is particularly interested in:

-Government deficits as a percentage of GDP, representing the balance between changes in assets and changes in liabilities, or net financing capacity or borrowing requirements.

-Consolidated public debt as a percentage of GDP (and Maastricht debt, for countries of European Union).

-Financial wealth of households.

26.The Secretariat has chosen to include in this paper only a portion of the information contained in the new financial accounts database:

-By selecting two non-consecutive years (in general 1995 and 2001) so that users can appreciate the changes that have occurred in recent years.

-By selecting only certain results from among those that are most available and most significant.

-By focusing on a limited number of institutional sectors (total economy, general government, households).

Some examples

27.This information was selected for reasons both of data availability and of political and economic interest, and relates, on one hand, to the economy as a whole, excluding the "rest of world" sector, and on the other hand to governments and households. The examples are presented in the form of tables or grafts prepared using the greatest number of data for the greatest possible number of countries. They are accompanied by short notes highlighting differences from the information selected a priori.

Total national economy -- sector S1

28.For reference purposes, tables A1 and A2 in the Annex contain time series from 1990 to 2002, with the data expressed both as values (converted to US dollars) and as a percentage of GDP (Gross Domestic Product), relating to gross total debt (all financial liabilities in the consolidated balance sheet), while tables B1 and B2 in the Annex contain the net total debt (difference between financial assets and liabilities in the consolidated balance sheet), for the sector "Total National Economy" (S1), excluding the rest of the world.

General government -- sector S13

29.Total public debt corresponds to the total of financial liabilities under all commitments (short-term and long-term), for all sectors of government, namely central, regional and local governments and social security administrations. The data, taken from the financial asset and liability balance sheets (table 701) are consolidated among sectors and subsectors of government. Government securities are valued at their market price, which is the reference basis for valuation in the System of National Accounts.

30.Debt, according to the Maastricht Treaty and the Stability Pact, covers only cash and deposits, securities other than shares (excluding derivatives) and loans, i.e. instrument F2, F33 and F4, consolidated, for all government sectors. Government securities are valued at their nominal value.

31.Selected information is presented as follows, both in values (converted to US dollars) and as percentages of GDP:

--long series on the total public debt of OECD countries (balance sheets - total financial liabilities -- tables C1 and C2) and on net public debt (balance sheets - difference between financial assets and financial liabilities of sector S13 -- tables D1 and D2); data on the debt of unfunded public pension systems have been excluded from the total public debt for Canada and Australia, which do not apply SNA 1993, to make them comparable with data for other countries;

--Information on gross public debt for two non-consecutive years (1995 and 2001) for certain instruments (F2, F3, F4 and F7), which were selected because of their economic interest (tables E1 and E2), as well as the portion of these instruments in total government public debt (table E3) and the percentage change between these two years.

--Information on the share of government subsectors in the gross public debt of general government, for two non-consecutive years (1995 and 2001) (table E4).

32.The following graph helps to visualise the trend in public debt between the years 1995 and 2001. Data on the debt of unfunded public pension systems have been excluded from the total public debt for Canada and Australia, which do not apply SNA 1993, to make them comparable with data for other countries. As well, further graphs are presented in the Annex, showing public debt over a long period (graph 1) and shares by instrument in total gross debt (graph 2 and 3). This presentation of the financial accounts and the balance sheets for general government remains limited: it is intended merely to provide some examples of what it would be possible to include in a future publication.

STD/NAES/FA(2003)1