What The Government Owes Explaining Maastricht government debt and deficit

Twice a year all member states of the European Union have to report their general government debt and deficit statistics to the European Commission.

In the Maastricht Treaty, the term 'deficit' is used for net borrowing. (When the deficit is a minus figure, in other words a surplus, it refers to net lending.)

The Commission operates an Excessive Deficit Procedure under the Maastricht Treaty by setting targets that member states should meet. The Maastricht data were particularly important in the run-up to European monetary union and are now used mainly for stability and growth purposes in the Eurozone.

The UK government data are reported by HM Treasury. The ONS compiles the data on their behalf and publishes the data delivered to HM Treasury in the Government deficit and debt under the Maastricht Treaty release. This release is produced on the last working day of each February and August.

General government covers central and local government. The European measures differs from the UK fiscal measures in that the UK coverage is the public sector and hence also includes public corporations.

The main Maastricht measures are presented as percentages of Gross Domestic Product. The General Government Deficit measure is closely related to the net borrowing measure from National Accounts, differing only in its treatment of swaps. The measure of debt used, gross consolidated debt, differs from National Accounts measures in that it excludes a category of data and is presented at nominal values rather than market values.

A protocol to the Maastricht Treaty specifies that deficits should not exceed 3 per cent of GDP and debt should not exceed 60 per cent of GDP. The latest reported data show that the UK is comfortably within both targets. Between 1998 and 2001 the reported government deficit has been a surplus.