Government deficit and debt according to EMU definitions

The member states of the European Union have committed themselves to curbing government deficit and government debt. The deficit may not exceed 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), government debt may not be higher than 60 percent of GDP. If government deficit exceeds the threshold of 3 percent, the member state in question shall be subject to the excessive deficit procedure.

Twice a year, at end-March and end-September, EU member states supply financial information on the amount of government deficit and government debt to the European Commission. The notification procedure is laid down in Council Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 and can be found at the bottom of this page.

Statistics Netherlands supplies data regarding the Dutch fiscal situation to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, in notification tables. The notification tables can be found at the bottom of this page.

In addition, since 2009 member states supply supplementary information on government interventions in the financial crises in Supplementary tables for the financial crisis. The Supplementary tables can be found at the bottom of this page.

In conclusion, Statistics Netherlands is also obliged to publish a list of government entities that have been included in government finance statistics. This list and a background paper (Dutch only) on the delineation of the public sector can be found at the bottom of this page.