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/en/nasjonalregnskap-og-konjunkturer/statistikker/finsea/aar
10076
Government wealth 144 per cent of GDP
statistikk
2008-12-03T10:00:00.000Z
National accounts and business cycles
en
finsea, Financial and non-financial accounts (discontinued), financial investments, households and non-profit organisations, general government, abroad, balance sheets, FINSE, national accountsFinancial accounts , National accounts and business cycles
false

Financial and non-financial accounts (discontinued), 1995-2007

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Government wealth 144 per cent of GDP

General governments' net financial assets amounted to over 144 per cent of GDP in 2007, whereas the gross debt share was 52 per cent. Both shares are high compared to other Nordic countries.

Financial accounts for general government. Gross debt as percentage of GDP in Nordic countries.

Financial accounts for general government. Net financial asset as percentage of GDP in Nordic countries.

The high GDP shares of general governments' assets and liabilities in Norway are explained by the Government Pension Fund - Global. The investment abroad of revenues from oil exploitation has contributed to a large financial asset formation on the Government’s balance sheet. However, management of the fund also influences the gross debt GDP share. Among other factors, the use of repurchase agreements contribute to increase government gross debt in Norway, taking short term loans with guarantee in securities. Consolidated debt statistics (except other liabilities) for general government in Nordic countries over the last ten years are shown in figure 2.

Government wealth 71 per cent of GDP in Finland

As for other Nordic countries, general government in Finland possessed the largest amount of financial assets. By the end of 2007, general governments' net financial assets in Finland constituted about 71 per cent of GDP. The high share can be explained by high degree of funding of social security schemes and that administrative units managing the occupational pensions are classified in the general government sector.

During the ten year period, general governments' net financial asset position in our Nordic neighbouring countries has improved. This is mainly due to decreasing gross debt shares during the whole period. The development has been most evident for the general government sector in Sweden and Denmark. In the beginning of the ten year period, the debt share of these two countries was above EU’s requirement for gross debt share of maximum 60 per cent of GDP.

Financial accounts for general government. Net lending as a percentage of GDP in Nordic countries.

Norway and Finland have the highest financial investments

In Norway the general governments’ net lending is to a high extent influenced by oil revenues. Net lending in general government constituted 18.2 per cent of GDP in both 2006 and 2007, which is about three percentage points higher than in 2005. General government net lending in other Nordic countries was mainly positive between 1997 and 2007. The exception was in 1997 when all three countries had negative net lending, and in 2003 when Sweden and Denmark had negative net lending. Besides Norway, general government in Finland has had the highest net lending during the period.

Financial accounts for general government. NOK billion
  1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Financial assets 1 267     1 696     2 037     2 105     2 568     3 028     3 654     4 504     4 839
Liabilities  542  684  716  854 1 030 1 189 1 251 1 531 1 561
Net financial assets/net financial wealth  725 1 013 1 321 1 251 1 538 1 839 2 403 2 973 3 278
                   
Change in net financial assets/net financial wealth  132  288  308 -70  287  301  564  570  305
Other changes 58 61  105 -213  168  106  267  177 -106
Net lending 74  227  203  143  119  195  297  393  410

Financial accounts in Statbank

Release of data from financial accounts (finse) is expanded to comprise tables for annual figures in Statbank. These tables will from now on be automatically updated when new quarterly financial accounts are released. In the future annual figures from Finse will be released in Statbank.

Financial accounts for detailed institutional sectors based on the database Finse is accessible in Statbank. The data is presented in three tables which show the asset relationship between sectors by instrument, the sectors financial assets and liabilities by instrument together with net financial assets (net financial wealth) and net lending by sector.

We call attention to compilation methods for quantification of the financial accounts which are continued to be developed. Several variables in the current financial accounts are thus quantified on the basis of preliminary computations. Two examples of preliminary and incomplete quantified variables are unquoted shares and financial derivatives. Users should be aware of the uncertainty linked to preliminary figures when exploiting data from the released financial accounts.

Data from the database Finse is reported to Eurostat and annual financial accounts for Norway is also accessible through Eurostat`s homepages.