General government surplus was adjusted

At the end of 2014, according to the Maastricht deficit criterion, the total revenues of the general government exceeded the expenditures by 150 million euros, of which the surplus of the revenues of the central government sub-sector accounted for 89.9 million euros. The deficit of the local government sector decreased to 2.6 million euros by the end of 2014. The budget surplus of social security funds was 62.8 million euros, remaining on the same level as in 2013.

By the end of 2014, the consolidated debt of the general government (Maastricht debt) amounted to 2.1 billion euros, which is 183 million euros more than in 2013. The local governments as well as the central government contributed to the growth of the debt level. The debt of the central government rose by 108 million euros (8%) year over year. As at the end of the year, the overall debt of local governments was 757 million euros, having grown by 12% compared to 2013. Social security funds did not contribute to the debt of the general government sector.

Statistics Estonia corrected the list of units belonging to the general government sector according to the recommendations given by Eurostat. Therefore, in addition to the annual revision of data, the data of the central government have also been adjusted based on the data of the added units.

In Estonia, the general government sector comprises three sub-sectors: 1) central government (state budgetary units and extra-budgetary funds, foundations, legal persons in public law); 2) local governments (city and rural municipality governments with their subsidiary units, foundations); 3) social security funds (Estonian Health Insurance Fund, Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund).

Eurostat is going to publish the data on the preliminary debt and deficit levels of the Member States on 21 October.