Statistics Iceland releases now a new issue of Statistical Series. This issue presents the general government finances in 2007 and its main focus is on the general government. Similar information is available on its subsectors on the Statistics Iceland website. 

The general government financial balance was positive by 5.5% of GDP in 2007 or 11,3% of its total revenue. In 2006, the surplus was 6.3% of GDP and in 2005 4.9%. This good result is mostly due to high surpluses in central government finances in 2005, 2006 and 2007, which amounted to 4.4%, 5.3% and 4.0% of GDP, respectively. But the local government finances have also turned to better more favorable results in these three years and showed a positive financial balance of 0.3% of GDP in 2006 and 0.6% of GDP in 2007. 

The general government revenue amounted to 48.2% of GDP in 2007, com¬pared with 48.0% in 2006 and reached its highest value as percentage of GDP. The total revenue has increased considerably since 2002, when it was mea¬sured as 41.7% of GDP. The general government total expenditure amounted to 42.8% of GDP in 2007 compared with 41.7% in 2006. The total expenditure had its highest value as percentage of GDP in 2003 reaching 45.6%.

In 2007, the total expenditure on health was 9.2% of GDP, of which 82.5% was financed by the general government and the rest by households. About one fifth of general government total expenditure goes to health affairs and a little less goes to education. The total expenditure on edu¬cation was 8.2% of GDP in 2007, of which 91.7% was financed by the general government. The general government expenditure on social protection was 111.4 billion ISK in 2007 or 8.6% of GDP and increased by 14.4 billion ISK from 2006.

The general government total financial asset amounted to 709 billion ISK in the end of 2007 and the total liabilities 700 billion ISK. The general government net financial asset, i.e. the financial assets less liabili¬ties, was positive by 8.6 billion ISK in 2007 or by 0.7% of GDP.

The financial balance of the public sector (including government enterprises) was positive by 0.9% of GDP in 2007 at the same time as the financial balance of the public corporations was negative by 4.5% of GDP, which could be explained by large investment in 2006 or by 5.6% of GDP. In 2003, the public sector financial balance reached its lowest level from 2000 and was negative by 5.2% of GDP.

General government finances 2007 - Statistical Series

Statistics