Statistics Iceland releases now for the second time an aggregated overview of quarterly central and local government non-financial accounts on accrual basis, now for the first and second quarters of 2004. In the future, other quarterly data will be published 90 days after the end of the quarter.

The accounts for the central government are based on information from the Government Financial Management Authority but the data for local government are based on a sample of accounts from seven municipalities, with 50% of the population in Iceland, that have been grossed up by Statistics Iceland. So far the break-down of the data is rather limited but there are plans for providing more detailed data in the future.

The central government revenue for the second quarter of 2004 amounted to 67 billion ISK and the revenue balance was negative by 4.1 billion ISK. Local government revenue amounted to 20 billion ISK and the revenue balance was negative by 1.2 billion ISK. In total the revenue balance of general government was negative by 5.3 billion ISK, 6.1% of current revenue and 0.6% of GDP.

In the figures presented here, both revenue and expenditure figures are recorded on accrual basis whereas the monthly figures published by the Treasury are on a cash basis. Accrual basis means that obligations are accounted for when they are established regardless of when the actual payment is made. The data presented here, both for central and local government, are preliminary. The information on investment of the local government is particularly sketchy.

The data for the second quarter and revised data for the first quarter render the following overview of the general government finances for the first half of 2004.

In the first half of 2004, the general government accounts on accrual basis showed a deficit of 8.3 billion ISK, which corresponds to 0.9 per cent of GDP. As a share of current revenue, the revenue balance was negative by 4.8% with the local government showing a larger deficit than the central government.

The quarterly data published here are based on accounting methods of the central and local government but not on national accounting methods and are therefore not totally comparable to the annual government finance published by Statistic Iceland.