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General government accounts 2009, preliminary accounts

Statistics Iceland releases now a new issue of Statistical Series. This issue presents the General Government Finances in 2009 and its main focus is on the general government. Similar information is available on its subsectors on the SI website. 

The general government net financial assets, i.e. the financial assets less liabilities, were negative by 615 billion ISK in 2009 or 41% of GDP. The deterioration from 2008 is 322 billion ISK or 22% of GDP. The general government total financial asset amounted to 1,226 billion ISK in the end of 2009 and the total liabilities 1,841 billion ISK. It is needed to go back to 1998 to have worse net financial assets position; in that year it was 42.6% of GDP. 

In 2009, the financial balance of the general government was 137 billion ISK in deficit or 9.1% of GDP, which can be compared with a deficit of 13.6% of GDP for 2008 (or 0.6% of GDP excluding the 192 billion ISK debt assumption) and a surplus of 5.4% for 2007. This adverse development in 2009 can mainly be explained by a 31 billion ISK decrease in tax revenue, a 52 billion ISK increase in interest payments, a 33 billion ISK increase in social contributions (due to e.g. higher unemployment) and a 24 billion ISK increase in government final consumption (despite a 3% decrease in value terms).

The general government total revenue amounted to 42.4% of GDP in 2009, compared with 44.2% in 2008 and 47.9% in 2007, and has therefore decreased considerably in recent years measured as percentage of GDP. The general government total expenditure amounted to 51.5% of GDP in 2009 compared with 57.8% in 2008 (or 44.8% excluding debt assumption) and 42.5% in 2007.

In 2009, the total expenditure on health was 9.6% of GDP, of which 82% was financed by the general government and the rest by households. The total expenditure on education was 131 billion ISK or 8.8% of GDP, of which 91.6% was financed by the general government, and the total general government expenditure on social protection in 2009 was 165 billion ISK or 11% of GDP. About 16.1% of general government total expenditure goes to health affairs, 17.3% to education and 21.3% to social protection.

General government accounts 2009, preliminary accounts - Statistical Series