Public sector finances (PSF)

About this article

This area provides links to guidance and methodology publications related to PSF statistics. These publications are often relevant to the PSF and the government debt and deficit under the Maastricht Treaty publications, as well as their associated tables.

PSF

The statistical bulletin on PSF is published jointly by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and HM Treasury on a monthly basis and provides the latest available estimates for PSF statistics, such as public sector net borrowing, public sector net debt and public sector current budget deficit/surplus.

• PSF – glossary

• Government finances explained: expenditure and revenue in the last 15 years – why is the public sector current budget important to the UK public?

This is an analysis of the government finances for current budget and the relationship between expenditure and revenue.

Government debt and deficit under the Maastricht Treaty

This statistical bulletin on government deficit and debt under the Maastricht Treaty is published every 6 months, at the end of March and September each year, to coincide with the dates when the UK and other EU member states are obliged to report to the European Commission their actual and planned government deficit and debt.

The source data for this publication is the same as that used in compiling the monthly PSF bulletin (for comparing with PSF releases, use February for calendar year and August for financial year). However, there are 3 main differences between this bulletin and the PSF.

1. This bulletin includes only debt and deficit recorded to central and local government, whereas the PSF bulletin also includes measures of other public sector bodies.

2. This bulletin reports gross debt, that is all financial liabilities of central and local government, whereas the PSF bulletin headline figure is net debt, that is the financial liabilities minus liquid assets (mainly in the form of cash deposits).

3. General government net borrowing as reported in this bulletin differs a little from that in the PSF bulletin in order to make it fully consistent with guidance in the manual on government deficit and debt.