Quarterly data collection on local government finances
Description of the data collection
In the data collection, data are collected on the items of the profit and loss accounts, cash flow statements and balance sheets of municipalities and joint municipal authorities, and of their enterprises in the non-financial corporations sector.
Data from the profit and loss accounts and on investments are collected according to the realisation of the budget for the period between the beginning of the year and the end of the quarter. Data from the balance sheet are collected according to the situation at the end of the quarter.
From whom are data collected?
Data are collected for the first, second and third quarters from the municipalities and joint municipal authorities in Mainland Finland and their enterprises in the non-financial corporations sector that have been selected to the sample. Data for the fourth quarter are collected from the financial statement estimates for the whole year from all municipalities and joint municipal authorities in Mainland Finland.
The data collection is based on the Finnish Statistics Act (280/2004). By virtue of Section 14 of the Statistics Act, local government authorities are obliged to provide Statistics Finland with data on their finances, products, locations of activities, as well as with data on the staff and other resources required in their activities.
Data collection for the fourth quarter is made jointly with the Ministry of Finance and the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities.
What are the data used for?
Statistics on local government finances by quarter are published from the data. The data are used for quarterly monitoring of municipal finances, as source data for quarterly national accounts, for statistics on general government revenue and expenditure by quarter in the European Union, for quarterly general government financial accounts, and for general government deficit and debt (EDP) reporting.
How often are data collected?
Quarterly