Government finance statistics: transactions in other accounts receivable

The general government financial accounts published by Eurostat cover transactions in financial assets and liabilities as well as the stock of financial assets and liabilities.

'Other accounts receivable' are assets representing the timing difference between the recording of most transactions in the non-financial accounts and the corresponding payment. This asset category is recorded in the financial accounts, for example, when governments make advances on future expenditure or accrue revenue while the corresponding payment occurs at a later stage.

In the third quarter of 2024, net transactions in other accounts receivable amounted to -€26 billion in the EU, compared to -€8 billion in the same quarter of the preceding year. In the available time series in the EU, the largest decline in other accounts receivable due to transactions occurred in the first quarter of 2024 (-€77 billion). The largest increase in other accounts receivable due to transactions occurred in the second quarter of 2020 (+€121 billion), influenced by deferral of tax payment deadlines.

At the end of the third quarter of 2024, the stock of other accounts receivable in the EU stood at €1 156 billion, or 17% of total financial assets held by EU general governments.

This information comes from data on quarterly government finance published by Eurostat today. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article.

Source dataset: gov_10q_ggfa