Key figures by sector; National Accounts

Dataset is not available.


This table presents a number of key figures of the sector accounts. These main indicators provide the most important information on the total economy and on the main institutional sectors of the economy: non-financial corporations, financial corporations, general government, households including non-profit institutions serving households and the rest of the world.

Data available from:
Annual figures from 1995.
Quarterly figures from first quarter 1999.

Status of the figures:
The figures from 1995 up to and including 2020 are final. Data of 2021, 2022 and 2023 are provisional.

Changes as of March 25th, 2024:
Data on the fourth quarter of 2023 and the year 2023 have been added.

When will new figures be published?
Annual figures:
The first annual data are published 85 day after the end of the reporting year as the sum of the four quarters of the year. Subsequently provisional data are published 6 months after the end of the reporting year. Final data are released 18 months after the end of the reporting year. Furthermore the financial accounts and stocks are annually revised for all reporting periods. These data are published each year in June.
Quarterly figures: The first quarterly estimate is available 85 days after the end of each reporting quarter. The first quarter may be revised in September, the second quarter in December. Should further quarterly information become available thereafter, the estimates for the first three quarters may be revised in March. If (new) annual figures become available in June, the quarterly figures will be revised again to bring them in line with the annual figures.
Please note that there is a possibility that adjustments might take place at the end of March or September, in order to provide the European Commission with the latest annual and quarterly figures.

Description topics

General government (consolidated)
The general government sector primarily consists of all entities that exercise national executive, legislative and judiciary powers on a national or regional level. By this they have powers to raise taxes and other compulsory levies and to pass laws affecting the behaviour of economic units. In the Netherlands this concerns the State, municipalities, provinces, public water boards and the like. In the second place general government consists of entities that are controlled and mainly financed by the aforementioned entities, and do not produce for the market. Such entities are often established to carry out specific functions, such as road construction or the non-market production of health, education or research services. In this way, for instance, Prorail and the Open University are counted to the general government.
Government institutions that are active abroad, like embassies, belong to the general government sector as well. On the other hand foreign embassies and international institutions, like Europol and the International Court of Justice, do not belong to the Dutch government.

The Dutch Central Bank (DNB), the Dutch railways (NS), hospitals and power companies are not part of the general government sector. But also some independent governing bodies like the land registry (Kadaster). To some extent they are controlled by the government. However, their goods and services are largely financed through tariffs, and thus it is a case of market production.

The general government sector is split up into three subsectors: central government, local government and social security funds.

The principal economic functions of government are as follows:
- to provide goods and services to the community, either for collective consumption such as public administration, defence, and law enforcement, or individual consumption such as education, health, recreation and cultural services, and to finance their provision out of taxation or other incomes;
- to redistribute income and wealth by means of transfer payments such as taxes and social benefits;
- to engage in other types of non-market production.
Government debt (EMU)
The consolidated debt of the general government sector (valued at face value) excluding other accounts payable and debt on financial derivatives, presented as percentage of GDP. Consolidated means that debt relations within the government have been eliminated.
Due to the difference in method of valuation, the sum of debt instruments (face value) is not equal to the sum of debt instruments in the national accounts (market value). The debt according to the EMU-definition consists of the following debt instruments: deposits, short term debt securities, long term debt securities, short term loans and long term loans. The government debt (or EMU-debt) is one of the elements of the Stability and Growth Pact.
Quarterly government debt as a percentage of GDP is a moving annual total. It is calculated as the sum of the government debt of the quarter considered plus three preceding quarters, divided by the sum of GDP of the quarter considered plus three preceding quarters. The figure for the fourth quarter equals the yearly figure.
Balance general government sector (EMU)
Balance between revenue and expenditure of the general government sector, presented as percentage of GDP. In the national accounts this equals net lending/net borrowing of the general government sector.
The balance of the general government sector (or EMU-balance) is an element of the Stability and Growth Pact. A positive figure indicates a surplus; a negative figure indicates a deficit.
Quarterly balance of the general government sector as a percentage of GDP is a moving annual total. It is calculated as the sum of the balance of the quarter considered plus three preceding quarters, divided by the sum of GDP of the quarter considered plus three preceding quarters. The figure for the fourth quarter equals the annual figure.