The United Kingdom has decided to submit to the European Commission, on 16 July 2007, a notification of its data on deficit and debt for the financial years 2003/2004 to 2006/2007.
Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, has no reservations on the reported data, which show a government deficit1 of 2.7% of GDP in 2006/2007 compared with 3.2% in 2005/2006, and a government debt to GDP ratio of 42.5% in 2006/2007 compared with 41.6% in the previous year.
Revisions from the April 2007 EDP notification: The GDP notified for EDP purposes has been revised upwards by small amounts for the years previously reported (by around 0.5%) compared to that notified in April 2007. Changes in GDP affect deficit and debt ratios due to the denominator effect.
Compared to the April 2007 EDP notification, the government deficit for the United Kingdom has been revised upwards by 0.2-0.3% of GDP for the years previously reported, due to a more appropriate treatment of proceeds relating to the disposal of social housing (local government quasi-corporations), which have been recorded as financial transactions instead of government revenue.
Amendments by Eurostat to the reported data2: Eurostat has amended the data notified by the United Kingdom for financial years 2003/2004 to 2006/2007 for consistency of recording of UMTS licence proceeds.
This leads to an increase in the government deficit in financial years 2003/2004 and 2006/2007 (as well as in calendar years 2003 and 2006) by GBP 1045 mn (0.1% of GDP) and in financial years 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 (calendar years 2004 and 2005) by GBP 1044 mn (0.1% of GDP). There is no change in the reported debt figures.
Other issues: There are ongoing discussions between the UK statistical authorities and Eurostat on the appropriate accounting treatment of some Public Private Partnership contracts, which will be subject to further examination by Eurostat.
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