Central government revenue and expenditure
Updated: 17 November 2023
Next update: 18 March 2024
|3rd quarter 2022||3rd quarter 2023||Change in per cent|
|A. TOTAL REVENUE||718 838||448 244||-37.6|
|Operating surplus extraction of petroleum||166 826||39 233||-76.5|
|Tax revenue||380 952||227 988||-40.2|
|Members' and employers' contribution to the National Insurance Scheme||131 807||139 385||5.7|
|Interest and dividends||24 739||26 437||6.9|
|Other revenue||14 514||15 201||4.7|
|B. TOTAL EXPENDITURE||375 420||398 217||6.1|
|Operating costs||51 380||51 576||0.4|
|Total fixed capital formation||17 829||17 172||-3.7|
|Total transfers||306 211||329 469||7.6|
|C. SURPLUS BEFORE NET TRANSFERS TO THE GOVERNMENT PENSION FUND - GLOBAL||343 418||50 027|
About the statistics
The central government’s fiscal account shows its total revenue and expenditure. The revenues include tax revenues, contributions to the National Insurance Scheme and petroleum-related revenues. The expenditure consists mainly of transfers, fixed capital formation and operating costs.
Total revenue: Total gross revenue before transfers to the Government Pension Fund - Global.
Total expenditure: Total gross expenditure before transfers to the Government Pension Fund - Global.
Surplus before net transfers to the Government Pension Fund - Global: Total revenue minus total expenditure.
Surplus before financial transactions: Surplus after net transfers to the Government Pension Fund - Global.
Gross financing including debt instalments: Deficit before financial transactions plus lending minus repayments and debt instalments.
Financing: How the deficit (or surplus) before net transfers to the Government Pension Fund - Global is financed, distributed by main groups of financial instruments.
Type: Revenue and expenditure are classified in main groups by type, mainly based on whether the transaction is related to operation or investments, whether services are offered in return or not, and what kind of economic function the individual transaction has. Originally the distribution by type was based on the National Accounts' distinctions, but over time this has changed somewhat.
Programme category: Expenditure is classified by main purpose of the individual expenditure item.
Financial instrument: Rough classification of financing by financial instrument, with a distinction between deposits, loans, short-term securities, medium and long-term securities, and equity (shares, capital deposits etc.).
Name: Central government revenue and expenditure
Topic: Public sector
Division for Public Finance
National level only.
Figures are published 35-45 days after the end of each quarter. Annual figures are published with the figures for the fourth quarter.
Monthly figures for revenue and expeniture are only published in StatBank. They are updated on the last workday of the following month and this update is not included in the overview of planned releases and events.
The micro data are stored in the SAS database.
The purpose is to give the public access to quarterly figures for the central government's fiscal account, including the National Insurance Scheme. Quarterly figures are available from the first quarter 1985.
The statistics are processed for use in the National Accounts. Other important users are the Ministry of Finance, the IMF and mass media.
No external users have access to the statistics and analyses before they are published and accessible simultaneously for all users on ssb.no at 8 am. Prior to this, a minimum of three months' advance notice is given in the Statistics Release Calendar. This is one of Statistics Norway’s key principles for ensuring that all users are treated equally.
The statistics are not based on international standards. The figures for the central government's fiscal accounts are in principle final at the time of publishing. Annual figures from the statistics are included in processed form in the statistics General government revenue and expenditure and the annual and quarterly statistics are included in the National Accounts.
The Statistics Act, § 10
The population comprises all administrative bodies that report to the central government's fiscal account. Non-corporate state enterprises and state lending institutions are partially included (most of them on a net basis), but not public corporations.
The central government's fiscal account is an administrative register collected from the Ministry of Finance.
This mostly consists of checking that the accounts balance (i.e. that expenditures equal the sum of revenues and net financial transactions).
One tries to avoid great breaks in the series by presenting only main groups of revenues and expenditures in the tables. Breaks may still occur, since the central government fiscal account's chart of accounts constantly is being adjusted by resolutions in the National Assembly.
Errors may occur while aggregating main item, programme area and financial instrument.