General government deficit 4.4 per cent and debt 82.1 per cent relative to gross domestic product in 2024

General government deficit deepened

In 2024, general government deficit, or net borrowing according to national accounts, was EUR 12.2 billion. According to the preliminary data, the financial position of general government weakened by EUR 4.0 billion from the previous year.

Compared to 2023, central government deficit deepened and in local government the weakening of the financial position halted. However, the development of general government deficit was mostly influenced by the contraction of the surplus of social security funds to under EUR one billion. Employment pension schemes continued to show clearly a surplus, but other social security funds turned into a deficit of over EUR one billion. Central government deficit amounted to EUR 10.0 billion, which was about EUR 1.0 billion more than in the previous year. The local government sector's deficit was EUR 2.8 billion in 2024 and the financial position remained almost unchanged.

Of the sub-sectors of local government, local government (excl. wellbeing services county administration) showed a deficit of EUR 1.0 billion and the deficit of wellbeing services county administration was EUR 1.8 billion. Social security funds are divided into employment pension schemes and other social security funds. The surplus of employment pension schemes was around EUR 2.0 billion and the deficit of other social security funds about EUR 1.3 billion.

General government net borrowing was updated relative to the national accounts published in March. An adjusting revision was made to the income taxes paid by households to central government, which improved net borrowing by around EUR 0.3 billion. The change will be visible in the data to be published in national accounts in June.

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Consolidated general government gross debt (EDP debt) amounted to EUR 226.7 billion at the end of 2024.

The debt grew by EUR 15.2 billion in 2024. Central government debt grew by EUR 14.0 billion and local government debt grew by EUR 1.8 billion. The debt of social security funds decreased by EUR 1.3 billion.

The decrease in consolidated items between general government by EUR 768 million contributed to the debt of the entire general government sector growing by said EUR 15.2 billion in 2024. The EDP debt describes general government’s debt to the other sectors of the economy and to the rest of the world, and its development is influenced by changes in both the unconsolidated gross debt and the internal general government debt.

EDP reporting tables, notification in April 2025 (in English only) (PDF)

EDP reporting tables also include tables on RRF assistance received by Finland from the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility.

Eurostat will publish the data on Members States on 22 April 2025.

Central government's EDP debt differs as a concept from the central government debt published by the State Treasury

General government surplus/deficit refers to net lending/borrowing according to the sector accounts of national accounts, which is the difference between total revenue and expenditure. For instance, in the case of local government, the concept differs from the surplus/deficit of the accounting period according to the profit and loss accounts of municipalities and joint municipal authorities included in the sector. The key difference concerns investments, which are recorded in national accounts as expenditure as such.

In general government accounts, the European Financial Stability Facility EFSF is, based on Eurostat's decision, handled so that EFSF's borrowing is recorded as part of the gross government debt of the countries that have provided guarantees. The loan received by the beneficiary country from the EFSF is recorded as if it had been received from the countries in the euro area that have provided guarantees and these countries in turn owe the corresponding amount to the EFSF. As a result, the EDP gross debt of the countries that provided guarantees grows but the net debt remains unchanged because the countries have a similar receivable from the beneficiary country.

The gross government debt to be recorded in each country’s general government debt on the loans granted by the EFSF is calculated by dividing the loan granted to the beneficiary country by the contribution key (based on the share in the ECB's capital of each country participating in the support operations).

At the end of 2024, Finland's general government debt includes EUR 3.6 billion of debt granted by the EFSF to beneficiary countries. Corresponding treatment does not apply to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

Central government's EDP debt differs as a concept from the central government debt published by the State Treasury. Central government's EDP debt includes loans granted to beneficiary counties by the European Financial Stability Facility EFSF, received cash collateral related to derivative contracts, the capital of the Nuclear Waste Management Fund, debts generated from investments in central government's PPP (public-private partnership) projects, and coins that are in circulation. ARA interest subsidy loans are also included in general government debt.

In National Accounts, central government is also a broader concept than the budget and financial economy. However, the State Pension Fund is classified as a social security fund. The valuation principle for both debt concepts is the nominal value, where the effect of interest-rate contracts and currency swaps is taken into account. When these differences are taken into consideration, we reach the central government non-consolidated gross debt in accordance with the EDP concept (Appendix table 2).

In 2024, the State Treasury's central government debt EUR 169.4 billion + conceptual differences of the debt EUR 2.8 billion + differences caused by the sector delimitation EUR 5.7 billion + differences due to the recording of ARA interest subsidy loans EUR 11.2 billion = central government gross debt EUR 189.1 billion.

The stock of ARA interest subsidy loans added to local government amounted to EUR 7.4 billion. Hence, the impact of the rearrangement of ARA interest subsidy loans on the general government consolidated EDP debt was EUR 18.6 billion.

A list of units belonging to general government and decisions on major sector classification cases (only in Finnish) can be found at: http://www.stat.fi/meta/luokitukset/_linkki/soveltamisp.html