Eurostat Committee will visit Estonia

“It is a regular visit of Eurostat that takes place every 1.5 years,“ Agnes Naarits, Head of the General Government and Financial Sector Statistics Department, remarked. “The aim of the visit is a dialogue with a Member State to guarantee the accounting quality of the general government sector.”

The previous visit of Eurostat to Estonia was in 2007. “This time the total transition to full accrual accounting methods in the government sector statistics will be also discussed. We have planned to implement the transition since October this year,” Ms Naarits explained. “At present time we are using to some extent also cash based data,” she added.

Eurostat delegation comprises five members, including the representatives of the European Central Bank and of the Directorate General on economic and financial affairs of the European Commission. Head of the delegation is Luca Ascoli from Eurostat.

In addition to Statistics Estonia, Estonian delegation also includes representatives from the Bank of Estonia and Ministry of Finance.

In order for the accession to euro Estonia has to meet all the Maastricht criteria. The deficit of the government sector budget must be smaller than 3% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and loan smaller than 60% of the GDP.

According to the preliminary data published by Statistics Estonia in March the Estonian general government sector deficit was 3% in 2008 and the gross debt level was 4.8% of the GDP. Statistics Estonia will publish the revised data for the year 2008 based on accrual accounting method on 30 September.