3) to provide estimates of capital consumption in order to allow the calculation of net investment
expenditure: from the survey the answer is generally yes, but only at the first digit of the COFOG
classification. At the second digit, the answers are very heterogeneous.Therefore, for a large number of Member States, excluding the new Member States, in principle it would
be possible to obtain the data in table 4. Data availability would, however, not be complete for every
country and, before their delivery, national accountants would have to evaluate in depth the reliability
degree of each additional information. This is true even for the level-2 COFOG classification, for which
- on the basis of the survey outcome – we have assessed that some problems arise especially as far as the
R&D items are concerned.
Table 4 - Expenditure of GG by function (2nd Level) and more detailed economic categories with an additional
breakdown of fixed capital formationTRANS
ACTIONGross fixed
formation capitalInfrastrucOf wich:
turesOther gross
fixed
formation capitalChanges in inventories
acquisitions +
disposal of less
valuablesAcquisitions less
disposals of non-
financial non-
produced assetsCompensation of
employeesSubsidiesProperty incomebenefits Social
other than
transfers in social
kind and social
transfers in kind related
expenditure to
on products supplied to
households via market
producers, payableIntermediate
consumptiontaxes on Other
production + Current
taxes on income,
wealth, etc.+
Adjustment
change in for the
net equity of
households in
pension funds
reservescurrent Other
transfersInvestment
grants
capital Other
transfersexpenditTotal
ureconsumFinal
ption
expenditureCLASSIFICATIONCOFOG Transaction / COFOG
CodeTRP52 + TRP53 TRK2 TRD1 TRD3 TRD4TRD63121+ TRD6311+ TRD62+
TRD63131TRP2 TRD29+ TRD5+ TRD8 TRD7 TRD92 TRD99 TRTE TRP32 digit of COFOG classificationdata detailed
at 2 COFOG
digitdata detailed
at 2 COFOG
digitdata detailed
at 2 COFOG
digitdata detailed
at 2 COFOG
digitdata
detailed at 2 COFOG
digitdata detailed
at 2 COFOG
digitdata detailed
at 2 COFOG
digitdata detailed
at 2 COFOG
digitdata detailed
at 2 COFOG
digitdata detailed
at 2 COFOG
digitdata detailed
at 2 COFOG
digitdata detailed
at 2 COFOG
digitdata detailed
at 2 COFOG
digitdata detailed
at 2 COFOG
digitdata detailed
at 2 COFOG
digitdata detailed
at 2 COFOG
digitdata detailed
at 2 COFOG
digitTransactions by economic categoryTRP51 and its break-downStep 4
Step 4 consists of including some additional information and harmonising COFOG statistics and other
international databases.
If, in principle, table 4 above might possibly be available in the medium-term, what about the
implementation of further items not included in table 4? In paragraph 3 we have underlined that the
extension of the information system through additional modules can be implemented in the long term
only. To have real chances to succeed in this task, the pre-condition is the assignment of sufficient
additional resources. Reaching these objectives not included in the proposed table 4 implies a strong
commitment by the ECOFIN Council and specific financial means to invest in the project.
Finally, the improvement of the harmonization and the clarification of the links between COFOG-NA
statistics and other data bases (in particular OECD R&D, Education, Health statistics) seem to be feasible
in the medium term. It is worth noticing that even in this respect a strong commitment by ECOFIN and
specific financial means are generally necessary to start any type of study.
Regarding the link between COFOG statistics and OECD statistics, the survey has given good results on
average as far as Education and Health are concerned (see annex). The more frequent answer by
respondent countries was that it is possible to identify the reasons of discrepancies and to measure them
in the medium-long period. As to the R&D, the indications from the survey are less homogeneous, some
country having judged very difficult the possibility to achieve the objective.
5. Some concluding remarks
To conclude, we can summarise what has been proposed so far.