Public corporations are government-controlled units by means of either direct or indirect government control. Due to their commercial nature, public corporations are classified outside the general government sector and in the public sector for national accounts and government accounts purposes. See Background Notes for more information.
The CSO have a legal obligation to provide Eurostat with the liabilities of public corporations. This data is transmitted to Eurostat every December.
The financial data in this chapter is based on the annual financial statements of the public corporations listed in the Register of Public Sector Bodies published in October 2023. At end December 2023, there were 352 such corporations in the public sector, including subsidiaries of large group head entities. There were 288 public corporations controlled by the central government sector, of which 233 were in the non-financial sector and 55 in the financial sector. There were 64 public corporations controlled by the local government sector, all of which were in the non-financial sector.
The next update to the public corporations data will be published in April 2025 based on 2023 financial data that will be submitted to Eurostat in December 2024.
As part of the analysis undertaken for the public corporations questionnaire, while there were some 352 entities, annual financial information was only available at the company group level and not at subsidiary level. Therefore, the financial data presented is based on 117 entities, as the subsidiaries are incorporated in the group accounts.
The largest number of subsidiaries for a company group head was 97 and the next highest numbers were 34 subsidiaries for two company groups.
The liabilities of public corporations are reported once they exceed the threshold of 0.01% of GDP (€50.62 million in 2022). Total GDP figure of €506,282 million in 2022, used in conjunction with the 2022 financial data. This threshold is set by the European Commission and all EU Members States are legally obliged to send this data to Eurostat.
The liabilities of public corporations are not part of gross general government (Maastricht) debt. Nevertheless, Eurostat requires that member states collect data on this sector as their liabilities are referred to as “contingent liabilities” and are deemed to be potential obligations of government. These liabilities will only materialise as actual government liabilities if specific conditions prevail and are therefore not included in the general government accounts.
A number of additional important aspects should also be taken into account when analysing the liabilities of public corporations: (i) the data collection refers to liabilities only and does not include assets; (ii) the liabilities of public corporations are consolidated, therefore liabilities owed to other entities in the same company group are consolidated.
Further financial data is collected from relevant annual financial statements when total liabilities exceed the 0.01% GDP threshold. At end December 2023, 25 entities breached this threshold, 24 controlled by the central government sector and 1 controlled by the local government sector. The total liabilities of the 25 public corporations were €166,420 million (33% of GDP). Of these, €1,409 million liabilities were owed to government, such as tax and social welfare.
See Background Notes for more information.
Figure 1.1 in the Public Sector chapter displays a breakdown of the Register by subsector.
A complete list of the Register is available on the Register of Public Sector Bodies 2023 - Final Table 1.1 (XLS 53KB) .
A CSV file is also available on the Register of Public Sector Bodies 2023 - Final Table 1.1 csv file .
Figure 6.1 below outlines the NACE economic activity classification of these 352 public corporations. The largest number of public corporations is in the Electricity, gas economic activity sector (99 corporations). Financial and insurance activities (69 corporations) and Arts and entertainment (48 corporations) are the next largest economic activity sectors (see Nace Rev 2 classification for full sector descriptions).
| NACE Letter | Number of Entities |
|---|---|
| D - Electricity, Gas, Steam and Air Conditioning Supply | 99 |
| K - Financial And Insurance Activities | 69 |
| R - Arts, Entertainment And Recreation | 48 |
| L - Real Estate Activities | 28 |
| H - Transportation And Storage | 20 |
| M - Professional, Scientific And Technical Activities | 21 |
| J - Information And Communication | 15 |
| F - Construction | 10 |
| N - Administrative And Support Service Activities | 8 |
| P - Education | 10 |
| Q - Human Health And Social Work Activities | 5 |
| Other | 19 |
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