- The Monitor Tool provides information on the performance of each AR in relation to fiscal rules, including details of revenue and expenditure, macroeconomic variables such as GDP and employment, and AIReF’s forecasts
- It allows for in-depth analysis of a single AR, as well as comparisons between several ARs or the entire sub-sector for all variables
- It provides access to AIReF reports and documents for each AR
- AIReF also improves the Local Government (LG) Monitor Tool by including the actual cost of services provided by each local government
The Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) today published on its website its first interactive Autonomous Region (AR) interactive Monitor Tool, which offers a comprehensive overview of the past, present and expected situation of the macroeconomic and fiscal variables of each region and allows access to the reports and documents prepared by AIReF for each region.
Specifically, the Monitor Tool provides information on the performance of each AR in relation to fiscal rules (stability target, expenditure rule and debt target), a breakdown of revenue and expenditure, macroeconomic variables such as GDP and employment, forecasts of the future evolution of these variables, and the outlook and indicators relating to the sustainability of public finances. In addition, it has a specific tab to access the reports and documents prepared by AIReF for each region.
The new Monitor Tool takes into account the particular features of the regional sector and presents the data in National Accounting terms. The fundamental unit of measure is weight over GDP, although the most important information is also presented in other units.
The new AIReF tool provides a different perspective with respect to other websites and data sources as it presents the economic and financial information on ARs jointly and graphically and re-classifies revenue and expenditure for a clearer and more descriptive view of their origin and nature, always in National Accounting terms.
In addition, it breaks down the main revenue of the ARs by combining various sources of information, with special attention to that resulting from the regional financing system. In addition, it allows the situation of two or more regions or of the entire sub-group to be compared. It also includes the forecasts from the latest AIReF reports and guarantees quick and easy access to all the institution’s statements on each region.
In this example, you can see the summary screen of the individual analysis of Andalusia. The Monitor Tool makes it possible to see the evolution over time of the region’s revenue and expenditure from 2013 to 2019; the net lending or borrowing; the evolution of the debt and of the change in expenditure according to the expenditure rule. In addition, from this general summary, the individual analysis makes it possible to go into detail in each one of these variables when browsing the tabs in the top menu.
In the forecasts tab of the individual analysis, as this other example of Valencia shows, in addition to seeing the evolution expected by AIReF for the region’s net lending or borrowing, the change in expenditure according to the expenditure rule and the debt, forecasts are also included for revenue and expenditure for each region and an estimate of GDP and of the rate of change in employment.
In the comparative analysis, the Monitor Tool allows all the variables of two or more regions or even of the entire sub-sector to be compared. In this example, we can see the comparison of the deficit and debt targets and expenditure rule for 2019 for all the Autonomous Regions.
In this other example, we can see a comparison of the revenue per capita from the financing system for four selected ARs. When comparing the revenue from the financing system, it is important to bear in mind that only interim payments and the settlement are considered and that revenue is not homogenised in terms of income and expenditure.
This Monitor Tool is a first version that will be subject to successive improvements and extensions, with the incorporation of new functionalities, such as the classification of expenditure according to its function and the inclusion of fiscal indicators. This will allow an analysis of the relative position of each AR in relation to indicators such as health and education expenditure, revenue from the Financing System and the fiscal capacity implemented, among others. In addition, downloading of data in a report is planned to be included.
LG Monitor Tool
Since 2016, AIReF has had a Local Government (LG) Monitor Tool, which includes over 20 million data items and over 8,200 authorities. This Monitor Tool has been renewed and expanded over the years. The last update took place in February, when the actual cost of the services provided by a local authority was included, differentiating between mandatory services and other services that they exercise within their own powers.
Based on this new functionality, the evolution of costs from 2014 to 2020 is shown, both in amount and type of management used. In addition, the economic structure of the expenditure of each service, its evolution over time and the evolution of its reference units are broken down.