Central Governments: Cash Deficits and Surpluses

Abstract

PpTHE primary purpose of this paper is to compute comparable deficit and surplus data for the central governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and \Vest Germany for the last several years. In these years of emphasis on the relationships between fiscal policy and both economic growth and inflation, there is value in having comparable quantitative central government surplus and deficit data at hand to support or to negate one's arguments. I survey here the data available, and finding it inadequate in detail and in aggregate, compute new figures using the countries mentioned above as subjects of the experiment.