Government finance statistics: currency and deposits

In the first quarter of 2026, the stock of EU general governments’ currency and deposit assets amounted to €1 266 billion or 6.7% of GDP and represented 16.5% of the stock of EU general government total financial assets. Governments hold currency and deposit assets (stocks) such as money in bank accounts and cash reserves to make daily payments.

Source dataset: gov_10q_ggfa

This information comes from data on quarterly government finance published by Eurostat today. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on quarterly government finance statistics. The general government financial accounts cover transactions in financial assets and liabilities as well as the stock of financial assets and liabilities.

Currency and deposit assets tend to increase in the first quarter of each year and to decline at the end of the fourth quarter of each year. In some budgetary systems, there are efforts to execute payments by the end of the year, thus reducing the balance sheet. The tendency for deposit assets to increase in first quarters is partly driven by debt issuances being concentrated in those quarters.

Source dataset: gov_10q_ggfa

In the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the first half of 2020, EU governments increased their deposit assets substantially due to the net incurrence of debt liabilities exceeding the financing of the deficits. At the EU level, currency and deposits amounted to €1 495 billion or 11.0% of GDP at their peak, at the end of the third quarter of 2020. In recent quarters, the stock of currency and deposits was below pre-pandemic ratios when measured as a percentage of GDP.