Flanders’ consolidated debt amounted to 33.350 billion euros at the end of 2021. That means an increase of 3.076 billion euros, or 10.16% in relative terms, compared to the end of 2020.
The consolidated debt increased less strongly compared to the direct debt, mainly as a result of repayments by for instance the social housing sector and PPP projects.
The direct financing of the Flemish Social Housing Company (VMSW), the Flemish Housing Fund (VWF) and School Invest replaced financing through guaranteed bank loans in 2015. That logically results in lower consolidated debt for VMSW and VWF. The consolidated debt of those entities will continue to decrease in the future.
Consolidated debt is the sum of the debts of all consolidated entities belonging to the Flemish government, with mutual debts being discharged. It consists of a number of different components, including: direct debt, guaranteed debt and PPP debt.
It also includes all financial debts on the balance sheet of the Flemish government and its entities. In exceptional cases, the other debts of all entities that belong to the ‘Government of Flanders’ consolidation perimeter (ESA classification) are also added to the consolidated debt.
The Maastricht debt is the consolidated gross debt of an entity minus the financial assets held of the other entities belonging to the same subsector (intrasectoral consolidation) and of the government’s other subsectors (intersectoral consolidation).
Flemish consolidated debt – Institute of National Accounts (INA) notification October 2022 (as of 31/12/2021; in millions of euros)
| Flemish Community – Consolidated gross debt | 30,456.14 | S.1312 Maastricht debt |
| Debts held by Flemish Community issued by own S.1312 entities | 1,156.69 | S.1312 Maastricht debt |
| Debts held by Flemish Community issued by other S.1312 entities | 0.00 | |
| Flemish Community – Consolidated gross debt S.1312 | 29,299.45 | |
| Debts held by Flemish Community issued by other S.13 sectors | 395.42 | S.1312 Maastricht debt |
| Flemish Community – Contributions to the consolidated gross debt | 28,904.03 |
A distinction is made between the consolidated gross debt and the contribution to the Maastricht debt. The latter is lower because of inter- and intrasectoral debt corrections.
The concept ‘contribution to the Maastricht debt’ is used because the different governments sometimes hold each other’s debt instruments or instruments of other government institutions belonging to the same government or public sector.