NIPA Translation of the Fiscal Year 2020 Federal Budget
By Mark S. Ludwick and Brendan I. Brankin
On March 11, 2019, the President submitted the Budget of the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2020 to Congress. This article presents estimates of federal government receipts and expenditures for fiscal years 2019 and 2020 that are consistent with the projected receipts and outlays defined in the Budget but measured on a National Income and Product Account (NIPA) basis. These estimates are presented to assist readers in projecting what the effects of budgeted receipts and outlays would be on aggregate economic activity. They will also be used by the Bureau of Economic Analysis to inform estimates of federal government transactions for the coming year, including the federal government components of gross domestic product (GDP).
Comparison of Budget and NIPA Estimates
For both 2019 and 2020, estimates of federal government current receipts measured on a NIPA basis are greater than budget estimates of receipts, and estimates of federal government current expenditures measured on a NIPA basis are greater than budget estimates of outlays.1 Net federal government saving, defined as the difference between NIPA estimates of current receipts and current expenditures, is −$1,110.8 billion for 2019 and −$1,094.0 billion for 2020. The budget surplus, defined as the difference between budget estimates of receipts and outlays, is −$1,091.5 billion for 2019 and −$1,100.8 billion for 2020 (chart 1, table 1).
Chart 1. Federal Fiscal Position, line chart
[Click chart to expand]
The adjustments made to “translate” budget estimates into NIPA estimates are presented in table 2 and table 3. Differences between NIPA estimates and budget estimates of spending on national defense are shown in table 4. For more information about the conceptual differences between NIPA measures and budget measures of government transactions, see “NIPA Estimates of the Federal Sector and the Federal Budget Estimates.”
