Glossary

Gender budgeting is an application of gender mainstreaming in the budgetary process to assess how budget decisions impact gender equality. It involves conducting a gender-based assessment of budgets, incorporating a gender perspective at all stages of the budgetary and planning process, restructuring revenues and expenditures in order to promote gender equality. 

Gender budgeting helps ensure that the budget promotes priorities related to gender equality, such as reducing the gender pay gap and closing gender gaps in the labour market, bringing social and economic gains.

For more on gender budgeting see: Gender Budgeting - OECD and What is gender budgeting? | European Institute for Gender Equality (europa.eu).

The general government sector (S.13) consists of institutional units which are non-market producers whose output is intended for individual and collective consumption, and are financed by compulsory payments made by units belonging to other sectors, and institutional units principally engaged in the redistribution of national income and wealth.

The general government sector is divided into four subsectors: (a) central government (excluding social security funds) (S.1311); (b) state government (excluding social security funds) (S.1312); (c) local government (excluding social security funds) (S.1313); (d) social security funds (S.1314).

(General Government) Current expenditures represent one of the sub-aggregates of public expenditure, generally reflecting the spending on goods and services consumed within the current year, aimed at fulfilling social and collective commitments and needs. From the perspective of national accounts, current expenditure comprises expenses related to personnel, intermediate consumption, social benefits/transfers, subsidies, interest, and other current expenses

The classification of the functions of Government (COFOG) is used to identify the allocation of public expenditure according to different governance functions. The structure of COFOG is composed of three levels (Divisions, Groups and Classes). The governance functions identified by COFOG are as follows: (1) General public services (which include interest on public debt); (2) Defence; (3) Public order and safety; (4) Economic affairs, (5) Environmental protection; (6) Housing and community amenities; (7) Health; (8) Recreation, culture and religion; (9) Education; (10) Social protection.

The General State Account (GSA) closes the budgetary cycle and is the main accountability document of the State, reflecting in detail the outturn of the State Budget, showing all the amounts received and spent by the State during the economic year. The GSA is presented by the Government to the Assembly of the Republic by May the 15th. The Assembly of the Republic, within the scope of political control, approves the GSA taking into account the opinion of the Court of Auditors, which, within the scope of its jurisdiction and competence, monitors the legality and regularity of public revenues and expenditures and assesses sound financial management.

The Gini coefficient, or Gini index, is a measure of statistical dispersion, usually used to measure inequality in the distribution of income or wealth within an economy or social group. Graphically, the Gini index will be the ratio of the area between the line on the Lorenz curve (which represents the distribution of income or wealth in an economy) and the 45-degree line (which would represent perfect income distribution). Thus, the Gini index can take on values between 0 and 1, whereby a 0 value represents a perfect distribution of income or wealth, while a value of 1 represents a perfectly inequal distribution, in which one individual holds all the wealth or income.

The public finance statistics provide an integrated picture of the General Government institutional sector (S13), drawn up on the basis of the European System of Accounts, although with an alternative presentation that is better suited to analysing the fiscal situation of this sector. This set of statistics provides the following measures of General Government economic activity: revenue, expenditure, deficit/surplus, financing, other economic flows and public balance sheet.

Gross debt corresponds to the stock of General Government liabilities, excluding financial derivatives and other debts. This concept only considers liabilities, as opposed to the concept of net debt, which deducts the sector's assets.

Green and environmental taxes are designed to tax goods, services and behaviours potentially harmful to the environment.

Green balance sheet is a financial reporting document that shows the assets and liabilities concerning the natural resources and environmental position of a country. This document may be interpreted as the measurement of the natural capital of a country and the way in which the policies designed by the government impact on its items.

Green bonds are debt securities in which the issuer is obliged to allocate the funds in projects focused on climate and environmental sustainability (energy efficiency, pollution prevention, sustainable agriculture, fisheries and forestry, ecosystem protection, clean transportation and water management).

The Green Budget is the final document that can be produced after the full implementation of the Green Budget technique. The Green Budget must cover not only expenditure, but also revenue from all budgetary programs. In this way, it provides decision-makers with a clearer understanding of the environmental and climate impacts resulting from budget choices, enabling more informed decision-making on how to optimize revenue growth and resource allocation to meet national and international commitments.

Green budget statement is a statement published with the annual state budget aiming to analyse whether the measures contained in the budget programming document move closer to the climate objectives established by a given country.

Green budget tagging is a process, generally led by the government, that consists in classifying, measuring and monitoring the budget items associated with the environment or climate changes. It is also one of the main techniques available to the governments allowing them to include a green perspective on the budget process.

Green budgeting corresponds to the utilization of the budget tools in order to assess the green contribution of each item of the annual budget and its alignment with the country's environmental and climate goals.

Green Budgeting is a practice that uses budget policy-making tools to help achieve objectives related to climate and environmental dimensions. It’s a process through which the environmental and climate contributions of each budget line are identified and assessed against specific performance indicators, with the aim of aligning budget policy with climate and environmental objectives. Green tagging is one of the main instruments for adopting Green Budgeting and consists in the classification of expenses and revenues as “green” (environmentally friendly), “brown” (harmful to the environment) or neutral.

Green performance budgeting corresponds to the adoption of requirements that oblige the state budget to include a minimal percentage of policies/measures related with the environmental goals defined by the Government.

Green PIT is the category of PIT tax deductions intended to provide a benefit for the taxpayers that purchase, consume or utilize goods and services that are environmentally friendly.

Green spending reviews consists in incorporating considerations regarding the achievement of environmental goals in the regular spending reviews undertaken by the Governments.

Green taxation is a set of tax measures that aim to promote sustainable development, reduce energy dependence and foster entrepreneurship.

The Green Tax Reform was established in Law No. 82-D/2014, of December 31, which amends a set of environmental tax standards in the energy and emissions, transport, water, waste, spatial planning, forests and biodiversity, also introducing a tax regime for plastic bags and a regime to encourage the scrapping of end-of-life vehicles. Fiscal neutrality is a prerequisite for this reform.

Greenium can be defined as the difference in yield between thematic bonds (such as green bonds) and regular bonds of similar maturity, based on the rationale that investors will be willing to pay a higher value for a bond with a sustainable impact, representing a benefit for the issuer of this type of securities.

Greenwashing consists of the unjustified appropriation of environmentalist virtues. It is the process of conveying a false impression or misleading information about the environmental impact of an entity's products or operations. In the context of public expenditure, it is characterized by the financing of expenses already budgeted through funds earmarked for new green investments.

Gross capital formation measures total investment in an economy and is not limited to gross fixed capital formation. It is composed of three parts: (1) gross fixed capital formation; (2) change in inventories, which considers the balance of goods moving in and out of inventory, such as unsold goods, products stolen in stores, or raw materials that spoil; (3) net acquisitions of valuables, which considers the change in valuables such as gold, precious stones and metals, paintings, and collectibles. Gross capital formation differs from net capital formation in that the latter excludes consumption of fixed capital.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) represents the final result of the production activity of resident productive units. It can be defined in three ways: a) from the production approach, b) from the expenditure approach, and c) from the income approach. According to the production approach, GDP is equal to the sum of the gross value added of the different sectors of economic activity, plus taxes net of subsidies on products (which are not allocated to sectors and sectors of activity). It can also be calculated as the balance of the economy's total production account. From the expenditure approach, GDP is equal to the sum of final uses of goods and services (final consumption and gross capital formation) by resident institutional units (corresponding to domestic demand), plus exports and minus imports of goods and services. From the income approach, GDP is equal to the sum of the uses of the total economy’s generation of income account (compensation of employees, taxes on production and imports net of subsidies, gross operating surplus, and mixed income of the total economy). The values are gross when consumption of fixed capital is not deducted.

Gross fixed capital formation comprises acquisitions less disposals, by resident producers, of fixed assets during a given period and also certain additions to the value of non-produced assets obtained through the productive activity of institutional units. Examples include the investment in dwellings, roads, machinery and other durable equipment, patents and other intangible assets. 

Fixed assets are produced assets used for more than one year. It comprises both positive and negative values. With positive values we highlight: (i) the acquisition of new or existing fixed assets; (ii) new or existing fixed assets acquired by the user through a financial lease contract; (iii) substantial improvements in existing fixed assets and historical monuments; (iv) natural growth of natural assets from continued production. With negative values, we identify disposals of fixed assets, which are recorded as negative acquisitions. The gross fixed capital formation can be obtained as the difference between the gross capital formation (investment) and the change in inventories and the acquisitions less disposals of valuables.

Gross revenue corresponds to the tax revenue collected by the tax administration.

Gross value added (GVA) is an economic indicator that reflects the degree of incorporation of value generated by a company throughout the production process. GVA is the wealth generated in production, discounting the value of the goods and services consumed to obtain it, such as raw materials or the energy needed to generate new products. In aggregate terms, a company's GVA measures its contribution to the GDP of a given economy.