The state in StatRes - central government administration

StatRes is concerned with central government administration. This being one of the two subsectors of public administration; the other is local government administration, and statistics and indicators for this subsector are in KOSTRA (www.ssb.no/kostra).

Central government administration operates non-market-oriented organisations and is subject to direct political and administrative supervision and management. Central government administration is financed primarily by tax revenues. Its key tasks are service provision and redistribution between tax and transfers. Service provision encompasses general administration, the police force, the judicial system, education, health and social services and so forth; what typifies it is that the services are provided free or that the user only covers a small part of their costs. Central government administration is also responsible for much of the national infrastructure, such as highways, railways, ports and airports.

Redistribution is achieved, among other ways, by transferring tax revenues back to various user groups, through such means as pensions, national insurance payments and subsidies.

Public enterprises are not part of StatRes

Public administration does not cover the public enterprises, nor are the public enterprises included in StatRes. Public enterprises are companies which are owned or otherwise controlled by the public sector, but which may operate in markets in the same manner as private companies. In order for an enterprise to be considered a public enterprise, the public sector must own more than 50 percent of it. For statistical purposes, the public enterprises are classified under the main groups of non-financial and financial enterprises. The non-financial enterprises include companies such as StatoilHydro, Telenor ASA, Statkraft AS, Mesta AS and Posten Norge AS. The public financial enterprises include Norges Bank and government lending institutions such as the Norwegian State Housing Bank and the Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund.