Definition: Central (or federal) government

Category: Frascati Manual

Central (or federal) government is generally composed of a central group of departments or ministries that make up a single institutional unit – this unit is often referred to as the national government and the unit covered by the main budget account – plus, in many countries, other institutional units. The departments may be responsible for considerable amounts of R&D expenditure (for intramural or extramural R&D) within the framework of the government’s overall budget, but often they are not separate institutional units capable of owning assets, incurring liabilities, engaging in transactions, etc., independently of central government as a whole. Their revenues as well as expenses and expenditures are normally regulated and controlled by a Ministry of Finance or its functional equivalent by means of a general budget approved by the legislature. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ramon/statmanuals/files/Frascati-Manual-2015_EN.pdf