The government budget balance is used to assess the fiscal health of a country.

The primary budget balance equals the government budget balance before interest payments.

Keynesian economics advocates a government budget deficit during recession or downturn as long as it is limited enough to render the structural government budget balance positive.

The overall government budget balance is determined by the sum of the the cyclical deficit or surplus and the structural deficit or surplus (refer to chart).

The twin deficits hypothesis, also called the double deficit hypothesis or twin deficits anomaly, is a concept from macroeconomics that contends that there is a strong link between a national economy's current account balance and its government budget balance.

The Government budget balance, also commonly referred to as general government balance, public budget balance, or public fiscal balance, is the overall result of a country's general government budget over the course of an accounting period, usually one year.