IAS 34 Interim Financial Reporting

An interim financial report is a complete or condensed set of financial statements for a period shorter than a financial year. IAS 34 does not specify which entities must publish an interim financial report. That is generally a matter for laws and government regulations. IAS 34 applies if an entity using IFRS Standards in its annual financial statements publishes an interim financial report that asserts compliance with IFRS Standards.

IAS 34 prescribes the minimum content of such an interim financial report. It also specifies the accounting recognition and measurement principles applicable to an interim financial report.

The minimum content is a set of condensed financial statements for the current period and comparative prior period information, ie statement of financial position, statement of comprehensive income, statement of cash flows, statement of changes in equity, and selected explanatory notes. In some cases, a statement of financial position at the beginning of the prior period is also required. Generally, information available in the entity’s most recent annual report is not repeated or updated in the interim report. The interim report deals with changes since the end of the last annual reporting period.

The same accounting policies are applied in the interim report as in the most recent annual report, or special disclosures are required if an accounting policy is changed. Assets and liabilities are recognised and measured for interim reporting on the basis of information available on a year-to-date basis. While measurements in both annual financial statements and interim financial reports are often based on reasonable estimates, the preparation of interim financial reports will generally require a greater use of estimation methods than annual financial statements.

In April 2001 the International Accounting Standards Board adopted IAS 34 Interim Financial Reporting, which had originally been issued by the International Accounting Standards Committee in 2000. IAS 34 that was issued in 2000 replaced the original version that was published in February 1998.

Other Standards have made minor consequential amendments to IAS 34. They include Improvements to IFRSs (issued May 2010), IFRS 13 Fair Value Measurement (issued May 2011), Presentation of Items of Other Comprehensive Income (Amendments to IAS 1) (issued June 2011), Annual Improvements to IFRSs 2009–2011 Cycle (issued May 2012), Investment Entities (Amendments to IFRS 10, IFRS 12 and IAS 27) (issued October 2012), IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers (issued May 2014), Annual Improvements to IFRSs 2012–2014 Cycle (issued September 2014), Disclosure Initiative (Amendments to IAS 1) (issued December 2014), IFRS 16 Leases (issued January 2016), IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts (issued May 2017), Amendments to References to the Conceptual Framework in IFRS Standards (issued March 2018) and Definition of Material (Amendments to IAS 1 and IAS 8) (issued October 2018) and Disclosure of Accounting Policies (issued February 2021).