Purpose There is an increasing demand by practitioners to have current data on the economic and functional composition of public spending internationally. Generally, this type of information can provide guidance on the composition of public spending across countries. Each country sheet in this dataset includes country-specific information on expenditures, revenues and grants by local currency unit (LCU), as a percentage of GDP and as a percentage of total expenditure. The country sheets are meant to provide ‘at a glance’ information on expenditure trends over a 10 year period (or for however many years the data are available), regional averages and comparisons across countries. Data Source Government Finance Statistics: The functional and economic raw data were obtained from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) Government Finance Statistics database. The IMF describes the GFS system as “...a set of economic and statistical concepts, accounting rules, and classification guidelines for organizing data on general government sector operations in a systematic manner.” The IMF systematically collects data from countries on public spending at the central government level. The indicators that were selected for the dataset are based on tables A., B and C in the IMF’s Government Finance Statistics.
Dataset Irregularities
In some cases country data from the GFS were not available for all years. In such instances, the 5 year averages were calculated based on the number of years of data available during the periods 1990-1994 and 1995-1999. A second irregularity of the dataset relates to the functional tables, particularly in the Africa region. Since functional data has been sparsely captured in this region, many of the functional tables were purposely omitted. As these data are made available in future GFS publications, the information will be updated in the dataset. Finally, not all countries have been included in the dataset due to data availability in the GFS. The datasets will be updated to reflect country data as they become available. Region Definitions The regional groupings of countries in the database are based on the World Bank’s classification, which is made up of Africa, East Asia & Pacific, Europe & Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia (see map below). In addition to the regions listed above, groupings of countries in the OECD, Western Europe and North America have been included to facilitate easier comparisons across neighboring countries, income groups and regions. Note that countries may appear in more than one grouping, e.g., Australia will be found in the East Asia & Pacific grouping as well as the OECD grouping of countries.
Data Access The data has been sorted by country, region and income level, and can be downloaded as a Pdf or an Excel file.
Indicators The indicators are based on the fourteen major functional categories and 17 major economic categories outlined in the GFS. These indicators are listed below. Indicators by Functional Classification Indicators by Economic Classification
General Public Services Defense Public Order and Safety Education Health Social Security and Welfare Housing and Community Amenities Recreational, Cultural and Religious Affairs Fuel and Energy Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing Mining and Mineral Resource Manufacturing and Construction Transportation and Communication Other Economic Affairs and Services Other Expenditures Total Revenue & Grants Total Revenue Current Revenue Tax Revenue Nontax Revenue Capital Revenue Grants Total Expenditure Current Expenditure Current Expenditure on Goods & ServicesWages & Salaries; Employer Contributions Other Purchases of Goods & Services Interest Payments Subsidies & Other Current Transfers Subsidies Other Current Transfers Capital Expenditure The IMF’s Government Finance Statistics Manual, 2001 provides detailed definitions for each of these indicators. To access the manual, please click here. Queries If you have any questions or suggestions regarding this dataset, please e-mail publicexpenditure@worldbank.org. |
RSS