spending
Social
Protection
& Health
{economy}
Spending related
to social protection and
health as a percentage
of total
Expenditure
on the Rise
general
government
expenditure was
lowest in Cyprus
Interest payments to service debt account
for 13.9 % of total public spending in Greece
By Kyproula Papachristodoulou
S
ocial protection and health
are the two main areas in the
European Union where public
money is directed. Over the
past few years, spending by
governments on these has
increased relative to GDP. According to the
latest available Eurostat figures, in 2011, EU-27
general government expenditure amounted to
49.1% of GDP. More than half was devoted to
social protection and health, which accounted
for 19.6% and 7.3% respectively of GDP
(slightly down compared with 19.9% and 7.5%
respectively in 2010). Other areas comprising a
large share of government expenditure are general public services (6.6% of GDP), education
(5.3%) and economic affairs (4.0 %).
General government expenditure amounted
to around €6.2 trillion in 2011 in the EU-27.
As a ratio to GDP, the highest levels of government expenditure were found in Denmark,
France, Finland and Belgium, all with proportions above 53% of GDP.
In ten of the twelve Member States that
joined the EU in 2004 and 2007, total general
government expenditure remained below or
around 46% of GDP. Among the ‘old’ EU
Member States, Luxembourg had the lowest
proportion at 42.0% of its GDP. Of all the
reporting countries, Switzerland had the lowest government expenditure relative to GDP
(33.8%). Defence, public order and safety,
environmental protection, housing and community amenities and recreation, culture and
religion represented a total of 6.0 % of EU-27
GDP in 2011. From 2010 to 2011, in terms
EU – 27 and EA-17 general government
expenditure by main function as % of GDP, 2011
20.2 19.6
20
% of gdp
15
10
20.2 19.6
6.8 6.6
5
1.5 1.3 1.9 1.8
0
5.0 5.3
4.1 4.0
General
public
services
Source: Eurostat
Defence
Public order
and safety
EA-17
Eu-27
0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9
Economic
affairs
Enviromental Housing and
protection community
1.1 1.1
Health
Recreation, Education
culture
and religion
Social
protection
of GDP, general government total expenditure decreased for all functions except general
public services, which increased largely due to
increases in interest payable. For instance, general public services represent nearly a quarter
of total expenditure in Greece (versus 13.5 %
for EU-27) – interest payments to service
debt alone account for 13.9% of total public )