The highest expenditure of the general government goes to social protection

 

31 January 2019

In 2017, total expenditure of the general government reached CZK 1 966 billion, which corresponds to 40.0% of the gross domestic product. Ministries and other central government, local government, health insurance companies as well as semi-budgetary organizations such as homes for children, museums, and theatres thus spent by CZK 84 billion more compared to the previous year.


Most of the expenditure went to social protection (CZK 605 billion), health (CZK 377 billion), economic affairs (CZK 287 billion), and education (CZK 233 billion). On the contrary, the lowest amounts were spent on housing and community amenities (CZK 30 billion), environmental protection and defence (CZK 41 billion each).

“Compared to 2016, expenditure increased by 4.4%, i.e. by CZK 84 billion. The highest increase was in health expenditure, namely by CZK 22 billion, followed by education, in which the increase was CZK 20 billion,” Marek Rojíček, President of the Czech Statistical Office (CZSO), specifies. As for individual types of expenditure, the highest increase was in capital expenditure (10.3%) and compensation of employees (10.1%), while capital transfers dropped by 13.4%.

Regarding international comparison, the analysis is based on data for the year 2016 as Eurostat has not published more recent data yet. “Compared to other Member States of the EU, the share of the general government expenditure was lower; in 2016 it was 39.4% of the gross domestic product, while the EU average was 46.2%,” Petr Musil, Director of the Government and Financial Accounts Department of the CZSO, informs. This share is the lowest from among countries of the Central Europe; the highest share was in Austria (50.3%). In the Czech Republic, 31.2% of the total general government expenditure went to social protection, which is the lowest amount from Central European countries; the EU average was 41.2%. Social expenditure made 12.3% of the gross domestic product, while the average of EU Member States was 19.0%.

 

Contact:
Jan Cieslar
Spokesman of the CZSO
T (+420) 274 052 017 | M (+420) 604 149 190
E jan.cieslar@czso.cz   | Twitter @statistickyurad

 

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