National government spending breaks the R1 trillion mark
The South African national government expenditure surpassed R1 trillion
in the 2012/13 fiscal year, almost double the R567 billion spent in
2007/08. This was a finding from Stats SA’s Financial Statistics of
National Government report, an annual release containing details of
national government spending. Exploring expenditure trends over the
last six years, the report shows that the increase in expenditure was
mostly driven by increased allocations from national government to
provincial governments. This increased from about R298 billion (53%) in
2007/08 to about R550 billion in 2012/13, to 54% of the total
expenditure. This indicates the increased importance of the role of
provinces in the South African government.
Using financial data from 40 government departments, the report
measures the impact of both the economic and functional effect of
government spending, gauging the extent of the cost of certain
functions (for example, health, education, defence) against their
economic impacts (for example, salaries and wages). This provides a
picture of not only what national government is spending money on, but
also provides an indication of the impact that the spending has on the
economy of South Africa.
Other major contributions to the expenditure, when classified by
economic use, includes social benefits (11% or R110 billion) and
compensation of national government employees (10% or R105 billion).The
main contributors to compensation of employees was public order and
safety (R67 billion) and defence (R17 billion).
When the R1 trillion is classified by function, major contributors to
spending were general public services (53% or R533 billion); social
protection (11% or R114 billion), which includes old age, family and
children’s grants (R105 billion); public order and safety (10% or R97
billion); and economic affairs (9% or R87 billion). Expenditure for
defence was R38 billion (4% of total expenditure).
Full report here:
http://beta2.statssa.gov.za/publications/P91193/P911932013.pdf
