IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

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).

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