Government at a Glance Southeast Asia 2019
Government at a Glance Southeast Asia 2019 is the first edition in the Government at a Glance series for the region. It provides the latest available data on public administrations in the 10 ASEAN member countries: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam. This publication includes indicators on public finance and economics, public employment, budget practices and procedures, strategic human resources management, digital government, open government and citizen satisfaction with public services. Where possible, these data were compared against the OECD average and that of the neighbouring OECD member countries, such as Australia, Korea, Japan and New Zealand.
Each indicator in the publication is presented in a user-friendly format, consisting of graphs and/or charts illustrating variations across countries and over time, brief descriptive analyses highlighting the major findings conveyed by the data, and a methodological section on the definition of the indicator and any limitations in data comparability.
General government expenditures
Governments spend money to provide goods and services, redistribute income and pursue economic development objectives. The amount of financial resources that governments spend provides an indication of the public sector’s size, although this does not necessarily reflect its performance. Though government expenditures are usually less elastic than government revenues, they are also sensitive to economic developments associated with macroeconomic conditions and the business cycle. They also reflect past and current political decisions.