Figure2: The Composition of Sub-Central Government Expenditure5
(as a percentage of general government totals in each category)
Wage Bill
Transfers
Source: IMF Government Financial Statistics (2002 edition)
3: Fiscal Consolidations
In this section we set out our definition of a fiscal consolidation attempt; the methodology
employed to identify consolidation attempts; and the approach taken to measure their success
or failure. In common with the existing literature we define a fiscal consolidation as a
discretionary attempt to improve general government fiscal balances. In order to focus on
discretionary policy actions it is necessary to abstract from the effects of automatic stabilisers,
we also abstract from interest payments since these reflect earlier borrowing and are affected
by changes in monetary policy. This leads us to focus on changes in the structural primary
balance as a proportion of GDP.
5 Note that GFS does not split sub-central current spending into wage and non-wage components for Australia.