Government Finance Statistics (GFS)

Expense of government, category

Expense refers to the decrease in economic benefits or service potential, during the reporting period, in the form of outflows or consumption of assets or incurrence of liabilities that result in decreases in equity, other than those relating to distributions to owners.

Government refers to unique kinds of legal entities established by political processes that have legislative, judicial or executive authority over other institutional units within a given area. Viewed as institutional units, the principal functions of government are to assume responsibility for the provision of goods and services to the community or to individual households and to finance their provision out of taxation or other incomes; to redistribute income and wealth by means of transfers; and to engage in non-market production.

The data for this variable are reported using the following classifications and/or lists:

• Canadian Government Finance Statistics (CGFS) 2014 Version 1.2