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France’s Government Spending Against Its Peers
General government total expenditure, % of GDP, yearly: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the United States
5 of 6 series are above their level a year earlier·1 of 6 is at a five-year low
Plays the chart through its history. Pauses are where the data set a record or moved most.
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OECD Economic Outlook (CC BY 4.0): general government, which includes central, state and local governments and social security funds. The latest year is the OECD’s estimate. Germany’s series starts after reunification.
France spends a larger share of its economy through government than any of these peers, and has done so for most of the past three decades. Spending everywhere jumped in 2020, when output fell and pandemic support rose.
What this chart reads·6 series
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- France · Government Spending · % GDPas “France”latest 2025-12-31
- Germany · Government Spending · % GDPas “Germany”latest 2025-12-31
- Italy · Government Spending · % GDPas “Italy”latest 2025-12-31
- Spain · Government Spending · % GDPas “Spain”latest 2025-12-31
- United Kingdom · Government Spending · % GDPas “United Kingdom”latest 2025-12-31
- United States · Government Spending · % GDPas “United States”latest 2025-12-31
Sources·6 sources
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France · Government Spending · % GDP. Source: OECD Economic Outlook (CC BY 4.0), general government, annual. Palanor reads the standard definition where the OECD publishes one and the country-specific definition otherwise; points carry definition: country-specific in their metadata when the latter applies.
Germany · Government Spending · % GDP. Source: OECD Economic Outlook (CC BY 4.0), general government, annual. Palanor reads the standard definition where the OECD publishes one and the country-specific definition otherwise; points carry definition: country-specific in their metadata when the latter applies.
Italy · Government Spending · % GDP. Source: OECD Economic Outlook (CC BY 4.0), general government, annual. Palanor reads the standard definition where the OECD publishes one and the country-specific definition otherwise; points carry definition: country-specific in their metadata when the latter applies.
Spain · Government Spending · % GDP. Source: OECD Economic Outlook (CC BY 4.0), general government, annual. Palanor reads the standard definition where the OECD publishes one and the country-specific definition otherwise; points carry definition: country-specific in their metadata when the latter applies.
United Kingdom · Government Spending · % GDP. Source: OECD Economic Outlook (CC BY 4.0), general government, annual. Palanor reads the standard definition where the OECD publishes one and the country-specific definition otherwise; points carry definition: country-specific in their metadata when the latter applies.
United States · Government Spending · % GDP. Source: OECD Economic Outlook (CC BY 4.0), general government, annual. Palanor reads the standard definition where the OECD publishes one and the country-specific definition otherwise; points carry definition: country-specific in their metadata when the latter applies.
Charts are drawn from Palanor's signal library and recomputed from source data on every view. Transformations (changes, indexing, year-on-year rates) are Palanor's.