Other Expense as a Share of Government Expense by Country in 2023

World Bank indicator GC.XPN.OTHR.ZS measures other expense as a percentage of total government expense. In this statistical definition, “other expense” is not an unlabeled or unexplained spending bucket. It includes items such as dividends, rent, miscellaneous expenses, and provision related to consumption of fixed capital. The latest non-empty file contains 152 observations, but only one is from 2024. The largest recent same-year group is 2023 with 85 economies, so the direct comparison uses that group.

Other expense is a defined fiscal category

The source definition includes dividends, rent, other miscellaneous expenses, and provision related to consumption of fixed capital. The word “other” therefore should not be interpreted as spending that governments could not classify or as evidence of waste.

Government finance statistics organize transactions by economic category. Other expense is one defined component outside the major categories, not an evaluative label about the quality or legitimacy of spending.

The denominator ‘expense’ is also a specific accounting concept

The World Bank describes expense as a decrease in net worth resulting from a transaction. That concept is not necessarily identical to every cash outflow, every budget appropriation, or total government expenditure in everyday usage.

The indicator should therefore be read as the share of this defined other-expense category within total expense under the underlying government-finance framework.

It is not government spending as a share of GDP

A 20% other-expense share does not mean the government spends 20% of GDP on other expense. The denominator is total expense, not GDP.

To compare the size of government spending relative to the economy, a GDP-denominated fiscal indicator is needed. This series instead describes the internal composition of expense.

The 2023 mean is 8.20% and the median is 6.92%

The 2023 subset contains 85 economies. Its mean is 8.20% and median 6.92%. The first quartile is 3.53% and the third quartile 11.32%, placing the middle half roughly between 3.53% and 11.32%.

53 observations are at least 5%, 25 are at least 10%, and 5 reach 20% or more. At the lower end, 7 are below 2%. None of the 2023 observations is negative.

Singapore is highest in 2023 at 30.48%

Singapore records 30.48%, followed by Turkiye at 29.24%, Kenya at 26.43%, Uzbekistan at 21.74%, and Costa Rica at 20.85%. Chile, Armenia, Mauritius, Macao SAR, China, and the United Kingdom are also above roughly 16%.

A high share means the defined other-expense category occupies a relatively large part of total expense. It does not by itself establish inefficient government, fiscal waste, or poor budget management.

Malaysia is lowest in 2023 at 0.28%

At the lower end, Malaysia records 0.28%, Papua New Guinea 0.29%, Madagascar 0.69%, Philippines 0.77%, Kazakhstan 1.05%, Namibia 1.44%, and Jordan 1.90%.

A low share means other expense is a small part of total expense. Compensation of employees, use of goods and services, interest, or other categories may occupy larger shares, but this indicator alone does not identify which category explains the difference.

Only Tanzania has a 2024 observation

The sole 2024 observation is Tanzania at 0.16%. With only one economy, 2024 cannot support a meaningful global ranking, mean, or median.

For that reason, the article keeps 2024 visible in the latest-value table but uses the 85 observations from 2023 for same-year descriptive statistics and country comparisons.

The full latest-value range is mixed-year data

Across all 152 latest observations, values range from -0.30% to 42.80%. Those endpoints, however, come from different years. Treating them as one current single-year ranking would hide the vintage difference.

Some latest observations date back to the 1990s and 2000s. The same-year 2023 group is therefore a better basis for current cross-country comparison than the full mixed-year file.

The only negative latest value is Bahrain in 2015

Among all 152 latest observations, only Bahrain is negative, at -0.30% in 2015. The source value is preserved as reported and is not zero-filled or inserted into the 2023 low-value ranking.

The supplied data do not explain the accounting reason for this single negative observation. It is therefore better to preserve the value and year without speculating about its cause.

Compensation of employees provides a useful complementary view

Government expense also contains major categories such as compensation of employees. A compensation share measures the portion used for employee remuneration, while this indicator covers the separate other-expense category.

Viewing several fiscal-composition indicators together can reveal how expense structures differ across governments, provided the years and accounting coverage are aligned.

A high share is not the same as a large monetary amount

A small government with a 25% other-expense share can spend less in absolute terms than a large government with a 5% share. This indicator is a percentage and therefore measures composition rather than monetary scale.

Absolute comparisons require total expense levels and the underlying monetary amount of other expense, not the percentage alone.

Accounting coverage and country practices still matter

International fiscal statistics aim for comparability, but government coverage, accounting practices, and data availability can vary by country and year. Older observations may be particularly distant from current fiscal structures.

Small differences should therefore be interpreted cautiously, with the observation year and source definition kept visible.

The 152 latest observations span 1990–2024

The latest non-empty file contains 152 observations spanning 1990–2024. The largest group is 2023 with 85 economies, followed by 2022 with 23, 2021 with 14, and 2020 with 9. Only one observation is from 2024.

The complete file should therefore not be presented as a 2024 ranking of 152 economies. It is an inventory of each economy’s latest non-empty value, while the 2023 group provides the largest recent same-year comparison.

Complete list of the 152 latest observations

The table below lists every economy and territory’s latest non-empty observation in alphabetical order. Observation year is shown because older values should not be read as directly comparable to 2023 without qualification.

How to interpret the comparison

First, other expense is a defined government-finance category rather than an unlabeled miscellaneous bucket. Second, expense is a specific net-worth transaction concept. Third, the ratio is not spending as a share of GDP or a share of the entire budget in every accounting sense.

Fourth, percentages do not reveal absolute spending amounts. Fifth, the latest 152 observations mix years, so direct comparisons center on the 85 observations from 2023. Sixth, the single old negative value is preserved without unsupported explanation.

Source and calculation

The source is World Bank World Development Indicators GC.XPN.OTHR.ZS, Other expense (% of expense). The 2023 mean, median, quartiles, threshold counts, and rankings use only the 85 observations dated 2023. The complete table preserves each economy’s latest non-empty observation, totaling 152 rows.

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