General government revenue and expenditure, 1995-2005

In the last decade there has been a strong increase in general government revenue. Total revenue amounted to more than NOK 1 000 billion in 2005. This is more than twice as much as in 1995, when total revenue was NOK 474 billion (all numbers are in current prices). The increase in government revenue is mainly due to high oil prices that allocate a high income from petroleum activities. The increased petroleum-related revenue primarily comes from operating profits from the State`s Direct Financial Interest (SFDI) and as higher government tax revenue.

Higher surplus despite growth in expenditure

General government total expenditure has also increased in the period, from NOK 444 billion in 1995 to NOK 766 billion in 2005. Transfers to the private sector amounted to NOK 192 billion in 1995, and increased to NOK 318 billion in 2005. Pensions make up the highest share of the transfers, while sickness and maternity benefits and vocational rehabilitation benefits have had the highest relative increase. Final consumption expenditure amounted NOK 204 and NOK 391 billion respectively in 1995 and 2005. Expenditure has increased, but revenue has increased even more. Net lending as a per cent of GDP was 3.2 per cent in 1995, and in 2005 this share was 15.2 per cent. This measurement of surplus must be interpreted with caution as it varies considerably due to changing revenue from the petroleum sector.

Many reforms

Since the beginning of the 1990s there has been a considerable number of reorganisations and reforms in general government. These reforms have been carried out using different measures, including increased use of net budgeting, the transfer of tasks from one level of government to another, the creation of public corporations and privatisation.

Central government has been changed through net budgeting of government activities. Net budgeting implies that units with a high degree of independence in professional or value matters are given special authorities when it comes to resource allocation and internal management. Among these are the Norwegian Research Council, universities, colleges and capital management units such as the Government Pension Fund - Global (previously the Government Petroleum Fund) and the Government Pension Fund - Norway (previously the National Insurance Scheme Fund). These units’ development is presented in the table "Other central government and social security accounts".

The creation of public corporations implies that these units no longer are a part of general government, and therefore are excluded from these statistics. There are examples of this in the period, for instance the production activities of the Norwegian Public Roads administration were transferred to the new public corporation Mesta AS in 2003.

There are also examples of public corporations which have been privatised in the period, with Telenor and Statoil being the most important. Telenor was transformed from a state monopoly to a commercial public corporation in 1994, in 2000 the company was partly privatised and it is now traded on the stock exchange. The same was the case for Statoil in 2001.

In some parts of the period 1995-2005, local government has experienced a rather difficult financial situation. As a result, local authorities have looked for ways to organise their services more efficiently. For instance, a number of units have been separated from the primary activities and organised as local government enterprises, municipal enterprises or inter municipal enterprises.

More tasks for central government

The responsibility for a number of welfare tasks has been moved between the levels of government. The most important change is that the responsibility for hospitals was transferred from the county municipalities to the central government in 2002, leading to a move of approximately 100 000 employees from local government to central government.

Figures from 1999 are presented under "tables". Previous years can be found in StatBank.