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Syria Expenditures
Proposed expenditures matched proposed revenues because
budgets submitted for approval were balanced. However, actual
expenditures usually fell considerably short of those planned,
although the fragmentary data available in 1987 generally
precluded measurement of the amount of difference. In the 1980s,
budgets began including planned deficits, and investment spending
repeatedly trailed allocations. Only 70 percent of Syria's 1984
investment budget of LS17.85 million was actually spent.
Expenditures fell under two headings--the ordinary budget
covering current (recurring) expenditures and the development
(capital) budget. Beginning in the early 1960s, capital
investments had become a much more important part of the budget.
Development expenditures amounted to 42 percent of total
expenditures in 1964, increased to 50 percent in 1970, and peaked
at 64 percent in 1976. However, by 1980, development expenditures
had fallen back to 50 percent and in 1985 fell to 45 percent of
total expenditures. In the 1980s, normal proposed revenues
(taxes, duties, fees, and surpluses of public sector enterprises)
usually financed proposed current expenditures, with a small
remainder to help with capital investments. Foreign aid and
domestic borrowing financed the rest of the development budget.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, defense spending dominated
current expenditures. Some observers maintained that in the 1970s
defense spending accounted for approximately three-fifths of
current expenditures, although such amounts were not reflected in
official statistics
(see fig. 2,
Government Expenditures by Sector, 1985).
Offically, defense spending rose from LS675
million in 1970 to LS4.6 billion in 1978, increasing at an
average rate of 27 percent a year during this period. In the 1985
budget, defense spending again accounted for the greatest portion
of current expenditures. However, the LS13 billion 1985 defense
budget reflected only a 9 percent rate of growth, slower than
that in previous years. However, a related item, internal
security expenditures, accounted for a further LS672 million in
the 1985 budget. Most of the remainder of current expenditures
covered operating expenses of ministries and agencies--largely
personnel costs
(see table 7,
Summary of Proposed Budget Expenditures, 1981-85, Appendix).
Identifiable payments on the public debt amounted to LS135
million in 1976 and 1977, less than 1 percent of total
expenditures. The 1984 budget allocated LS1.8 billion to the
public debt, equal to 7.6 percent of current expenditures.
Identifiable price subsidies amounted to LS600 million in
1977 and LS1.4 billion in 1985, accounting for 9 percent and 6
percent of current expenditures. Subsidies rose rapidly in the
mid-1970s as a result of higher rates of internal and
international inflation. The government attempted to keep meat,
bread, coffee, sugar, diesel fuel (for irrigation pumps), and
other essential items within reach of the poor; the subsidized
prices for sugar and diesel fuel, for example, were about onequarter of the regular market price in the 1980s.
In the 1970s, the government demonstrated its commitment to
economic development through sizable increases in the development
budget by increasing investment expenditures an average of 26
percent a year. Although they increased substantially from LS1.4
billion in 1970 to LS14 billion in 1980, growth of investment
expenditures slowed to just 6 percent a year in the 1980s.
Data as of April 1987
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