Budget expenditures are an important tool of fiscal policy, as part of the state
fiscal policy, whose social purpose is to ensure the state's implementation of its social
function. The ongoing large-scale reforms in Ukraine, in particular, fiscal and tax, help
to find ways to improve population living standard, but existing social problems are
not substantially solved. In conditions of financial and economic instability of Ukraine,
limited budget funds reduce the ability of budgets to finance expenditures in general
and social. Analysis of the structure of expenditures of the social direction of the
Consolidated Budget of Ukraine in the context of the functional classification (Table
1) shows that about 60% of all expenditures are directed towards social expenditures.
Table 1 Analysis of the structure of expenditures of social direction of
Consolidated Budget of Ukraine for 2013 -2017 in terms of functional classification
Indicator
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
Total Expenditures of
budget, billion UAH
416.9
492.5
505.8
523.1
679.9
835.6
1056.7
Healthcare, billion UAH
49.0
58.5
61.2
57.2
71.0
75.4
102.4
%
11.8
11.9
12.2
10.9
10.4
9.0
9.7
Education, billion UAH
86.3
101.6
105.5
100.1
114.2
129.4
177.8
%
20.7
20.6
20.8
19.1
16.8
15.5
16.8
Spiritual and physical
development, billion UAH
10.8
13.6
13.7
13.8
16.2
16.9
24.3
%
2.6
2.8
2.7
2.6
2.4
2.0
2.3
Total social sphere, billion
UAH
146.1
173.7
180.8
171.1
201.4
221.7
304.2
%
35.0
35.3
35.7
32.7
29.6
26.5
28.8
Social care and social
security, billion UAH
105.4
125.3
145.1
138.0
176.3
258.3
285.8
%
25.3
25.4
28.7
26.4
25.9
30.9
27.1
Total expenditures for social
purposes, billion UAH
251.5
299.0
325.9
309.1
377.7
480.0
590.0
%
60.3
60.7
64.4
59.1
55.6
57.4
55.8
Source: Calculated by the author according to [2; 3; 10]
At the same time, the downward trend in the share of expenditures on social care
and social security continued from 2013 (28.7%) to 2015 (25.9%) and after jump in
2016 (30.9%) continued again in 2017 (27,1%), but slower. During this period, the
amount of social expenditures in the Consolidated Budget of Ukraine increased from
145.1 billion UAH to 285.8 billion UAH, or almost 2 times. Sharp increase occurred
in 2016, where share of such expenditures increased by 5.6% in comparison with the
previous year; in 2017 it reduced. At the same time, in general, share of outlay on social
care and social security in the structure of expenditures of the Consolidated Budget of
Ukraine tends to decrease, except 2016, where it is observed to increase by 5.6%
compared to 2015, which has the lowest indicator for years of observation, although
the amount of social expenditures for this period increased. The exception was the 2014
year, which marks beginning of anti-terrorist operation in the east of Ukraine,
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