Shares in %
2024 expenditure by task area
The largest federal task area is social welfare, which accounts for almost a third of expenditure (32.7%). This expenditure is bound by law and therefore barely controllable in the medium term. Half of the expenditure goes to old-age and survivors' insurance (AHV). Other areas include federal contributions to disability insurance (IV), individual premium reductions and AHV and IV supplementary benefits, as well as migration expenditure. Expenditure growth depends largely on demographic developments, as well as inflation and salary trends. Due to the aging of the population, this expenditure is growing rapidly.
Finances and taxes account for 14.9% of expenditure. Expenditure growth in this area can be influenced only in the long term. The shares of federal receipts, for example, are set out in the Constitution and depend directly on the amount of receipts. Interest expenditure is determined by debt and the development of interest rates. Finally, national fiscal equalization expenditure is also regulated by law. This is intended to ensure that each canton has sufficient financial resources to perform its tasks.
Transportation accounts for 13.4% of expenditure. It includes expenditure on rail and public transportation (71%), road transportation (27%) and aviation (2%). Transportation expenditure is financed primarily by earmarked tax receipts and is thus largely restricted. Most of this is channeled into the railway infrastructure fund (RIF) and the motorway and urban transportation fund, through which the operation, maintenance and extension of the transportation infrastructure are financed.
The education and research task area accounts for 9.3% of expenditure, and around 85% of it is steered by the payment frameworks and guarantee credits requested with the 2021-2024 ERI dispatch (BBl 2020 3681). In 2024, expenditure will follow the parliamentary decisions on the 2021-2024 ERI dispatch, taking account of the decisions made by the Federal Council to adjust the budget. In the financial plan years, the funds are allocated according to the consultation draft for the 2025-2028 ERI dispatch. Switzerland is not currently associated with EU research programs, which is why comprehensive transitional measures are planned. Association to the Horizon package as soon as possible remains the goal.
Security accounts for 7.7% of expenditure. More than 80% of security expenditure is attributable to military national defense. A real growth rate of 1.4% was planned for Armed Forces spending on operations, armaments and investments in the 2021-2024 payment framework, but the motions submitted after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine (22.3367 SPC-N and 22.3374 SPC-S) call for Armed Forces expenditure to be gradually raised to 1% of GDP by 2030. In view of the situation concerning the federal finances, the Federal Council decided in January 2023 to envisage a gradual increase through to 2035 (instead of 2030).
About 4.0% of expenditure is budgeted for agriculture and food. Direct payments account for roughly three quarters of this (2.8 bn). With the implementation of parliamentary initiative 19.475 (risk reduction methods for plant protection products and nutrient losses) and the legislative amendments to the 2022 agricultural policy (AP22+), decisions already made by Parliament are implemented in the current plan. In another stage in the further development of agricultural policy, the focus will be increasingly placed on the entire food system from 2030 onward. Consequently, there will be no additional reforms in the next agricultural dispatch for 2026 to 2029, and only the agricultural payment frameworks will be submitted to Parliament for approval. The funds for agriculture will decrease in the budget year 2024 due to the adjustment measures to comply with the debt brake. They will remain more or less constant in nominal terms from 2024 onward.
The international relations task area accounts for 4.2% of budgeted expenditure. Over three quarters of its expenditure goes to development cooperation. Most of the remainder is attributable to political relations, i.e. Swiss diplomatic and consular representations and expenditure for international organizations. The Federal Council defines the strategic focus of international cooperation (IC) every four years. The FDFA and the EAER submitted the explanatory report on international cooperation in the period 2025 to 2028 for public consultation on June 9, 2023.
The five remaining task areas (institutional and financial conditions, culture and leisure, health, protection of the environment and spatial planning, economic relations) account for 13.8% of expenditure.
Development of selected 2024 expenditure items by task area
in CHF mn and %
Expenditure is budgeted at 89.7 billion for 2024. Despite adjustment measures, it is up by 4.1% (3.5 bn) on the 2023 budget (86.2 bn), which is almost twice as much as receipts (2.1%). This includes expenditure of 6.4 billion requested as extraordinary expenditure (2023 budget: 5.7 bn). Aside from the expenditure for people from Ukraine seeking protection (1.2 bn) and for the rescue mechanism for the electricity industry (4 bn), which was already budgeted as extraordinary expenditure in 2023, a one-time capital contribution for the financial stabilization of SBB is also included in 2024 (1.2 bn). Excluding extraordinary expenditure, the budget's growth rate is 3.6% (2.9 bn), which is somewhat faster than that of the economy (nominal GDP: 3.0%). The main growth areas are social welfare (federal contributions to AHV and individual premium reductions: +1.5 bn and +0.3 bn, respectively) and finances and taxes (debt interest and third parties' shares of federal receipts: +0.5 bn each).
Development of 2024 expenditure
in CHF bn and % of GDP
Expenditure growth for 2024 is set to be 4.1%. As nominal GDP is expected to grow by only 3.0%, the Confederation's expenditure ratio will rise from 10.4% to 10.5% of GDP. The expenditure ratio will decline again in subsequent years, in the absence of extraordinary expenditure. The expenditure ratio is a rough indicator of the extent of Confederation's activities relative to the overall economy.
Data
Detailed data for longer periods are available under the following links:
- Link data portal
- Link Open Government Data
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Last modification 24.08.2023