The budgets of national and federal governments in OECD countries face challenges to long-term fiscal sustainability from uncertainty in the economic outlook and spending pressures from, for example, an ageing population, technological innovation, or changing national priorities, such as national security. These challenges have prompted many OECD countries to look at the quality of budget institutions in the context of their own specific circumstances.
This report shows that budgeting is both an administrative and a political process that is designed to give effect to government policy priorities through the resourcing decisions in the annual budget. As such, budgets are an important instrument that shows how and the extent to which governments are responding to challenges and contributing the public’s trust in government.
This report presents the ten principles within the OECD Spending Better Framework and the budget frameworks, policies and practices in OECD countries in relation to that framework. It elaborates on the principles by showing that each one contributes to a holistic approach to budgeting. The report draws on the resources of the OECD Committee of Senior Budget Officials (SBO), including data from OECD surveys. This report contains data from eight OECD surveys, including the 2023 OECD SBO Survey on Budget Frameworks, the 2023 OECD Spending Reviews Survey, and the 2023 OECD Performance Budgeting Survey.
This report was prepared by the OECD Directorate for Public Governance (GOV) under the leadership of Elsa Pilichowski, Director. It was drafted by GOV’s Public Management and Budgeting Division, under the direction of Jón Blöndal, Head of Division. It was drafted by Sierd Hadley with co-authored contributions from Indre Bambalaite, Andrew Blazey, Titouan Chassagne, Laurence Dynes, Brian Finn, Anne Keller, Delphine Moretti, Scherie Nicol, Alfrun Tryggvadottir, and Camila Vammalle. This version reflects comments made at the 47th annual meeting of the OECD Committee of Senior Budget Officials on 5-6 June 2025 in London. Meral Gedik prepared the report for publication.