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Macroeconomic PolicyFIGURE 5.4Total Current, Central Fund and Supply Services Expenditure as aPercentage of GNP, 1987-2002Source: Department of Finance. The 2002 figures are from Budget 2003.While declining relative to GNP for much of the 1990s, supplyservices expenditure has grown in real terms throughout the 1990s.The growth has been particularly high in the most recent years. Theaverage annual rate of growth of current expenditure between 1989and 2001 was 9.1 per cent in nominal terms and 5.3 per cent in realterms. Growth rates have been particularly high in more recentyears. The annual average increase between 1999 and 2001 was15.5 per cent in nominal terms and 10.3 per cent in real terms. Theincrease in 2002 was approximately 15 per cent in nominal termsand close to 10 per cent in real terms.185