Extrapolating these trends was bound to exacerbate the different trajectories. Allocations are made to programmes or institutions as a proportion of available resources and/or total spending rather than the overall size of the economy. Moreover, using GDP as a denominator for projections related to social protection spending, total public spending and public revenues means that their dynamics are closely connected by a variable that is exogenous to budgetary decisions. This reflects the problem with benchmarking government spending on a specific sector as a proportion of GDP to gauge a government’s commitment.