Government expenditure and agriculture: changes in agri-orientation of the European Union countries

The aim of the paper is to evaluate the fl uctuations of central government expenditure on agriculture, the agriculture share of GDP and the level of national economies orientation on agriculture in the European Union (EU) countries, divided into the elder EU democracies and the post-communist EU member states. In the study, the agricultural orientation index for central government expenditure (AOI) was calculated. The data came from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Bank. The analysis covered the period 2001–2016, due to the data availability. The results were presented mainly using Japanese candlestick charting. In most EU countries shrinking national expenditure on agriculture in relation to other spending categories were observed. That decrease was twice bigger in the elder EU democracies than in the post-communist countries although the fi rst group of countries was spending on agriculture four times less. In almost all EU member states a reduction of more than 20% in the share of the agriculture in GDP creation was observed. The post-communist EU countries were more agri-oriented than the elder EU democracies. Taking into account the AOI levels, agriculture did not belong to top priority spending categories for EU national governments. The visible differences between the two country groups have roots in the postwar diverse economic development caused by political heritage. The performed research is comparative and should be treated as a contribution to future studies.