General government expenditures are classified according to an international classification: COFOG (Classification of the Functions of the Government) or, in French, CFAP (Classification des fonctions des administrations publiques).

This classification allows the breakdown of general government expenditures in 10 categories by purpose (general public services, defence, public order and security, economic affairs, environmental protection, housing and community amenities, health, recreation, culture and religion, education, social protection) and to value their respective importance.

Field of general government and amont of expenditures are those of national accounting.

By convention, expenditure of debt interests, when the purpose of this interest expenditure cannot be distinguished, are recorded under the "General public services" function. Thus, public debt interests are recorded as "General public services" whereas those paid by social security funds are divided between "Health" and "Social protection", the only functions which they serve. Allocation of transfer expenditures (current transfers or capital transfers) is made according to the financed expenditure when this one is identified. On the contrary, it is, by convention, recorded as "General public services". This is the case of the total operating grant (dotation globale de fonctionnement - DGF) paid by central government to local governments. These conventions make this purpose of expenditure more difficult to read by sub-sector. The delicate split between health expenditure and social protection expenditure may distort international results comparability.

Are recorded in the French accounts: