Keith Bradsher, In Hong Kong, a Budget With a Surfeit of Surpluses; Low social spending and no military mean consistent budget surpluses. New York Times, Feb 28, 2013.
two consecutive paragraphs:
"The Asian financial hub consistently runs budget surpluses mainly because it has low social spending and no military to fund. By comparison, the federal government in the United States dedicates about half its spending to assistance to the elderly and directs another quarter of its spending to the military.
"The Hong Kong government is sharply increasing social spending in percentage terms, but from such a low base, this expenditure still falls short of revenues. And after years of accumulated surpluses, the city is sitting on fiscal reserves accumulated from previous surpluses equal to 23 months’ total spending.
My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest.
(b) For federal outlays, see United States federal budget http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget
(first pie chart headlined "US Federal Spending--Fiscal Year 2012 ($ Billions)" with "Source Data: CBO Historical Tables")
(c) Hong Kong: The Fact. Information Services Department, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, December 2012. http://www.gov.hk/en/about/about ... /public_finance.pdf
("Financial Results: For 2011-12, Government recorded a surplus of $73.7 billion. Fiscal reserves at the end of March 2012 stood at $669.1 billion. Government revenue in 2011-12 amounted to $437.7 billion and expenditure $364.0 billion")
CIA World Factbook (2013) for Hong Kong: "Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: $299.6 billion (31 December 2012 est)"