The bar graph illustrates the distributions of government expenditure on roads and transport across four nations over a period of 15 years, starting from 1990 to 2005.
Overall, it is clear that Italy, Portugal, and the UK exhibited a downward trajectory in the percentage of money allocated to roads and transport; the USA was a notable exception, with some fluctuations. Notably, Portugal consistently had the highest rate of spending on this sector compared to the other three countries throughout the period.
Regarding Portugal and Italy, in 1990, approximately 27% of Portugal’s budget was spent on road infrastructure and transportation systems, 7% higher than that of the latter. Over the next 15 years, the figure for Portugal dropped sharply, falling by nearly 10 percentage points compared to the initial year. Furthermore, there was an 8% drop in the allocation of Italy’s spending by 2000, declining from 20% to just 12% before a small rebound to 13% in 2005.
Turning to the two remaining countries, in 1990, the financial support funded to highway and transport in the UK and USA shared comparable figures, making up 11% and 13%, respectively. In the next half-decade, the figure for the UK inched up to 13% before decreasing to only 8% by 2005. The share of money devoted to the transport sector in the USA showed a volatile pattern, hovering around 12% throughout the same timeframe.