however portugal slightly overspent according to both criteria one of the drawbacks of focusing on this measure is that the ratio may increase as a result of a decline in gdp alone and not because of an increase in social security payments per se as a complement to the previous analysis figure examines the change in the absolute level of general government expenditures in real terms it disaggregates the change in general government expenditures into two components general government social security benefits and general government expenditures other then social security benefits