Date: Monday, 19 December 2016 Today’s Mid‑Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO)confirms that the Budget is projected to return to balance in 2020-21.
The underlying cash deficit is now expected to narrow from $36.5 billion or 2.1 per cent of GDP in 2016-17 (down on the $37.1 billion reported in the Budget and PEFO) down to $10.0 billion (0.5 per cent of GDP) in 2019-20. The average annual pace of fiscal consolidation is 0.5 per cent of GDP over the forward estimates period, also in line with the Budget and PEFO.Since PEFO the total effect of parameter and other variations – but not policy decisions - has been to negatively impact the Budget by $12.8 billion.
This includes a $30.5 billion downward revision of revenue, driven principally by weaker wage and profits growth and weaker collections, offset by $16.5 billion in reduced payment estimates.MYEFO confirms that the Government's plan to restore the budget to balance remains on track.
Importantly the net impact of policy decisions made by the Government, including fully funding all election commitments, has been to improve the budget by $2.5 billion, with net improvements of more than $2 billion in payment savings and just under net $500 million in increased revenue.
Do I need to keep going back?
They kept predicting a surplus and they never delivered a surplus.
