"Since the 2012-13 Budget, the Government has made a further $16.4 billion in targeted and responsible savings to return the budget to surplus in 2012-13 and deliver small but growing surpluses across the forward estimates. These decisions have contributed to the small change in real growth in payments in 2012-13 compared with the 2012-13 Budget. In total, real growth in payments is estimated to be -4.4 per cent in 2012-13, compared with -4.3 per cent in the 2012-13 Budget.
The Government is delivering on its commitment to restrain real growth in spending to 2 per cent a year on average, until surpluses are at least 1 per cent of GDP, and while the economy is growing at or above trend. Average real growth in payments in 2012-13 and across the forward estimates is around 1.1 per cent (see Table 3.3). In comparison, real payments growth averaged around 3.7 per cent in the decade prior to the global financial crisis."
"The discipline imposed on real growth in payments means that government spending, as a share of the economy, is projected to fall by 1.5 percentage points in 2012-13 to 23.8 per cent. It is estimated that payments as a share of GDP will remain relatively stable over the forward estimates. This is the longest period payments will remain at 24 per cent or less as a share of GDP in over 30 years."
