Dr Peter Bushnell
Deputy Secretary to the Treasury
The Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the nine months ended 31 March 2008 were released by the Treasury today.
The monthly financial statements are compared against monthly forecast tracks based on the 2007 Half Year Budget Economic and Fiscal Update.
Results for the nine months ended 31 March 2008#
- The OBEGAL at $4.6 billion was $200 million lower than forecast.
- Core Crown tax revenue, receipts, expenditure and residual cash were also largely on track.
- The operating balance including gains and losses was $4.0 billion lower than forecast, primarily driven by losses from the Crown Financial Institutions’ (CFIs) investment portfolios and revaluation of long-term liabilities (ACC claims liabilities, pension commitments and provisions like Kyoto), offset by gains on other financial instruments.
- Losses on the CFIs investment portfolios were due to continuing declines in equity markets. Equity markets can be volatile in the short term.
Year to date |
|||
---|---|---|---|
Net gains / (losses) | March 2008 Actual | March 2008 Forecast | Variance $m |
$ million | |||
CFIs Investment Portfolios | |||
NZS Fund | (1,096) | 614 | (1,710) |
ACC | (603) | 407 | (1,010) |
EQC | (178) | 156 | (334) |
(1,877) | 1,177 | (3,054) | |
Long-term liabilities [1] | (2,315) | (1,176) | (1,139) |
Other financial instruments [2] | 692 | 328 | 364 |
Total net gains / (losses) | (3,500) | 329 | (3,829) |
1 These losses mainly relate to revaluation of the ACC claims liability, the GSF pension liability and the Kyoto provision.
2 These net gains relate to RBNZ, the Debt Management Office and other entities.
Year to date |
Full Year | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
March 2008 Actual |
March 2008 Forecast |
Variance $m |
Variance % |
HYEFU June 2008 Forecast |
|
$ million | |||||
Core Crown | |||||
Core Crown revenue (excl. NZS Fund) [1] | 44,886 | 45,409 | (523) | (1.2) | 62,130 |
Core Crown expenses | 41,692 | 41,974 | 282 | 0.7 | 57,137 |
NZS Fund operating balance | (1,106) | 692 | (1,798) | (259.8) | 917 |
Core Crown residual cash | 2,096 | 1,677 | 419 | 25.0 | 759 |
GSID (excl. settlement cash) | 32,006 | 32,181 | 175 | 0.5 | 33,303 |
as a percentage of GDP [2] | 18.3% | 18.4% | 18.7% | ||
Net Core Crown debt | 594 | 1,439 | 845 | 58.7 | 1,983 |
as a percentage of GDP [2] | 0.3% | 0.8% | 1.1% | ||
Net Core Crown debt (incl. NZS Fund) | (11,644) | (12,257) | (613) | 5.0 | (13,102) |
as a percentage of GDP [2] | (6.7)% | (7.0)% | (7.4)% | ||
Total Crown | |||||
OBEGAL | 4,631 | 4,802 | (171) | (3.6) | 6,574 |
Net gains / (losses) | (3,500) | 329 | (3,829) | 814 | |
Operating Balance | (1,131) | 5,131 | (4,000) | (78.0) | 7,388 |
1 For the purposes of this indicator the NZS Fund is treated as a third party (i.e. its revenue is not included but the tax it pays is)
2 GDP for the year ended 31 December 2007 of $174,647 million (Source: Statistics New Zealand).
ENDS
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