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Media statement

Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the Five Months Ended 30 November 2015

Issue date: 
Tuesday, 26 January 2016
Status: 
Current
Corporate author: 
The Treasury
View point: 
The Treasury
Publication category: 
News/media
Copyright: 
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Paul Helm, Chief Government Accountant

The Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the five months ended 30 November 2015 were released by the Treasury today.  The statements are compared against forecasts based on the 2015 Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) published in December.

Overall the November results were largely in line with HYEFU expectations.

The operating balance before gains and losses (OBEGAL) was a deficit of $1,624 million for the five months to 30 November, which was $383 million higher than forecast in HYEFU. This result was primarily due to core Crown tax revenue being $212 million lower than forecast and core Crown interest revenue being $180 million lower than forecast. Core Crown expenses, at $30.5 billion, were in line with forecast.

The operating balance deficit (excluding minority interests) for the five months ended 30 November was $497 million, $1,433 million lower than forecast.

The core Crown residual cash position, at a deficit of $3.1 billion, was close to forecast. This result meant net debt was also close to forecast at $63.5 billion (26.0% of GDP).

At 30 November 2015, total Crown assets were valued at $276.1 billion and liabilities were $184.6 billion while the Crown’s share of net worth stood at $85.9 billion.

The fiscal results were similar to the same time last year. The OBEGAL deficit was $1.6 billion compared to a deficit of $1.5 billion at the same time last year, with net debt increasing by 1.4%.  Core Crown tax revenue has increased by 3.4%, while core Crown expenses have grown by 2.5% over that time.

  Year to date Full Year
$ million November
2015
Actual1		 November
2015
HYEFU 15
Forecast1		 Variance
to
HYEFU 15
$m		 Variance
to
HYEFU 15
%		 June
2016
HYEFU 15
Forecast2
Core Crown          
Core Crown tax revenue 26,366 26,578 (212) (0.8) 68,414
Core Crown revenue 28,656 29,040 (384) (1.3) 74,338
Core Crown expenses 30,530 30,530 - - 74,911
Core Crown residual cash (3,074) (3,082) 8 0.3 (5,398)
Gross debt3 86,656 86,052 (604) (0.7) 87,123
as a percentage of GDP 35.5% 35.3%     35.6%
Net debt4 63,499 63,423 (76) (0.1) 65,890
as a percentage of GDP 26.0% 26.0%     26.9%
Total Crown          
Operating balance before gains and losses (1,624) (1,241) (383) (30.9)  (401)
Operating balance (497) (1,930) 1,433 74.2  298
Net worth attributable to the Crown 85,861 84,523 1,338 1.6 86,862
  1. Using GDP for the year ended 30 September 2015 of $243,803 million (Source: Statistics New Zealand).
  2. Using forecast GDP for the year ended 30 June 2016 of $244,923 million (Source: Treasury).
  3. Gross sovereign-issued debt excluding settlement cash and Reserve Bank bills.
  4. Net core Crown debt excluding student loans and other advances. Net debt may fluctuate during the year largely reflecting the timing of tax receipts.

ENDS

Officer for Enquiries

Nicky Haslam | Office of the Government Accountant
Tel: +64 4 917 6943
Email: [email protected]
Last updated: 
Friday, 22 January 2016