Media statement

Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the six months ended 31 December 2017

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Media statement
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The Treasury
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The Treasury
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© Crown Copyright, Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Paul Helm, Chief Government Accountant

The Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the six months ended 31 December 2017 were released by the Treasury today.  The statements are compared against forecasts based on the 2017 Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU 17) published on 14 December 2017.

Core Crown tax revenue was $37.2 billion for the six months to 31 December 2017.  Overall core Crown tax was higher than expected by $0.6 billion, with source deductions and GST ahead of forecast by $0.3 billion and $0.2 billion respectively.  Some of this variance can be expected to remain until year end.

Core Crown expenses of $39.6 billion were higher than the $39.5 billion forecast with some expenditure recognised earlier than expected.

The operating balance before gains and losses (OBEGAL) was a surplus of $1.1 billion.  When the core Crown results are combined with higher than expected Crown entity results, the OBEGAL surplus was $0.8 billion more than forecast. 

Net investment gains of $4.3 billion were recorded to 31 December 2017, $1.8 billion higher than forecast. Partially offsetting these investment gains were net losses on non-financial instruments of $2.0 billion. ACC recognised an actuarial loss of $1.6 billion on its outstanding claims liability, mainly due to the discount rate used to calculate this liability being lower than expected.

When gains and losses are added to the OBEGAL result, the operating balance was a $3.5 billion surplus, $0.8 billion larger than forecast.  This result flows directly into net worth attributable to the Crown which was $0.8 billion higher than forecast at $114.1 billion.

Core Crown residual cash was a deficit of $5.9 billion and was close to forecast.

Net debt was $64.5 billion at 31 December 2017, $0.5 billion lower than forecast. This variance was mainly due to higher circulating currency and higher than forecast valuation gains. 

$ million Year to date Full Year
December 2017
Actual1		 December 2017
HYEFU 17
Forecast1		 Variance
to HYEFU 17
$m		 Variance
to HYEFU 17
%		 June 2018
HYEFU 17
Forecast2
Core Crown          
Core Crown tax revenue 37,181 36,584 597 1.6 78,172
Core Crown revenue 40,431 39,786 645 1.6 84,670
Core Crown expenses 39,624 39,458 (166) (0.4) 81,653
Core Crown residual cash (5,949) (5,956) 7 0.1 (2,647)
Gross debt3 84,569 83,999 (570) (0.7) 84,524
as a percentage of GDP 30.4% 30.2%     29.5%
Net debt4 64,482 64,997 515 0.8 62,114
as a percentage of GDP 23.2% 23.4%     21.7%
Total Crown          
Operating balance before gains and losses 1,090 311 779 250.5 2,541
Operating balance 3,506 2,669 837 31.4 5,916
Net worth attributable to the Crown 114,086 113,260 826 0.7 116,568
  1. Using the most recently published GDP (for the year ended 30 September 2017) of $278,312 million (Source: Statistics New Zealand).
  2. Using HYEFU 17 forecast GDP for the year ending 30 June 2018 of $286,391 million (Source: the 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

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