Downgrade Morrison denies he’ll return 2021 surplus

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Geez he’s quick on his feet this one:

Treasurer Scott Morrison has staunchly denied he has “promised” returning a balanced budget by 2021 – the line drawn in the sand by S&P Global Ratings – saying it will depend on the support of a restive Senate cross bench and Labor.

The government’s 2020-21 budget “surplus” will come in at a wafer-thin $1.087 billion, which Treasury estimates is the equivalent to 0.1 per cent of gross domestic product, but the department has rounded that figure upwards.

Mr Morrison said the figure is is a “projection” that is based on the government’s best data and assumptions “that we have available to us right now”.

The Treasurer said the ratings agencies would make their own assessments based on their own data.

It was clearly a non-core surplus. Hang your heads S&P cowards.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.