The NSW Budget for 2017-18 has been released, and as expected, it revealed a big Budget surplus of $4.5 billion in 2016-17, thanks to the booming property market, with smaller surpluses expected over the forward estimates:
The 2016-17 budget result is expected to be $4.5 billion, $0.8 billion higher than in the 2016-17 Budget, primarily due to one-off revenues associated with transactions (including transfer duty and asset recycling initiative payments) and higher than expected distributions from SICorp driven by investment earnings. Against this, GST revenue and Commonwealth National Partnership payments have fallen. The 2017-18 budget result is higher than forecast at the 2016-17 Budget, primarily due to a stronger outlook for transfer duty and increased dividends from State Owned Corporations. This improved revenue outlook is also driving the increases in surpluses across the forward estimates relative to the 2016-17 Budget.
The full text of this article is available to MacroBusiness subscribers
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
