Senator the Hon Mathias Cormann

The Final Budget Outcome for 2014-15 shows that the Government is continuing to reduce the deficit and debt and is lowering the spending growth trajectory of the previous government.

The Final Budget Outcome for the 2014‑15 financial year recorded an underlying cash deficit of $37.9 billion, which represents 2.4 per cent of gross domestic product. The outcome is a $3.3 billion improvement compared with the estimate at the time of the 2015-16 Budget.

The improvement in the bottom line was driven by Government spending being $2.9 billion lower than expected. This is a 0.3 per cent drop in spending from the previous year, in real terms.

In addition, total receipts were $1.0 billion higher than expected at the time of the 2015-16 Budget.  Net Future Fund earnings were also $660 million higher than expected at the time of the 2015‑16 Budget.

Australian Government general government sector net debt was $238.7 billion (14.8 per cent of GDP), which is $11.5 billion lower than estimated at the time of the 2015-16 Budget.

In fiscal balance terms, the Final Budget Outcome for 2014-15 deteriorated by $0.5 billion compared with the fiscal balance deficit estimated at the time of the 2015-16 Budget. Revenue was $3.4 billion lower, expenses were $2.4 billion lower, and net capital investment $433 million lower than expected at the time of the 2015‑16 Budget.

An electronic version of the Final Budget Outcome 2014-15 can be found at www.budget.gov.au.