Financial Statements Of The Government

12 December 2002

MEDIA STATEMENT

For immediate release

Iain Rennie

Deputy Secretary to the Treasury

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF THE GOVERNMENT FOR THE FOUR MONTHS ENDED 31 OCTOBER 2002

The Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the four months ended 31 October 2002 were released by the Treasury today. These financial statements have been prepared on the basis of fully consolidating all the revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities of all departments, SOEs and Crown entities. These financial statements are compared against forecasts based on the 2002 Preelection

Economic and Fiscal Update (PreEFU) (updated for the 30 June 2002 actual balance sheet). The key results were as follows:

Actual $million
Forecast $million
Annual Forecast $million

Operating balance (surplus) 909 (162) 2,204

OBERAC 1,193 (162) 2,204

Crown balance (net worth) 19,703 18,564 16,218

Gross sovereign-issued debt 37,691 37,363 35,421

Net (core) Crown debt 18,572 20,414 20,925

The operating balance for the four months ended 31 October was $1,071 million higher than forecast. This was due to:

• Taxation revenues being $764 million higher-than-forecast, largely reflecting greater corporate tax and GST;

• Total Crown expenses being $372 million lower-than-forecast, largely reflecting lower Health expenses (delays in contracting); and partly offset by

• Investment revenues being $146 million lower-than-forecast largely reflecting reductions in the value of financial investments.

The OBERAC for the four months ended 31 October was $1,355 million higher than forecast. The difference between OBERAC and the operating balance is the removal of the reductions in the value of financial investments and foreign exchange related movements ($284 million) from the OBERAC calculation.

The improvement in net worth against forecast of $1,139 million was due to the improved operating balance for 2002/03 and some revaluations of physical assets (which as a matter of policy are not forecast).

Net (core) Crown debt was $1,842 million lower than forecast. This was largely due to higher-than-forecast tax receipts of $1,113 million and lower-than-forecast purchase of physical assets of $144 million.

Net Crown debt was estimated to be 15.2% of GDP at 31 October, compared to a forecast of 16.7%.

http://www.treasury.govt.nz/financialstatements/default.asp
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ENDS

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