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

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.

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