4 June 2013
MEDIA STATEMENT

Embargoed until 10.00am, Tuesday 4 June 2013 Fergus Welsh Chief Financial Officer The Treasury

Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the Ten Months Ended 30 April 2013

The Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the ten months ended 30 April 2013 were released by the Treasury today.

These financial statements are compared against forecasts based on the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU), released on 16 May 2013.

The Operating Balance before Gains and Losses (OBEGAL) was in deficit by $4.0 billion, which was $664 million lower than forecast primarily reflecting higher than expected tax revenue.

Core Crown tax revenue was $486 million higher than forecast, with corporate tax $532 million above forecast. Just over half this variance is thought to be the result of higher corporate profitability, partly resulting from continued strength in equity markets. The remainder is a timing difference with some large taxpayers filing returns in April, earlier than expected.

Core Crown expenses were close to forecast at $57.8 billion.

The operating balance surplus was $2.8 billion, $142 million below forecast. In addition to the $664 million lower OBEGAL deficit was a $759 million positive variance from the Crown’s investment portfolios, with the NZS Fund recording net gains of $737 million above forecast. Offsetting this result was an unfavourable variance in relation to ACC’s outstanding claims liability that was $1.5 billion above forecast, mainly due to a lower discount rate at the end of April compared to that used in the forecast.

ENDS

Full document - Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand For the Ten Months Ended 30 April 2013: mediafsgnz10mthsapr13.pdf

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