The Final Budget Outcome (FBO) encompasses Australian Government general government sector fiscal outcomes for the financial year and is based on external reporting standards. The Charter of Budget Honesty Act 1998 requires that a Final Budget Outcome be released no later than three months after the end of the relevant financial year. The financial statements in the Final Budget Outcome are similar to those in the budget but provide actual outcomes rather than estimates.
The Final Budget Outcome for the 2023-24 financial year was released on Monday 30 September 2024.
In 2023–24, the Australian Government general government sector recorded an underlying cash surplus of $15.8 billion (0.6 per cent of GDP). Together with the $22.1 billion surplus delivered by the Government in 2022–23, these are the first back–to–back surpluses to be delivered in nearly two decades and the largest nominal back–to–back surpluses on record.
The improvement in the 2023–24 surplus since the 2024–25 Budget estimate was due to lower payments, rather than higher receipts.
Payments were $10.2 billion lower than estimated in the 2024–25 Budget, reducing real growth in payments to 2.9 per cent in 2023–24. This outcome reflects lower-than-estimated payments across a range of programs, including around $4.2 billion in lower payments across a number of National Partnership agreements.
Total receipts for 2023–24 were $688.6 billion, $3.7 billion lower than forecast in the 2024–25 Budget. Tax receipts for 2023–24 were $633.4 billion, $5.3 billion lower than estimated at the 2024–25 Budget, largely driven by lower personal income tax receipts and company tax receipts.
Gross debt was $906.9 billion (34.0 per cent of GDP) at the end of 2023–24. Lower debt will result in lower interest payments over the medium term.
Real GDP grew by 1.5 per cent in 2023–24, softer than the 1¾ per cent forecast in the Budget. As anticipated, high but moderating inflation and higher interest rates have weighed on household consumption and dwelling investment. The Australian economy also faced subdued global growth owing to the effects of persistent global inflation, restrictive macroeconomic policy, heightened geopolitical tensions and global economic uncertainty more broadly.
While labour market conditions have gradually eased over 2023–24, the labour market has been resilient. The unemployment rate was 4.1 per cent in the June quarter, consistent with the forecast in the 2024–25 Budget and below the 5-year pre–pandemic average of 5.5 per cent.
The Wage Price Index increased by 4.1 per cent through the year to the June quarter, consistent with the 2024–25 Budget forecast. Real wages, based on the WPI and the Consumer Price Index, grew 0.3 per cent through the year to the June quarter 2024.
GST Distribution for State and Territories
The Australian Government distributes the GST among the states based on the GST revenue sharing relativities recommended by the Commonwealth Grants Commission. Following consultation with the states, the Treasurer issued a Determination of the GST revenue sharing relativities for 2023–24 in June 2023.
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