Treasury figures paint a grim picture

The government's bank balance has moved further into the red.

New Zealand's fiscal position worsened in March as a prolonged and deepening recession took its toll on investment returns and the tax take, data from Treasury today showed.

The government's Financial Statements for the nine months ended 31 March 2009 were released today.

The operating balance for the nine months to March 31 was a deficit of $7.72 billion, $11.2 billion lower than the forecast surplus in the Pre-Election Update - which seems a long time ago now.

The main contributors to this result were lower than forecast tax revenue ($1.9 billion), higher than forecast investment losses ($5.3 billion), and actuarial losses on both the ACC insurance liability ($2.0 billion) and the super fund pension liability ($2.4 billion).

Gross debt continues to be significantly higher than forecast in the Pre-Election Update at $45.0 billion (25.1 per cent of GDP).

The new government's first Budget is released on the 28th of this month.

- NZHERALD STAFF

See the Financial Statements here