10 November 2006

MEDIA STATEMENT

Embargoed until 10:00am, Friday 10 November 2006

Dr Peter Bushnell

Deputy Secretary to the Treasury

Financial Statements of the Government for the Three Months Ended 30 September 2006

The Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the three months ended 30 September 2006 were released by the Treasury today.

The 30 September 2006 monthly financial statements are compared against updated monthly forecast tracks based on the Budget annual forecasts.

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The residual cash deficit of $0.5 billion was greater than forecast by $0.2 billion, which was largely a result of the timing of payments which are expected to reverse.

The operating balance of $1.9 billion was higher than forecast by $0.4 billion. The majority of the variance was within the core Crown reporting segment. This includes: • Tax revenue was higher by $0.4 billion mainly in source deductions due to employment and earnings being higher than expected as the economy did not slow to the extent forecast in the Budget Update.

• Investment income was higher by $0.3 billion, largely resulting from higher income earned on financial assets reflecting the build up of assets from the higher cash outturn from the last year.

• Core Crown expenses were higher by $0.3 billion. The majority of the variance was due to the timing of payments and is expected to reverse.

Gross sovereign-issued debt (GSID) was $37.7 billion (24% of GDP). Gross debt was $1.3 billion higher than forecast due to an increase of $2.9 billion in settlement cash levels held by the Reserve Bank. This increase has been partially been offset by NZDMO issuing $1.6 billion fewer Treasury Bills as there is now less demand for this instrument.

Net core Crown debt was $7.8 billion making it lower than forecast by $0.1 billion. Even though the cash deficit was greater than forecast this has been entirely offset by unrealised gains from financing activities (unrealised gains are not forecast as a matter of policy).

See... Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand For the Three Months Ended 30 September 2006 (PDF)

ENDS

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