Financial Statements Of The Government For The Five Months Ended 30 November 2003

The Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the five months ended 30 November 2003 were released by the Treasury today.

These financial statements are compared against forecast tracks based on the 2003 December Economic and Fiscal Update (2003 DEFU).

Annual Actual Forecast Variance Forecast

$million $million $million $million

Operating balance (surplus) 3,997 3,714 283 6,092

OBERAC 4,003 3,714 289 5,207

Crown balance (net worth) 27,680 27,448 232 29,920

Gross sovereign-issued debt 39,342 39,534 (192) 34,469

Net core Crown debt 16,822 17,153 (331) 16,935

The operating balance and the OBERAC were both higher than forecast. The key drivers of the forecast variance were:

• lower-than-forecast core Crown expenses of around $150 million due to delays in expenditure;

• SOE surpluses being higher-than-forecast by around $100 million spread across the segment; and

• Crown entity surpluses being higher-than-forecast by around $80 million due to delays in spending and increased revenue.

Gross sovereign-issued debt (GSID) is lower than forecast by $192 million due largely to classification of certain debt instruments (net debt neutral). Gross sovereign-issued debt was 30.0% of GDP, compared to forecast of 30.2%.

Net (core) Crown debt was $331 million lower than forecast reflecting higher net cashflows from operations, delays in investment activity in Crown entities and additional issue of circulating currency.

Net core Crown debt was 12.8% of GDP, compared to forecast of 13.1%. The Crown financial statements for December 2003 will be released on February 20.

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