Treasury release Financial Statements of the Government of NZ for the Ten Months Ended 30 April 2008

[Full statement (PDF)]

SUMMARY

Results for the ten months ended 30 April 2008

The results are compared against April forecast based on the forecasts in the 2008 BEFU published on 22 May 2008;

• The operating balance including gains and losses was $0.6 billion higher than forecast. The three main contributors to this higher than expected outturn were:

° Investment returns were $0.8 billion higher than forecast due to positive investment performances in April;

° Corporate tax revenue was $0.3 billion higher than forecast. Higher than expected assessments were lodged in April. This is expected to impact positively on the year end result; and

° GST revenue was $0.6 billion lower than forecast mainly due to a change in GST due dates. The GST due date for April was recently moved from 28 April to 7 May, so there was no GST due date in the month of April itself. Consequently, GST payable to the Crown on some large transactions had not yet been processed, as taxpayers had no incentive to file earlier than 7 May. Refund assessments however, tend to be processed earlier as taxpayers have an incentive to claim as soon as possible. Refunds processed in April were also impacted by strong export growth and some large, one-off transactions.

• The OBEGAL was $0.6 billion higher than forecast. This variance was mainly due to ACC actuarial losses being incorrectly classified in ACC’s forecast as insurance expense rather than gains and losses.

This reclassification has no impact on the operating balance.

• Core Crown residual cash was largely on track with forecast.

• Net core Crown debt was $0.4 billion lower than forecast due to higher than forecast gains on valuations of financial assets and a slightly higher than forecast residual cash.

[Full statement (PDF)]

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