CANBERRA: Australia’s projected budget deficits for the next four years have increased by 10.3 billion Australian dollars ($7.5 billion) to AU$94.9 billion as the economy continues to slow following a China-driven mining boom, the government’s latest forecasts showed Monday. The budget would return to surplus in 2020-21, despite falling revenue and a slowing economy, Treasurer Scott Morrison said. “On the best information we have available to us, the government’s plan to return the budget to balance is projected to be in 2021 and that is something that says our plan remains on track,” Morrison told reporters.
The deficit for the year ending June 30, 2017, had been forecast to reach AU$37.1 billion when the annual budget was released in May. Updated economic forecasts released Monday showed that deficit would be AU$600 million lower. But deficits will exceed the May estimates in the following three years.
Growth in the AU$1.7 trillion economy slowed to 2 percent for the current year from the 2.5 percent expected in May. Tax revenue was revised down AU$3.7 billion in the current year and AU$30.7 billion over four years. Higher prices for iron ore and coal — Australia’s biggest exports — would increase profits in the mining sector and increase the tax paid by mining companies, documents said.
