Date
The economic and fiscal outlook is broadly unchanged since the 2016-17 Budget. There remain, as outlined in the Budget, significant domestic and global downside risks that will need to be carefully managed.
An underlying cash deficit of $37.1 billion (2.2 per cent of GDP) is expected in 2016-17, improving to a deficit of $5.9 billion (0.3 per cent of GDP) in 2019-20. Table 1 provides estimates and projections of the underlying cash and fiscal balances for the period from 2015-16 to 2019-20.
| Estimates | Projections | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | Total(a) | |||
| Underlying cash balance ($b)(b) | -40.0 | -37.1 | -26.1 | -15.4 | -5.9 | -84.6 | ||
| Per cent of GDP | -2.4 | -2.2 | -1.4 | -0.8 | -0.3 | |||
| Fiscal balance ($b) | -39.5 | -37.1 | -18.7 | -9.8 | -2.1 | -67.7 | ||
| Per cent of GDP | -2.4 | -2.2 | -1.0 | -0.5 | -0.1 | |||
(a) Total is equal to the sum of amounts from 2016-17 to 2019-20.
(b) Excludes net Future Fund earnings.