Government Finance Statistics, Australia

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Statistics about finances of the general government and public non-financial corporations sectors for the various levels of government in Australia

Reference period
December 2022
Released
28/02/2023

Key statistics

In December quarter 2022:

  • taxation revenue rose 17.8% to $189.0b
  • general government net operating balance rose $27.0b to $12.0b
  • general government borrowing was $1.4b
  • total public demand is expected to contribute 0.1 ppt to the quarterly change in GDP

Unless indicated, all figures presented in this publication are current prices, original series.

An article of insights and analysis of Government Finance Statistics has not been included for the December quarter 2022 release. The article may be resumed in subsequent releases.

Government finance statistics fiscal measures

Government finance statistics fiscal measures, original
 Mar Qtr 2022Jun Qtr 2022Sep Qtr 2022Dec Qtr 2022Sep Qtr 2022 to
Dec Qtr 2022
$m$m$m$m% change
Taxation revenue
 General government168,295192,786160,480189,00317.8%
Total revenue
 General government204,367234,062200,318229,74314.7%
 Public non-financial corporations25,39928,86726,67024,522-8.1%
Total expenses
 General government206,352220,061215,253217,7081.1%
 Public non-financial corporations25,75828,65227,23124,902-8.6%
GFS Net Operating Balance
 General government-1,98614,001-14,93512,035np
 Public non-financial corporations-359215-561-380np
GFS Net Lending (+)/Borrowing (-)
 General government-12,776-7,670-25,535-1,407np
 Public non-financial corporations-2,091-3,610-2,443-4,910np

np indicates this value not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated

  1. original, current prices

National accounts public sector measures

The table below includes the key public sector aggregates for December quarter 2022 which will be included in the Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product. The key figures shown include Total Public Demand, Government Final Consumption Expenditure for total general government and Gross Fixed Capital Formation for total general government and total public corporations, seasonally adjusted in current prices and chain volume terms.

The following are the seasonally adjusted chain volume measures based on the previous quarter:

  • public sector demand is expected to contribute 0.1 percentage points to the change in GDP in December quarter 2022
  • general government final consumption expenditure rose $789m (up 0.6%) and is expected to contribute 0.1 percentage points to the change in GDP in December quarter 2022
  • general government gross fixed capital formation fell $413m (down 1.9%)
  • public corporations gross fixed capital formation rose $222m (up 3.5%)
  • total public gross fixed capital formation fell $192m (down 0.7%) and is expected to contribute 0.0 percentage points to the change in GDP in December quarter 2022
Quarterly national accounts public sector measures, seasonally adjusted
   Mar Qtr 2022Jun Qtr 2022Sep Qtr 2022Dec Qtr 2022Sep Qtr 2022
to
Dec Qtr 2022
   $m$m$m$m% change
CURRENT PRICES
General government final consumption expenditure (b)
 National-defence11,44011,35311,55511,500-0.5
 National-non-defence49,48649,78149,47450,9162.9
 Total national60,92661,13461,02962,4162.3
 State and local68,98968,52570,59070,419-0.2
 Total general government final consumption expenditure129,916129,659131,619132,8350.9
Public gross fixed capital formation
 General government
  National-defence2,8053,0782,7402,8002.2
  National-non-defence2,7692,7752,5982,5960.0
  Total national5,5755,8535,3375,3971.1
  State and local16,78518,30618,11418,2190.6
  Total general government22,36024,15823,45123,6160.7
 Public corporations
  Commonwealth1,4721,6671,8271,9305.7
  State and local4,9665,1155,2935,5424.7
  Total public corporations6,4376,7837,1197,4725.0
 Total public gross fixed capital formation28,79730,94130,57131,0881.7
Total public demand158,713160,600162,189163,9231.1
Memorandum item
 Net purchases of second hand assets by public sector5761,290361456np
 Public authorities changes in inventories (c)1,3881,650-4761,564np
 
CHAIN VOLUME (d)
General government final consumption expenditure
 National-defence10,90810,68610,76410,615-1.4
 National-non-defence48,43448,40348,07949,1562.2
 Total national59,34259,08958,84359,7721.6
 State and local66,87265,75366,30166,161-0.2
 Total general government final consumption expenditure126,214124,842125,144125,9330.6
Public gross fixed capital formation
 General government
  National-defence2,6792,8962,4822,433-2.0
  National-non-defence2,6762,6302,4382,386-2.2
  Total national5,3565,5264,9204,819-2.1
  State and local15,97317,04916,47316,161-1.9
  Total general government21,32922,57521,39320,980-1.9
 Public corporations
  Commonwealth1,4041,5531,6671,7444.7
  State and local4,6764,6994,7644,9093.0
  Total public corporations6,0796,2526,4316,6533.5
 Total public gross fixed capital formation27,40828,82727,82427,632-0.7
Total public demand153,622153,669152,968153,5660.4
Memorandum item
 Net purchases of second hand assets by public sector5431,194320397np
 Public authorities changes in inventories (c)1,695854-1611,089np

— nil or rounded to zero
np indicates this value not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated

  1. See Explanatory Notes for the relationship between general government final consumption expenditure and GFS aggregates
  2. Includes general government, public non-financial corporations and public financial corporations
  3. Reference year for chain volume measures in 2020-21 = 100.0

Public demand contribution to GDP growth

  1. Chain volume measures seasonally adjusted
  2. using the GDP series as published in the September 2022 release of Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product

Revisions and changes

Accounting standard changes

From 1 July 2019, government financial reporting implemented the following Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) standard changes:

  • Leases (AASB 16)
  • Revenue recognition (AASB 15 & 1058)
  • Service Concession Arrangements (AASB 1059)

GFS outputs are consistent with the historical treatments, which has resulted in increased divergences between economic statistics publications and government financial reporting.

Revisions

Statistical revisions are carried out regularly in Government Finance Statistics to reflect the most current information and data available.

Non-government school education revision

The ABS reclassified payments to non-government schools in September quarter 2022 GFS and National Accounts releases. The ABS recognises:

  • non-government schools as market producers (market, non-profit institutions)
  • government payments to non-government schools as the purchase of a service on behalf of households

Under the previous classification:

  • non-government schools were classified as non-market Non-Profit Institutions Serving Households (NPISH)
  • government payments to non-government schools were classified as a transfer to households

This has resulted in a reclassification to benefits to households in goods and services in GFS and social transfers in kind in National Accounts. Commonwealth and state government financial reporting continue to separately recognise their funding contributions to non-government schools. This reclassification was also applied in the GFS 2020-21 annual release and the National Accounts 2021-22 release.

Divergences with government fiscal reporting

In addition to changes arising from the non-government school education revision, other divergences between state and commonwealth government financial reporting and GFS may occur because of conceptual determinations and timing recognition differences, to ensure alignment with economic activity as measured across ABS macroeconomic statistics.

These differences primarily impact:

  • measures of government subsidies and other support payments to businesses and households
  • non-employee expenses
  • change in inventories
  • taxation revenue

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

COVID-19 impacted a range of Government Finance Statistics series since December quarter 2019.  As new government policies were announced, the key policies and conceptual determinations were discussed in articles such as Economic measurement during COVID-19: Selected issues in the Economic Accounts, with a quarterly update series, such as Classifying COVID-19 policy interventions during September quarter 2021 in macroeconomic statistics.

Given that the volume of new policies since September quarter 2021 has slowed, this article has been discontinued. The ABS continues to undertake extensive consultation with stakeholders and subject matter experts to determine the appropriate classification for new government policies. 

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 5519.0.55.001.

Data downloads

Government Finance Statistics, Australia

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