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

June 2022

Released

6/09/2022

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Key statistics

In the June quarter 2022:

taxation revenue rose 14.5% to $192.6b
general government net operating balance rose $15.5b to $13.2b
general government borrowing was $8.5b
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.

One article is included in this release:

Insights into Government Finance Statistics, key insights and analysis from June quarter 2022

Government finance statistics fiscal measures

Government finance statistics fiscal measures, original
		Sep Qtr 2021	Dec Qtr 2021	Mar Qtr 2022	Jun Qtr 2022	Mar Qtr 2022 to Jun Qtr 2022
		$m	$m	$m	$m	% change
Taxation revenue
	General government	143,046	178,583	168,271	192,643	14.5%
Total revenue
	General government	178,809	211,096	204,254	233,253	14.2%
	Public non-financial corporations	24,820	23,946	25,398	28,939	13.9%
Total expenses
	General government	223,656	216,453	206,494	220,020	6.6%
	Public non-financial corporations	25,290	24,759	25,595	28,685	12.1%
GFS Net Operating Balance
	General government	-44,847	-5,357	-2,240	13,232	np
	Public non-financial corporations	-470	-813	-197	255	np
GFS Net Lending (+)/Borrowing (-)
	General government	-52,179	-16,069	-12,923	-8,484	np
	Public non-financial corporations	-2,158	-3,701	-1,920	-3,601	np

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

Net operating balance of all levels of general government (a)
	Revenue ($b)	Expenses ($b)	Net Operating Balance ($b)
Jun-21	207.1	-204.9	2.2
Sep-21	178.8	-223.7	-44.8
Dec-21	211.1	-216.5	-5.4
Mar-22	204.3	-206.5	-2.2
Jun-22	233.3	-220.0	13.2

Net operating balance of all levels of general government (a)

["","Revenue","Expenses","Net Operating Balance"]

[["Jun-21","Sep-21","Dec-21","Mar-22","Jun-22"],[[207.09999999999999],[178.80000000000001],[211.09999999999999],[204.30000000000001],[233.30000000000001]],[[-204.90000000000001],[-223.69999999999999],[-216.5],[-206.5],[-220]],[[2.2000000000000002],[-44.799999999999997],[-5.4000000000000004],[-2.2000000000000002],[13.199999999999999]]]

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original, current prices

National accounts public sector measures

The table below includes the key public sector aggregates for the June 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 June quarter 2022
general government final consumption expenditure decreased by $922m or 0.8% and is expected to detract 0.2 percentage points from the change in GDP in June quarter 2022
general government gross fixed capital formation increased by $1,343m or 6.1%
public corporations gross fixed capital formation increased by $309m or 5.3%
total public gross fixed capital formation increased by $1,653m or 5.9% and is expected to contribute 0.3 percentage points to the change in GDP in June quarter 2022

Quarterly national accounts public sector measures, seasonally adjusted
			Sep Qtr 2021	Dec Qtr 2021	Mar Qtr 2022	Jun Qtr 2022	Mar Qtr 2022 to Jun Qtr 2022
			$m	$m	$m	$m	% change
CURRENT PRICES
General government final consumption expenditure (b)
	National-defence		9,951	9,739	10,429	10,143	-2.7
	National-non-defence		42,435	43,394	44,648	45,537	2.0
	Total national		52,386	53,133	55,077	55,680	1.1
	State and local		65,154	66,430	67,850	67,782	-0.1
	Total general government final consumption expenditure		117,540	119,563	122,927	123,462	0.4
Public gross fixed capital formation
	General government
		National-defence	2,930	2,400	2,704	3,066	13.4
		National-non-defence	2,738	2,674	2,717	2,738	0.8
		Total national	5,668	5,074	5,421	5,804	7.1
		State and local	16,631	17,047	17,636	19,162	8.7
		Total general government	22,298	22,121	23,057	24,966	8.3
	Public corporations
		Commonwealth	1,424	1,523	1,395	1,655	18.7
		State and local	4,470	4,536	4,846	5,088	5.0
		Total public corporations	5,894	6,058	6,242	6,744	8.0
	Total public gross fixed capital formation		28,193	28,179	29,299	31,710	8.2
Total public demand			145,733	147,742	152,226	155,172	1.9
Memorandum item
	Net purchases of second hand assets by public sector		480	528	570	1,374	np

CHAIN VOLUME (c)
General government final consumption expenditure
	National-defence		9,803	9,497	10,070	9,692	-3.8
	National-non-defence		41,276	41,980	43,511	43,719	0.5
	Total national		51,079	51,477	53,580	53,411	-0.3
	State and local		63,681	64,430	65,344	64,591	-1.2
	Total general government final consumption expenditure		114,760	115,907	118,924	118,002	-0.8
Public gross fixed capital formation
	General government
		National-defence	3,212	2,499	2,754	3,081	11.8
		National-non-defence	2,724	2,626	2,638	2,606	-1.2
		Total national	5,936	5,125	5,392	5,687	5.5
		State and local	16,456	16,560	16,791	17,840	6.2
		Total general government	22,392	21,686	22,184	23,527	6.1
	Public corporations
		Commonwealth	1,374	1,463	1,320	1,525	15.5
		State and local	4,278	4,299	4,500	4,604	2.3
		Total public corporations	5,652	5,761	5,820	6,129	5.3
	Total public gross fixed capital formation		28,044	27,447	28,003	29,656	5.9
Total public demand			142,804	143,354	146,927	147,658	0.5
Memorandum item
	Net purchases of second hand assets by public sector		465	502	531	1,259	np

— nil or rounded to zero
np indicates this value not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated
(b) See Explanatory Notes for the relationship between general government final consumption expenditure and GFS aggregates
(c) Reference year for chain volume measures in 2019-20 = 100.0

Public expenditure contribution to GDP growth

Public expenditure, contribution to GDP growth (d) (e)
	Government final consumption expenditure (ppt)	Government gross fixed capital formation (ppt)
Jun-19	0.6	0.1
Sep-19	0.2	0
Dec-19	0.3	0
Mar-20	0.3	0
Jun-20	0.6	-0.1
Sep-20	0.4	0.1
Dec-20	0.2	0.2
Mar-21	0	0
Jun-21	0.3	0.4
Sep-21	0.7	-0.1
Dec-21	0.2	-0.1
Mar-22	0.6	0.1
Jun-22	-0.2	0.3

Public expenditure, contribution to GDP growth (d) (e)

["","Government final consumption expenditure","Government gross fixed capital formation"]

[["Jun-19","Sep-19","Dec-19","Mar-20","Jun-20","Sep-20","Dec-20","Mar-21","Jun-21","Sep-21","Dec-21","Mar-22","Jun-22"],[[0.59999999999999998],[0.20000000000000001],[0.29999999999999999],[0.29999999999999999],[0.59999999999999998],[0.40000000000000002],[0.20000000000000001],[0],[0.29999999999999999],[0.69999999999999996],[0.20000000000000001],[0.59999999999999998],[-0.20000000000000001]],[[0.10000000000000001],[0],[0],[0],[-0.10000000000000001],[0.10000000000000001],[0.20000000000000001],[0],[0.40000000000000002],[-0.10000000000000001],[-0.10000000000000001],[0.10000000000000001],[0.29999999999999999]]]

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Chain volume measures seasonally adjusted
using the GDP series as published in the Mar 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.

Upcoming non-government school education revision

The ABS has reclassified payments to non-government schools in the 2020-21 annual GFS publication. This reclassification will be applied in quarterly GFS and the National Accounts from September quarter 2022. This will result in a reclassification of these payments to benefits to households in goods and services in GFS and National Accounts. Commonwealth and state government financial reporting will continue to separately recognise their funding contributions to non-government schools.

For more information refer to 2020-21 GFS annual revisions and changes.

Divergences with government fiscal reporting

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 over the preceding two years. 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. The classifications of selected new policies across Commonwealth and State and Territory levels of government are included in the June quarter 2022 Insights article.

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 5519.0.55.001.

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