Government Finance Statistics, Australia

Latest release

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

Reference period

September 2022

Released

6/12/2022

Key statistics

In September quarter 2022:

taxation revenue fell 16.6% to $160.5b
general government net operating balance fell $28.2b to -$15.0b
general government borrowing was $25.3b
total public demand is expected to detract 0.2 ppt from 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 September quarter 2022

Government finance statistics fiscal measures

Government finance statistics fiscal measures, original
		Dec Qtr 2021	Mar Qtr 2022	Jun Qtr 2022	Sep Qtr 2022	Jun Qtr 2022 to Sep Qtr 2022
		$m	$m	$m	$m	% change
Taxation revenue
	General government	178,594	168,280	192,541	160,515	-16.6%
Total revenue
	General government	211,094	204,351	233,458	200,250	-14.2%
	Public non-financial corporations	23,952	25,397	28,865	26,489	-8.2%
Total expenses
	General government	216,443	206,255	220,268	215,274	-2.3%
	Public non-financial corporations	24,805	25,758	28,699	27,112	-5.5%
GFS Net Operating Balance
	General government	-5,350	-1,904	13,189	-15,024	np
	Public non-financial corporations	-853	-361	166	-623	np
GFS Net Lending (+)/Borrowing (-)
	General government	-16,061	-12,656	-8,408	-25,284	np
	Public non-financial corporations	-3,752	-2,093	-3,659	-2,675	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)
Sep-21	178.7	-223.4	-44.7
Dec-21	211.1	-216.4	-5.3
Mar-22	204.4	-206.3	-1.9
Jun-22	233.5	-220.3	13.2
Sep-22	200.3	-215.3	-15.0

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

[["Sep-21","Dec-21","Mar-22","Jun-22","Sep-22"],[[178.69999999999999],[211.09999999999999],[204.40000000000001],[233.5],[200.30000000000001]],[[-223.40000000000001],[-216.40000000000001],[-206.30000000000001],[-220.30000000000001],[-215.30000000000001]],[[-44.700000000000003],[-5.2999999999999998],[-1.8999999999999999],[13.199999999999999],[-15]]]

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original, current prices

National accounts public sector measures

The table below includes the key public sector aggregates for September 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 detract 0.2 percentage points from the change in GDP in September quarter 2022
general government final consumption expenditure increased by $109m or 0.1% and is expected to contribute 0.0 percentage points to the change in GDP in September quarter 2022
general government gross fixed capital formation decreased by $1137m or 5.0%
public corporations gross fixed capital formation increased by $171m or 2.7%
total public gross fixed capital formation decreased by $966m or 3.4% and is expected to detract 0.2 percentage points from the change in GDP in September quarter 2022

Quarterly national accounts public sector measures, seasonally adjusted
			Dec Qtr 2021	Mar Qtr 2022	Jun Qtr 2022	Sep Qtr 2022	Jun Qtr 2022 to Sep Qtr 2022
			$m	$m	$m	$m	% change
CURRENT PRICES
General government final consumption expenditure (b)
	National-defence		10,587	11,451	11,378	11,589	1.9
	National-non-defence		47,195	49,456	49,962	49,439	-1.0
	Total national		57783	60907	61340	61,029	-0.5
	State and local		67,652	68,817	68,759	70,033	1.9
	Total general government final consumption expenditure		125,434	129,723	130,099	131,062	0.7
Public gross fixed capital formation
	General government
		National-defence	2,490	2,796	3,082	2,725	-11.6
		National-non-defence	2,724	2,743	2,741	2,530	-7.7
		Total national	5,214	5,539	5,823	5,255	-9.8
		State and local	16,197	16,775	18,317	18,222	-0.5
		Total general government	21,411	22,314	24,140	23,477	-2.7
	Public corporations
		Commonwealth	1,579	1,474	1,668	1,781	6.8
		State and local	4,647	4,965	5,122	5,336	4.2
		Total public corporations	6,226	6,439	6,790	7,117	4.8
	Total public gross fixed capital formation		27,637	28,754	30,930	30,594	-1.1
Total public demand			153,071	158,477	161,028	161,656	0.4
Memorandum item
	Net purchases of second hand assets by public sector		503	576	1,299	326	np
	Public authorities changes in inventories (c)		1,109	1,380	1,735	-672	np

CHAIN VOLUME (d)
General government final consumption expenditure
	National-defence		10,208	10,918	10,709	10,796	0.8
	National-non-defence		46,466	48,390	48,545	48,043	-1.0
	Total national		56,674	59,309	59,254	58,839	-0.7
	State and local		66,103	66,731	65,969	66,493	0.8
	Total general government final consumption expenditure		122,777	126,039	125,223	125,332	0.1
Public gross fixed capital formation
	General government
		National-defence	2,428	2,670	2,901	2,470	-14.9
		National-non-defence	2,664	2,652	2,599	2,379	-8.5
		Total national	5,092	5,323	5,499	4,848	-11.8
		State and local	15,714	15,963	17,059	16,572	-2.9
		Total general government	20,807	21,285	22,558	21,421	-5.0
	Public corporations
		Commonwealth	1,532	1,406	1,554	1,626	4.6
		State and local	4,470	4,675	4,705	4,804	2.1
		Total public corporations	6,002	6,082	6,259	6,430	2.7
	Total public gross fixed capital formation		26,809	27,367	28,817	27,851	-3.4
Total public demand			149,585	153,406	154,040	153,182	-0.6
Memorandum item
	Net purchases of second hand assets by public sector		483	543	1,201	289	np
	Public authorities changes in inventories (c)		558	1,685	940	-360	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) Includes general government, public non-financial corporations and public financial corporations
(d) Reference year for chain volume measures in 2020-21 = 100.0

Public demand contribution to GDP growth

Public demand, contribution to GDP growth (d) (e)
	Government final consumption expenditure (ppt)	Government gross fixed capital formation (ppt)
Sep-19	0.2	0
Dec-19	0.3	0
Mar-20	0.4	0
Jun-20	0.6	-0.1
Sep-20	0.5	0.1
Dec-20	0.2	0.2
Mar-21	0	0
Jun-21	0.2	0.4
Sep-21	0.8	-0.1
Dec-21	0.3	-0.1
Mar-22	0.6	0.1
Jun-22	-0.2	0.3
Sep-22	0	-0.2

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

[["Sep-19","Dec-19","Mar-20","Jun-20","Sep-20","Dec-20","Mar-21","Jun-21","Sep-21","Dec-21","Mar-22","Jun-22","Sep-22"],[[0.20000000000000001],[0.29999999999999999],[0.40000000000000002],[0.59999999999999998],[0.5],[0.20000000000000001],[0],[0.20000000000000001],[0.80000000000000004],[0.29999999999999999],[0.59999999999999998],[-0.20000000000000001],[0]],[[0],[0],[0],[-0.10000000000000001],[0.10000000000000001],[0.20000000000000001],[0],[0.40000000000000002],[-0.10000000000000001],[-0.10000000000000001],[0.10000000000000001],[0.29999999999999999],[-0.20000000000000001]]]

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Chain volume measures seasonally adjusted
using the GDP series as published in the June 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 has reclassified payments to non-government schools in the quarterly GFS and the National Accounts in September quarter 2022. 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 will 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. The classifications of selected new policies across Commonwealth and State and Territory levels of government are included in the September quarter 2022 Insights article.

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 5519.0.55.001.

Data downloads