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

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 2022	Jun Qtr 2022	Sep Qtr 2022	Dec Qtr 2022	Sep Qtr 2022 to Dec Qtr 2022
		$m	$m	$m	$m	% change
Taxation revenue
	General government	168,295	192,786	160,480	189,003	17.8%
Total revenue
	General government	204,367	234,062	200,318	229,743	14.7%
	Public non-financial corporations	25,399	28,867	26,670	24,522	-8.1%
Total expenses
	General government	206,352	220,061	215,253	217,708	1.1%
	Public non-financial corporations	25,758	28,652	27,231	24,902	-8.6%
GFS Net Operating Balance
	General government	-1,986	14,001	-14,935	12,035	np
	Public non-financial corporations	-359	215	-561	-380	np
GFS Net Lending (+)/Borrowing (-)
	General government	-12,776	-7,670	-25,535	-1,407	np
	Public non-financial corporations	-2,091	-3,610	-2,443	-4,910	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)
Dec-21	211.0	-216.4	-5.4
Mar-22	204.4	-206.4	-2.0
Jun-22	234.1	-220.1	14.0
Sep-22	200.3	-215.3	-14.9
Dec-22	229.7	-217.7	12.0

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

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

[["Dec-21","Mar-22","Jun-22","Sep-22","Dec-22"],[[211],[204.40000000000001],[234.09999999999999],[200.30000000000001],[229.69999999999999]],[[-216.40000000000001],[-206.40000000000001],[-220.09999999999999],[-215.30000000000001],[-217.69999999999999]],[[-5.4000000000000004],[-2],[14],[-14.9],[12]]]

[]

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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 2022	Jun Qtr 2022	Sep Qtr 2022	Dec Qtr 2022	Sep Qtr 2022 to Dec Qtr 2022
			$m	$m	$m	$m	% change
CURRENT PRICES
General government final consumption expenditure (b)
	National-defence		11,440	11,353	11,555	11,500	-0.5
	National-non-defence		49,486	49,781	49,474	50,916	2.9
	Total national		60,926	61,134	61,029	62,416	2.3
	State and local		68,989	68,525	70,590	70,419	-0.2
	Total general government final consumption expenditure		129,916	129,659	131,619	132,835	0.9
Public gross fixed capital formation
	General government
		National-defence	2,805	3,078	2,740	2,800	2.2
		National-non-defence	2,769	2,775	2,598	2,596	0.0
		Total national	5,575	5,853	5,337	5,397	1.1
		State and local	16,785	18,306	18,114	18,219	0.6
		Total general government	22,360	24,158	23,451	23,616	0.7
	Public corporations
		Commonwealth	1,472	1,667	1,827	1,930	5.7
		State and local	4,966	5,115	5,293	5,542	4.7
		Total public corporations	6,437	6,783	7,119	7,472	5.0
	Total public gross fixed capital formation		28,797	30,941	30,571	31,088	1.7
Total public demand			158,713	160,600	162,189	163,923	1.1
Memorandum item
	Net purchases of second hand assets by public sector		576	1,290	361	456	np
	Public authorities changes in inventories (c)		1,388	1,650	-476	1,564	np

CHAIN VOLUME (d)
General government final consumption expenditure
	National-defence		10,908	10,686	10,764	10,615	-1.4
	National-non-defence		48,434	48,403	48,079	49,156	2.2
	Total national		59,342	59,089	58,843	59,772	1.6
	State and local		66,872	65,753	66,301	66,161	-0.2
	Total general government final consumption expenditure		126,214	124,842	125,144	125,933	0.6
Public gross fixed capital formation
	General government
		National-defence	2,679	2,896	2,482	2,433	-2.0
		National-non-defence	2,676	2,630	2,438	2,386	-2.2
		Total national	5,356	5,526	4,920	4,819	-2.1
		State and local	15,973	17,049	16,473	16,161	-1.9
		Total general government	21,329	22,575	21,393	20,980	-1.9
	Public corporations
		Commonwealth	1,404	1,553	1,667	1,744	4.7
		State and local	4,676	4,699	4,764	4,909	3.0
		Total public corporations	6,079	6,252	6,431	6,653	3.5
	Total public gross fixed capital formation		27,408	28,827	27,824	27,632	-0.7
Total public demand			153,622	153,669	152,968	153,566	0.4
Memorandum item
	Net purchases of second hand assets by public sector		543	1,194	320	397	np
	Public authorities changes in inventories (c)		1,695	854	-161	1,089	np

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

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

Public demand contribution to GDP growth

Public demand, contribution to GDP growth (e) (f)
	Government final consumption expenditure (ppt)	Government gross fixed capital formation (ppt)
Dec-19	0.3	0.0
Mar-20	0.4	0.0
Jun-20	0.6	-0.1
Sep-20	0.5	0.1
Dec-20	0.2	0.2
Mar-21	0.0	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	-0.3	0.3
Sep-22	0.1	-0.2
Dec-22	0.1	0.0

Public demand, contribution to GDP growth (e) (f)

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

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

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Chain volume measures seasonally adjusted
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.

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