The Australian federal government budget will be announced today

  • 2017-18 Federal Budget
  • At 7.30pm Sydney time ( 0930GMT Tuesday 9th May)
  • The 'headline' is the expected budget deficit, median is at $A28bn
  • The 'path' to return to surplus should be for 2020/21
  • This should be enough to placate the ratings agencies, holding on to the AAA rating from the 3 majors
  • Going forward, watch the estimates used for commodity prices (for the budget these impact on expected tax revenues, if the estimates of prices are way out of line with what appears reasonable then the credibility of budget calculations are questioned)
  • The government will also provide estimates for GDP growth (again, this influences revenue collection

More preview from Eamonn here

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