Gov ScoreAustralia

Condition

Budget deficits

Is the government living within its means?

Budget deficits: −$32.0bn in 2021-22, −$22.3bn in 2025-26.

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Latest (Budget estimate)
−$31.5bnunderlying cash balance: a deficit · 2026-27 Budget estimate
Since the government took office
Better+$9.7bn−$32.0bn → −$22.3bn (2021-22 → 2025-26)Starting point: 2021-22 was the last Budget year of the previous government.
Over the past year
Worse−$12.3bn−$10.0bn → −$22.3bn (2024-25 → 2025-26)

Underlying cash balance ($ billion)

  • Nominal $
  • Underlying cash balance
Bars below the line are deficits; bars above it are surpluses. Lighter bars are Budget forecasts. 2021-22 was the last Budget year of the previous government.

What this is

The underlying cash balance is the Commonwealth's headline budget result: cash receipts minus cash payments, excluding the Future Fund's investment earnings. A negative number is a deficit.

Why it matters

Deficits are funded by borrowing, which adds to debt and interest costs. Deficit spending also adds to demand at a time when the Reserve Bank is trying to bring inflation down.

More from the figures

  • The budget recorded surpluses in 2022-23 (+$22.1 billion) and 2023-24 (+$15.8 billion), then returned to deficit in 2024-25 (-$10.0 billion) and 2025-26 (-$22.3 billion, 0.8% of GDP, per the Final Budget Outcome; the Budget had estimated -$28.3 billion).
  • The 2026-27 Budget forecasts a deficit in every remaining year of the forward estimates: -$31.5b, -$31.0b, -$34.4b and -$25.3b from 2026-27 to 2029-30.
  • Tax receipts are forecast at 23.8% of GDP in 2026-27, up from 23.0% in 2021-22. The tax take is higher as a share of the economy, but payments have risen faster (see Government spending).

How it’s calculated

Underlying cash balance (general government sector), Budget Paper No. 1 2026-27, Table 11.1, 1970-71 to 2029-30. 2025-26 is the actual from the Final Budget Outcome 2025-26; later years are estimates.

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