Australia to Tighten Spending to Meet Budget Surplus Pledge
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Australia’s government will tighten health-care spending and scale back family support payments to help deliver an election-year budget surplus, giving the central bank scope to further reduce interest rates.
The underlying cash surplus will be A$1.08 billion ($1.11 billion) in the 12 months ending June 30, compared with a A$1.54 billion surplus seen in May, the government said in a midyear review released in Canberra today. Spending is forecast to be A$363.2 billion compared with a May projection of A$364.2 billion, while the revenue estimate was cut to A$367 billion from $A368.8 billion.