Soaring commodity prices and a shrinking jobless rate will combine to slice almost $90bn from projected federal budget deficits out to 2024-25, although excessive pre-election promises would undermine the government’s fiscal repair efforts, according to Chris Richardson, a senior economist at Deloitte.
The predicted improvement compares with forecasts in the government’s mid-year outlook (Myefo) released last December. The current year’s deficit alone will be cut almost a third from a projected $99.2bn to $69bn as the economy’s rebound from Covid disruptions quickens, Richardson said.
