Overview

This paper reports on trends in NSW State finances between 2002-03 and 2015-16 (inclusive). For most of the key indicators, the paper also shows trends by Parliament for the current (56th) Parliament and previous three (55th, 54th and 53rd) Parliaments. This paper sets out the key trends but only briefly discusses the reasons for the trends.

Budget result

The budget result represents the difference between expenses and revenues from transactions for the general government sector. The budget result does not take account of capital expenditure. Key findings include:

• The budget result was a surplus for all years except 2008-09. The revised estimate for 2014-15 is a surplus of $2.1 billion, which would be the largest surplus over the whole time period. The estimate for 2015-16 is a $713 million surplus. The surpluses from 2013-14 to 2015-16 would have been larger if not for the impact of revised accounting standard AASB 119.
• The actual results were better than the forecast results in all years except for 2004-05 and 2008-09. The positive variations have ranged from $10 million to $3.1 billion, and in six years, they exceeded $1 billion. In most cases, these positive variations resulted from higher than expected revenues. The better than expected results in 2010-11 and 2011-12 were due to expenses being under budget.