Anthony Albanese says debt and deficit have never been higher. Verdict: Mr Albanese is wrong.

This paper develops a framework to decompose the change in New Zealand’s public debt ratio into four component effects: the primary balance, real GDP growth, real interest rates, and exchange rates.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann claims Labor inherited a $20 billion surplus when it came into office in 2007 and then turned it into a record deficit.

Labor Opposition Senate Leader Penny Wong claims the Government has tripled the budget deficit in two years, and increased net debt by $100 billion since coming to office.

This study quantifies the macroeconomic and welfare effects of three proposed fiscal measures to eliminate Australian government budget deficits and to reduce public debt by 2030, namely: (i) temporary income tax hikes; (ii) temporary consumption tax hikes (increases in the GST rate); and (iii) temporary...

Treasurer Joe Hockey is the "Masterchef of cooking the books" according to his Opposition counterpart Chris Bowen, who has repeatedly accused the Coalition of using "voodoo economics" to create a sense of crisis to justify dramatic spending cuts in the bu

The report focusses on movements in the estimated structural budget balance over the past decade and through the 2013-14 budget and forward estimates years.

This paper provides a background to issues discussed at a workshop held by AIATSIS in December 2009, and offers some of the outcomes in order to provide a basis for further debate and dialogue and to inform future forums.

This paper presents some empirical evidence consistent with optimal smoothing in the face of temporary shocks; the persistence of the deficit is attributed to a modest degree of impatience relative to the rest of the world. It is argued that the factors that have made...