June 10, 2015 7:00am by David Farrar

Surplus going, going, not quite gone though

The Budget track is continuing to hold out the prospect of a surplus this year despite the Government officially postponing the prospect until at least 2015/16.

The Crown accounts for the 10 months to the end of April showed a $1 billion turnaround on Budget night predictions, with a surplus before gains and losses (Obegal) of $448 million against an expected deficit of $555m. …

Finance Minister Bill English said he would not know if the accounts would be in surplus this year until the final figures were published in October.

“But it’s clear it will be a close run thing.”

The $1b swing around highlighted the volatility of monthly fiscal results,

I think the year will end in a deficit, but it would be hilarious if it did end up in surplus after all, after Andrew Little hysterically proclaimed that a failure to obtain surplus would be the biggest political deception of his lifetime!