A mini-budget summary

Here’s the key takeaways from yesterday:

• Forecast surplus for 2027 has shrunk from $2.1 billion to $0.14 billion in just two months
• Borrowing now forecast to be $7 billion more
• Government so far has identified $7.5 billion of savings or revenue enhancements over the next four years (not bad for the first two weeks)
• Public sector agencies need to find $1.5 billion in savings per annum, noting that spending has increased 80% since 2017.
• Labour’s Transport Investment Programme had $288 billion of commitments, of which only $85 billion had been appropriated
• Labour’s fiscal cliffs (programmes that they did not include along-term funding for) total at least $7.2 billion over the next four years
• Proposed changes to Public Finance Act so that there will be greater disclosure of the quantum of fiscal risks