The Australian federal budget has revealed a forecast deficit of $A27.6 billion for Australia in 2024–25. Looking ahead to 2025–26, there is a forecast deficit of $A42.1 billion.
On the economy, Treasury expects a similar outlook to the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook report from December 2024.
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The key policies in the budget include tax cuts, which are a gradual reduction of the initial marginal tax rate from its current 16 per cent to 14 per cent. This will save the average taxpayer $A536 a year.
The budget also announced $A1.8 billion in extended energy-bill relief, and around $A4.8 billion of funding over the next two years towards health.
Because the budget announcements and economic outlook are similar to what ANZ expected, ANZ Research has made no changes to its forecasts around gross-domestic product growth or interest-rate cuts. The risks to ANZ’s forecasts are not from the domestic economy, but rather from global trade uncertainty.
Adelaide Timbrell is a Senior Economist at ANZ
