The 2024-25 Federal Budget has been finalised, showing a cash deficit of just under $10 billion, an almost $18 billion improvement on the 2025 Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook (PEFO).
Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the outcome meant the fiscal position had improved by $209 billion over the past three years.
“The 2024–25 Final Budget Outlook (FBO) shows an underlying cash deficit of just under $10 billion (0.4 percent of GDP), which is substantially lower than the forecast deficit of $27.9 billion in the 2025 PEFO and $47.1 billion in the 2022 PEFO,” Minister Chalmers said.
“As a proportion of GDP, it is around a fifth of the average deficit recorded between the Global Financial Crisis and the pandemic.”
He said the result was better than expected at the 2025 PEFO, due to lower than expected payments and an improved outcome for receipts.
“The FBO shows that payments were $4.9 billion lower in 2024–25 than projected at 2025 PEFO.
“This meant that payments as a share of the economy declined across the last term to be 26.2 per cent in 2024–25, which was 0.4 of a percentage point less than what was forecast at the 2022 PEFO.”
Minister Chalmers said a stronger labour market was among the biggest factors for the improved outlook.
He said receipts were $13 billion higher in 2024–25 than projected at the 2025 PEFO, with “more Australians earning more” being an important driver.
“We have limited real spending growth and returned around 70 percent of all tax receipt upgrades to the bottom line.”
