The Turnbull government will point to a decline in gross debt in the end-of-year official budget forecast as it attempts to clear the clutter and contention of 2017 and steer the national conversation to economic issues in the new political year. Under the revised estimates, gross debt will be $23bn less than the May budget forecast of $606bn and net debt will peak in 2018-19 at 19.2% of gross domestic product, down from the 19.8% of GDP figure forecast by treasury in May. The May budget forecast a return to a surplus of $7.4bn in 2020-21. Ahead of the release of Monday’s economic forecast, Morrison said the government was “making real headway, bringing down our expected gross debt by $23bn, meaning lower interest payments of up to a billion dollars a year”. “Labor calls on Turnbull and his Liberals to drop their higher education cuts and their $44bn tax hike on working Australians,” Bowen said.

Source: The Guardian December 17, 2017 16:52 UTC