Budget 2024: Australia Reports 2nd Surplus on the Back of Strong Commodity Prices

Published on May 14, 2024

Australia’s federal budget will report a $9.3 billion (US$6.14 billion) surplus for the 2023-24 financial year on the back of strong commodity prices. While the figure is well below the $22.1 billion surplus in 2022-23, it marks the first back-to-back surplus in nearly two decades. The last time Australia posted two consecutive surpluses was in the 2007-08 financial year, just before the Global Financial Crisis swept through the world economy. The $9.3 billion surplus will also indicate a bottom-line improvement of around $10.5 billion on forecasts from the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook released in December 2023, which predicted a deficit of $1.1 billion. In addition, the budget papers show an improvement of over $200 billion in the budget over the six years to 2027-28 compared to what was forecast before the last federal election....

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