The New South Wales (NSW) deficit is expected to worsen by $1.3 billion over this financial year and the next after Treasury downgraded its projections for the budget in a pre-election update.
The update, coming ahead of the March 25 poll, shows the estimated deficit for 2022/23 has grown by $668 million (US$440 million) to $12.03 billion since the last update in February.
The deficit for the upcoming financial year is now forecast at $7.12 billion, an increase of $615 million. This takes the total worsening in the state’s books to $1.3 billion after Treasury predicted a drop in coal royalty revenue for those two years.
The state’s debt for this financial year has jumped by $798 million to $79.2 billion, compared with the February estimate. That debt is now expected to climb to $108.7 billion by 2024/25, after being upwardly revised by $1.3 billion from the half-yearly review….