Australia aims to nearly halve budget deficit

May 13, 2014 05:49 pm | Updated 05:49 pm IST - CANBERRA

The Australian government plans to nearly halve its fiscal deficit as part of a tough budget that includes cuts to welfare and tax hikes.

Budget documents released on Tuesday show defence spending has been quarantined from the cuts and money is allocated for the ongoing search for the missing Malaysian airliner.

The financial blueprint for the fiscal year starting July 1 is forecast to reduce the deficit from 49.9 billion Australian dollars this year to AU$29.8 billion in 2014-15.

The government said it will increase spending on roads, railways and a new Sydney airport in a bid to fill an economic void left by a cooling resource industry.

Growth in the foreign aid budget will be slowed to save 7.9 billion Australian dollars ($7.4 billion) over five years.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.