The Interim Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the six months ended 31 December 2025 were released by the Treasury today. The December results are reported against forecasts based on the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update 2025 (HYEFU 2025), published on 16 December 2025, and the results for the same period for the previous year.
The key fiscal indicators for the six months ended 31 December 2025 were overall favourable compared to the forecast. The Government’s main operating indicator, the operating balance before gains and losses excluding ACC (OBEGALx), showed a deficit of $5.2 billion. This deficit was $1.6 billion smaller than forecast. Net core Crown debt was lower than forecast by $2.0 billion at $191.4 billion, or 43.5% of GDP.
Core Crown tax revenue, at $60.0 billion, was $0.1 billion (0.2%) higher than forecast.
Core Crown expenses, at $71.4 billion, were $1.0 billion (1.3%) below forecast, reflecting lower spending across a range of functional classifications.
The operating balance before gains and losses excluding ACC (OBEGALx) was a deficit of $5.2 billion, $1.6 billion less than the forecast deficit. The ACC deficit was close to forecast. As a result, the OBEGAL deficit was $5.5 billion, $1.6 billion lower than the forecast deficit.
The operating balance was a surplus of $4.3 billion compared to a forecast surplus of $0.2 billion. The variance of $4.1 billion is due to a combination of the OBEGAL variance of $1.6 billion noted above, and stronger valuation gains compared to forecast on non-financial instruments ($2.2 billion) and financial instruments ($0.2 billion).
The core Crown residual cash deficit of $10.1 billion was $1.2 billion smaller than forecast, largely owing to lower-than-forecast net core Crown operating cash outflows of $0.6 billion and higher-than-forecast net core Crown capital cash inflows of $0.6 billion.
Net core Crown debt at $191.4 billion (43.5% of GDP) was $2.0 billion lower than forecast. This variance was largely due to the lower-than-forecast core Crown residual cash deficit of $1.2 billion noted above, as well as higher-than-forecast issuances of circulating currency of $0.6 billion.
Gross debt at $219.6 billion (49.9% of GDP) was $3.3 billion below forecast, largely owing to lower-than-forecast issuances of Euro Commercial Paper (ECP) and Treasury bills of $1.9 billion and $1.2 billion, respectively.
Net worth attributable to the Crown at $183.7 billion (41.8% of GDP) was $4.2 billion higher than forecast. This favourable variance largely reflects operating balance discussed previously.