Budget 2024: tax relief on, surplus further off

Finance minister Nicola Willis will put no date on returning to surplus. (Image: BusinessDesk)

Wed, 27 Mar 2024

The government will deliver tax relief targeted to lower- and middle-income earners in its first budget, on May 30, but the package will be less generous than National’s election campaign promises. At the same time, the cost of those tax cuts and a substantially weaker economic growth outlook mean that the finance minister, Nicola Willis, has abandoned predicting a year that the government accounts will move back into surplus. National went to the election promising a return to budget surplus in the 2026/27 fiscal year, but that...

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